Monday -Pray for Safe Travels

By Becci Powers-Johnson

Today this journey ends, but a renewed life and journey will be just beginning.  We did everything we could to best serve Jesus by serving the people who need it most here in Haiti.  We have formed a strong bond as a team.  It has been a truly amazing and inspiring experience.  

Yesterday we attended a beautiful service at Port of Prince Fellowship.  Then we drove up the mountain for some site seeing and shopping.  Here is our team at the top looking down.

Then we shopped.

We came home and a few of us went to the local grocery store.  We waited for the other group so we could go distribute our 300 care packages to a Tent City.  We did that at about 6:00pm just before dinner and witnessed true despair.  We couldn't finish distributing as they mobbed us grabbing bags.  It was so sad to see how disparate these families were.  We all left with en empty heart not being able to serve all the families.

Upon our return, we had an an incredible final evening meal together on the deck of the 2nd Guesthouse.  We celebrated Megan's 21st Birthday which is today!  Happy Birthday Megan.  Jon and Elisa, Linda and Sarah, and Andre joined us.  The meal was awesome. The fellowship together was amazing.  Thank you Nikki and Mike for leading us safely through this journey.  Thank you to to the Michels family, Steve and Cheryl, Heidi and Kalie for your humor and generosity.  And to Phil for keeping Steve in check and your experience.  Thank you to Cathy for your amazing work you do with Healing Haiti and to Joy for helping Cathy and adding humor to the trip.  Thank you to Deb and Jeff for taking this journey with us, your love for one another is inspiring.  Thank you Carla for caring so much for each other.  Thank you Megan for having the courage to join this mission trip, you are amazing.  Thank you Holly for your medical wisdom and love of animals.  And to my daughter Kelsi, the youngest one here.  I am blessed and honored to have you as my daughter and was so moved by your word of the day last night.  "Beginning"... This is not the end, but just the beginning of what you can do for others.  

God, be with us on our journey back to Minnesota and keep us safe. This was so inspiring and life changing.

I will leave this with some dinner pictures... Note we didn't have time to shower but we didn't really care... The late showers, all be it for only a few minutes was such a blessing and privilege to have when we know so many Haitians are not so fortunate.  

Steve and Mike and Kalie 

Heidi and Nikki and Kelsi

Holly and Deb

Joy and Phil and Cathy

Jeff and Becci

Megan and Carla and Cheryl

Jon and Andre and Sarah and Linda and Elisa

Megan's cake!  

Sunday - A day of Worship and Praise

By Becci Powers-Johnson

Yesterday, we went to Grace Village and did a Faith Lesson for the children.  Cheryl prepared a lesson from Acts II, the topic was the Holy Spirit.  We had the kids to a "trust" exercise and our group acted out the lesson.  Then we helped the kids write letters to their sponsors.  To meet the kids of Grace Village or learn more about the Sponsor program, go to www.sponsor.healinghaiti.org.  Then we just played.  It was hot, but we played.  Some of the group even got a soccer game going.

From there we went to Isaiah's.  We had decided that this orphanage was where we saw the biggest need.  There are just 16 kids here.  All of which Isaiah and his brother rescued from the earthquake. They all lost their parents on January 12, 2010, at approximately 5:00pm.  Our generous group had significantly overpacked for our lunches.  We decided to make 16 care packages with snacks.  We wrote the children's names on each bag and a bible version for them to read.

These kids were grateful and excited to sneak a taste at the snacks.

Our next stop was at the mass graves.  There are believed to be 300,000 buried here.  The parents of the kids from Isaiah's included.

The sign at the bottom of the hill reads:

12 Janvier 2010

Nou Pap Janmbliyew

Translated, "we will always remember".

This is Nikki and Mike, at the top of the hill.

It was an emotional, surreal moment.

We came home and joined the team next door and made 300 care packages!

We are off to worship, then touring Porta Prince, then this afternoon we will serve a tent city with care packages that include food (feed my starving children), soap, clothing, flip flops, tarps, and more.

What a glorious morning!  

July 4th & 5th Adventures

By Becci Powers-Johnson

Our 4th July...

We started out visiting Grace Village. This is the Orphanage and school that Healing Haiti built. It was truly "amazing"! My word of the day, "amazing"!. The Aquaponics (fish and plant) system is one of the largest. Cathy LeVahn, on our trip with us, is working on this project!  It is an amazing system.  She is an amazing individual.

Then we visited 5 elders that are sponsored by Healing Haiti. Charitable, Maricia, Elie, Felozia, and Nick (to learn more, go to www.sponsor.healinghaiti.org).  Another amazing experience. We sang to them, brought them lunch and gave them shoulder, hands and feet massages.  It was an incredible serving opportunity.  One women, her name was Bonita, followed us after we sang to one of the elders and asked us to pray for her and her mother that lost her house.  Phil shared an awesome prayer.  It was just Mike, Heidi, Phil and I that remained outside because we all couldn't fit into the elder's house we were at.  We definitely made an impact.

Our last stop was Isaiah's. He is amazing in what he has done. He grew up an orphan with his brother. They started bringing food to Cite Soliel when they earned enough to get by... All their extra money went to help hungry families.  After the earthquake, he went to check on families he helped with food and found kids crying in the street. He and his brother went home to pray. They prayed for four hours, returned to the city and loaded up 16 kids who lost their parents. He knew God would provide for him and the kids. Long story short, but now Isaiah's lives on as an Orphanage with those 16 kids from age 6-15. Healing Haiti provides funding to Isaiah. And these kids all live now as one family with Isaiah as their father figure.  These kids are amazing.  We brought them 16 beach balls and played catch with them for almost two hours. We all had a great time!

July 5th...

While most of you reading this are "at the lake" or recovering from picnics and late night fireworks, we are just trying to cool down.  We had a "Haiti-time" day.  Here is a collection of our words of the day:  Positive, Carefree, Natural, Comfortable, Bond, Test, Disappointed, Longing, Joy, Partnership, Excitement, Simplistic, Question, Choice, Conflict, Go-with-the-flow.  

We left at 9:00am with all intentions of making two water stops in Cite Soliel.  However, a water truck mechanical issue caused a minor delay and then the line was over an hour long.  Needless to say, we waited at the water filling station for nearly two hours!  The filling stop is right next to a tent city... And what do we do when we are together, we serve God by playing with children.  New pictures include us playing and giving shoulder rides with some amazingly happy kids.  It was really fun and carefree!  Then we got to our waters top. It was in the Four Coffins district of Cite Soliel.  There was a really long line which means the demand was greater than the supply!  But we served as many families as we could with clean water.  And these families were amazingly tight.  The mothers and siblings handed us their small children so they could get water.  And they never lost site of their children.  The children pointed out mamas and papas and siblings.  It gave us all hope that there was a strong family connection in this district.

We came back to the Guest House... Some showered, others went to swim next door.  Then we went to see what the women of Haiti make at the Apparent Project.  This project supports single parents and teaches them how to survive.  They make beautiful beads out of cereal boxes!  Awesome jewelry!

Our next plan was to go to a Tent City and pick up a Tap Tap full of kids to play soccer.  However with the days delays and the heat, we didn't have the energy, so instead we bonded more as a team and decided to make care packages for each of the 16 children at Isaiah's with all of our snacks we brought for our lunches.  It was really fun and we are really excited to share these tomorrow with the kids on our way back from Grace Village. Then we planned our Faith lesson that Cheryl prepared for the kids at Grace Village.  

Tomorrow, our first stop is the Mass Graves. Then Grace Village.  Then Isaiah's.  our week has flown by and I feel so blessed to be here with my daughter, Kelsi and with this incredible team!