Haiti's Angels!

I am so happy. I just got an email from someone who read my blog and has also been to the Good Samaritan. The kids fled to the hills, but the Mission of Hope is taking the kids in until they are able to rebuild the orphanage and get every one back on their feet. The orphanage was completely flooded. They still need so much prayer though. I am sure the kids are sick and hungry, but I know the Mission of Hope will take care of them :) I am going to post some more videos, even though they are not that good of quality once I put them on my blog.

Videos

These are videos at the Good Samaritan Orphanage. I love that place. I heard that the orphanage was flooded and that the kids fled to the hills for safety. I just pray they are safe and not hungry.

Journal Entry 7/29/08

Today we went to 3 schools to give food and do skits. It was a skit about what to do if a disaster happens. It was really hard to do the skit with someone translating. I felt like I kept messing up. At the first school the food distribution was great because they were able to lock the gates to the school. No one else could get in. At the second school we had to leave right after we distributed the food because people were crowding around trying to get it. We have really good security guards. :) Then at the third school we stayed a little longer. We played games with the kids and I got this awesome icee thing. It was sooo good. I was handing out stickers and I think that was the hottest I have been the whole time I was here or so far. When we started to distribute the food a crowd started coming around us and kept closing in on us more and more. Some were taking the food from the children so we had to stop and close the truck for a little until the paster could back the people up. After the last child we had to hurtty and get back in the bus or really truck that looks like a concentration camp truck. It was wooden benches on the sides that are pretty uncomfortable, but it was fine. I forgot to mention the schools were about 2 1/2 hours away so this took us the whole day. On the way back we stopped and ate at a restaurant. It was right on the water. It was kind of like a resort. Very pretty and the food was awesome. We had about an hour drive back to the mission and I kind of zoned out. I kept thinking about the kids at the Good Samaritan and the ones that stuck out to me so much. I just really wish I could help them and take them home with me. I want to give them a better life. I just can't stand thinking about how they go without meals. They are so happy when we are there, but there are also some so sick that they cry the whole time. I want to take those kids so bad. I don't want to think about them suffereing. It kills me. I really need strength right now. I will need strength tomorrow too because I will be going up the mountain. I just pray for everyones strength, especially those staying . Okay I am sooo tired and going to bed. I got to shower 2nd tonight!!!!whoohoo!!
This was the cage we rode in the whole time :)

This is the meal we had at the restaurant after we went to the schools...or it was actually a resort I think.

This was the first school we went to:

Quick note.....

I have not posted a Journal Entry from my trip in almost a month. I have had 2 deaths in my family and have been out of town for those and school started back.....but I am going to keep writing them...it just might take me some time :) It has been so sad lately...all the hurricanes hitting Haiti. Please keep them in your prayers. I can't imagine what it is like over there right now.

Journal Entry 7/28/2008

Big old eyes.......she was so cute. She was laughing so hard at the toy she had in her hand :)


Last night was the coolest night! I almost put a sheet over me!! It was crazy! We went to a school this morning to sing and play with the kids and give them food. It was a really small school just cement with benches. The distribution was a challenge because a crowd started gathering trying to get to the truck. We finished in just enough time; jumped in the bus and jetted out. We had PB and J for lunch and then some were chosen to go back to the Good Samaritan and some did the filtration stuff. I went to the Good Samaritan. I love that place. When I went this time we brought some lentals (some food for the kids). A man named Dustin came with us this time. He is a missionary that just started working with the mission of hope. We walked back to the kitchen area and asked if we could cook the lentals right then. The woman made up some excuses about not having oil, but I told her she didn't need oil to cook the lentals. I told her we would cook them, but she had some type of beans cooking in the pot and said she couldn't cook them yet. I asked her who the beans were for because there was obviously not enough for all the kids. She said "the weak ones"...I asked where the weak ones were and she said in the room. I walked in the room and there were kids laying on the cement floor and on the beds. Most of them were asleep, but one little boy was just crying on the bed. Some one had set him up there but he was so tired of crying he was falling asleep. Dustin and I went over to him. Dustin sat on the bed with him and rubbed his little tummy until he closed his eyes and stopped crying. He was so adorable...I just prayed as Dustin rubbed his stomach that whatever pain he was having would go away. Just to put him asleep. And.....he fell asleep as Dustin rubbed his stomach. I am going to put a picture of him at the end of this journal entry. His body was so cute, but so malnourished. The reason why we were so worried about the lentals being cooked was because we were told some of the food she has been given before has ended up in the market place instead of the kids stomachs. Anyone who can do that just has no conscience. How can you take food from a child's mouth when they are starving. I asked one of the translators to ask one of the kids if they had a meal at all that day and she said no they had not. No telling if they had a meal the day before that either. It just infuriated me. The kids we were playing with in the play area seemed okay though, they didn't seem to weak because they were running around so happy to see us. I was just happy to be there because they were so happy we were there. I really didn't want to leave when it was time to go because I wasn't sure if we were even going to get to come back. I wish I could just change one of those kids lives. I struggle so much with thinking about how many people I know in the U.S. and how there were about 29 kids at this orphanage....and how if just 29 people that I know adopted 1 of the kids, or just sent money for one of the kids, how much better their life would be. It seems so easy to think about, but I can't think about that because it makes me sad. I think the kids think their life is fine. They don't know any different so all they knew is that there were these really nice people that came to play with them...and came back a few times to play with them and hold them and love them. That was enough to make their day...and week. I would love to see them again after this Haiti trip. I hope this isn't the last time I will see them. When we got back to the mission we loaded 1,000 bags on the truck to go to the schools tomorrow. We had fish tonight for dinner and the head was still on it...but it was SOOOOO good! :) The first picture is one of the boy that was sitting on the bed. The picture is from the first time we came. The pictures underneath the first one are pictures of the kitchen area at the orphanage and the bathrooms (or holes in the ground) and the kids beds. The kids bed area looks really good in this picture, but there were flies all around and most of their sheets were soiled. The lady in the picture of the kitchen is they lady who is head of the orphanage.


This little girl was sooo proud of her red dress. She would just smile everytime I told her how beautiful she looked in it :)


This little girl loved the bubbles I had...she kept blowing them and did a really good job at it too!


This was the kitchen area.


This is Dustin...he is the one that asked about the food with me and rubbed the little boys belly until he fell asleep.


Where the kids slept.


These were the bathrooms...if you walked by them you would see they were really just holes in the ground.

7/27/08- Journal Entry

Today we got up at about 5:30. We had breakfast and then we rode to a church. Jason did the sermon and had a translator. Adam sang a song too. This church was filled with people and it was so HOT. Jason did an awesome sermon. He talked about how emptiness can only be filled by Jesus Christ. I was looking around at the church when he was speaking and I could see so many nodding heads. I think I really was surprised to find out once I was there that so many Haitians seemed to already know Jesus and already have a personal relationship with him. I began to realize some of them have a better understanding of God than a lot of people I know in the U.S., that I see everyday. It made me think about what I should be doing back at home. Jason talked about how God is all knowing (Psalm 139). In Verse 8-12 he is an everywhere God and this could be scary, but in the end he will bring abundance. In verse 12-18 is the most amazing part of scripture. This God knows you personally. Emptiness can only be filled by him. We have the choice, but sometime we feel emptiness and turn to other things. You have to know that God is all knowing and already knows your struggles. He is your best friend and all you have to do is talk to him. David has 3 steps to prayer. This first step is for God to search me. The 2nd step is for God to test me, know my thoughts. The 3rd step is for God to lead me. The people at this church did not know what we had brought them that day. We had a truck full of bags with food in them. We were there to bless the church that day and everyone in it. Some people in that church were hungry and hadn't eaten in 3 days. They didn't know where their next meal would even come from. Some were struggling with other things in their life. The food bags we made yesterday were going to be handed out to the 500 people after the church. It was so organized. We stayed in a straight line making a tunnel shoulder to shoulder and as people came out of the church we handed each one of them a bag, looking them in their eyes, and smiling. Some of the little ones had to be carried through the tunnel because the bags were too heavy for them. This was the first time I felt tears welding up in my eyes. The feeling you get when you hand a hungry person food is amazing. When you squat down to give a little boy or girl a bag of food and you see their eyes light up, it makes you melt. We weren't throwing the food at these people, we were handing it to them and showing them love. I did a really good job of holding my tears in, because I knew I had to be strong in that moment. If I started crying they wouldn't understand why. They were so happy :) One lady walked out and just fell to her knees at the end of the tunnel. She was truly blessed she said. She had prayed in church that the Lord would bless her with food and her prayer was answered as she left those steps of the church. There was a crazy man there yelling that he hated our government. He said he loved us though. He talked or really yelled about how we were in Iraq and something about going to Cuba, he made eye contact with me and pointed at me as I got into the cage we rode in the whole time and said "I like U.S people...you are good people, you do good, but I HATE your government!!!!" He went away eventually because we ignored him. As soon as we handed the last bag out we had to jump back in the truck immediately and ride off because people in the town heard about us handing out the food so we had to get out of there. We came back and ate lunch, an awesome lunch I must say. Then we went back to the Good Samaritan Orphanage. Mike and Laura the leaders that planned our week told us we were the first group that ever wanted to go back to the Good Samaritan. They said other groups get so overwhelmed and just say they can't handle going back. That wasn't in my head at all, because all I could think of was how happy those kids were when we were there and how much fun I had with them. If I could have gone to that orphanage every day I would have. Anything to make those kids smile. I don't think I talked about the little girl that was at the Good Samaritan the first time we went. She was laying in the bed and had some kind of growth on her chest. There was puss on her bed when they rolled her over and she was really weak. There were 2 holes in the growth...like someone had tried to get the puss out themselves. She needed to get to a clinic. They got money from the mission and took her to a clinic to get what I think was a sis(no idea if I spelled that right) drained and cleaned out. When we came today she was back at the orphanage and was sooo much better. I am going to put a picture of her at the end of this journal entry. She was so happy and just running around. I was so happy we could get her the help she needed. After the orphanage we came back and bagged more. For dinner we had MRE's I had black beans and rice. I was put in a group that was put in charge of coming up with some skits for the school visits. The main idea of the skit was to come up with what the kids should do if a disaster strikes like a hurricane. Becky was really good at coming up with some stuff for the skit. She is awesome with kids. I will talk more later about exactly what we did in the skit, but we just let them know they need to meet and have a plan with their family if a disaster strikes. Also we wanted them to know that this may be a really scary time for them if a disaster should come, but they can always turn to one person. This person doesn't live with them in their home but he is their best friend. They can pray to him for strength. The awesome thing was that when I asked them if they knew who this person was??? They knew exactly who it was...It was JESUS!, they would yell. We also did bagging today. It was pretty hard but I really liked doing it....I was a runner a lot (the person that took the bag and then went to the different stations to get everything put in the bag). We also got to put our name in a box tonight to see if we would get chosen to stay up the mountain when we go up to the school on Wednesday. I didn't get chosen...I really wanted to go, but I guess there is a reason why I wasn't chosen. I know I will enjoy anything I do here....I love it and I feel so blessed to have this experience.
This is a picture of the little girl we took to the clinic. :)