Monday, July 9, 2012
Thursday, July 21, 2011
The Nighttime Music of Haiti
You aren't going to be able to see anything on this video because it is dark out but turn up your speakers and enjoy what I call the nighttime music of Haiti.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Our final adventure
Thursday morning was pretty bittersweet for many of us. We were really excited for another day of VBS (even though it was our last) and all of the fun activities that we had planned, but many of us had mixed feelings about going home. We were going to miss all of the friends we had made and the children we quickly grew to love, but some of us were also looking forward to seeing our own friends and family again.
Our story on Thursday was the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. Because it was our last day, we wanted to make it more of a celebration. We started by singing a few songs, and then Linda led the story time, sharing this miracle in a skit form. We always love to hear all of the kids recite their Bible memory verse from the previous day for a piece of candy. Their eagerness and joy is contagious! For snacks, the kids received a cupcake to decorate with vanilla frosting and fish shaped sprinkles. It was a hit, and they looked fantastic! For the craft, the kids drew baskets on pieces of white paper, and filled them with their favorite foods with stickers, markers, and rubber ink stamps, to help them remember that Jesus takes care of them and loves them very, very much! The kids also had fun playing with mini marshmallows in the yard. They tried to play a game by catching them in their mouth when someone else threw them, but not everyone got the idea. They also tried to play chubby bunny, and that had much better results :)
Once these activities were done, we got set up to break pinatas! I felt like a rockstar when I walked across the yard holding one because everyone started cheering and shouting :) The kids have so much fun breaking them, and most of them got a chance to try to hit at it. The joy was so obvious to see on their faces! After everyone got their stash of candy set, the kids gathered again to sing to us. There is a song that they sing to many people who leave, singing in kreyol "Good bye, visitors, we pray to God for you." There were not many dry eyes left on the team after this! We lined up, and gave goodbye hugs to all of the kids, which was really quite sad, and then we headed down to the main house.
We had a few more minutes to spend in the nurseries, saying goodbye to the babies who stole our hearts and the fabulous ladies who take such great care of them. After one more final lunch so expertly prepared by the kitchen staff at GLA, we got into the trucks to head to the airport. We had to stop at the guesthouse to pick up all of our luggage, and then we were on our way.
The flight we were on was supposed to leave at 4:15. We got to the airport around 2:15, which gave us plenty of time to check in and get to the right spot. Once we got far enough into the airport, we were able to see a screen that said that our flight was now leaving at 5:50. Once we got up to the check-in counter, we saw that it was now 6:15. Miami had been have quite a few thunderstorms, and the planes were having a hard time getting out to come to Haiti, in order to leave again. Given the challenges that we faced on our way down, this did not make us very excited. We kept on going through our immigration lines and the second set of scanners and metal detectors and then headed upstairs, to have our bags go through another set of scanners (the Port-au-Prince airport makes me laugh sometimes). We found a nice spot of the floor, and went to buy a few drinks and sandwiches. While we were waiting, we heard some announcements for another flight for Miami that was actually cancelled for the day because the plane couldn't get here. That made us really nervous that they would cancel our flight as well, which would have been a huge pain. To everyone who was praying for our travels home- thank you so much! We were thankful that we were wheels off the ground by 7:15, only three hours late, but it meant we didn't need to try to find a way to get from the PAP airport to somewhere to stay overnight.
We landed in Miami around 10:00 pm, and went through immigrations and customs without a breeze. Linda met her husband there and left, and the rest of us went to find our hotel rooms. Thankfully we had reserved them in advance, because with all of the cancellations at Miami, they had no empty rooms that night.
The next morning we were ready to go at 7:15! We checked our bags in and made it through security with almost an hour to sit at our gate and wait to board our plane. This plane was only a half of an hour late leaving, because it had to wait for some people who were running from another connection. Given our traveling difficulties, I'm glad we were able to wait for them so they weren't stuck too!
Once we landed in Chicago, we found our bags, got our vehicles, and were soon on the road. We encounter some rain and thunder storms, and then we hit the traffic. and then more traffic. and then more traffic! It was nuts, and not too enjoyable, but we did make it home. A drive that should have taken around 3.5 hours was closer to 5, but we made it safe and sound with all of our luggage.
Thank you to all of you who have been following along with our adventure for your thoughts, prayers and concerns. We could see God working in many ways throughout our traveling time and time in Haiti, and we were honored to be a part of it- I hope you were too! Please continue to pray for the team as they are back home. Pray for their adjustment back to the American lifestyle- it can be really hard. Pray that God will continue to be glorified as we share our stories and pictures of all we experienced, and that God would direct our words and actions. And please, don't stop praying for the children and the staff at GLA.
Kristin on behalf of all of the team
Our story on Thursday was the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. Because it was our last day, we wanted to make it more of a celebration. We started by singing a few songs, and then Linda led the story time, sharing this miracle in a skit form. We always love to hear all of the kids recite their Bible memory verse from the previous day for a piece of candy. Their eagerness and joy is contagious! For snacks, the kids received a cupcake to decorate with vanilla frosting and fish shaped sprinkles. It was a hit, and they looked fantastic! For the craft, the kids drew baskets on pieces of white paper, and filled them with their favorite foods with stickers, markers, and rubber ink stamps, to help them remember that Jesus takes care of them and loves them very, very much! The kids also had fun playing with mini marshmallows in the yard. They tried to play a game by catching them in their mouth when someone else threw them, but not everyone got the idea. They also tried to play chubby bunny, and that had much better results :)
Once these activities were done, we got set up to break pinatas! I felt like a rockstar when I walked across the yard holding one because everyone started cheering and shouting :) The kids have so much fun breaking them, and most of them got a chance to try to hit at it. The joy was so obvious to see on their faces! After everyone got their stash of candy set, the kids gathered again to sing to us. There is a song that they sing to many people who leave, singing in kreyol "Good bye, visitors, we pray to God for you." There were not many dry eyes left on the team after this! We lined up, and gave goodbye hugs to all of the kids, which was really quite sad, and then we headed down to the main house.
We had a few more minutes to spend in the nurseries, saying goodbye to the babies who stole our hearts and the fabulous ladies who take such great care of them. After one more final lunch so expertly prepared by the kitchen staff at GLA, we got into the trucks to head to the airport. We had to stop at the guesthouse to pick up all of our luggage, and then we were on our way.
The flight we were on was supposed to leave at 4:15. We got to the airport around 2:15, which gave us plenty of time to check in and get to the right spot. Once we got far enough into the airport, we were able to see a screen that said that our flight was now leaving at 5:50. Once we got up to the check-in counter, we saw that it was now 6:15. Miami had been have quite a few thunderstorms, and the planes were having a hard time getting out to come to Haiti, in order to leave again. Given the challenges that we faced on our way down, this did not make us very excited. We kept on going through our immigration lines and the second set of scanners and metal detectors and then headed upstairs, to have our bags go through another set of scanners (the Port-au-Prince airport makes me laugh sometimes). We found a nice spot of the floor, and went to buy a few drinks and sandwiches. While we were waiting, we heard some announcements for another flight for Miami that was actually cancelled for the day because the plane couldn't get here. That made us really nervous that they would cancel our flight as well, which would have been a huge pain. To everyone who was praying for our travels home- thank you so much! We were thankful that we were wheels off the ground by 7:15, only three hours late, but it meant we didn't need to try to find a way to get from the PAP airport to somewhere to stay overnight.
We landed in Miami around 10:00 pm, and went through immigrations and customs without a breeze. Linda met her husband there and left, and the rest of us went to find our hotel rooms. Thankfully we had reserved them in advance, because with all of the cancellations at Miami, they had no empty rooms that night.
The next morning we were ready to go at 7:15! We checked our bags in and made it through security with almost an hour to sit at our gate and wait to board our plane. This plane was only a half of an hour late leaving, because it had to wait for some people who were running from another connection. Given our traveling difficulties, I'm glad we were able to wait for them so they weren't stuck too!
Once we landed in Chicago, we found our bags, got our vehicles, and were soon on the road. We encounter some rain and thunder storms, and then we hit the traffic. and then more traffic. and then more traffic! It was nuts, and not too enjoyable, but we did make it home. A drive that should have taken around 3.5 hours was closer to 5, but we made it safe and sound with all of our luggage.
Thank you to all of you who have been following along with our adventure for your thoughts, prayers and concerns. We could see God working in many ways throughout our traveling time and time in Haiti, and we were honored to be a part of it- I hope you were too! Please continue to pray for the team as they are back home. Pray for their adjustment back to the American lifestyle- it can be really hard. Pray that God will continue to be glorified as we share our stories and pictures of all we experienced, and that God would direct our words and actions. And please, don't stop praying for the children and the staff at GLA.
Kristin on behalf of all of the team
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
An Update from Haiti
Hi,
This is Abby Vanderwell. I'm 9 and 1/2 year old and on my first trip back to Haiti in 7 years.
The trip started as a disaster, but then it got better. Our plane never left the ground in Chicago and we waited on the plane for 3 hours. It seemed like it was forever!
So we stayed in Chicago and flew to Miami the next day. Mom and Isaac and I flew on one plane with Marie and Linda. The rest of the team came on a flight about an hour later.
When we got to Haiti, we saw Molly and Joyce and that was a lot of fun.
On Friday, I saw my Haiti mom and my Haiti brother, Oljeson and my Haiti sister, Dafka. One of my favorite nannies came to see me too. It made me happy to see them because it was good to know that they were doing okay.
We have done Vacation Bible School for the last three days. My job is to help with the snacks every day. Marie is in charge of the snacks and I'm her assistant. It is kind of hard to be on the team because I'd like to do the craft and the snack like the kids do. But I know that it is important for them to learn about Jesus. My favorite girl at the Toddler House is really cute. She and her big sister are both there. I had fun with her.
It has been fun helping to take care of the babies at the main house.
It made me feel good that all of the nannies remembered me from when I was here as a really little girl.
That's all from Abby.....
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Tuesday Trivia
Hello from Haiti:
After VBS, the team headed to the main house where we had a delicious Haitian lunch. Then we tackled the job of cleaning and organizing a storage area. While this was going on, we were able to observe families of children in the school sponsorship program coming to show their children's report cards to the staff at GLA. The kids then got updated photos taken for their sponsors. As a first-time volunteer at GLA, I am amazed at the variety of programs that GLA has. Later in the afternoon, we again had the opportunity to work with the babies. I don't think I could ever tire of this! The babies are all so beautiful. Many of them have already had more hardship/illness in their short lives than we can imagine. I have great respect for the Haitian nannies and all the nurses here. They truly care for, know, and love these children.
While most of the team was at the main house, Tom and Isaac went up to Ft. Jacques. Tom spent the time working with Patrick, John and Brandon on the "details" of the supplies needed to build the new orphanage buildings. (Tom says he'll have more on that later). While they worked on that, Isaac played with Bruno, Gus, Billy and Tank (the dogs), the "rat patrol" (aka the two cats) and got to use a sledge hammer and break up some rocks.
We finished our day back at the guest house with a delicious supper, devotions and preparing for tomorrow's VBS. We start our days early here, so typically we go to bed by 8 or 9 p.m. The last couple of days have been pretty tiring, but very rewarding. It is very evident that all of the staff of GLA truly love Jesus and strive to be His hands and feet here in Haiti. I'm privileged to be a part of this wonderful group, if only for a short time.
On behalf of the team,
Marie
The Nighttime Music of Haiti
You aren't going to be able to see anything on this video because it is dark out but turn up your speakers and enjoy what I call the nighttime music of Haiti.
Monday, June 27, 2011
The First Day of VBS!
Today was our first day of VBS! We started out the morning by introducing ourselves, singing, and telling them the story, the miraculous catch of fish. The kids were so attentive and sang along as best they could to all of our songs. I love to see their enthusiasm! We had a Bible memory verse for them to learn as well, and the nanny's do a great job of reviewing it throughout the day so they remember it. Other fun activities that the kids were able to participate in included making paper plate fish, catching fish in a small net, playing bread bread fish (duck duck goose), and enjoying a snack of goldfish crackers! It was a great way to start the day. I believe we all were blessed through this experience and I pray that all of the children and GLA staff will be blessed through us as well.
After our wonderful start to the day we walked down to the main house and helped out where we could there. For most of us that involved spending time with the young children interacting, holding, and letting them fall asleep in our arms. We enjoyed yet another delicious Haitian dinner and headed back up to the guest house.
Continue to pray for our health but most importantly that God will bless everyone here through our ministry.
Jessica
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