Sunday, March 17, 2013
We are home!
Dear Family and Friends,
We arrived safely in NY last night at 7pm. Beni swa Letènel! (which means "Praise God!" in Creole). The bulk of the team drove back to West Point and stopped at a diner along the way. We all enjoyed a good night's sleep and woke up this morning and did worship together at the OCF House. It was an awesome but bittersweet goodbye. This wonderful group of people for the past week served together, grew together, labored together, and worshiped a great God together. We each left a part of ourselves in Haiti, and we pray fervently that we will not forget the lessons God taught us there and that we will each have a renewed mission to be Christ's light wherever we go.
We thank you so much for all your prayers and for following this blog so faithfully each night of our journey. In the coming days, we will be transforming this blog into a "journal" of thoughts written by all our team members throughout the week. We will also post more pictures. We hope you continue to check back for updates.
Beni swa Letènel!
OCF Haiti Team
We arrived safely in NY last night at 7pm. Beni swa Letènel! (which means "Praise God!" in Creole). The bulk of the team drove back to West Point and stopped at a diner along the way. We all enjoyed a good night's sleep and woke up this morning and did worship together at the OCF House. It was an awesome but bittersweet goodbye. This wonderful group of people for the past week served together, grew together, labored together, and worshiped a great God together. We each left a part of ourselves in Haiti, and we pray fervently that we will not forget the lessons God taught us there and that we will each have a renewed mission to be Christ's light wherever we go.
We thank you so much for all your prayers and for following this blog so faithfully each night of our journey. In the coming days, we will be transforming this blog into a "journal" of thoughts written by all our team members throughout the week. We will also post more pictures. We hope you continue to check back for updates.
Beni swa Letènel!
OCF Haiti Team
Friday, March 15, 2013
Our Sixth Day
Please read day 5 that was posted today due to an internet error.
Dear Family and Friends,
What an incredible final full day here in Haiti! Our
projects are finally reaching their completion after a hard week’s worth of
work.
1) Housing project: We were able to finish all the wood
walls, trim, and doors in 3 houses and painted the exterior of one (the other
two were previously painted), and the interior of two. The houses are quickly
becoming homes for the long-term missionaries and Haitian doctors working in
the hospital.
2) Fence project: The team put up over a 1000 feet of
fencing and secured the compound from farm animals from the nearby
village.
3) Mechanics garage project: The team finished building the
shelves for the mechanic garage, installed insulation in the security office,
and even power-washed and reinforced a tent for the women’s ministry meetings.
4) Power conservation study: After a lot of calculations and
engineering, the team proposed an energy conservation plan that will hopefully
save NVM between $2000 and $4000 per month. That’s a 10-20% savings every
month!
We also had an absolute blast participating in the “Brigade”
youth group this afternoon. There were over 100 children (boys and girls) in
attendance. They sang some songs and memorized 1 John 5:12 “Whoever has the Son
has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” One of our
cadets (Luke DeMoes) gave a wonderful 5-minute sermon on it, and then 2 cadets
(Ethan Dewart and Jordan Malkoff) gave a personal testimony on Christian
leadership and the importance of following the greatest leader- Jesus Christ.
Afterwards, we taught them a new fun song and went outside to teach them drill
and ceremony (marching!). Everyone had
such a great time and we hope that we made a lasting impact on the children.
Tonight, we finally got to meet Pastor Pierre. He flew back
in from the US and rushed to see us and thank us for our work and our
investment in the ministry. We learned a great deal from this special man of
God!
We begin our trip back to the US tomorrow. We feel like we
are changed forever and spiritually renewed, as I hope you will be able to tell
when we see you all again. We are so
grateful for all your prayers this past week!
Our fifth day
Dear Family and Friends,
We continue to grow and are greatly impacted by the people
here in Haiti. Our morning devotion was
based on the question: “If we lost everything we had, would God still be enough
in our lives?” This question was inspired by the Haitian people whom we have
met who have almost nothing, but still find joy in believing in God. We saw this most poignantly in the lively
worship in church on Sunday, or in how the children smile at us during
recess. It’s a tough question to answer
honestly, but we pray that our experiences here will bring us closer to
answering positively.
Tonight, we heard the personal testimony of Pastor Esperan-Dieu
Pierre, the founder of NVM. He is in the
US this week, but we were fortunate enough to watch his testimony on video. “Esperan-Dieu” means “Hope in God,” and we
heard his incredible story on how he received the name. He was born to Haitian
Christian parents who, even after losing two babies after delivery, refused to
conform to voodoo practices that was the norm in their village. Instead, they promised the Lord that they
would name their first baby “Hope in God” because they would still hope only in
the Lord for a baby and not in voodoo. Now, Esperan-Dieu is impacting thousands
through this social work and helping his people to come to know the Lord. What
an incredible testimony!
Tomorrow is our final full day in Haiti. We have work
planned in the morning, but in the afternoon we are helping in a youth event
called the “Brigade.” It’s a Christian movement to instill discipline and
leadership in the Haitian youth, so that they can lead others to Christ. We will have 3 cadets give their testimony to
over 150 Haitian children and youth!
Afterwards, all the cadets will give a drill and ceremony demonstration
to them on the soccer field, and then teach the movements to the children in
large groups. It should be an awesome event and we can’t wait to share with you
how it went!
Many blessings,
OCF Haiti Team Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Our fourth day
Dear Family and Friends,
Our fourth day in Haiti was particularly memorable because
we visited the town of Onaville, which started out as a displaced persons camp
as a result of the devastating earthquake in 2010. This camp is no more than about 20 miles away
from NVM and has an estimated 500,000 people. NVM helped start a church out
there and also recently dug a well to provide discounted water for the people
who live in the area. The whole team got to see the hardships but also the good
work done by the Church.
The various projects continue to progress and the whole team
is laboring hard. But we are very happy to see that they are still having fun,
enjoying each others’ fellowship, and spending quality time with the kids
during recess!
Each night, after evening worship, we have been giving out 2
“Gumby” awards to two members of the team who demonstrated flexibility and servant-ship.
We got these stretch toys and accept nominations from the team and then vote. Even
though everyone is doing so well, it’s a great way to affirm one another and
recognize teammates. Plus it’s a lot of
fun!
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Our third day
Dear friends and family,
Our third day here continues to provide us lasting memories. We continued to work on our respective projects and are finding fulfillment in our progress. Several team members have mentioned the joy of laboring for God and how it keeps you mind off of the heat, fatigue, and impatience. Many of us also took time today to play with the kids at recess. It was a blast! The kids love cameras, and playing with us on the swings, and climbing on our shoulders, and even just holding hands. They are a pure joy to be around.
Half of the team also walked a mile to the nearby village of Chambrun. There, we saw first-hand the reality and poverty of village life. We also visited the NVM children's home established there and played and held the kids.
Map of Chambrun
Every night, after dinner, we also hold evening worship and small group reflection. This is a wonderful opportunity to thank God for the time we had that day, and to share our thoughts with others. It also helps each one of us begin to process the experiences we had, and to see how God is working.
Until tomorrow, we wish you many blessings from Haiti!
Our third day here continues to provide us lasting memories. We continued to work on our respective projects and are finding fulfillment in our progress. Several team members have mentioned the joy of laboring for God and how it keeps you mind off of the heat, fatigue, and impatience. Many of us also took time today to play with the kids at recess. It was a blast! The kids love cameras, and playing with us on the swings, and climbing on our shoulders, and even just holding hands. They are a pure joy to be around.
Half of the team also walked a mile to the nearby village of Chambrun. There, we saw first-hand the reality and poverty of village life. We also visited the NVM children's home established there and played and held the kids.
Map of Chambrun
Every night, after dinner, we also hold evening worship and small group reflection. This is a wonderful opportunity to thank God for the time we had that day, and to share our thoughts with others. It also helps each one of us begin to process the experiences we had, and to see how God is working.
Until tomorrow, we wish you many blessings from Haiti!
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