The Last Two Days

*This blog was supposed to be posted on Saturday, but after some internet struggles.. it is now online! The team is all safe and sound back in Kentucky.  It was an amazing trip.  Look for a reflections blog coming in the next few days!

Well yesterday was a very physically draining day.  We were supposed to take the Miriam Center (special needs) kids to bonneau, the special needs playground.  However, the rain raised the river too high, and our bus could not cross it.  In the morning, we went to help feed the severe and profound kids breakfast.  This was extremely out of most people’s comfort zone as we were spoon feeding mush to children who could not feed themselves.  The group did amazing though.  Then we spent some more time loving on the Miriam Center kids.  After this, we headed to the market to buy three bags of groceries!  We filled the bags with rice, beans, flour, sugar, onions, potatoes and much more.  We came back to the mission and did a Bible study with the Bracelet Bandits.  Then we were able to spend the afternoon hiking up the mountain a little to give our bags of groceries to three different families.  We were able to pray over the families as well.  Then we headed back to the mission to go to a market full of Haiti goods.  We spent the evening watching a movie with a movie with the orphan children!

While yesterday was physically draining, today was emotionally exhausting.  Today the group visited Ansefalour, the voodoo capital of Haiti.  We started our day out doing a VBS with the kids on the beach and then spent some time playing in the ocean with them.  We had lunch at a restaurant in Ansefalour, and then we headed to a voodoo monument.  We hiked up to this monument that “claims the city for voodoo” and had an opportunity to pray over it.  We then visited the voodoo temple where St. Anne, the voodoo doll of Ansefalour lives.  Seeing the darkness of voodoo, the power of the devil, and the hopelessness of the people worshipping the doll was an eye opening experience for everyone.  Everyone took something different from it.  The afternoon was spent saying goodbye to friends we have made this week.  We were able to visit one particular family’s house and pray over them.  Rodney and Les spent the early evening visiting a trade school while Mark played soccer with some of the boys.  The girls spent this time loving on the orphans.  I believe it has been a great trip for everyone, but we are also looking forward to seeing our families tomorrow!

Cameron Lile- Today was a little bit more than I was ready to deal with. Saying goodbye to the kids is one of the hardest things ever. There have been so many that I have grown to love and telling them you have to leave s absolutely heart breaking. However, I take comfort in coming home and being able to share how God has worked in my life this week. I can’t wait to see you all soon! Love you!

Mark Karenbauer – Ansefalour was truly life changing, seeing all the people worship a doll from Satan and seeing them worship the devil was so disheartening. It was such a dark and mean place. After today I know that my ministry is not done in Haiti. Everybody, no matter what their circumstances, needs to learn the truth in Jesus. I can’t wait to see you guys tomorrow night/Monday morning. God bless and love you all!

Lauren Haggard: Yesterday we got to experience a lot of new things. Our whole team each got to feed one special need child in Miriam Center. Truly a blessing to get to help those who cant do simple things themselves. After that we got to do a bracelet bandit bible study with the boys of the community in the mission’s church. Also, the market came to the mission and we got to buy souvenirs. Then we took groceries to 3 huts near the mission & prayed over those families. Today we went to Ansefalour. This is the Voodoo capital of Haiti. It was a very different experience for all of the team members.  Unlike most of the other people we’ve helped this week, the people of Ansefalour we’re very different. There was still nice Haitians of course just most of them gave you a bad feeling. Especially once we entered the temple of Saint Ann. This is something that I wont be able to forget the rest of my life. It was scary to see the way the people were & how the worshipped the doll. We also hiked up a small mountain to see a Voodoo monument where they give offerings like candles, animals, and even babies. It may have been a kind of sad day, but over all, this trip has been great!

Mary Kate: Yesterday we were able to feed the Mariam Center kids. Thinking about not being able to feed or dress myself is such a scary thought. I can’t even imagine being in the conditions that those children are in everyday. I fed a young boy who had very little movement in his neck and little to no movement in his legs. When I looked down at his legs, it was taken back. They were literally just bone with skin. It was so heart breaking to look at this beautiful boy and then see his little tiny fragile legs just laying there. Today was a big day. It was a hard day. Today had to be the hardest day for me. We visited a voodoo temple in Ansefalour. The hike to the monument was beautiful, and the view from the top was absolutely breath taking. It’s hard to see all this beauty around such an evil and dark place. Then we were able to do VBS with the towns children. They were all very sweet and active. Then we went to the voodoo temple. Not many Americans are allowed in the temple. It was an opportunity for us all. When walking up to the temple, it was sad but for me it made me sick to me stomach. It gave me a feeling deep inside that wasn’t easy to overcome. Its hard to see all the people sick and sad that think this doll can save them, or make them happy again.

Danielle: My favorite parts of these past two days are feeding the Miriam center kids, the grocery ministry, and surprisingly the voodoo temple. I had so many different emotions while feeding the Miriam center kids that cannot feed themselves. I was sad because they could not feed themselves but I knew God made them like that for a reason. Mark also reminded me that the majority of them will be in heaven with us and that makes me happy. I really liked shopping in the market looking for food for three different families. I liked how we bought the groceries ourselves and we got to see who it got delivered to. The voodoo temple was a lot more than I expected. They were offering/burning everything from alcohol to dogs and even kids.  I got way more emotional than I thought I would about it. It was so sad seeing all the people waiting to pray for the doll that cannot do anything for them. Some people spend years in there waiting to be healed when only God can heal them. I pray that they will all turn to Christ in a point of their lives because right now there are living in the dark and are so hopeless without Him. We also had to say bye to our translators, Yael and Norman. They made this trip a lot of fun and I hated saying goodbye to them. They constantly had me laughing and I hope that we will be able to see them again next year.

Shannon- Friday morning we got up to feed the Miriam Center children, which are the children that can not feed themselves. It was very, well, words cant describe how I feel about it because it is so sad not being able to feed yourself, but then again they are the happiest children because they get so much attention. After feeding the children we went to the market to pick up groceries for three families. We bought them enough food to last each family for a week. When we went to the houses, the people had so much joy that they could feed their family, and then we prayed over them. Later that day we did a Bible study for the bracelet boys.  Saturday morning we left for ansolfalor. It is the Voodoo capital of Haiti. We took the Children to the beach to do a vbs with them. We hiked up a mountain to see the monument to learn about the story of St. Anne. I was warned before the trip that this place was very dark that you could feel the evil there. I had already been there for a while and hadn’t felt anything different. When we went into the temple it changed how I felt about Ansolfalor. The first thing that got my attention was the dark chambers and the smell of what they were sacrificing. We walked through and usually people smile and say hi to us, but these people would just stare at us. We went through the temple and went to the main worship place. In there was the doll St. Anne and pews where people worshipped. The thing that got my attention was the people sitting in the pews. They were just so into this doll, and they put their faith and trust in something that could do absolutely nothing for them, while I was standing there with the hope that they were truly looking for, but I couldn’t do nothing about it. The only thing I could do for them is pray, which is best.

Tore – Today was a day full of ups and downs.  This morning I was able to see my god son.  He has grown so much, and I was so blessed to find a healthy and well fed thirteen month old! The trip to the voodoo temple had an impact on everyone.  Throughout the years, I have made between 10 and 15 trips to the temple.  I have only been allowed inside once before this trip.  I am not sure why we were allowed inside, but I know God had a purpose for that.  Saying goodbye to all of my friends was incredibly hard.  My heart is still heavy from the hard times today.  I am not sure I can accurately put them into words right now, but my heart is breaking for these Haitian people I love so dearly.  

A Trip To La Baie

Well the team has had a busy couple of days.  Yesterday we left for La Baie.  It was a two hour trip that we took by bus.  La Baie is a lot poorer than Saint Louis.  It is where grass huts become a reality.  All of Haiti is poor, but La Baie takes it to a different extreme.  At the Baie campus, we have an orphanage with around forty boys.  When we got there, we spent time loving on the boys.  Then we did “hut to huts” where we walked up the mountain visiting different houses.   We were able to talk with the families, pray over them, and give some of them peanut butter.  We then were able to do a VBS with the kids from the community.  We had 151 kids at our VBS! After this, we spent some more time loving on the boys.  Today we started the day doing VBS with the boys.  Then we were able to take some of them to the beach, so they could go swimming.  We came back to campus and spent the rest of the time with the boys.  Then we headed back to Saint Louis.  We had a few problems (flat tire, bus breaking down), so we had to switch to tap taps.  It was a new adventure for most of the group.  The afternoon in Saint Louis was spent in various ways.  Mainly we all spent time with the orphans kids.  We’ve hit the homestretch and are looking forward to our last remaining days!

Mark: Monday- One of the younger bracelet bandits held my hand to Tortuga. When we got back he gave me two bracelets. One had his name, Frankis, and the other had my name spelled “Mack”. It was too cute. Torguta was absolutely stunning in beauty. The kids were great and very attentive.  They are so much fun but also fun to play with in the water. It was also fun playing basketball with Kendy after months of trash talking—that’s what brothers are for I guess.

Tuesday- two things spoke to my heart. the two groups are people I’m most uncomfortable with is the special needs and the elderly. Three of the special need kids took me down to the elderly. It was cool seeing them interact with each other. It got me to cross that barrier and I feel more comfortable with them now. The house of hope was touching. The kid’s joy that they have in so much tribulation in their lifes is so cool to see. We all hooked on to one of the kids, I hooked onto Nellitou. He had bright yellow corduroy pants and they match his personality. He always smiled and it was definitely contagious. The kids at the house of hope were easily the most awesome kids we have played with so far.

Wednesday/Thursday- the change of scenery on the ride from St. Louis de Nurd to Le Baie was incredible. You go from beaches and palm trees to desert and cacti in a few seconds. Two little brothers latched on to me. I played with them, Jossee and Shinada, for the rest of the day. If I looked out at the window, they would be looking at me. As soon as they saw me they would run up and hold my hand. They were 151 kids at VBS. It was so cool to see so many kids at VBS and thirty kids standing outside. Hut to hut was amazing and God led us to the right people to pray for. It is crazy how you develop relationships so fast with kids that don’t speak any English. I really feel now that Jossee and Shinada are my brothers. I just want to bring them home with me. It was so sad but also let me with a peace knowing they will be fine and I will see them soon.

Sidenote: the stars here are indescribable, it just makes you realize how big and how awesome our God really is.

Danielle: Yesterday we went to La Baie and it was only boys at the orphanage. Even though I hang out with a lot of the girls at the compound, I loved hanging out with the little guys. One of my favorite parts of going there is that we got the chance to do hut to huts. It was just really neat to pray over the people in their homes and give some of them peanut butter. I was also so blessed to have so many kids at VBS, which other people have already mentioned. Today we went to the beach with some of the kids at the orphanage. It was amazing to see them just having a good time on the beach. When you are playing with a kid and they laugh and smile constantly, it is so touching and such a good feeling. A lot of events happen that really show me why I am here in Haiti.

Mary Kate: yesterday and today was spent at La Baie. We were able to go “hut to hut”, praying over people and talking. It was a very humbling and amazing experience as well as heart breaking. The orphanage at La Baie housed only boys who were very rambunctious and chaotic but all so incredibly sweet. The thing I remember most of the boys was holding then in my arms, or in my lap. When talking to them they would always be very attentive and with it being so windy a few pieces of hair would always be in your mouth or across your face. With their dusty, little, slobbery hands they would gently take the pieces of hair away from your hair a softly tuck it behind your ear. It had to be one of the most precious things ever. Even though it was such a little gesture, it meant so much to me.

Shannon- Wednesday and Thursday we went to La Baie.  When we first got there it was really different. In St. Louis it is very tropical, and its very poor,  but La Baie is completely different. La Baie is very deserty and even more poor there than St. Louis. At the compound in La Baie there is an orphanage of forty boys. We took them to the playground, beach, and did a vbs with them. Another thing we got to do was go to the huts. Hut to huts is a thing we do when we go into the mountains where the huts are to meet the family that lives there, pray over them, and give them food. We told each family with children that we were having a vbs at the local church. On the way to the church we had to go through the town first so we just started yelling vbs to the children and they followed. We didn’t think many children would come. We thought like sixty would come, but we ended up having one hundred and fifty-one children, and we had to turn down twenty to thirty children because we didn’t have enough for them. Thanks again to the people that supported me, I have gotten the letters that you have sent me.

Les – La Baie is the poorest area we will encounter on this trip.  It is truly what you see when you see commercials about 3^rd world countries.  Even in this environment, you meet special people.  Even though the majority of the time we spent with the orphanage boys, I ended up spending most of my time with a boy from the town.  His name was Franswathe (I am sure I butchered that) and he was about 15.  His family went to the mission church.  What made him so special was his thirst to learn the English language.  Every time I saw him he was carrying a notebook with him and he would ask you to teach him various English words that he would right in his notebook.  It was almost full of English words.  The first time I saw it he was flipping pages and I spotted all of John 3:16 written in it.  We spent some time going over all the words of the verse and what they meant.  What an experience being able to share the word with him.  Thank you God for providing me the opportunity to spend time with him.

Cameron Lile – Ahhhhh! Okay, so I have super great/God inspired news to share….But I am going to wait until I get home (this way you can see my face and get excited with me). Just know that everything is going fantastic and I can’t wait to share and see what God is going to do with this plan. Love you all!
p.s. I am not planning on moving to Haiti so don’t stress! It really is great news.

Side note from Tore: Cam doesn’t plan on moving to Haiti *right now ;]

Tore Karenbauer – I was not quite sure what I wanted to blog about today until worship tonight.  We started singing one of my favorite songs, and one of the lines is “I called; you answered and you came to my rescue.. and I want to be where you are”  I have always loved this song because of the rescuing part, but today another part stuck out to me.  I started thinking about the “I want to be where you are.”  If Jesus was with us right now, where would he be?  He would be rubbing lotion on the feet of the gran moun, or playing with the special needs kids, or loving on the orphans.  He would be loving the unlovable.  That being said, I am so incredibly proud of this team.  Every one of them has been stretched out of their comfort zone, but they have done amazing.  They have been cheerful and have not complained.  They truly have lived out our team verse by serving as if they were serving the Lord (Ephesians 6:7). 

The First Couple of Days

Here is how we have decided to this. First will be a brief rundown on the day, and then most people (anyone who wants to) will add something impactful or a story of something that happened to them.  Monday we went to Tortuga.  We went on the boat, and no one fell off of the Haitian’s shoulders or got sick!  Thank you Jesus! The VBS was wonderful. Everyone was impressed by how attentive the children were.  They loved the part where Danielle (Zacchaeus) got on the top of the tree (everyone else).  After VBS, we played on the beach with the kids.  After coming back to Saint-Louis, we went and played basketball with some of the bracelet bandits.  I think both Lauren and Mark were worn out!  Kenzie then took us to visit where he is now living.  We had the opportunity to pray of over the family there.  We were supposed to do Meals on Heels afterwards, but it did not work out.  We spent the rest of the evening playing with the kids in the Miriam Center and the orphanage!  Now for today.  It started with us going to House of Hope which is a rehabilitation hospital.  The children there came in because of sickness (tuberculosis, malnutrition, etc), but a lot of times their parents never come back for them making them orphans.  We did our VBS for them, and it was great.  We then spent a couple of hours loving on the kids, and I think every single member in our group was impacted by this in some way or another.  After House of Hope, we spent time loving on the orphan children and picking up trash around the mission.  Then we had a party with the gran moun.  The gran moun are the elderly people on the mission who are very similar to orphans.  They have no family to take care of them.  Our party included music, dancing, granola bars, nail polish, and lotion! Yes, it was a lot of fun.  So much fun that some of the special needs children came to join the party.  After the party, we spent the rest of the time playing with the orphans!

Cameron Lile – I apologize in advance to all the BGBS parents who have to read my long post and dad, go ahead and post this to facebook so everyone knows what’s up. On Monday I had the opportunity to work with the Miriam Center outreach kids. Those are the special needs kids within the community whose parents bring them in and do basic therapy. Autumn, the occupational therapist, asked me to help and I was so excited to be able to go down and observe. Once I got down there she told me to grab a ball and mimic the therapy she was doing with the kids. Since I feel that God has called me to OT work, I was beyond excited to have that opportunity. One little boy I was working with needed to work on core strength and holding his head up right and his mom was beyond helpful in the process! After therapy was over she asked if the blancs (us white people) wanted to come see her home. Of course we all agreed and started the journey. On the way I found out that her husband had left because they had a special needs son. He had refused to pay for anything else unless she got rid of this beautiful boy. What a blessing it was to see that God had her protect the child in this situation. In Haiti special needs children are seen as a voodoo curse and the parents don’t want to or can’t take care of them. Seeing this mother who loved her son, special needs and all, melted my heart and humbled me more than I could ever describe. It was a fantastic day and I definitely feel that my decision to pursue a career in occupational therapy is in the hands of my God. ((:

Tore Karenbauer – I have been asked many times how it feels to be back, and honestly all I can say is I feel overwhelmed.  I guess this overwhelming feeling has two parts.  The first part Cameron accurately described when we first got here.  We were headed to Saint Louis, and she said, “It has been like something has been missing.. and now it’s not missing.”  I could not put it in better words.  I guess the peace I feel in being here is overwhelming.  I love Haiti, and I love the people even more.  This trip has only made me more sure that this is the place I will one day call home (even though I already do).  This is the place God is calling me to.  The second overwhelming feeling just comes from seeing everyone.  I am so incredibly thankful to be able to reconnect with these friends that I have made, but boy does it wear me out.  They all want to meet my father and my brother.  They all want to know all about my life this past year.  I wouldn’t change a minute of it though.  It means the world to me to see how excited they get when I introduce them to Mark and dad.  They genuinely care about me and want to meet them.  I am so thankful to be spending time with them.  I am so proud of this group and everything they are going through.  I know they are extremely out of their comfort zone, but they have been amazing. 

Mary Kate: today we visited the house of hope. I had the privilege of meeting a young little boy. He was seated on the floor, against the wall by himself so I walked over to him. I bent down to ask him his name and got no response. I then picked him up and sat him on my hip. I held him for a while, talking to him whether he understood or not. I had to sit him down while we had VBS for the other children. As soon as VBS was over I walked around looking at all the children’s puppets they had made. I then made it to my boy. I scooped him up and loved on him. I scratched his back, rubbed his arms, and was able to get a smile or two out of him as well. His smile was the sweetest and precious thing I have ever seen. It melted my heart. I continued to love on my sweet boy until we had to leave. I began to feel a pulling on my heart. I held onto my boy as long as I could, I held him as tight to my body as possible and continued to tell him I loved him and the Jesus loved him. I gave him one last tight squeeze and began to rub his back. He then laid his little hand on my shoulder and began to rub my back as well. My heart was so overwhelmed with joy and I could feel Christ all around me as well as within me. In that moment I knew Haiti is where I needed to be and where I wanted to be.

Mark: we are running out of time to put this up. I will hopefully make a longer one on Thursday. God bless and love you all!

Danielle- I also got attached to a little boy at the house of hope.  As soon as the Bible lesson was over he clung onto me and kept begging me to hold him. It just made me happy how much he really wanted to be with me.  He fell asleep in my arms for about an hour and I did not want to move. It was just comforting to know that he found comfort in me. I would adopt that little boy in a heartbeat.  When we were headed to leave I went to lay him down in his bed and I was fighting back tears. It just doesn’t seem fair to that little boy that he is abandoned and probably won’t experience what it is like to be brought up in a stable family and it just makes me that much more blessed for my family.

Lauren: Today was a great day, like all the rest have been of course. One thing that really stood out to me is the old people at the Grand Mon. This is a home on the mission that housing older people. We got to go down there &play music, dance, paint finger nails, & lotion them. Just the smiles on their faces when we arrived was a blessing in themselves. They don’t know any English so the main way we communicate with them was through our smiles. This was just wonderful to get to see them that happy to just have us there to bond & share His love with them. I have continually felt God’s presence this whole week wherever we have gone. He has blessed us all this week so incredibly much through the kids & I pray that we have been that much of a blessing to them.

Shannon:   The first two days were slow, and I was kind of having mixed feelings about this place, but Monday when we went to Tortuga I fell in love with Haiti. When I first go off the boat this girl who couldn’t speak held on to me, and wouldn’t let of the other kids have me. After the skit they made puppets, and the girl that couldn’t speak wanted me to help her. When we were finished she had the biggest smile over a brown paper bag made into a puppet, which made me want to cry. When I left Tortuga she was so sad that I almost cried again. Today we went to the house of hope. This girl there was so happy that I had bubbles and a camera. She never wanted to take pictures like the rest of the kids, but she wanted the other kids to pictures of me and her. By that time I had like five kids hanging on to me wanting there picture taken with me. I look over and this girl in a wheel chair looked so lonely, so I brought the other kids over to her and played with her. She had the biggest smile I had ever seen which broke my heart. When we left  gave her a hug, and she didn’t want to let go, then I did start to cry. Later today we went to the granmoun to hang out with the elderly. This was my favorite place! I painted a woman’s nails. When I was done I put lotion on her weathered legs and arms. After I was done with her another person wanted it done and then another. When I was done I had done about ten elderly people. The thing that made me the happiest was when I had already done a few elderly people. They were so happy that they started doing stuff for me like painting my nails, giving me a cloth to wipe my hands off, giving me a chair to sit in because most of the time I was sitting on the ground.