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 Trivia

Hello from Haiti:

The Hillcrest Team started the day with VBS at the toddler house.  The story was "Jesus Loves the Children".  It was awesome to see the excitement on all the little faces as the children anxiously waited for VBS to begin.  As the story was being told, one little boy, when hearing about how Jesus loves everyone, even children, all the time, said, (in Kreyol) "That's just the way God is!"  It was great to know that they all "get it".  

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.

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  

Sunday Afternoon Ramblings

Today I posted some pictures of our trip so far. Hopefully this will let you in a little bit on our Haitian journey.

 We are relaxing on the balcony of the guest house right now and talking about how excited we are getting to begin our VBS tomorrow.  We have had many experiences here already...we have been touched by the friendliness of the GLA staff,  done different projects to help out at the orphanage, held and loved on babies and worshipped in two different services both Haitian and missionary. What a blessing it was to worship with fellow Christians in an entirely different culture.  This morning we sang about "lifting our eyes unto the mountains" and it was pretty amazing to be singing those words and actually be looking at "those" mountains.

We enjoyed a wonderful Haitian lunch at the main house with about 30 other volunteers.  After returning to the guest house, our hosts took us to the grocery store and we were able to get yet a different taste of this culture and buy some fun things to bring home.

Our name-tags have been made, crafts and snacks prepared and stories learned.  Around 9 am tomorrow morning we will walk over to the Toddler House and our VBS will begin.  We ask for your prayers for the 40 children who will be coming and for us as a team.  We thank you for taking time to read about our experiences and we thank God for this opportunity to serve in such an awesome way!!

Blessings,

Deb

 

More to come soon.....

Pictures - a Random Assortment

Friday - What a Day!

Wow!  What a day.  The team began the day with what was named "Feelings Friday".  We, as a team, didn't really have a lot of huge stuff to share with regard to our emotional well-being.  We started painting out on the balcony and a bathroom in the guest house.  We split the team up later, and Cheryl, Tom, Abby, Isaac, Deb and Linda went to the main house to sort and organize medical supplies.  Mari, Marie, Jessica, and Kristin stayed at the guest house to finish painting.  On the way to the main house, we met Isaac's Haitian dad and his cousin.  They went to the main house with us where we saw Abby's Haitian mother, sister and brother.  What a beautiful reunion!  Our hearts were filled with joy, and then we realized that there where two families bringing their children to GLA at the same time to put their children up for adoption.  It was heartbreaking to see a family be separated, and yet amazing to see the love that the parents must have for their children to put them up for adoption because they could not care for them.  The team, as a whole, experienced a plethora of emotions today.  We laughed until we cried, and we simply cried.  At our team meeting in the evening, we decided that we needed another "Feelings Friday" meeting all over again to help us process the events of the day.  God has been so good to us since we have been here.  We have been blessed beyond measure while being here.  I pray that we bless others as we have been blessed.

Linda (on behalf of the team)

A Roller Coaster

I posted this earlier on the GLA blog.    You can read it in it's entirety at http://godslittlestangelsinhaiti.org/2011/06/24/a-roller-coaster-of-emotions/

I've told you before that I was going to attempt to share our trip with you while at the same time respecting my children's privacy. I'm going to attempt to do so by sharing some of the roller coaster of emotions that we (and predominantly our kids) have been on since we left home slightly more than 48 hours ago (was it really only that long?)

• Tuesday afternoon at 1:00, our team, our families, many friends and both our current pastor and our former pastor (who Abby and Isaac call "Grandpa") gathered at our church for the sendoff for our team. We had a chance to chat, for families to wish the team members well and for both pastors to offer prayer.    But this one was different – it was a trip with a dual purpose. Our stated purpose is the same as it has been the previous three years our church has sent a team down to GLA in the summer. We were going to share the "Good News" of Jesus Christ with the older children at the Toddler House through a 4 day Vacation Bible School. But the second purpose was underlying all of this and was very deeply felt by so many of us. We were giving Abby and Isaac the opportunity to experience the country of their birth. Neither of them have been back to Haiti prior to this trip since we adopted them in 2004. They both, especially since the earthquake, have expressed the desire to go back and visit. Many of the comments from family members made it very obvious that the emotions underlying the questions about the trip were on many people's minds. It was an emotional send off – but also one that made it very obvious that so many people are praying for the kids on this adventure. God is faithful.

  Then we had the "hassles that could have been a lot worse" at O'Hare. Let me give you just the main points:

  • Plane boarded and departed the gate on time.
  • Pilot announced that due to extensive thunderstorms all over the country, there were "a few" planes in line to take off ahead of us. Like, 70 or 80 planes ahead of us.
  • While we were waiting on the runway, the pilot announced, "Folks, we're facing east and the tower just informed us that there's a "bit of a storm" coming in from the west. So we're going to turn the plane around so we can ride it out better." (Translation – we want to be facing into the wind so we don't tip over).
  • When the storm hits, they clocked winds of 74 mph. I've had entire flights that were smoother than that parking job.
  • We found out later that while we were sitting on the runway, O'Hare was having all passengers evacuated to the basement away from the windows.
  • After the storm, the pilot said that we were still going to try to land and that a number of planes went back to the gate after the storm so we were only #20 in line.
  • Then he announced that several planes had experienced storm damage and so American was going to cancel all flights until they could inspect all of the planes.
  • Entire time on the runway? 3 Hours and 5 minutes. Distance flown: 0 miles
  • Through that entire time – everyone handled the delays very well. No one was impatient (okay, well, not too impatient) and it was obvious that God's grace and protection was present.

  After finally finding a hotel room and getting to the hotel, we all fell in bed at around 1:30 in the morning Wednesday morning – still in Chicago, frustrated that we weren't going to be getting to Haiti on Wednesday but also grateful for God's protection.

  Wednesday was a day of waiting, flying and anticipation. Thanks to a very compassionate (and skillful) American Airlines ticket agent, we were all able to get to Miami at a decent time and safely. God is faithful.

  Thursday morning started very early – we were all up and at security by 5:00 AM. Things went smoothly and the flight went well.

  As if that wasn't enough of a roller coaster, then we get to Haiti…….

  
  
  Read the rest by clicking here.....
  
  
  Tom
  
  

A little bit of a longer account of the past few days...

Hi everyone!

I volunteered to be the blogger tonight to fill you in on some of our activities of the past few days.  We all left Hillcrest at Tuesday afternoon 1:30 and drove to O'Hare in Chicago.  We had plenty of time to check our 20 bags, make it through security, and board our plane.  We got on our plane, and went out to the run-way, where the pilot let us know that due to previous thunderstorms, there was a line of 70-80 planes waiting to take off.  He thought it might take 2 hours to take off, which we weren't really excited to hear.  Part of the way through this wait, a really severe thunderstorm came to O'Hare.  We rode out the storm in the airplane.  It was really windy- we could see the rain going sideways outside the window. The pilot had to turn the plane to make sure we were facing into the wind- he told us it was 74 mph. We found out later that while we were sitting on the runway, O'Hare had shut the airport down and made everyone who was there go into the basement, which wasn't very comforting. 

We managed to find three hotel rooms about 20 minutes away, and we finally got to our beds around 1:00 a.m.  We were able to sleep in a little bit, and went to the airport the next day.  Late the night before, we had managed to get switched to the late 7:05 flight, which would get into Miami at 11:00, which is really late for our 6:45 flight the next morning. We got to the airport around 11:20 a.m., and talked to a ticket agent who was amazingly helpful and cheerful, despite saying that this was the worst delays that she had seen in 21 years.  We were so thankful for her- an answer to prayer! She was able to reschedule 5 of us on the 3:10 flight and 4:10 flight. All of us were in Miami with hotel rooms by 9:30, which was also great! We still didn't get a lot of sleep (some of us more than others), but we were all out of our rooms and in the lobby by 5:00 a.m., ready to go through security.  Security went very well- we got through very quickly, and went to our gate with 20 minutes before we were supposed to board (only 24 hours late...)

I think we were in the air right around the right time, and got to Haiti nice and early!  The airplane had run out of immigration forms, so we had to fill out the papers in a hurry in the line, get in immigration line, go through immigration, find our 20 suitcases, go through customs, and then go through the pathway to the drivers from GLA who were waiting for us. The airport went incredibly smoothly- thank you so much for your prayers!  There were absolutely no problems.  Molly and Joyce were there to welcome Abby and Isaac back to Haiti for their first time in 7 years (and the rest of the team :) ), and Brandon brought the big truck for all of us and all of our luggage to make it back. We got to the GLA guesthouse, where we will be staying for the next 7 nights. We sorted through our 20 suitcases to organize what items needed to go to which houses and loaded them back up to deliver them, and then had lunch and a little bit of a chance to rest.  We took our luggage down to the main house to put away those donations while Pastor Brandon led the Bible study for the nannies, and we had a chance to tour the nurseries and see some of the babies. 

When Pastor Brandon was ready to go, we headed back to the guesthouse, and then went to the Toddler House and got to meet some of the kids there.  Some of the kids there remembered some of us from last year, and they are very, very excited for the VBS next week (we are too!)  We had a very fun time with them this afternoon.

We had a yummy supper at the guesthouse with the team and the Brandon family, and then had our team meeting while enjoying the beautiful sunset.  We are currently chilling on the balcony while some of us shower (yes!) We are anticipating a day with some painting and more sorting tomorrow, but we will also remain flexible and willing to do whatever they need us to do! We'll try to post again tomorrow evening, as long as our internet works well :)

Thanks for the prayer- we appreciate them, we've felt them, and please keep them coming!

Blessings,

Kristin for the team 

We are here!

We arrived about 30 min ago. All is well!

Tom

Sent from my iPod

Still in Chicago... please pray!

Well, that 2 hour delay on the tarmac in the plane ended up being three hours, include riding out a severe thunderstorm on the airplane. They finally had to cancel our flight, much to our disappointment. We found a hotel in Chicago, and spent the night here. We found out this morning that O'Hare actually evacuated everyone who was in the terminal to the basements during the storm (which we rode out in the airplane), so we are very, very thankful for our safety last night, despite how frustrating it was at the time.
We are soon heading back to O'Hare to try again to get to Miami. We all have seats on the last flight of the day that goes from O'Hare to Miami. Some of us might try to get on earlier flights on stand-by, but there are a lot of backed up planes and flight schedules right now due to the storms (apparently they were in a lot of areas of the country last night). We would really, really appreciate prayers that we are able to make it to Miami tonight, so we can fly to Haiti Thursday morning.
We are making quite the memories :) It's definitely interesting travel, but we'd really like to get to Haiti soon.
Thank you for your prayers for us and our traveling!
Kristin

Delays due to storms

We are writing this from the runway at O'Hare. Current estimate is a 2 hour delay.

That means we'll have a 3 hour layover. Nap in the airport?

Sent from my iPod

2011 Team is (almost) ready to go!

The Hillcrest in Haiti 2011 team is just about ready to go to Haiti! They will be leaving on June 21 and arriving in Haiti on June 22 to spend 8 days at God's Littlest Angels Orphanage (www.godslittlestangelshaiti.org)
The team this year is comprised of Tom, Cheryl, Kristin, Abby and Isaac Vanderwell, Deb Ohlman, Jessica Meijer, Linda LaFleur, Mari Goebel and Marie Rickard. For some of us, this is our first trip to Haiti, while others of us are excited to return again. We are all very excited about the opportunity that we have to serve the children and staff at God's Littlest Angels orphanage.
We will do our best to blog about our experiences while we are in Haiti. We invite you to check back here often during our trip to follow along with our activities. We'll try our best to post some pictures as well!
We would like to give a big "THANK YOU" to everyone who helped with the fundraising and planning for this trip. We would not be able to serve in this way without your help- thank you thank you thank you!
We covet your prayers for our trip. Please pray for traveling mercies as we travel from Hudsonville, MI to Thomassin, Haiti. Pray that the many suitcases (1000 pounds!) we are taking down full of supplies will make all of the connections and not run into any problems! Pray for the children who will be attending our Vacation Bible School from June 27-30, that God will prepare their hearts for the messages they will hear through our planned activities. Pray that we would be able to work together well as a team, and that we will be able to be a blessing to those who are at GLA full-time serving the children in their care.
We appreciate you! Thank you for praying and thank you for supporting our trip! We are eager to go and serve!
(Kristin on behalf on the entire team)