Our first day of student photos at our Chardene school (Pre-K through 13th grade) was a huge success!!
We have already been greatly touched by our time with the kids here. We photographed just over 500 students and their teachers. And we had so much fun at the same time! Along with just taking pictures, we played and interacted with the kids, sharing Jesus' love with them through our time and attention, hugs and hand shakes, broken French and a fluffy blue teddy bear. We were so proud to see the students working hard on their school work, and especially on their "faith work" and discipline.
Tomorrow we head to two other schools, and I'm looking forward (ha!) to the long hike up the mountain early in the morning.
December 9, 2015
We are right on schedule and taking lots of pictures that we are excited to share with you when we return. Yesterday we hiked up a mountain and over some water to Dupin, then headed into the “city” to reach our St Marc school. Played a lot with the kids at both places.
Today we walked to our Lanzac school, where we saw just 25 little ones. And although I didn’t believe him, Darren was right when he said some children would cry. There was one pre-school student who actually ran away screaming(more than once) because the scary white people were invading his territory!
After Lanzac, we went to our largest school, MPCA, where we photographed most of the students there. Because there is some extra testing going on this week, we will need to finish three grades tomorrow.
This evening began with a dinner with our leadership academy graduates, then a time for them to hear from Darren and Pastor Herve about the difference good leaders can make in someone’s life.
Tomorrow we hike up another mountain to Degeance, and will hopefully be able to do a little sight-seeing on the way down before heading back to MPCA.
We appreciate your faithful prayers for us while we’re here! We know the Spirit is moving in Haiti, and believe God will do great things through the work we are doing this week.
December 11, 2015Last post for this trip... We're all missing our friends and families and looking forward to leaving tomorrow - but also sad about leaving this beautiful and desperate place! This morning we traveled to Lahatte to visit the adorable kids at our farthest school. I haven't been there before, and didn't know that there was an actual dessert (with real cactus!) in Haiti! Thankfully, the kids were very excited to see us, and no one cried or screamed and ran away!
We took a short tour of a close village, and loved on the kids while taking their pictures and helping our nurse (Anite) determine which students needed vitamins the most. We watched them play some soccer during recess before lunch, and learned a lot about their culture. It's hard to believe that the people in that area often have to walk between 2 and 3 hours to find water, then carry it home!!
Darren and I will be having a couple of short meetings this afternoon with Pastor Herve and Hachemy, then the Leadership graduates will be here for dinner and training again this evening.
Please pray that this time together will spur us all to share with others about the amazing Haitian people and culture, and to work toward building a better place to raise up the next generation of Christ-centered leaders!!
