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.