Check out pictures on our gallery page , notes from the  prayer session , and the following journal entries from the team’s time spent in Haiti at Mission of Hope and the Upper Room Orphanage and School.  August 2nd – 9th, 2017

DAY 1: Travel Day

We all made it safely to Haiti after a short layover in Atlanta and an early morning getting to the airport around 4am. Fortunately there were no major travel obstacles for us and Mission of Hope had a nice warm welcome once we arrived on campus. After arriving, we had some time to get settled in our rooms and meet our interns Maggie and Sarah before sitting down for our spaghetti dinner. After dinner, we gathered with other team members for our orientation where we learned a bit more about MOH. Next, we had a chance to take the best shower ever and get cleaned up a bit before sharing our devotional for the evening. Tonight we shared about servanthood and are so excited to see what ways He wants us to serve while here in Haiti for the week. We are scheduled to assist in building a house tomorrow and look forward to serving others as Jesus’ hands and feet. Please continue to pray for strength both spiritually and physically for our team, the other teams we are serving alongside and the staff at MOH. Pray for those we will be serving and those at the Upper Room who we will see later this week. Thank you again to all of you who made this trip possible…without YOUR help we would not be here!!!  Watch for Facebook and LIFE alert updates throughout the week. Bon nui and bondye renmen ou (Good night and God loves you)!!

DAY 2: Church Advancement Project

Today, 7 of us (minus Linda who went on a Medical Mobil clinic in Cabaret – more on that in a future day’s post ) got paired up with a group of 20 (all ages) from Michigan. Some of them had been to Haiti and Mission of Hope before and they were bringing a different group and funding from their church in order to build two homes in the village of Fovo. It was funny because one of their team members was sitting in front of me on the flight down and introduced herself after she saw our Team Hope shirts. We got to talking about past experiences in Haiti and our upcoming trip and she asked which work project we were going to do. I told her that we were not sure and were planning on just joining another team. She mentioned that they could use help building houses. Little did we know, the staff here at Mission of Hope had already decided on pairing us up for two days working in Fovo. Just like every village you go to in Haiti, it didn’t take long for the local children to come running up to us. The little guy who took my hand first stayed attached to my side until we started working. Then using picks and shovels, we spent the next few hours (and an hour or so after lunch) digging trenches two feet deep for a new house’s foundation. We got to meet the woman (in her 60’s) who would be receiving the house and she seemed grateful that we were there helping build her new home. The coolest (not heat wise) part of the day was working alongside our Haitian translators and the other Haitians from Fovo. How awesome that we were serving, in Christ’s name – our cornerstone – with people we just met today! We also got to spend lunch at Mission of Hope’s Bercy campus – their ocean front facility. The “cool” breeze and break to play soccer with Ryan and two other Haitians was a perfect middle to the day.
Tomorrow all of us go to the UPPER ROOM and get to take the children to a private beach that we have reserved! If it wasn’t for the exhausting work day, I don’t think that I would be able to sleep from the excitement.

DAY 3: Upper Room Beach Day

Today was the long awaited reunion with the children of the Upper Room Orphanage. Just like last year, the children awoke extra early in anticipation of our arrival. Our team was greeted by dozens of smiling faces and squeals of joy. After hugs, introductions of the new team members, and prayer, we all boarded a bus to the beach! With support from friends of the mission team and Trinity Church we were able to reserve a beach shelter. The kids couldn’t get into their floaties and swim suits quickly enough to jump into the ocean. The smiles on their faces were priceless. Through your donations we were able to treat the children each to their own bottle of soda- something they rarely get to experience. The children sat down shoulder to shoulder on a rock wall overlooking the beach while drinking their sodas and soaking it all up. Little did we know, the children also had a surprise for us. We were presented with a 10 minute long march and dance which they had rehearsed months back for Flag Day- a celebration of Haitian independence. After hours of playing, swimming, and snacking we headed back to the Upper Room but were able to reveal one last surprise for the children. We made a pit stop at a local bakery and picked up cinnamon rolls! As they ate, never have the children been so quiet around us!

DAY 4: Upper Room VBS

Today we were able to spend the entire day at the orphanage. We started the day with 25 children but by the end of the day the number of children doubled. We had the orphanage children, some of the children that attend the school and then some kids from the neighborhood. It was a challenge as we did not plan for that many kids for our VBS program but it was a blessing as we were able to give them fun, love, a small sandwich in their bellies and Jesus in their hearts. We shared the story of Noah’s Ark with them and we did crafts that tied into the Noah’s Ark theme. We had a water balloon toss and a dance party hosted by Chris 🙂

DAY 5: Church Day

Today we started our day by traveling to pick up the upper room orphanage to bring them to the Mission to Hope campus for church. As we walked through the gates of the upper room orphanage we found that all the children were dressed up for church and excited to worship with us. The church service was filled with love and enthusiasm for the Lord. After worship the children lined up in the front of church to sing a few christian songs to us and other mission groups as a gift for all of our help. We all then walked up to the small cafe on campus to treat the upper room orphanage children and adults to a bowl of ice cream. Next we handed out the gifts that were made from members Trinity and children from our VBS program. They were all very grateful and full with love as we said goodbye to the children for the last time until we return.We then asked Papa, Mama and Sanon (school instructor) to our beach day on Tuesday to allow them to have a day of relaxation and also one last visit with our team before we leave. Once we collected ourselves after the kids leaving we went on a tour to the other mission of hope campuses. Also during the tour we learned more about the mission of hope history, goals and in progress projects. 

DAY 6: Fovo

Today was our final day in the villages of Haiti serving our wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ. We were scheduled to work on building two homes with our fellow team from Michigan that we worked with earlier in the week. Our previous day spent on these homes involved digging through rocks and stones to make trenches for the foundation. Today, we began at one site, moving a large pile of cinderblocks using an assembly line method from where they were dropped off, closer to the work site. Once again the children from the village greeted us warmly and enjoyed spending some time playing with us. In addition to moving cinder blocks, we also were able to dig holes for the footers for the columns of the home. We broke for lunch and afterwards we headed to the second home site where we were able to help mix and carry buckets of cement, move foundation stones, and move more cinder blocks! This second home that we were building was for a woman named Paulette. She is a believer of Jesus and told us that she has gone a long time without having a home and will be living with 8 other people (the house is approximately 400sq ft). It was amazing to see everyone working so hard together, even though we were all exhausted from the hard work this week. It was only through God that we had the strength, stamina, and endurance to work so hard on this project together as a team. One moment that stuck out to me specifically was one of the girls in the village who was only about 4 who saw us serving the Lord and wanted to help. During our rock assembly line, she took a place alongside us and started reaching up to help us move the stones. This was a wonderful example of servanthood, by such a small child. At times when we thought we might be tired, we felt the Holy Spirit working through us to keep us going. After dinner, we debriefed with all the teams here at MOH. We heard stories of ways that the Lord is working in us, through individuals and teams, and how we can share this with our communities when we return home. Although tomorrow will be an opportunity to rest while we visit a local beach, I hope that each one of us has some time to reflect on our week and how God is working in our hearts as we enjoy a little bit of His majestic creation.

DAY 7: Wahoo

Today is supposed to be the easy day to write an update. We left @ 830 AM for Wahoo beach resort! Everyone was together. 2 buses of happy Christians: Haitians and Anglos. We payed for Papa, Mama, Sanon and his wife to get away from the daily duties with the children. It was gratifying to see the layers of cares peel away from Mama’s face! By the end of the day she could have done a commercial for toothpaste! Some of us went snorkeling, some stayed by the pool with fruit smoothies, some went down to the beach to play on the trampoline,raft or to barter with the “Cheap-cheap” guys. Although we had fun and a gourmet Haitian meal, we had time to love the people we were with and appreciate the natural beauty of Haiti. We had time to reflect on the harsh contrast in the lifestyles of those we had served and the pleasure of the resort. We thank the Lord for this day and for the friends we made and for the opportunity to serve here. Jesus in us loves the people of Haiti, especially our extended Upper Room family. They truly feel like family. I’m as sad as when I leave my far away grandchildren and have to go home.