PVBC & Northside Day 1

Greetings from Haiti! Yesterday’s summer solstice was the longest day of the year in every way imaginable. After waking up in Miami around 3:30 am, we flew to Port au Prince to meet a bus for what we were told would be an 8-16 hour trip to The Mole. The 8 hour buffer was built in to account for breakdowns, which we were told happened frequently and without warning. Ours occurred on a left hand turn just past a gathering of animated Haitians listening to a speaker we learned was the president. Despite the weathered appearance of the bus (I hope one of our pictures gets posted!) it was fully equipped with a team of resourceful mechanics who arranged for the welding and re-installation of the bus’s drive shaft in less than 3 hours. The rest of the trip—our journey clocked in at about 13 hours– will remain a tale for another day, but the thing that stood out for me was the Importance of Bringing Your Lunch.
Although this idea could be taken literally (nuts and dried berries only go so far), the metaphoric application of the maxim is even more powerful. I once heard a memorable sermon on the little boy who showed up to hear Jesus with a simple lunch of fish and loaves. And that’s all he did: he showed up—prepared, and with a receptive heart.
We can’t control our circumstances here, but the idea is to bring our lunch: to seize the opportunity to talk with Haitians about their excitement over their new president while our bus is repaired, to play with children. And then watch how God multiples our small offerings—just as he did with the loaves and fish.
(Quick note: our wifi situation is different than it has been for some of us who have come in the past. The blog is the only way we have to communicate with you so please leave comments for us to hear at dinner!)
Cindy

Hello family and friends. What a first full day in Haiti. We woke up bright and early for breakfast up at the missionary’s home. Fresh made biscuits with jelly and peanut butter.
After breakfast and a great devotional time we split up to start the Lord’s work. Several people went to assist with some construction items at the new cafeteria that is being built. The rest of the team went by boat to a small secluded fishing village called Kapafu. The ride there was great and the Caribbean Ocean is beautiful. The village consisted of about a dozen grass huts. As we approached the Haitian villagers stood on the shore waving to us. They have not had many visitors recently so they were very happy to see us. While we were there we got to play Frisbee with some of the kids and several of the ladies painted the finger nails of the little girls. The children also enjoyed playing duck, duck, goose and ring around the rosy. The men of the village are serious dominoes players and we did not stand a chance. We were sad to go and I think they felt the same. It can be easy sometime to show God’s love and it sure was at this village.
Later in the afternoon we took an hour long prayer walk through the Mole. We stopped and several locations including the jail, schools and several new constructions on the mission campus. Prayer is strong and they need our prayers in Haiti.
We did get about an hour to swim and as I said before the Caribbean is just beautiful, just like the Haitian people.
Please continue to pray for our team, the missionaries and the people of Haiti. God is at work here! We closed the evening with the song ‘God of This City.” My prayer is that the efforts of God’s church with His power will make this happen.
Please send us some message back, we will read them each night as a group.
God is good!!
Scott C

So we arrived in the Mole late Friday night. Today we stated running “pounding the ground,” which is the mission’s motto for the summer. We sorted through 14 suitcases of supplies in preparation for the week’s activities which includes supplies for the medical clinic and children’s church tomorrow morning. After a delicious lunch of beans and rice we took a boat ride to the small fishing village, Preskul. Pat told the story of the Good Samaritan but as a “Good Neighbor”. Afterwards, everyone including adults colored pictures and decorated a bag for some treats we had brought them. While we were ministering with the village, Gayla and Sarah D. were working on the water cistern. The children enjoyed the bubbles and the candy. One man told us how much he appreciated everything we were doing and was praying we would still come back and was also praying for us. We were also privileged to have been sung to by the village of Preskul, the song sounded like Amazing Grace but when we were told the translation the words were about playing and smiling! It has been beautiful here and we are looking forward to everything yet to come. Please pray for our team this week as we travel to the other villages for clinic and VBS. We love and miss you guys!! If you leave comments below we will be able to read them!
Lisa and Sarah W.

There was some trouble uploading the pictures tonight so I’ll try to get more posted in the morning!
Intern Emily