Praise the Lord for all He has done! Praise the Lord that we have internet in Haiti! It’s limited, but it’s there. We’re very blessed here, staying at a Christian establishment with beds and running water! We had quite an experience getting to Haiti, so let me share it with you now.
We had our first race day traveling from San Juan to Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. The goal was to race around the capital for the day, seeing landmarks and eating local cuisine before fi
nishing the day at the city’s YWAM base (for those that don’t know, YWAM (Youth With a Mission) is a group we parter with often), our home for the night. This all started as a surprise at 6 in the morning! After catching the first bus to Santo Domingo, the seven of us fit our bodies and our backpacks into a small taxi cab and drove to a location where we could leave our things. A thin piece of wire held all of our backpacks in place as we avoided potholes and other cars. I can honestly say that it took some serious faith to make the trip, but praise the Lord that we – and all our things – made it there in one piece!
At our final race destination, the lighthouse of Colon (Colombus), we had to spend an allotted amount of time there before leaving. While we relaxed with several other teams, a man approached and asked for the time. Shortly thereafter, he had pulled out and put to Robyn’s side a knife. He grabbed her camera (leaving several other valuables) before coming over and putting the knife to Cathy’s neck. It wasn’t until then that I even realized what was going on, but I heard the voice of Jesus telling me to make a move. With the help of my teammates, we managed to push the attacker over the side wall. In the process, he got Cathy’s necklace, but we are still praising the Lord that no one was injured. This cowardly attack of Satan shook up the girls momentarily, but Satan could do no more than take a few items that can be replaced. Once we realized this, we strengthened our resolve – Satan is afraid – he knows we will do great things in Haiti!
After a night of digesting the day’s activities, praise and worship, and a good night’s sleep, we boarded a bus and started off on a 10 hour bus ride to Haiti. When we reached the border (a good 6 hours into the trip), we were told that the Haitians did not like the bus company (talk about lame reasoning) and would not let us through. We were forced to pull off the road and wait on a phone call for the final word. At first I was nervous – we had come so far only to be turned away? I quickly realized though that God was in charge – He just wanted to make sure that we had enough faith to enter Haiti. We then spend some time in prayer and worship – we could not be stopped! It was only a matter of time before the engine came to life and we drove to – and through – the border checkpoint. God is awesome!
The following day, we had planned on leaving early from Port-au-Prince for our ministry site at Gonaives, about 5 hours north. It was here that we ran into one more difficulty 
– none of the ATM’s in the capital worked, banks would not issue us money, and debit cards were not working! After an entire day of searching, our team leaders had money sent via Western Union just before the local office closed. The Lord had provided once again!
We then began the 5 hour trip through bumpy, unpaved roads on an old school bus. Potholes, cars, and people were of no concern for our driver, who didn’t seem to care if he lived or died! We all we had gone through, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that we would make it there safely. Oh, have I mentioned yet that at this point we had not been able to reach our missionary contact? Well, we finally did on the bus ride, and I can tell already that we are so blessed working here. I will write more about it soon, as long as the internet is still available.
Lots of love,
Noah
