Oh the stories...

If you really want to hear all about our trip, we encourage you to listen to the podcast of this Sunday's report to our church family. Each team member shared about a different aspect of our trip and what it meant to them personally. You'll really get a taste of what the trip was like (especially if you also check out our video from the previous post!). We hope you're encouraged by hearing the stories!

Video recap

Check out the video recap of our trip:

I have never...

One thing that I love about taking students on trips is watching them experience things for the first time. At a number of points on our Haiti trip, someone would comment, "I've never done THIS before!" I finally said, "We need to write down all the 'I have never's." Little did I know that once we started naming them, we'd have this long a list!We thought you would enjoy reading along with us all of the things that at least one person on our team said "I have never before..."

• been afraid of a mango
• pushed an airplane
• been to Haiti
• been outside the US
• drunk 2 gallons of water and not peed
• let it mellow in the toilet
• had Coke with a French label
• had ants crawl over me when sleeping
• sweat this much
• gone without Mountain Dew for 5 days
• slept so close to a fan
• been able to call people "black" or "white" without seeming racist
• ridden in the back of a truck with 15 other people
• been heckled when trying to buy something
• gotten something half off without a coupon
• wanted to bathe in deodorant
• appreciated a cold shower
• ran out of water when showering
• got in a wrestling match with my shirt when trying to take it off
• climbed a mountain
• been in a prayer chapel on a mountain
• seen a cactus fence
• prayed for someone who didn't speak my language
• seen a wild gecko
• taught people in another language
• been on Facebook in another country
• been in a plane
• had our pilot pray before our flight
• flown in a DC-3
• thrown up twice on a plane
• been woken up by a rooster
• seen so many naked little boys
• sang in two languages at the same time
• missed my sister
• seen broken glass used as barbed wire
• seen someone guarding the gas station with a gun
• seen people walking around with a machete
• picked a fresh mango
• painted an orphanage
• been so thankful for a Culligan
• written my own lesson plan
• had to look both ways for cows
• been to Florida
• had white sauce
• seen a Japanese butterfly
• been to a Japanese steakhouse
• eaten at Chick-Fil-A, Steak & Shake, Moe's, or Kobe's
• gotten a $20 hotel room
• had to be so flexible with plans
• seen New Tribe or Wycliffe
• had so many men ask if I'm married
• been offered money for my clothes
• gotten a stamp on my passport
• been to a 3rd-world country
• left a trip with less luggage than I came with
• blogged
• heard of breadfruit
• used high school French in real life
• had the power go off every night
• seen and smelled burning garbage
• known a woman could smell so bad
• met a professional hula hooper
• sat in the jump seat in the cockpit of an airplane
• gone to a Creole church service
• been on a trip without disagreements
• seen people so passionate about worshipping at 4:30am
• enjoyed a fully-loaded 15-passenger van
• had a play-by-play announcer for blind man's bluff
• seen such extreme poverty in person
• destroyed so many flourescent bulbs at once
• been stared at for so long by everyone around
• had so much fun overcoming a language barrier
• seen someone drive a motorcycle with a goat tied to it
• seen 5 people on a motorcycle
• seen someone so excited about nametags
• worn a skirt for that long
• had to treat water as a precious resource
• had the time not matter so much
• been on a trip with so many schedule changes
• become so comfortable with always being uncomfortable
• seen God's plan so clearly
• been in 3 countries in 1 day
• had breakfast in the Bahamas
• been so comfortable with food in another country
• had fried plantains
• been pooped on by a pelican
• held hands with so many grown men
• had strangers say, "I love you so much."

As our trip draws to a close...

Our time in Haiti has ended, but it has been an incredible journey!

Yesterday, we began the morning with a concert of prayer. Each interactive prayer station gave the opportunity to offer up praise, thanksgiving, confession, and supplication to God. We has some uncertainties about how the Haitian people would adapt to this way of worship that is foreign to their culture, but in the end we were blown away! While at first they were hesitant to come forward and participate in each station, as time progressed all of us enjoyed being in God's presence together. One activity the Haitian people particularly enjoyed was writing various names of God on the paper that we taped on their church walls. They did not want to stop! All of us enjoyed praising God together through song as well. Both English and Creole rang simultaneously in the church that morning! It was an amazing experience.

Yesterday also marked the second day of our youth conference. Though it has been a struggle to teach youth of a completely different culture, all of the translators further elaborated on our ideas and enabled the students to understand the relevancy of the material in a way we never could have. Nearly all of the translators have completed Open Door's school of youth ministry training and we were very appreciative of their partnership with us. We had the opportunity to see the heart that God has given them for this ministry. We were united by a common purpose in doing this conference... to equip the students to be disciples of Christ who make disciples who make disciples.

This morning we rose early and hiked to a small prayer chapel in the mountains. This was a wonderful way to spend some time in worship and reflection as a team. As we prayed, so did several other Haitians who were there to be in the presence of the Father. We ended our journey with a trip to the tourist market and then headed to the airport. Tomorrow we will depart for Minneapolis and will arrive home. Keep us in your prayers as we continue to reflect on the work God has done in us and through us this week. You are a blessing to us all!

Picture update

Sweating it out

A new day in Haiti: 

This morning had a wonderful start, as all the guys woke up an hour too early because none of us realized that we now had a new difference in time zones. This we did not realize until we started questioning where breakfast was and why the girls were so late to get up. It truly is a new experience being covered in sweat from the moment you wake up throughout the day and into the night. As we (Taylor, Zach, and Aaron) are writing this in fact there is sweat beading and and running down every part of our bodies (totally gross). Church in a new culture is something that is always interesting, this one in particular because it was 2 1/2 hours long, we were all seated on the stage, it's very loud, we couldn't understand 90% of it, oh and if you didn't figure already it was extremely HOT (We're talking 100 degrees plus in this building people) which was rubbed in by the fact that while we were sitting there sweating like crazy the Haitian people were in suits dancing around without a drop of sweat on their faces.

 Aaron, Zach and Scott went to get some mangos from the massive tree near the church afterward. Our failed attempts quickly resulted in a Haitian coming with a huge pole to get mangos for us! It was fun to try to catch falling mangos, because this time we were actually expecting them to come down as they randomly came close to falling on us throughout the day. Something that is noticeably different is that the whole team has a lot less sense of time partially because we don't have our phones on us and partially because it is a part of the culture. The main thing for today was that we started our equip training. In case you forgot, equip is evangelism training. The translators are great and really help the process go smoothly. We covered the KISS (Know/Intercede Spur/Serve) part of equip. Some of us taught outside and some inside for small groups.  

Tomorrow we will be finishing up the confrnice will have all of the kids making bracelets and talking about sharing the gospel with non christians in the village. Then during the evening we will be watching the third Narnia in french(Oh ya)! Its loud rightnow there is a 40 night pray thing going on and they sing like no tomorrow! 

Officially Reporting From Haiti!

Sorry we were not able to post yesterday, we had a pretty crazy day.

We woke up Friday with good news that we would be able to leave for Haiti bright and early Saturday morning! After playing tetris with the luggage we finally got all of it into the vans and headed for Ft. Pierce, Florida. We were blessed to be able to make a pit stop at the Wycliff headquarters and toured the visitors center. It was a learning experience for us all and gave us a deeper appreciation for Catherine's ministry in Papua New Guinea. Then after arriving to Ft. Pierce we were able to spend some time basking in the sun at Ft. Pierce beach on the Atlantic Coast. We then headed back to the hotel and prepared for take off the following morning.

This morning (Saturday) we had a 5:00 wake-up call and departure half an hour later. We ate breakfast in To-go bags and drove to the small Missionary Flights International airport where we were ushered onto the plane and took off for Exuma in the Bahamas. We flew through traces of the tropical storm, causing a lot of turbulence and more than one used sick-bag *ahem, Ang and Scott.* After a brief stop in Exuma to refuel and scarf a second breakfast, we completed the second two hours without the bumps. Customs in Haiti took a long time; they weren't very organized and random people took the job at different times, tearing open our bags and pawing through them before finally sending us on our way. The luggage was loaded into trucks as groups of Haitian men argued about pay and little boys begged us for dollars. It was a rare treat for us to ride in the back of the pickup with the luggage and the handlers instead of in the cab! The drive to Bouis de Lance was roughly 25 minutes and gave us an eyeful. We have never seen such a place before! You see the pictures and videos, and know that Haiti is a Third World country, but it doesn't seem a reality until you are surrounded by it. We drove at 50 along a road flanked by ditches filled with garbage. On one side were fields of corn and palm trees, cattle farms and ruins. On the other were rows of dilapidated shacks built from splintered wood or tin. Clothes were drying on the bushes and little children were playing naked in the mud puddles. All along the dirt road were vendors selling wares in their stands and Haitians rode on motorcross bikes, donkeys, and horses. When we stopped for gas, we noticed two men carrying shotguns, guarding the gas and making sure everyone paid.

After we got to Open Door church and unpacked, we ate a quick homemade lunch and went to the orphanage to do our work project, which was painting. We hadn't gotten far when we looked behind and saw a sea of dark heads in our wake. The whole afternoon the village came in waves to watch and get underfoot as we painted, but we've never had such a great time! During the afternoon we would attempt to talk to the kids in Creole and listen to their broken English, refusing their entreats to pass along a bandana or sunglasses. I (Grace) was pleasantly surprised to meet a couple guys that spoke Spanish and was able to practice with them. It was a great time of service and relationship-building.

After we arrived back at the Open Door Haiti compound we got together for a short debrief, we discussed what we each have noticed so far in Haiti. We noticed many things about the culture that are much different then our lives back at home in MN. We then headed down and awaited an amazing home cooked dinner. While waiting we all gathered and chatted with a group of young men who take part in ODH's students-in-training-ministry. They laughed at us while we tried speaking Creole and failed miserably. We then were able to eat an amazing dinner filled with food that we were unsure of what any of it was. Then shuffling off to a church service we stayed for a few minutes to see their worship, which was unlike anything we had ever seen before. We are now sitting upstairs sweating like crazy ready for what is hopefully a goodnights rest so we can all be ready for the beginning of our equip training tomorrow.

Ang & Grace

A New Plan

The storm has cleared and we're on for flying to Haiti tomorrow morning!

We should be there by 11am, and we'll plan to work on their orphanage that day, and then move our youth conference to Sunday/Monday. Tuesday we'll have some team time hiking up to the prayer chapel, visit the tourist market briefly, and then fly back to Florida so we can make our Wednesday flight home. There are definitely some adjustments we'll have to make, and the trip will be shorter, but we're thankful we can still go and fit in the main things we wanted to do.

Please be praying for God to continue to clear our way and that we're able to make the most of the time we will have there. Thanks!

(P.S. I fixed the blog so anyone can comment now... and we'd love to hear from you! =)

Flexible is Our Middle Name :)

Hello from Orlando! This is Sarah and Ericca reporting to you about our disappointing, hot and wonderful day. We are very thankful for the good (and air conditioned) night sleep we got last night and the hospitality of the New Tribe Mission where we are staying.

We were blessed to serve at Neighborhood Alliance Church most of the day. Jennifer interned at this church in 2006. We painted their ENTIRE youth building which required many rolls of tape, rollers, brushes, blue, green and white paint. A group of us also worked on weeding the mother of all weed patches. These weeds resembled octopuses but instead there were hundreds of "tenticals" sprouting from the main body. It was like a ball of yarn with no end. Zach commented that "there better not be any weeds in God's kingdom".

This afternoon we received news that Tropical Storm Emily had slowed down and we may not be able to get to Haiti at all. Thankfully, just hours later we got word that it had dispersed and we are on track to leave for Haiti on Saturday Morning! This whole trip so far has been an emotional roller coaster but we have learned that God's plan is perfect and not what we expect. Because of our delay, Doug was able to present the Gospel message to a group of middle schoolers using the pool at our hotel. Through this, one of the moms of a student came to know Christ. Because we were not able to leave for Haiti this woman now has new life in Christ.

We feel like even though our plans have changed we are still positive and know that God will use us for His purpose which is always a good thing to remember.

We had a wonderful surprise for dinner tonight! We were able to get an awesome deal at a local Japanese restaurant called Kobe. They prepared our (huge) meal right in front of us along with entertainment. The food was delicious and most of us couldn't finish our meal (midnight snack!). We were thankful to share this new experience as a team.

When we returned to our hotel we had some team time. We sang worship songs while Rae played guitar out on the front lawn. The grass here is very spongy - about 6 inches tall, trimmed. A small dog could be lost in this place. During group time it was nice to debrief about our highs, lows, accomplishments, disappointments, how we saw God work today and what we are thankful for.

We were able to spend some time with a couple Floridians today. Along with that and the time we've been here we've learned a couple things:

• Most of their roads are white


• They don't have Famous Daves


• Their grass looks like football turf


• None of their cars have rust


• They don't know what a blinker is (if you use it you're giving away your plan of action)


• This is a really hot time in Florida so it seems like most people prefer to stay inside


• They have palm trees


• They have "blind mosquitoes" that don't know how to bite...If only we could bring that species back to MN with us!


• They have crocodiles in the lake behind our hotel

On the docket for tomorrow:

In the morning we'll be packing up to leave for Fort Pierce later in the day. We'll pack up supplies for Haiti and then hopefully stop by the Wycliffe Center for a tour and to learn more about Bible translation. Then tomorrow night we'll sleep at a hotel and wake up early to leave for Haiti!

We feel your prayers and miss you all.

See you soon!
Ericca & Sarah

Expecting Great Things

I'm blogging in my swimsuit...a combination I have never entertained before tonight. But if you've read Jennifer's post from earlier today, our team is experiencing a couple things we didn't expect.

Upon learning our time in Haiti would be shortened, there was a pretty huge cloud of disappointment hanging over the group. I was personally completely unaware of tropical storm Emily until dinner at Chik-fil-a (another first for me!!) so I guess I didn't have the anticipation that our cargo flight could be delayed for any reason other than Zach packing too many cans of Mountain Dew in his suitcase and therefore exceeding the weight we were allowed. But yes, I was disappointed, too.

We were talking through all the options and I started to tear up- I was remembering the prayer my dad had left me in a phone message the night before. Among other blessings, he ensured me that he had printed out our schedule as well as all the details I had emailed him about our Equip conference, and I knew that he would be praying over every single one of those details! But that's not the part that got me. At the end of his message he said, "And Rae, you should expect great things!"

So far, plans and new details have surfaced...
1. At the pool today, Jennifer's Florida youth pastor friend (who came with her youth group last weekend to do service projects for at our Edge building in MN!) contacted J with a "Welcome to FL!!" message...and it was revealed that they have a bunch of projects and painting that they just have not had time for. Well, hey-o!! We're here for a day or two!!

2. A couple of our members are a little under the weather and are glad for a slower pace to recover!

3. The New Tribes Mission campus (of which we got a tour of everything...except the maintenance wing :) we stopped at has a motel that costs only $20/night. Score!! Showers, pool, a kitchen, beds and the oldskool BBC Chronicles of Narnia on VHS. Oh, it's right on the river,too.

4. We are able to practice stretching our flexibility and perhaps our perception of what this trip is really about. It's challenging when you have prepared specific stuff for 8 months and find that 1/2 way through your travels, the plans have changed somewhat dramatically. Perhaps what we think are the "most important things to get done on this mission trip" are not what we have prepared (not that it is all for naught!) but what we do with this hitch in the git-along.

5. I'm fully convinced that we will do what God wants us to do in these seven days. He knew tropical strom Emily was hovering over our path, he knew that Angela probably didn't pack enough clothes (or so she says...), and he definitely knows that we've got this extra day in Florida. We still would love to get to Haiti ASAP, but I guess I don't want to change what He's lined up for us tomorrow.

I think I'm ready to expect great things! (Thanks for praying!)

Because I'll never hold a picture of the whole horizon in my view!
Because I'll never rip the night in two, it makes me wonder-
Who am I? Who am I? Who am I and great are You!
Great are You, Lord!

It's in His hands...

"Whose hands have gathered up the wind? Who has wrapped up the waters in a cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is the name of his son? Surely you know!" -Proverbs 30:4

As we've been preparing for this trip, one thing that's been mentioned a couple times is the need to be flexible. Today we're really putting that into practice.

You may have heard about tropical storm Emily, which has been in the Caribbean just the last couple days. Tropical storms and hurricanes aren't really an issue where we'll be in Haiti because it's surrounded by mountains; it would just mean a lot of rain. However, to get there we need to fly a small cargo plane from Florida to Cap Haitien, Haiti. And right now, the storm is on the exact course we need to take, probably hitting Haiti tomorrow and the Bahamas (where we stop to refuel mid-flight) on Friday. So right now Missionary Flights thinks the earliest they'll be able to fly to Haiti is Saturday morning. If the storm does break up sooner, they could fly us in on Friday. So while we're not counting on that, we're praying really hard!

In the meantime, we're currently staying at the New Tribes Mission headquarters in Sanford, FL, enjoying their pool and working on plans for ministry options in Florida until we can get to Haiti.

We would greatly appreciate your prayers:
1) that the storm would break up, disperse, or change direction, so that we can fly in on Friday if at all possible,
2) for wisdom in making the most of this time we have in Florida,
3) for wisdom about how to make the most of our shortened time in Haiti, and
4) for continued good attitudes and openness to whatever God has for us on this trip. We are truly in His hands, and it's a good place to be.

Thank you for your prayers!

Ready, Set...

After months and months of planning, training, prepping, team-building, praying, learning, supply-gathering, and more planning... it's hard to believe we're actually leaving for Haiti on Wednesday! But we're really excited about it!

I want to etend a huge thanks to all of you who have already been praying for us through the process and who have supported us financially. Our whole team was fully funded months in advance, which is a huge blessing, and we received enough extra to be able to cover the meals for all 150 Haitian students who will be attending our Equip conference while we're there. It's great to be able to bless them in that way--and it's because of how you blessed us!

While in Haiti, we're going to be helping Open Door Church host Equip, a conference that trains students to care for their friends and share Christ with those who don't know him, in a really fun, interactive environment. Everyone on our team (students and adults) is going to be doing part of the training, and they've all put a lot of creativity and some of their own personality into the planning. It's been fun to watch! The conference will be a mix of large-group time and training in smaller groups of about 50. Please pray for each of us as we do the trianing and for all of the students who will be involved.

We'll also be able to help paint the orphanage that Open Door has been working on for the last year or so, as well as putting together bunk beds for them so that they're ready to invite children in very soon. We're excited about that as well!

We're also really looking forward to getting to know the people there and learning from them and their faith. I know they have some awesome stories!

Please pray for our whole team:

• for protection and health while we travel and serve in a foreign country
• for relationships to be deepened among our team members and built with those we serve alongside in Haiti
• for each team member to leave knowing God in a deeper way because of what we experience
• for each of us to leave with a greater understanding of another culture and a greater heart for missions
• for strength and energy to work hard in the heat and to do all that we need to do with great attitudes.

As a team, we've been studying 1 Thessalonians 5:9-24. We would love if you read that along with us and prayed those words for us!

Our basic schedule is below:

• Wednesday, Aug 3: Meet at church at 4:45am; fly to Orlando, drive to Ft. Pierce
• Thursday, Aug 4: Fly to Haiti (breakfast in Bahamas), lunch, ministry briefing, prep for Equip,
• Friday, Aug 5: Equip student conference all day, large group concert of prayer in evening
• Saturday, Aug 6: Equip student conference, evangelism in the village, outreach movie night in evening
• Sunday, Aug 7: church, hike to mountain prayer chapel, worship
• Monday, Aug 8: paint orphanage/make bunk beds, team meeting
• Tuesday, Aug 9: load up, tourist market, airport, fly to Ft Pierce, drive to Orlando hotel, relax/debrief
• Wednesday, Aug 10: debrief, fly home

I've been reading Acts lately and have noticed how much empahsis Luke puts on how the Holy Spirit filled the church and worked through them to do the work He called them to do. We really don't want any of this ministry to be done in our own power; we want it to be God's Spirit working through us. And that is absolutely connected to the amount of prayer going into our trip. So your role is invaluable, and we're so appreciative! Thank you!