SAVANNAH UPDATE:
Hello Everybody,
It has been a great day today. We started out by having breakfast this morning, and Kristen did a great devotion for our group and the Momentum Church group (from South of Atlanta). Our first task of the day was to take a fifteen minute new church site. We were to meet a pastor and several land owners who were going to take 50 Lucenia treest back to their own property and plant them and watch over them. Because the trees were planted in black plastic bags and were easy to pull out of the ground there was only about 20 minutes of hard labor.
The next little while, we taught two little boys how to hit the grand slam. With my faithul pitcher Harrison throwing for me I hit one over the big green monster (green army tent where we have church). Even with that testimony to my hitting technique the two young boys did not adopt immediately, but maybe it is a planted seed for later.
After batting practice, the landowners showed up to receive the trees. We first sat them down and shared the gospel with them, somewhat shocked to find out that some of them had already heard it and accepted and were even leaders in the church. Who better to entrust the resources of the church (ie the trees). But any how we gave them folding gospel sharing tools that may help them share the gospel with others in the future. After praying for them they collected their groups of trees.
We moved on to the next thing which was lunch. And then we went to experience fishing Haityi style. We apparently did not give the fisherman enough notice because he did not bring any fishing equipment. That was okay we were able to see that his job of fishing involved a lot of strenuous rowing. To our surprise his method is using a hook line and bait. No fancy nets. After the fishing Q&A was over, we went back to the main compound and invited the kids in the street to a VBS. We did the story of Jonah with some help from volunteers from the crowd, then transitioned into craft time with paperplate fish. By the time it was done I had colored the entire fish cast of finding Nemo. We played games in the street and then we prayed for the kids. Now we are dinnner. That is all for now.
God Bless You! In Christ,
Dan Popham
MOMENTUM UPDATE:
Before I say anything else, I must share the funniest part of the day (according to me). First, you must know the background.
Two days ago, when we arrived in the first fishing village (Preskul), Kim Groves managed to accidentally flash all the islanders as we exited the boat. An unusual greeting from us “blancs” (AKA: whiteys). A few of us got a really good chuckle out of this.
So this morning, we got to take an hour boat ride to a third fishing village (Kapafu). When we arrived, Kim starts to get down from the boat and gets her skirt caught, therefore beginning to flash everyone YET AGAIN. It gets better. She’s actually not just attached to the boat by her skirt, but….get this…her panties. Then I proceeded to witness two Haitians try to detach her from the boat. As you can only imagine, Kim was quiet through the whole ordeal 🙂
But on to a serious note, it was an amazing visit with some beautiful people. For most of us, it was our favorite fishing village yet. Everyone was so receptive and friendly. Tammie had about 8 kids attached to her from the moment she set foot on shore, and Kim and crew rocked out with the VBS as usual. Meredith at one point had a blanket of children on her. THE VERY COOLEST PART EVER, though, was that we all felt led to wash feet. We each got an opportunity to be on our knees with these sweet people and scrub their feet with soap and salt water. I would imagine it was a trip highlight for everyone. So humbling and wonderful.
After our return, we took a much needed trip to the beach to cool off where we were able to play with some more children and just relax. We just enjoyed a yummy ravioli dinner (with some scrumptious Tootsie Pops for dessert – Thanks, Mandy!). Danny and Gabby just read all of the comments outloud from last night and today – Your support and sweet prayers mean the world to us and we’re enjoying each and every word. Thank you!!!! We certainly feel your prayers and God’s Spirit moving in each of us, which has been so cool.
As wonderful as it has been, though, we will be so anxious to squeeze all of you on the other end (of the trip). Tomorrow we will be doing some more “Hut to Hut” visits (painting nails, bubbles, praying with some families) and probably a sports camp in the afternoon, all wrapped up with a beach dinner at 5. I think it will be a day we will all enjoy.
We are actually loving the mush, Tricia, Kelly and Loren – Keep it coming you sappy sistas! Bart: Turns out Bart is actually BarTina. Weird.
