Keep Watching Posts!!

Yes! We are in Miami. Our flight wasn't able to get out of Haiti on time so we missed our connecting flight. We did get booked on a new one and will be on our way. Just a note to please continue to check our blog throughout the next week also. We will be posting other pictures and videos about our trip and about what FIAI does in Haiti. A number of you have conveyed an interest in going down there. If you do, please let me know. A note to the St. Agnes/Sacred Heart group - I saw Vivian and Patrick at Matthew 25 this morning. I took some pictures for you. Fr. Joe - the room you stayed in is no longer there! They are fine though and say hi. Stay tuned!

Bonjours ami (good morning friends in Creole),
It's 5:15 am and we are on our way to the airport in PAP to start our journey home. Even though we had a wonderful time here, it will be good to be home. We were very busy for our short time here. We met so many wonderful people that we will miss very much, but I have a feeling we will see them soon. I don't think we'll be able to keep Jake away from here too long. He really connected with the people and made some really good friends. When we get back in the states, I will give account of all that we accomplished. Pray for our travel home and for now au revoir!

Day in Verrettes - Mountains

Hi again. It’s Thursday evening and we are relaxing at Fr. Alexis’ after another fantastic meal. Our plans changed a little today. We were supposed to go into the mountains to install a water filtration system, but it was raining in the mountains and unsafe for us to go. You have to hike up the mountain and there are many cliffs you can slide down when it is wet. We were disappointed as we were really looking forward to going, but we ended up going to another project instead that was just as interesting. Because of the number of refugees from PAP that need food and money, Faith in Action International (FIAI) has created jobs for them that benefit both the refugees and Haiti. Instead of giving them handouts, they are employed by FIAI to help with soil conservation. It is best if I can post the video explaining it. We also had to hike up a mountain for this, but not as far. After this, we visited a tree nursery. FIAI grows trees to be given to the poor in the mountains to replant so they can grow their own fruit – mangos and avocados. It was a very good day. I saw a lot of opportunities for the Haitian refugees from PAP.

Tomorrow we leave for home. Please pray for safe travel for us. On another note, please say an extra prayer for our family. We lost our beloved Boomer this morning. He was our faithful companion for 13 ½ years and he will be missed terribly. I don’t know who is having a harder time with this – me or the kids!!

Thank you everyone for all your support for our trip. Please be patient with the videos. It seems that they are scrolling between our Haiti videos and some other funky ones. You just have to go back and forth into the site and ours will pop up if they haven’t already.

Peace and hope to all of Haiti and all of you!

Day in Port au Prince

Good morning. Today is Thursday. Yesterday Jake and I went to Port au Prince for the day to help build shelters for the people affected by the earthquake that are living in tents. We didn't exactly know how it was going to go.

I didn't write anything last night because I really didn't know what to say and needed some time to process everything that happened during the day. I could give you all an account of where we went and what we did, but I don't think its all about that. So I'll skip the details for this post and tell you what we experienced.

There were so many people without proper homes. They were so hopeful that we would choose them to build a shelter. How do you choose? As Jake already said, "How do you help one and not the other?" There were so many, even in the smaller area we were in, that we began to feel overwhelmed. Their eyes looked at us like we were their saviours - but we're not. Only Christ is. What were we doing there? How could we begin to help them? What were we thinking? Who did we think we were? I struggled with this. Seeing their desperate faces, trusting us even though they didn't know us. I was getting discouraged. My heart felt very heavy. I didn't want it to be all about how it made ME feel.

God calls us to be servants. He calls us to remember those less fortunate than us. He himself humbly washed the feet of His own disciples. Jesus wants us to follow his example, so become His hands and His feet. He look into the eyes of the hopeful and give them all the hope we can. We are just each one person, but when we love as Christ loved, we become Christ to them.

What were we doing yesterday? Who did we think we were? We were giving as much hope and love as two regular people from northern Michigan could bring to a little spot in Haiti. We had the honor to be Christ's feet and hands to someone in need - if but only for a day.

You can visit our video feeds to see what we did :)

Li di se kèk bay, epi lòt moun pa...

It is hard to give to some, and not to others...

-Jake

Tuesday - School Supplies for Refugees

Wow, what a day today. It may seem like that's all we did today was pass out school supplies, but it was an unbelievable experience and we met some wonderful people!!

Unfortunately, the UN meeting we were to attend is tomorrow, not today. We discovered this when we showed up with a group of 5 people and were the only ones there. A miscommunication error. As it turned out, because of the confusion, the minister of civil affairs met with us personally and he spoke ENGLISH! I was able to chat with him a little about the immediate needs for relief for the victims of the earthquake and get his perspective on what help they would like. For me, it was probably more informational without the meeting.

This also gave us more time to devote to the purchase and distribution of school supplies. This is what we did the remainder of the day. A man by the name of Nixon who is part of a group called CLAV (translated in English it stands for Club of Friends in Verrettes.) They help with what is needed in their village. Nixon diligently helped us with our mission. Now let me tell you that this was "no small task!" It took us 2 whole hours to find notebooks, pencils and pens!! We went to a total of 4 stores and all through the market in Saint Marc to find supplies. Not like just going to Wal-mart. We purchased $800 American dollars ($6,240 in Haitian) in notebooks, pens and pencils. We literally loaded up the back of Jean Rony's pickup truck! Then off to Verrettes to visits schools and hand them all out! The village of Verrettes has received over 1000 school aged refugees from Port au Prince and these are the students that received the supplies. They arrived with not a single piece of paper or pencil. We only had time to visit 3 schools today. They will continue distributing them tomorrow. At each school we first had to speak with the principal or headmaster, then the principal would have us speak (with Jean Rony or Nixon translating) in front of each classroom. At the first school, there were 9 classrooms. This was the public high school in town. The girls really liked when Jake shook his hair - they giggled - it was cute! We did this at each school, then we passed out the supplies to the refugee students. It was a very exhausting day, but a very good one.

It was amazing to be with Jean Rony and with Nixon. They both just want to serve their people. We would talk to the students and tell them that we are from the same family. Brothers and sisters helping brothers and sisters. I saw Christ in both the dedicated teachers and the wide inquisitive eyes of the students and in the servanthood of our new friends.

Tomorrow...Port au Prince to build shelters. I will try to post pictures tomorrow night!!

First day in Haiti!!

We arrived in Port au Prince at about 9:30 am. It was a little crazy leaving the airport, but we finally located Fr. Alexis. We were able to view some of the devastation from the earthquake as we navigated our way through Port on our way to Liancourt. You can see many of the tent communities where people have set up sheets to live under. You also see rubble everywhere. They are beginning to clean up the debris, but it is still in piles. I took many pictures in Port, but I am having difficulty downloading them. My camera chip isn't fitting in Jake's laptop, so I may have to see if someone else has a computer I can download into. I will work on this as I really wanted to share the pictures with you.

It is good to see Fr. Alexis and his village again. We took a drive around to show Jake the surroundings. As always, it is amazing to see how people live in a 3rd world country. It makes me very thankful for all that we are blessed with. But the Haitian people are still happy. They have strong faith!!

Tomorrow we are leaving in the morning to attend a UN meeting in Saint Marc regarding relief services. Tom Braak from FIAI cannot attend this meeting and asked if I would go. Jean Rony will be there to translate if needed. After that we will stop at the YWAM office in Saint Marc to purchase school supplies for the refugee school children. We will be distributing these later in the afternoon.

Wednesday we are off to build shelters in Port au Prince and Thursday we will be hiking to the mountains to install a water filtration system.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We love you all!!
Debbi and Jake

We are finally boarding the plane to Haiti. There are many relief workers and medical teams on the plane with us. Everyone seems to have an interesting story about where they are going and where they've been. I won't be able to post again until we get to Liancourt later this evening. We are supposed to spend the day in Port...but then we'll have to see when we get there. Fr. Alexis will be at the airport to receive us. Jean Rony from FIAI will be with him. Au revoir for now.