True Religion

love work.

2011-07-28T15:10:00.000-07:00

Tilapia tank covers

The past few days since we've gotten back to Base Camp have been pretty physically intense. We have been able to finish projects that we started this week: namely, putting tarps on people's houses in tent city, building a concrete ramp at the girls orphanage, creating a walkway and 16 tank covers for the tilapia farm, sanding and varnishing tables, digging a fire pit, and some other assorted tasks. Our team, despite the fall through of Jeremie, has really pushed themselves these past few days. We were able to crank out 16 covers for the tilapia tanks in less than three days, which required measuring and cutting wood, framing, and attaching chicken wire. It's actually much harder than it sounds, but I'm proud to say that we got all 16 done before lunch today :) quite a feat! Despite the 97 degree heat, God sustained us and gave us energy to finish strong.

These work projects, though they may seem small, are making a large impact. When it rains in the tent city, everything turns to mud, including the inside of houses and tents. The people who live there don't have anywhere else to go when it rains, so they end up sleeping on muddy floors, which leads to sickness and obvious sanitation issues. When we put a tarp on someone's tent in the refugee camp, it helps to keep the inside of the tent or shack dry, especially in tropical storm season (which we are now in).

The finished ramp

The other big project that we did was to build a concrete ramp, kind of like a mini-driveway into the girls orphanage. No cars could drive into the orphanage yard without busting off their muffler (we did it, twice), so building a ramp gives others the ability to come and visit the girls. Our team was the first to visit them in four months! We're hoping this opens the door to more visitors to the orphanage.

Tomorrow is our last day of ministry, we'll be at Jonas' school doing one more VBS for the kids. When we went to the tent city on Wednesday, we heard Jonas leading the kids in singing "This Little Light of Mine" in Creyole and in English. They had it memorized from the few times that we had sung it at the school and it blessed us so much to hear them singing!

Tonight we're playing soccer with some of the Haitians.. then a team bonfire at the fire pit we dug today and we're having (shhhh) s'mores! Yum :)

Roadblocks

2011-07-26T13:55:00.000-07:00

As you all know, we left yesterday from P-au-P for Jeremie. We made it Le Caye (about 4 hours into the trip, the halfway point) and dropped off some equipment there for another team. After that we went on towards Jeremie. About two hours later and well into the mountains, we encountered a blockade. There was a group of Haitians who were upset about some political issue and had blocked the mountain pass coming to and from Jeremie. It was very intense and we had to turn around.
The leadership team decided to return to Base Camp, as the road was closed and we wanted to take the safest course of action.
We are all here at Base Camp, tired but safe after 12 hours on the bus!

It was an exciting day in other ways, too. We had a chance to see the interior of Haiti and many towns along the way. We are encouraged to continue ministry tomorrow at Base Camp. We will not be going back to Jeremie on this trip, but pray that the next team scheduled won't run into any road blocks (no pun intended).

The team handled this very well. The kids were all great throughout the whole process, and as promised us by Foursquare staff, we had "the adventure of a lifetime" on the road. You'll hear more stories about it when we get back =) Orevwa!

Jeremie Bound!

2011-07-24T18:05:00.000-07:00

This will be the last blog I post until we get back to Port-au-Prince Friday night. We leave shortly for Jeremie, a small town that is to the east of Port-au-Prince along the coast. If you get directions off of Google, it's only supposed to be a five hour drive, but we've been told that actual travel time is 9 hours, at least.

It was described to us by Pastor Mark as "an old western town, but instead of horses they ride motorcycles." We will be staying at a small compound about half a mile out from the town. It's going to have more of a "missions trip" feel than the facilities we've been at this week, but we're all looking forward to a change of pace.
We have only three full days of ministry left and there is a need for fresh vision and energy as we prepare to finish our time here. Our team has been working and playing hard :) Many of us are wishing they could stay longer and others are looking forward to being back home, but are looking forward to this next week.

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Throughout this trip, God has been speaking to me specifically about His love as a father. Yesterday, we visited a piece of property that our church purchased earlier this year. Pastor Bellande is building a church and an orphanage on this land, and we went as a team to pray for and bless the land and the building process. When we arrived, two little girls ran up to us and jumped in our arms. One of the girls, a tiny little thing who must have been four or five years old, had the biggest, darkest eyes I have ever seen. She gave me a huge smile and ran to me without any fear or hesitation. I scooped her up and she snuggled against me until it was time to leave. She was perfectly content that I was just holding her, loving on her in this small way. It has been the same way for almost all of the children we encounter. All we have to do is smile and instantly these kids are totally at ease with us, playing with our hair, dancing with us, laughing at our Creole.. They are hungry for love. The passage that God brought to my mind is Romans 8:15-17:

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together."

In the same way as the child was able to run into my arms without inhibition, shame, or fear, we are to run to our heavenly Father, who stands with open arms and a smile on His face. He holds us close to His heart without judgment or criticism and is content to just be with us.

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Hayden and Wes share about what has impacted them on the trip:

Keep us in prayer this last week of our trip!
Please be praying...

that God would release a spirit of adoption to the orphans that we minister to, that they would realize they have a good, perfect Father who loves them (Romans 8:15-16)
that we would continue to love in such a way that transcends language and race
that those who hear the Gospel would be touched by the love and power of God
pray that we love well, minister well, and finish strong as a team

May God bless you this next week! I will post a blog on Friday before we leave:)

Highlights

2011-07-24T05:08:00.000-07:00

We are currently in the process of going to church, but my internet is finally allowing me to upload videos! Here's what we've been doing this week...

2011-07-23T21:31:00.000-07:00

Jodi a Samdi! Wow. I cannot believe that we've only been in country four days- it feels like a couple weeks. God has blessed the past couple days and we have been able to do some amazing ministry as a team. We have been able to alternate between a few different ministry sites, which has allowed us to make connections with the kids, rather than to come once and not return. It has been so fun to see the kids on our team make friends with the Haitians! As soon as we get to a ministry site, we are immediately arms full of child :) We have been working specifically with Jonas's school in the tent city (there have been salvations among the kids and a parent as well, so praise God!), which has about 25-30 kids, Pastor Bellande's orphanage, and a girls' orphanage with about 36 young women, ages 8-19. By now, we have almost perfected our VBS programs, which consist of songs, a puppet show, and two dramas/Bible stories. The team has really had fun coming up with the different skits and songs and it's the best thing ever to see the kids laugh.

So far, some of our best memories has come from the girl's orphanage. We cooked lunch for them today (30 lbs of spaghetti!) and took it over to the orphanage, where we spent our afternoon. No one thought that all the spaghetti would get eaten, but it was gone in 20 minutes! We hung out with the girls for the afternoon and the ladies on our team got to give them all pedicures.

If you are a parent reading this blog, you've probably heard that the team is tired, hot and sweaty. Can I just say that these guys have had amazing attitudes? We've had great energy at the ministry sites we've visited, I rarely, if ever, hear complaints. These guys have been ready to give their best to the kids we're working with and it has been incredible to see. You all should be proud :)

Tomorrow, we have church and will spend the afternoon in the tent city setting up tarps and packing for Jeremie, where we are leaving for on Monday!

I will be posting a video tomorrow with highlights from the trip so far. Blessings on all of you!

Arrival.

2011-07-20T18:48:00.000-07:00

We made it! Arriving approximately at 7:30am CT after a sleepless red eye flight, we were more than relieved to meet our contacts outside the airport. All of us were wiped and wondered how we were going to make it through the 95 degree weather, especially coming from Washington. We gathered for a time of rest at Base Camp and ended up going into a time of worship. The presence of God was strong and all of us felt a supernatural increase of strength, energy, and joy. This afternoon, we took a five minute walk to the nearest tent camp, where refugees whose homes had been destroyed in the earthquake live in tents and makeshift homes. The team raised up new tents for two families who were in need and spent time with the beautiful Haitian kids, who taught us new words in French and Creole. The students were struck by the joy they saw in the Haitians. After ministry, we crashed at the base and practiced more dramas and songs that we will be performing tomorrow. The team is currently getting some much needed rest, but we'll be back at it tomorrow.

Walking into a third world country for the first time is eye-opening, to say the least, and some of the students shared about how they had been impacted.

"It was cool to see that such a small thing like putting up a tent was such a huge deal. The small things we do really impact and change peoples' lives."

"These people have nothing.. they're living off of tarps on the ground, but they're happy."

"We came in hearing about all the despair and how horrible everything was and that the economy would never recover... to see all these kids living in the dump, totally happy changed my outlook. There's definitely hope here."

Be praying for us that energy and strength is quickly restored. More later.

Training

2011-07-18T13:24:00.000-07:00

We had our first 7.5 hour training session yesterday at the church.. the team briefed on ministry and travel, practiced sharing testimonies, painted faces, made balloon animals, and came up with some songs for ministry...

As you can see, the team is getting along fantastically ;)

27 hours

2011-07-18T12:52:00.000-07:00

There are 27 hours before the Grace Foursquare team leaves Camas, Washington to fly across the country to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where we will spend ten days in orphanages, tent camps, and schools. There are sixteen total on the trip: twelve teens, four leaders. Each individual on the project has said that he or she feels like God has called them to serve outside the country. For some, this is a first-time trip and for others this is the fifth or sixth. Whatever the past experiences have been, we know for sure that God has handpicked each person for this trip and we are so excited to see what He is going to do!

Our mission: to imitate God in every action, thought, and word, to communicate the love of Christ to each other and to those we meet in such a way that transcends all barriers of language and race. We walk as children of the light, exposing darkness, not fellowshipping with it. We seek to love mercy, do justly, and walk humbly, glorifying God with all we are.

Ephesians 5 is a chapter that we feel really captures the heart of who we are called to be and how we want to live.

1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.3 But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; 4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks... 8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. 14 Therefore He says:
   “ Awake, you who sleep,
   Arise from the dead,
   And Christ will give you light.”

God, thank you for this opportunity to serve You in Haiti this summer. Thank You for bringing each individual divinely onto this project, we know that You have chosen and You have good works prepared for each person to walk in on this trip. I pray, Lord, that You would open our eyes to see and hear You clearly, that our motivation to serve You would not be a religious activity but would be an overflow of love. Thank you for Your grace and supernatural favor and protection that surrounds us, I pray that You would give Your angels charge over us to keep us in all our ways, and that we would not fear the terror by night nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness (Ps. 91). You are our refuge and our fortress, an ever present help in times of trouble. Lord, would you anoint us with Your Spirit and fill us anew, Lord, with overwhelming joy and peace as we travel. Give us as leaders discernment and wisdom, that we would not despise the smallest thing that You do on this trip! Above all, we pray that Your Kingdom would come and that Your will would be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Yours is the glory, honor, and power forever. Amen.