We got up early to tour Mission of Hope before heading down the hill to attend church at Church of Hope. There is so much happening. So much has happened since Cody came a year and a half ago and so much will happen before we return. The orphanage has moved and is expanding to house more children. The guest accommodations are enlarging to make room for more missionaries and church groups coming to help. The clinic is booming with the new hospital connecting to it now. We toured the hospital which Journey Church, and our small group, helped fund through our Project Hope campaign. It was very cool to see exactly where our efforts went. There has been so much growth, Cody says. The above picture is our group standing inside the hospital. Trip highlight.Church in Haiti is full of zeal, joy, glee, passion and praise all for the King. Also it is packed. There are tons of people standing, sitting, dancing; all worshipping His name. No matter the language, 'Alleluia' and 'Amen' mean the same. The immense devotion these Haitians have for Jesus is humbling. Their desperation for Him comes from the depth within them and pours out of every part of their bodies. It was breathtaking to see black and white hands raised to the same God and hear worship sung in both Creole and English at the same time. The tunes are the same though the languages are different. And God is the same regardless your ethnicity, race and color. I found myself being overcome with the Spirit during 'Mighty to Save'. This song will never be the same for me again. He is the 'hope of the nations'. He can 'move mountains'.
I watched a boy of about 16 dig in his pockets for his tithe during offering. It reminded me of in the Bible when Jesus tells of the woman who gave everything she had. Even out of his poverty, this boy - this young boy - chose to give. His faith and honor to God is indescribable.
Then it was off to Children's Church. Just picture an open area used as the school cafeteria during the week holding children ages walking to teens, boys on one side; girls on the other. What would you think? Chaos? Disorder? Assemblies during the school year stress me out. It IS chaos. It IS disorder. It is LOUD! But, Children's Church here wasn't. Yes, it was noisy. It's a bunch of kids. However, from little bitty to big kids they were all in their assigned areas and SITTING! There is no way that would happen at my junior high! ;) It was very impressive. The older children would help the younger children stay seated and attentive (as much as possible). We spent time loving on these kids and watching them participate in games and skits. It was evident these kids LOVE Jesus. I just kept thinking about the book Cody and I read not too long ago called Heaven is For Real. The book is a nonfiction story about a three-year-old's experience in going to Heaven during his near-death experience and then surviving to tell us about the Holy Trinity in Heaven. The three-year-old Colton explains how Jesus told and showed him how much He loves the little children and how much a childlike faith means to Him. "...And a little child shall lead them all." -Isaiah 11:6
Cody was taken with this little girl because she had on a Lightning McQueen shirt. Bet you can't guess who that made him think of back home? It was sweet to see him love on a child who is not his own.
I hung out with these three. They took turns taking pictures with my camera...well Kristie's camera she let me borrow for the trip. (Thank you, Kristie! I got some good pics, huh?) I don't know their names and they didn't know mine, but it didn't matter. You don't have to speak the same language to understand each other and show a little Jesus. After church, Cody reunited with some friends he made from his first Haiti trip - JR, Samuel and Nicole. That was cool to see Cody's excitement in seeing them again. We traveled later in the day to Berci and Leveck - two other towns. The government gifted large chunks of land to Mission of Hope, MOH, because they believe what MOH is doing is worthwhile. In Berci, there is about 55 acres of land to build a mirror image of the current MOH, so in a few years there will be two Mission of Hopes making change for the Kingdom. Berci is an oceanfront property, too. There will be an orphanage, school, clinic, church and an agricultural school. We spent time playing with the children who live in the area as we walked around seeing the vision to be built there.
By the way, in the picture above that child doesn't have pants on. Oh well, right? We did walk down to the water. And surprisingly, the water is warm! We were hoping for a welcomed refreshment from the Haiti heat, but didn't get it. Many of the Haitian boys walking with us stripped off their clothes and ran right out into the water bare booties and all. Such joy in their faces! Us, moms, talked about how we are nervous around water with our little ones and we wouldn't let our kids out of arm's reach in the ocean. And here are these tough, adorable children unsupervised. Haitian children are strong. They have to be. In Leveck, Samaritian's Purse built temporary housing after the earthquake. MOH plans to build 500 permanent homes along with a school and church to replace the temporary housing. Right now there are 154 homes built. Eventually MOH wants to build elementary schools in all the surrounding villages and make the school on the original MOH property the high school, so all the schools will feed into the big high school.
All the blue houses are the temporary homes. The large building in the front in the church. Crusades are currently happening to get the church off the ground. All of the other colored homes - pink, cream, orange, green, red, yellow - are the permanent homes MOH is building made out of concrete.
I've never worked for an organization that has THIS MUCH VISION. It is dream upon dream, but the cool thing is that when these dreams come true, there is much excitement and a new dream is dreamt. There is so much hope for this country. MOH's vision is contagious. Even something as simple as a sidewalk was a dream. There are sidewalks around MOH to teach the orphans order because much of Haiti outside of MOH is chaotic. Something as simple as a sidewalk teaches a big lesson. As I write, it is pouring rain. However, that doesn't stop Cody and Chris from taking the opportunity to let the rain clean them...literally. They are showering in it. That was worth many giggles. Our room is also taking on some water. I guess we'll be sleeping with our luggage on our beds. This rain will likely bring in the bugs. Every night the bugs have gotten worse. You could play dot-to-dot on our arms and legs...Please scratch them while you are at it. No matter how much bug spray or preventive measures you take, the bugs bite. Some of us have bites worse than others...Zan has an unwelcomed spider bite and Lisa and Bryan's arms are speckled with bed bug bites. Hopefully, God will bring some relief or a sweet distraction to these bugs...Looking forward to tomorrow when we start to work.
