Thursday, June 30, 2011

Lithuania Team Update

Sean and Laura McCarty arrived safely in Lithuania and promptly started work at a kids camp. The McCarty's are working with Garrett and Sophi Gilliland and the ministry of City Church in Klaipeda.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Team Haiti-June 29

Hello again world! We have internet for the second night in a row! However, we will not have it tomorrow because we are spending the night at the orphanage. Just a heads up. And I am unable to post pictures because of limited access.

Today was another work day at the rubble school in Daborne. The morning shift was spent gathering more rubble from the streets to take to the site and the second shift was spent putting up the wall cages for the rubble. We had to cut our work time early because Tiga wasn't feeling well. Please pray for him. He is constantly working and guiding new teams every week. He needs to be healthy.

The evening was spent being spoiled! For dinner we had BBQ goat (YUM!) and passion fruit juice. After dinner, a man named Tony came by to tell us about his ministry. He is amazing and has started a fair trade coffee business and uses the money to pay school teachers that do not otherwise get paid and to feed and educate Haitian children. Check out his website at morethancoffee.org and buy coffee. Then as if that wasn't enough, we got to spend time with a new 3 person team from Vermont that is going to pick up where we left off tomorrow and get Tiga-made smoothies together. We also got to spend time with a local nurse, Jenny, who moved here to Haiti from the states, and worship together. Please pray for her medicine ministry here as well.

Tomorrow, we go back to the house we built to dedicate it, pray over it, and share the gospel with the family that will be living in it. Please keep our health in your prayers. We are dealing with a lot of sore muscles and exhaustion and other heat related issues. Not a super big deal but we want our spirits up to spend lots of time with the kids at the orphanage tomorrow. We are sad to be saying goodbye to Grand Goave, but look forward to coming back again. Thank you for your prayer and support.

Much love from team Haiti!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Team Haiti-June 28

Hooray!! We have finally fixed the internet problem and can now post blogs! Sorry that you have not heard from us sooner.

We arrived safely on thursday and found our Guest Director, Tiga (aka the boss) and everything went smoothly. The plan was to visit the orphanage and spend time with the kids, but they were invited to city hall so they were not present. Then we took off for the place we are staying, (aka The Compound. aka Home.)and took it easy for the rest of the day. All of us instantly felt at home. We are loving it here! The devastation we witnessed on the ride to the compound was very evident and when we asked our Haitian helpers how much has changed since the quake, the answer was, "not much." If anything, it motivated us to work that much harder!

When we arrived at our work site on friday, technically day 3, the wall cages for the first three walls were almost completely in place. This marks the moment the team realized that we would be working harder on this trip than any of us had ever worked in our lives. Day 4 and 5 were spent filling the wall cages with rubble and by the end of the morning shift on day five, the first three walls were filled and the fourth cage put in place.


Sunday was our beautiful day of rest. I will spare details for fear of this post becoming a novel, but it was such a huge blessing. We attended church where Tiga, Melody, Andy and Amy sang a worship song for the congregation. The rest of the day was spent at the beach. It was amazingly beautiful and felt like paradise. Then on day 6 we filled the 4th and final wall of the house by the end of the morning shift, The plan was to start at a new work site for the second shift, but the truck never came (island life) so we spent time together and sang praises to Jesus in the compound.

Today, day 7, was one of our most intense days. It made us understand why God gave us a day and a half to rest. We started at a new worksite, a rubble SCHOOL! The drive to the location was about 45 minutes one way. Both the morning and afternoon shift was spent shoveling piles of rubble from the streets into the truck and hauling it to the school work site. We were all working so hard, and volunteered to stay an hour extra to finish our pile. This was a blessing because we had the opportunity to hire a few Haitians from the area to help us out and work along side us. We pray that we were able to show them Jesus through our interactions and gratitude. Now, we head to sleep in efforts to get rest and regain energy.

Everyone is happy and healthy and in love with this country. Please continue to pray for good health, energy, strength, patience, and opportunities to share Jesus and spend time with kids. Soon I plan to do another post of pictures to share with you. But for now, Good night and much love from Team Haiti!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Haiti Team Departs

PFB's Haiti Team on mission to build a "Rubble House" in Grand Goave Haiti departed at 10PM last night from LAX. The team was in high spirits as they checked in. Team leader Andy Shoemaker is acompanied by Melody Doo, Rebekka Evans, Amy Baergen, Aleece Diaz, Joe and Henry Anderson. The team will be visiting an orphanage on Thursday and will start work on the Rubble House on Friday.