Things are coming along...

I just noticed it's been several months again since anyone posted on here. I thought I'd rectify that situation. :)

We just finished our final team meeting, discussing lots of exciting things such as what to pack and what our schedule will be once we are in Haiti. Our fundraisers are almost all finished- we finished the big events, and we had our offering at church, but we are still continuing on with our pop can fundraiser. Please continue to bring any pop cans you can donate to us to Hillcrest, to the landing before the Loft.

We want to say a BIG thank-you to all of you who have helped us out and made it possible for us to take this trip. We greatly appreciate you. Thank you too to those of you who have purchased some of the supplies that we needed for the VBS. Keep your eyes open at church, because hopefully by the middle or end of July we will have pictures and names of all of the kids who will be attending the VBS. We would love to have people to sign up to specifically pray for all of the children in the VBS, for their health and safety and for their hearts to hear and understand the message we are bringing them. We will be using some of the stories of the parables to try to help the children understand God's great love for them.

I am personally getting quite excited because I leave for Haiti in less than two weeks. I (Kristin) will be the first member of Hillcrest to serve in Haiti this summer. I will be flying to Haiti on July 1, and will spend 2 weeks serving with the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee in Port-au-Prince. They have a outreach program for children with HIV/AIDS. I will be assisting a Haitian doctor in holding medical clinics for the children in the program. As I am a nursing student, I am very excited about this opportunity and all I will be able to learn. On July 15, I will be heading up to God's Littlest Angel's Orphanage. I will be functioning as a volunteer while I am there. I will be assigned a number of children, most likely 8, whom I will be responsible for spending time with each day. I'll cuddle with them, feed them, love them, play with them, and try to help them reach developmental milestones that they might be behind on. It's going to be a lot of fun :) On August 7, the other 10 team members will be joining me at GLA, and then we will prepare to hold the VBS for the 30 oldest kids at GLA. We will all be coming home on August 17.

We continue to appreciate your prayers as we prepare to leave, whether it be in 13 days for me or 51 days for the team. Pray that our preparations will go well, and that God will continue to prepare us to serve his children in Haiti- that our hearts, minds and bodies will be able to serve him well and will be open to what he wants to teach us.

Thank you!
Kristin