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Bonjou!

J'taime Haiti!! We said farewell to Pastor Gary and Sarah this morning. We were all sad to see them leave. They left at 5:15 this morning and arrived at the airport 45 min before they're flight left. Yikes! Today was another scorcher, though the trips to taino beach definitely help! But trying to sleep at night is a whole other ball game. We had the medical team arrive on Tuesday, and if you ask me, they couldn't have arrived at a better time. We seemed to have a few injuries that day, not just the medical team, but some of the Haitians. I (Lauren) have been feeling much better today. I'm still fairly weak and I'm not able to eat much... but feeling so much better! Kenzie and I were able to hand out the letter's and gifts that the sponsors sent out with us. That was so much fun! The kids had a spring in their step after that. The guys continue to work on their construction. From my perspective I'd say it's going quite well. They had a bit more of a rhythm going today which was quite neat to see. It's been pretty neat to see the unity forming with in our team and seeing people getting out of their comfort zones. I'm quite looking forward for what else God has planned for us down here! He has been so faithful on this trip! We miss you all! We'd appreciate your prayers! God bless!!

The destruction of the church, well part of it. It's kinda hard to see.

Hangin' out with the kids :D

Hello to you from Haiti. I thought I might include some more pictures of the team that is down here so you can see how they are doing. Lauren got sick Monday night and has spent Tuesday in front of a fan, not sure if the heat got to her or if it was something not agreeing with her stomach, today she is feeling much better and the medical team will be here within hours and then she will be in good hands. In any event she would covet your prayers. Pastor Gary, Scott and Dave have been doing some teaching to nearly 100 pastors here on the H2H campus and they have been having great feedback from all of them. Sarah, Lauren and Kenzie have managed to take update pictures of nearly every sponsor child parading them through the cafeteria like soldiers, making sure they all crack a smile for the camera. Lee, Barry, Nathan, Jerry and Mike have been soaked in sweat trying (without much success) to keep up with our Haitian construction team. It is simply amazing how the sun and heat zaps a persons energy when you are not used to it. The water cooler is a popular spot for us as we are constantly looking to keep hydrated. We hope to take a bunch of the kids down to tyno later on this afternoon and watch them go crazy in the ocean as we stand guard making sure they don't go to deep. We are slowly making headway on our new kitchen/guesthouse but as you might know, murphy's law is a big part of Haiti so we always have that to contend with.

Sarah, Scott, Nathan, Lee and Lauren going through worksheets the pastors worked on for the seminar.

Scott giving a lesson on knowing your spiritual gifts

Mackinley, everyone's favorite excuse to not work!

Tour of the town with an entourage of kids all hoping Barry will give them the ball

Hope you are all doing well, we miss you all and look forward to sharing our adventure with you when we get back.

Greetings from Haiti and the June 2010 missions team. We have all arrived safe and sound and are trying our best to shed our winter layers and quickly adapt to the EXTREME heat. Our trip here was not without a few hiccups along the way, a few being having to quickly think on our feet and replace all our bins in Fort Lauderdale with duffel bags and a missed connector flight in Houston by some of our team from Beamont. Needless to say the story of how these issues were resolved was nothing less than a miracle. We arrived Saturday afternoon after a hot dusty long drive from Port au Prince being welcomed by the kids and staff as we drove in the gates of the heart to heart compound. Saturday was a day of getting oriented with the surroundings and settling into the temporary guesthouse which Darcy and a team from Red Deer set up only 6 weeks ago. It is really an amazing structure which will serve its purpose well. We ended the day with a swim at tyno beach and a cold Tampico (haitian drink). Sunday we spent the day in church with everyone having a chance to try their best at public speaking and kids sneaking a nap on the laps of Sarah, Barry and Lauren. Monday we quickly jumped into doing tasks and of course playing with the kids who you just can't resist. I understand that an update letter was sent to you stating that we received our container, well.... We did take receipt of a container on Saturday but it was not the container we loaded with food and construction supplies back in Abbotsford. It was the second container of supplies sent to us from Red Deer. As Gary mentioned to the team on the first day of the trip..."missions trip =flexibility" and this is definitely the case. We will continue on as best we can and are not deterred in getting the Kitchen up and out of the ground this week. I am running out of time so I will do my best to post a bunch of pictures on the blog tomorrow with a few more stories and maybe a few testimonials.

Setbacks and Celebrations

Things got off to a bit of a rocky start for the latest mission team headed to Haiti. The night before they left, news came in that the container filled with construction supplies was lost in the Bahamas somewhere. This came as a huge blow, as the whole purpose for 7 members of the team was to begin construction of our new kitchen, and without the container and all the equipment and tools in it, they weren't sure there was much purpose in going.

The team decided to leave anyways and took some money to buy whatever they could in Haiti. Needless to say there was some mad scrambling with banks and exchange agencies, and Albert (the leader of the team), having been to Haiti many times, wasn't optomistic they would be able to find much in Haiti for proper tools, but was hopeful the team could still get some things started.

The next setback came when they got to the Vancouver Airport and were told that strict baggage rules were being enforced travelling to Haiti, and Rubbermaid containers were not allowed to enter the country - they would only go as far as Ft. Lauderdale. Albert phoned our office, hoping Lia could find a place in Ft. Lauderdale that was open late, where they could buy hockey bags. The team was going to have to race out during their lay-over, buy the bags and transfer all the goods from the Rubbermaid containers into the hockey bags.

Things started to turn around for the team the next morning when our office received a call from Albert. On the flight from Dallas to Ft. Lauderdale, one of the team members sat beside a man and told him the whole luggage dilemma. The man happened to be the Vice President of a large sports store and promised to immediately send 13 hockey bags for free to their hotel!!!

This good news was followed by an even greater turn of events......the container lost in the Bahamas showed up at the H2H compound!! Seems like a total God thing to us! What an exciting start to the trip - can't wait to watch and see how the rest of the week unfolds!

Kenzie Watson, a recent university graduate, is in Haiti for a few months to help wherever needed. She is currently teaching ESL to many interested older teens and adults, taking care of children, and assisting Rebecca in administrative work. Over the next several weeks, she will be taking pictures of all the sponsored children and sending long-overdue updated photos to each of our sponsors. Manno (our Haitian sponsorship coordinator) and Rebecca are still working with the kids to get their earthquake experience on paper, and those letters will be coming to you with the next newsletter in early August.

If you would like to send a gift to your sponsor child, now is the time to do it! We have a large team leaving this Friday, June 11, and they are able to take gifts down as long as you can get them to our office by 5:00 pm Thursday July 10. The other option is to send a gift down in the next container which will be leaving the last week of June, which means the gift must be dropped off at either our office or Shawna's house by June 24. For either option, please put your gift in a large ziploc bag and clearly label it with the names of who it is to and from.

Office address for drop off: 34629A Delair Rd., Abbotsford
Shawna's address for mailing or drop off: 3325 Firhill Dr., Abbotsford, BC V2T 5L4

The group leaving this Friday is actually two teams with varying agendas. Pastors Gary Stevens and Scott MacKenzie from Vineyard Church in Abbotsford will be conducting a two day conference. Over 100 pastors from all over Haiti are registered to attend. They are also hoping to help coordinate, along with other team members, the distribution of food from one of our containers currently at the Port-au-Prince port. H2H board member Albert Wiens will be leading his team of 7 to kick-off the construction of our brand new kitchen/food depot/dining room/guest house. Team members will be uploading pictures and writing about their experience onto this blog while they are away - stay tuned!

The second group travelling down leaves on June 11 and is a medical team consisting of 4 doctors, several UBC Medical students, nurses and a dietician. They will be conducting many medical clinics in the grande Goave area, including check-ups for every one of our H2H orphans.

On the home front, our Abbotsford warehouse and the Pacific Community Church warehouse are still collecting food for our containers. A youth group from Arnold Community Church in Aldergrove has been bringing in donated food and helping us to sort, package and weigh in preparation for the container loading. If you would like to get involved in helping at the warehouse, please give Lia a call at our office: 604-850-0021.