Month 1: Haiti
When: January 16-February 14
Where: Gonaive and Jubilee, Haiti (about 3 hours north of Port-Au-Prince the capital). We are staying in a rented house that our host, Alex, got.
Who: Our Ministry Host for the month is Alex
What: We are doing multiple ministries this month (read below for the specifics)
Why: We are here to share the love of Christ and come along side the missionaries who are already here to partner and bless them.
It is amazing that as I am writing this I have only been in Haiti for three weeks but feels like so much longer. The people down here have been so welcoming and have the best hearts.
Let me introduce my ministry host for the month: Alex
Alex is our ministry host for the month, she has been living here in Haiti for over two years now. We celebrated her two year anniversary on January 21! She has the absolute biggest heart, loves blessing and serving others and sees the beauty in everything. For more about Alex, a blog solely dedicated to my ministry hosts is coming soon!
So you may be asking what have I been doing in Haiti?
The ministries we have partnered with are:
1) Jubilee School. Jubilee, a community on the outskirts of Gonaives, is an incredibly impoverished area that Alex and Lala live in and Lala runs the school in Jubilee. While at the school, I have taught multiple bible classes, played with kids in their play room and outside at their “recess”, my team and I taught the 1st graders head, shoulders, knees and toes, and I taught how to greet people and say goodbye in English which was a huge hit (video on Facebook will be posted of our chant after my social media fast is over). I have helped the students read many English books to work on pronunciation. Within week three, we have been doing prayer walks around the school and through Jubilee declaring God’s love will penetrate the fear, oppression, voodoo and poverty. Jubilee and Gonaive have a huge voodoo aspect, people have fear and through fear have turned to voodoo. I believe God is at work shifting the atmosphere to show the truth of God and His light is breaking through to light up every corner of darkness.
My biggest personal for the school has just been to love on these precious kids, see them through God’s eyes and to have the love of God radiate from me to have them feel the peace, joy and life that God gives!
One day we were able to go through the whole school and hand out a new backpack, one pair of shorts for the boys with a pair of underwear for the boys and a hand sown dress and one pair of underwear to the girls. Talk about excited!! These kids find the joy in the smallest of things and are so appreciative.
2) On Tuesday and Thursday nights my team and I go to Mama Jan’s place, #1 Hope Street Orphanage, where we get to spend time with the 40 kids living in the orphanage. While there we are doing bible classes, playing with them, eating with them and getting to know them. Last Wednesday, Mama Jan held a bible study on Nehemiah and how he was obedient to God and stepped out in faith, my team and I (on the spot – pretty common on the World Race 
) shared how we were obedient to God to say yes to the World Race and how it has changed our lives. After sharing, I took five Hopesters (that’s what the kids are called) and we went to a part of the wall surrounding the orphanage, we traced our hands and feet and got to decorate the wall with anything we wanted to put on the wall.
This is one of my favorite times of the week, I absolutely have fallen in love with each and everyone of these kids. They have so much joy and love, also they have so many talents and gifts. Mama Jan is amazing in leading everything back to the God and glorifying Him in everything she does. These kids are learning about the one true God.
3) Pursuit of Happiness (POH) Institute English Class. On Monday evenings, Wednesday mornings and Wednesday evenings my team and I go to POH and help the students learn English practice communicating with an English speaker. The students are all teenagers and adults, they are all so eager to learn.
On Monday February 5, we walked to POH like normal and were surprised by a video shoot where we were reading stories, asking questions and coming up with vocabulary sentences on the spot. It quite entertaining and also a complete surprise we were doing this!
4) Alex’s Discipleship/Trade school. Alex started a Discipleship/Trade school with the intent to give young adults something to do and also learn a trade at the same time. At the school, students can learn English, sewing, basket weaving and learn how to use a computer. The goal is to educated and encourage the students to continue to learn and build a craft to make a living off of.
We have been helping with the English class, mostly because I told the story of sowing my finger to my pants and was asked not to help in the sowing class, their loss.
Other projects I have worked on:
We have been getting the house put together. Alex got the house we are staying in just one day before my team and I arrived. It has been so fun getting it put together while staying here, makes it feel more like home. We have painted all the walls, white and gray, put up turquoise wall dividers, set up furniture and decorations.
Myself and one other team member, Jewel, got to meet up with Kathy, another local missionary, for a meeting. While at the meeting she introduced us to Jude, Valerie and Benjamin who are friends trying to start a photography business, Jewel and I were able to talk with the guys about photography, graphic design and marketing. I was able to help break down pricing, marketing ideas and really get a feel for their business goals.
We have spent time with other missionaries down here, we hosted a worship night, went to a Gumbo night at another missionaries house. My team and I feel that one of the things we are supposed to do is minister to the people down here that are pouring their hearts out and needing to just relax and spend time rejuvenating.
About a week ago, a YWAM team based out of France has been staying with us, it has been an adventure getting to know them with most of them not speaking any English. Some speak French, others Spanish, one speaks Finnish, and only three of the 11 people speak English.
Some of the fun things we have done:
- Went swimming in the river
- Hiked a huge mountain called Prayer Mountain
- Pool day
- Went and got local food from the “Chicken Lady”
- James took us to a Haitian basketball game
- Hosted a game night and played hide and seek and uno
- Have taken Tap Taps (one of the modes of transportation), rode on the back of Alex’s motorcycle, walked around town and have been learning Kreyol (the language spoken down here).
- Swam in the ocean at a beautiful resort
- Gotten to play with the neighbor kids next door
