Mission Possible Team - Trip History: Haiti - February, 2018

February 10-11, 2018

What a wonderful weekend we have had! Saturday, the core team remaining here celebrated Deb’s birthday with singing, Haitian hot chocolate, and cherry crisp for dessert after supper! It made her feel very special! We had a wonderful time playing Fizz Bo and singing in the evening.

Sunday we stayed at the Mission Center and had our own church service. It was a great time of worship in song and sharing of testimonies. At noon, five of us went to Pierre Payen where four of our Mission Possible students met us to be seen by an ophthalmologist. We were able to tour the hospital. We are so blessed to have a relationship with Pierre Payen to treat our students when needed.

Tomorrow the medical team will go to Dupin to start the OB seminars. The construction team will be doing some LED lighting for the Bible School, welding of shelves and painting here at the Mission Center.

February 12, 2018

The rest of the week 2 team arrived around 11 AM today - Jean, Travis, Wendy, Lynn, Kent, Dan and Rachel. After unpacking and eating lunch, they joined the construction, sewing, and OB medical teams.

Sewing – the ladies at Chardene came with their quilts and continued working on them. Liane gave a lesson on grace to the sewing ladies. Even though there wasn’t any school, the place was buzzing with kids. A highlight of the sewing was that Madison and Wendy pitched in to help a pregnant lady nearly finish her quilt, as she wanted it done before her baby comes.

Today there was Boot Camp, a youth-oriented program alternative to the Carnival. 200 + kids from Mission Possible churches met at MPCA and are participating in a 3-day event that involve scripture reading, worship, prayer, and recreation. Their day began at 4:00 AM and is concluding late tonight with Christian movies. A highlight today was swimming in the ocean at the Mission Center. Travis really enjoyed watching all of the kids having fun.

The Construction team worked on welding shelves on which to store tools and supplies at the Mission Center. This afternoon they went to Dupin and worked on the perimeter of the playground fence. This project is nearly done, with just a few more tweaks on the gate and swings.

The medical team started OB training with 25 pregnant mamas. They learned about a normal delivery, newborn care, cycle beads, and diseases. Deb, Sabine, Shari, Pam, Emily, and Ellie taught the classes. Rachel joined us in the afternoon.

February 13, 2018

Sewing was an adventure today! Wendy, Deb and Liane went to St. Marc. There was some confusion about a key, and we were not able to get through the front gate. We entered through the back gate which involved a short steep hike up a rocky road. We put tarps down on the ground to work on the quilts. The breeze felt wonderful, but was a bit of a problem as it blew up the tarps and quilts.

Nevertheless, everyone seemed to enjoy working on their projects. They are coming along very well. The Chardene ladies will start crocheting tomorrow. St. Marc ladies will begin on Friday.

Part of the construction team remained at the Mission Center. Sam and Kent continued to build and weld the table frames for the wee little tables for the preschool classrooms. They were students themselves as they were learning how to use a mig welder. As they worked they enjoyed having conversation in Spanish. Jean and Dan painted the frames for the shelves that will go into the tool storage building and began cutting the boards for the shelves. Mark and Lynn installed new LED lighting for the bible school.

Three members of the construction team Jeff, Travis, B.J. and a stellar team of nurses set out for the small village of Dupin – an established school house – located up a bumpy dirty road 30 minutes from Mission Center Haiti. There amidst the school house and children, the builders hung four swings, completed the perimeter of the fence, and installed a gate at its entrance. In addition, they tightened down the metal screws and sealed the roof of the cook house (sealing the leaks that previously existed).

Above mentioned stellar team of nurses were Pam, Sabine, Ellie, Shari, Heather, Emily, Rachel, and Madison. They finished up the two-day OB clinic with 25 Haitian women in attendance. They taught classes on topics such as infant CPR, labor and delivery, and breastfeeding. The team got the pleasure of meeting one of the Haitian midwives, Sylvadina, whose been helping mothers deliver their babies since 1973!! As the clinic wrapped up, each mother got to leave with a delivery baby care kit stocked with diapers, blankets, medicines, and cycle tracking beads. We are so thankful for the time put in by those back at home putting those kits together for them; everyone left smarter, healthier, and happier.

The team is enjoying the special candy bar treats that Jeff and Heather are sharing in the evening. We had a yummy dinner together and ended the day with our evening devotional under the stars.

Thank you to everyone who are praying for us. God is in Haiti!

February 14, 2018

The medical team (Rachel, Deb, Shari, Emily, Heather, & Sabine) went to LaHatte to hold OB seminars for the pregnant mamas in that village. It started out with only about 10 ladies attending, but as the day went on, we ended up with 21. If you see the picture below, you will notice that someone is missing. That’s right – Mother-Hen (Pam) cut the cord and let us go to LaHatte without her today. Mother-Hen and chicks survived and are doing well – reunited at the Mission Center this evening. Anite was “the boss”. The mothers looked healthy and are anxious to return tomorrow for their last 4 seminars. It was a great adventure bouncing back and forth in the back of the cattle truck on the way to and from LaHatte. Thanks to Sergo,(Jeff was busy sewing) we had a safe ride.

Another amazing day teaching the ladies of Chardon a new craft! Today they cut up T shirts into strips to make a purse or tote. It is certainly a little complicated but after 4 hours of explanation and trial and error everyone caught on, Yippee!! The ladies are so appreciative and proud of their accomplishments. They are to finish cutting up their shirts and making the 5 balls of T shirt yarn over the weekend and we will share the crocheting technique on Monday. We even got Jeff in on the ball winding! The ladies sing praises to the Lord as they work and laugh with us as we try to communicate. Liane, Madison and Wendy were on this team.

Today the construction team worked with both metal and wood. It was a hot day all around at Mission Central with welding shelves, sanding shelves and painting shelves to include making several steel tables with adjustable screw in feet - to assist with stabilizing the load on uneven ground. This was to include making (6) steel tables that were finished off with five-foot round wood tops. The rest of the construction crew traveled up the road to Mission Possible Christian Academy (MPCA) and filled in a section of no roof – 26x28 ft open span in the school house – more so – conjoined, notched out, placed and leveled roughly (18) 12ft 2x6 boards – twelve feet up in the air. It was a good day all around for learning new skills.

We are now getting ready to enjoy an evening playing Fizbo and eating popcorn.

February 15, 2018

Our day began as usual in a circle of prayer and singing with the translators.

Deb, Shari, and Jean stayed at the Mission Center today and met with the Community Agents. They were all present along with Anite. We worked on documentation and reviewed blood pressure. They were gracious as they always are. We are amazed at how far they have come since the program started.

The medical team (Sabine, Rachel, Emily, Ellie, Pam, & Madison) went to LaHatte today to finish up the OB classes. 23 women graduated and received a beautiful OB kit. We had one mama who left yesterday because she did not want to participate in CPR. She returned today and was an awesome participant, giving 100% effort. She was able to graduate with the other women. Sabine had such a unique experience. She was teaching an OB class and all of a sudden a chicken appeared and flew up into the rafters of the room and proceeded to lay an egg. At that point a mule walked by outside the window. Needless to say, Sabine was distracted, but the students saw nothing unusual about the situation. I guess the chicken wanted to demonstrate childbirth for the class.

Adam, BJ, Travis, & Sam and Mardochee (a young man who Jeff and Heather have sponsored for many years) also went to LaHatte to replace PVC pipe used for the water cistern. Water is very limited in LaHatte. Several men in the community went home to get pick axes to help with the project. We are hoping this will improve their situation of a lack of water in LaHatte.

The ride to LaHatte was improved today because of Jeff’s ingenious idea of putting wooden jigs at the base of the picnic table to prevent it from sliding during travel. The passengers today really appreciated this modification.

Liane and Wendy went to Lanzac and measured for a new fence around the perimeter of the property. This will be a future project for another trip. Wendy met 5 children there and had fun learning their names and playing with them. Lynn, Liane, Wendy, and Mark worked on inventory. Dan and Kent worked along side each other at the Mission Center welding on table feet and grinding the rough edges.

The mother of Dan’s sponsored child works at the Mission Center. She brought all of her children to spend time with Dan. What a nice time they had together.

Jeff and Heather worked together today, which they were excited about – a post Valentine’s date. They stained round tables which will be used at the preschools.

This great day ended in a beautiful time of praise and worship with Ballack and his friends, Ruth and Maxi. Ballack is one of our translators. He has a wonderful gift of leading people in worship. He taught us Bondje, Ou Fidel – God, You are Faithful. There was a sweet spirit as we shared testimonies and prayed for each other.

PS – Fizz Bo picture below from last night! A great time!

February 16, 2018

Pics tonight are from Degeance and sewing at St. Marc.

February 18, 2018

The OB team did a great job this week......The ladies loved the seminar and delivery packs. The diapers were a hit. Thank you to all you have been a part of the kits. Each instructor taught 4 x day.