8/1/2010

Well it’s been a little while since I updated. I never remembered when I was at the base or when I had a chance that I could sit down and do it, but I always remembered when I was busy or not here.
We have had a couple teams come and go. There have been a couple of big storms as well. Friday night, our maintenance tent blew and rolled about 40 feet across the garden in the orphanage. A couple of unoccupied tents were demolished. Lucy had planned for a girls staff night at her house, so we went ahead and went over there and ended up staying the night. I was scared that the tent Hannah and I share was going to be down or full of water. Thankfully it only had a little tiny puddle in it and a tiny tear in our rain fly. There was another storm last night, but not nearly as bad.
There has been a church group of 8 that has been here for about a week. I went out with them for ministry every day. We went to the tent city in Cite Soleil so they could do a VBS for the kids while some adults were getting teaching from another group. That afternoon we went to the tent city in Delmas 33 to do another VBS. However, all the kids were at school so we just did like a prayer walk where we went to some different tents and asked for things we could pray for. It was mostly all the same thing: it is too hot under the tarps so people get sick, they want to be able to move somewhere less crowded, they don’t have any way to get food or water. It was hard to listen to, but good that the team got a little piece of what breaks God’s heart. Tuesday, we went to a hospital and prayed for patients and then gave them a bag of food. The ones we went to are all in tents. It gets very hot and they also mostly don’t have a way to get food or water. I went with a group to a tent with all kids and babies in it. There was this one little girl who became blind about 2 weeks before. Her mother died and they opened the coffin so she could see her one last time and when they shut it, the little girl went blind. She has a super good attitude. She chattered the whole time and was super cute!!!

Wednesday, we went to Croix des Bouquets to “my” orphanage to do a children’s program. It was so great to get to go see all the kids. Oh I also went there last Saturday so that Lucy and Peterson could see it and meet Nicole (the orphanage director). They were pretty excited to see me. Some if the little ones didn’t remember my name, but that’s ok, they still love to be held and I still love to hold them!! It was really great to get to go back on Wednesday and spend quite a bit more time there. The kids loved having us there and the team really liked it too. I brought a little photo album with me and they loved looking at the pictures of people they know in the States. Especially the kids that were adopted out of Lilfeline recently. We went back on Thursday to work in the garden that is pretty overgrown. We pulled weeds and grass and took it to the burn pile, thankfully, the kids helped. There is another team staying there this week so they are going to be working in the garden some more. One of the ministries we are starting is a children’s food program called Children’s Bread. We have done 2 so far. The first time we fed about 700 kids in Cite Soleil and the second time we fed about 700 people in the tent city at Cite Soleil. This Tuesday we are going to Lifeline to do a feeding program there for the kids and the village kids. We are also doing one on Friday at the tent city at Delmas 33.
The Mission Adventures teams are all moved to the orphanage. Sometimes it gets a little crowded, but it all works out. They are here for just two more weeks. After that, the staff and teams will be pretty small. I have sort of been put in charge of some administrative stuff at the base. I didn’t really ask for it, nor was I asked, but it’s ok, I don’t mind. Please be praying for the communication at our base, also for unity and clarity between departments and with teams.