The Little Children of Haiti

 

Hi Family, Friends, and Brothers and Sisters In Christ,

Well, a lot has happened in two days….

“But Jesus said to her, Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s  bread and throw it to the little dogs…”

Day Three we were all greatly anticipating the MuTch feeding program, so it was hard to focus on the tasks at hand, but God kept us all focused J.  Some of us started our morning with Jesus at sunrise doing devotions, while some caught up on much needed rest, and the teams’ day started at 7:30am. We went to the school and watched the flag raising ceremony, which they do every morning before they start their day.  We prayed with them, and were all off to our assignments of the day. The dental team opened up the clinic in prayer and ran into the usual first day problems, but through prayer, they were able to start treatment on the kids from the orphanage. Others from the team were busy painting a mural for the girls home and also ran into issues - like paint, but no paint brushes J. Through prayer, we were able to find some rollers and begin painting. Other team members were off buying the supplies needed for projects that the orphanage needs completed this week.  Unlike being back in the OC, there is no Home Depot to run to J, so after a rocky road drive and the very long process of just picking up wood, paint, etc., they returned in time to serve God at the MuTch feeding program. There truly are no words to describe the intertwined joy and sadness we feel as a team serving at the feeding program. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the feeding program, it’s a huge part of why we come to Haiti. The orphanage has about 80 full time resident children that are housed, schooled, and fed. Outside of the orphanage, there are hundreds of despondent, neglected, and hungry children, many of them street urchins, who roam the neighborhoods of Port au Prince. The feeding program brings in about 200 of them from off the street 3 times a week, and feeds them food and the Word of the Lord! Many of them show signs of malnutrition, and often, this is their first meal in a day or two.

The kids from the feeding program (all 200 of them) were led onto the grounds, and then we did a craft with them that tells them about Jesus. Next, we did a skit on a particular theme. Our theme this day was about “Love and Forgiveness” - 1 John 4:16. We then served as the hands and feet of Jesus and fed the kids. Given that the first day of the feeding program is Monday and many of the kids had not eaten since Friday, this was an emotional day for those who were returning to Haiti, as well as for those who were witnessing this for the first time. Many of the kids who were frail and sickly in past years were now healthy praise the Lord!  The entire team laughed, played, and prayed with the MUTCH kids, and NO GREATER JOY could be had! Sadly the MUTCH feeding program ended for the day, but Praise the Lord those babies went home with full bellies and souls that night.  The team went back to the guest house to process all they have seen… children sharing their food with other children, some hiding it and saying they never ate so they can take home food for their hungry siblings…  It’s just the third day, and each team member has been broken.

Later in the day the team returned to the boys home and had a blessed time of fellowship playing volleyball, dancing and laughing with the staff, and the girls and boys from the orphanage.

When the team returned to the guest house, they prayed, broke bread, and dove into His Word for our nightly devotion.  As we read from the book of Mark and shared what our “Highlight of the Day was”  the Lord revealed to one team member to stay away from sin;  to another,to  feed the little children all they want. For yet another, he revealed that its okay to ask God for a yes until He says no… for another “be ALL IN with God”  and stil another said “we are selfish people and we need Jesus!”….

Some highlights from the day from the team were:  One team member who had been to Haiti before had a child she loves recognize her from a year ago! “God has made us stronger being here!” Another visiting missionary shared that “God is in this place”.  We ended worship and prayer with the closing thoughts of how desperately the people and children of Haiti need Jesus,  but we need Him just as much, if not more!

Day 4,

“Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up His cross and follow Me”

Mark 8:34

Today the team started the day in prayer, and went their ways to serve the people, children,  and God. The Dental team had their first patient at 8am, another part of the team was off to paint at the girls home, others worked on building a sun cover for the laundry ladies that work at the boys home, others served at an orphanage holding babies, and some served in different places throughout the day wherever the needs were… Miracle after miracle;  we have seen God answer  every need! When the dental clinic’s sterilizer wasn’t working (an essential item!), we prayed and it was fixed. When we ran out of rollers for painting, there just happened  be a pack left by a team. On and on, there has been prayer and God has answered…

One of our team members blessed and was blessed to use his gift of Karate to teach the little girls and boys at the orphanage. The kids were very excited because they remembered him from last year’s trip! To  our surprise, they had retained some of their teaching. The supporting team members (including the daughter of the instructor) also participated in learning karate, and there was a lot of joy and laughter with the kids.

When we returned to the guest house we prayed, broke bread, and gathered for our “Team devotions” .  As we do each night, here we gathered in a circle of prayer, opened up the Word and shared about the scripture that ministered to us.  Some scriptures that stood out in Mark CH8 were “what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?”.  Another pointed out “Jesus did, and does so many miracles and we still doubt Him”… Another pointed out that we should not be ashamed of Jesus or He will be ashamed of us…  and another said “it was so cool that Jesus used so many different ways to do signs and wonders”…  Some highlights that the team shared were, “I am being taken out of my comfort zone”. Another was, “I had fun today cleaning the old girls home and painting the mural”. Another was “I feel like I am getting closer to the people who live in the house and are getting closer to the staff, and now I understand why they are here and what they do”.  Another said, “ I was blessed to bring a kid to a smile at the dental clinic” and said “we must trust God”…

I wish there was some way  to put into words what we experienced that night… but there’s not… But I can say, God had the Glory! And that He was worshiped and praised like none of us had ever worshiped and praised Him before!

Day 5.

“Whoever receives one of these little children in my name receives ME: and whoever receives ME, receives not ME, but Him who sent ME”…

Mark CH9

Today the team all woke up before sunrise and gathered on the roof of the guest house. We worshiped, prayed, read our devotion. We prayed for Haiti, the children, Bill, Susette  and her family, and for REVIVAL! It was a beautiful sunrise this morning in Haiti, there were roosters  sounding,  dogs barking, beautiful Haitians walking down the rocky streets with baskets on their heads, and a sunset you can only see in Haiti J Somehow,  an hour and  half rapidly flew by, and it was time to get ready to be “Jesus in skin”.  And once again we were ONE BODY serving all over Haiti. Some team members went to the kids school to watch the flag raising (like our Pledge of Allegiance), while others served at the dental clinic. Some served at the preschool, some made crafts for the MUTCH feeding program kids, some welded, some built benches, and one went to help the cook get the food ready at the boys home for the feeding program.  As we wrapped up our day, and all Glory to God completed many task, we all hurried over to the feeding program to help with crafts and passing out trays of food. It was such a blessing for the team, and especially the one to whom God had given the vision for the angel craft we did with the kids. The kids LOVED it! Given that MUTCH is about making sure these Haiti babies get feed spiritually first, we had the privilege of acting out a skit today of the Ten Commandments, and the entire team acted out their parts. We taught the children through skits why it is important to obey the commandments of God. We taught them through the anointing and power of the Word of God, why it is important that they obey Gods Word.  After spiritually feeding them, singing worship  songs with them, and praying with them, we feed them with the food God had provided to feed over 200 kids this day.  There was extra food so we were allowed to bring in kids from the streets and feed them as wellJ.  After some tearful goodbyes and hugs,  we returned home briefly before going back to  the boys home to worship in song. Now typically on all past trips to Haiti, we would have had the children lead us in worship, but since we had 3 Praise team members and a choir, the Lord allowed us to lead them in worship, and we began our first worship song with “FREEDOM” and we WORSHIPED! The difference was although we were leading them in song, these children were leading us in worship… The Holy Spirit moved us from dancing and jumping up and down to “How Great Is our God” to “I Love you Lord” to worshiping in Creole… All I can say Is we entered into anther dimension in our worship tonight and it is UNDESCRIBABLE! We walked home with tears of Joy! And we immediately started devotion…  We prayed, and talked about the example we are to the children here, we discussed salt and fie and how fire refines, we talked about pride, and that we are “NOT TO EXCHANGE FAITH WITH EMOTIONS!”, we talked about being fully IN or OUT with Jesus, and we talked about “being uncomfortable” and that we didn’t have to be uncomfortable to go to anther dimension in Christ, we just have to be willing to surrender.” Although our updates have been all Praise we have had some difficulties like loss of power throughout the day while trying to weld, the heat, and crafts that took hours to dry. On top of that,  some of us were sick today… We have been UNITED in Christ! And what happened in this house tonight while we prayed, shared, and were naked before the Lord keeps happening each night, and grows in power as we each lay down our ALL before Him… 

Of course, God would have had us sing “Freedom” tonight, because we are no longer shackled, and no more chained! No more bondage! We are Free in Jesus Name!

Amen!

We feel your prayers for Haiti and each of us…

Don’t stop praying….

The Haiti Team