Fowler Group Day 3…

Bonswa

I am sitting here deciding how to summarize my last few days, and am surprised at how many opportunities I have already had.  I will highlight just a few of my favorite moments. First of all, I got to co-pilot the little tiny plane that took us from Port-au-Prince to Mole St. Nicolas.  My job was very important. I had to shut the window during take-off. I’ll have you know, I’m a natural!!  The beauty and the mountains were breath taking, and that is when my tears began to flow.  God created this opportunity for me to come to Haiti after waiting for over 30 years and watching two of my beautiful children come on mission trips.

I was overcome with awe and gratitude to my husband, who took off work to stay with our kiddos, to my sister’s entire family who used their misfortune of not being able to go to allow me to go, and mostly to God, for reminding me that he is always faithful even if it takes it a while.  The tears have been flowing ever since.  I spent time with the children of the mission’s orphanage.  And even though I didn’t speak one word of Creole, we had a great time together.  I wore a bracelet with the pictures of my 7 kiddos in it, and that was all they needed.  I probably went through their names about 80 times in the matter of 20 minutes.  They loved learning their names and counting to 7 with me in English and teaching me the Creole, all while chuckling at my pronunciation.   But my absolute favorite moment of the trip so far was having the honor of helping multiple women at the parenting conference find and highlight Bible verses and watching them work together to brainstorm parenting fears and worries. I am truly looking forward to part 2 of the parenting conference on Wednesday.

So, thank you for all of your continued prayers and support. It means the world to us.

A little shout out to my family, John, Allie, Julie, Emmy, Laci, Jack, Jesse, and Libby, thank you for taking care of each other while I am gone.  Guess what??  I get to work in the clinic tomorrow!!!  Love you all!!

Sandi and Team

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Kevin was nervous about traveling to Haiti and joked that he thought I asked him if he would go to a resort in Tahiti and instead I asked him if he wanted to volunteer in Haiti.  When we arrived in Port-au-Prince, we waited to board a small six person plane.  Upon doing so, Kevin was asked to copilot and was asked to shut the plane door as we took off.  The views were breath taking flying low enough to see the countryside and close enough to see the beautiful blue waters of the Atlantic.  We landed safely on a dirt runway as goats ran across.

We were transported via ATV to Mole Saint Nicholas.  We took a tour of the campus including the orphanage, church, cafeteria, staff housing, and Matt and Lauren’s home (our friend’s from Ormond Beach, Florida).  We were introduced to the kids of the orphanage and spent time playing soccer, gaga ball (tell you later what this is), and just wrapping our arms around the kids and sharing love.

Since we arrived, we have had wonderful food, great fellowship, and time to teach the families in Haiti about parenting and what Easter is all about.  I spent an hour with Haitian women discussing what the bible says about forgiveness.  We went to the beach, Kevin snorkeled with Matt, and we even enjoyed several Coca-Colas.  We also had a family-esq barbeque with country music playing.

Although we have enjoyed some luxuries, we have also experienced some of what it feels like to live in Haiti full time.  Kevin went with the other men hut to hut today to talk to the locals about Jesus.  Many were  nonbelievers and some even practice voodoo. Many people were starving, without work, and had several children. Many of the people wanted food and medicine over hearing about Jesus.  We planted seeds of God’s love and will be praying for the families.  Please pray for the children, the missionaries, the staff, and Mole Saint Nicolas. –Katherine & Kevin

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