Monday, May 23, 2011

Hello Friends and Family,
Team Haiti has been busy since our last post! We experienced even more adventure than usual when eight members of our team embarked on a five-hour hike up a mountain to share the Gospel with a remote village. The team was immersed in Haitian culture like never before. We slept in the locals' houses, ate Haitian food (complete with chicken feet sauce...), and even taught at the local school for a day! We had several opportunities to share the Gospel with kids and adults alike. We did several children's services, sharing numerous Bible stories and teaching math and English. After school, the kids taught us some Haitian games. It was a privilege to share in their joy and culture, and to be able to learn from them. That night, we screened a film called "God Man"
with the entire village attending. As a result of the video, about sixty people accepted Christ and several others received prayer. The mountain trip was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity - an experience that shifted our way of thinking forever. The people may have been materially poor, but they were rich in love. We taught them math and English, but they taught us what it truly means to love one another.

During this mountain adventure two other team members were having an adventure of their own in the city. Being able to remain on the base gave them a great opportunity to bond with the other teams on the base and contibute significant amounts to the schools in Fond Parisien and neighboring towns. Working within the schools was a great chance to share the love of Christ with
the next generation of Haiti.

This Sunday was a breakthrough moment for our team. We feel the Lord wants to take our team even deeper than He already has. This feeling was confirmed when our contacts spoke with us and told us they are about to raise the bar for our team. Please pray that the Lord would take this team to a deeper level than we could ever think or imagine! Today marks the halfway point of our time here, so pray that these last two weeks would be the strongest and most powerful weeks we have ever experienced. Thanks for your support!

Love, Team Haiti

Monday, May 16, 2011

Sak Pase!

Hello friends and family of Team Haiti! We have had an amazing first week here in the beautiful mountainous terrain of Fond Parisien, Haiti. It has only been a couple days since our arrival, yet we are already deeply in love with the culture and people here. Many members of the team were initially overwhelmed with the level of poverty we have witnessed, which was somewhat expected due to the fact that Haiti is the poorest county in the western hemisphere. Many have wondered what can we possibly do to make a difference in a place filled with so much darkness and brokenness.

It was through this initial culture shock that we realized a very important truth. The realization of this truth was a very powerful moment for this team, because it lines up with the heart and vision we have had for this trip all year. We realized that our time spent here in these next four weeks is something so much bigger than ourselves. We believe, and in fact have already seen, that God wishes to do things through us that we could never accomplish in our own strength. We have learned to let the poverty and darkness we witness break our hearts, yet we have also learned not to focus on the good things God is doing. There is very little we can do in our own strength to make a difference. We can make a difference, however, by letting the Holy Spirit change people's lives by doing signs and wonders through us.up with the heart and vision we have had for our trip all year.


The first two days were spent in training. Many pastors gathered with us for a conference on kids ministry. The local churches are about to launch a huge kids ministry program, which is incredible because it will be the first time these kids have been taught about Jesus. These days of training only built our expectations for the trip. We are learning to be open to the moments in which God wants to work. We witnessed a woman's ankle be healed after a team member prayed for her during the training. Praise God for working through our team even while we were being trained!


Since training, we have done a day of construction and a day of kids ministry. During kids ministry, a team member was holding a precious baby girl in her arms. As she prayed over the small child, the child beginning to sweat profusely. Just moments later the child's mother arrived, and we discovered that the child had a fever. We then realized that the fever was broken in the middle of Casey's prayer. The childs healing was a complete miracle and reinforced the hope we already had for the people of Haiti.


We fully believe in everything that the Lord is doing here in Haiti and are so excited to see the extent of his plans. Thank you so much for your love and support. Please continue to pray for our team to stay open to the work of the Holy Spirit. We pray that these experiences would not only change the nation of Haiti, but would do things in our own hearts that will change us forever.


Love, Team Haiti

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Passion

In these past weeks since we've last updated you, Team Haiti has been up to some really amazing things and is gaining ground in those steps towards our departure date. Through a lot of hard work and by the grace of God, we have been able to raise 30% of our total financial goal
as a team. Our recent fundraising project has been our "Hope is Now" bracelet sale. With the donation of $5 the donor is able to purchase two bracelets, one of which they are to sign for our personal delivery to a child in Haiti. This project has not only been a good way for us to raise money, but a way for us to let the people of Haiti know that someone in America is thinking of and praying for them.

God has been doing wonderful works not only in the financial aspect of our team, but the spiritual one as well. God is starting to build greater and greater expectations in our hearts for this trip. Our Team Vision Night this past week was a great opportunity for us to intercede and pray about God's vision for the trip. The passion of our team is to be used by God in such a way that people will see how awesome He is. We desire that God would move in such powerful ways that people would realize that what happens on the trip is not a result of our power or ability, but His alone. Team Vision night was by far a significant way to start off the New Year and new semester. Be praying for our team as we run after the vision that God has for this team!

With love, Team Haiti