A wonderfully busy summer for HHA (part 1)

Whew! What more could we ask for than THREE awesome groups of teens, adults, church members, friends and family loving our kids this summer!  Bonye Bon tout fwa! (God is good all the time!).

Our first group went to Cap Haitien in late June and was made up of 14 lovely teenagers and some of their moms.  Our Kay Anj kids are beyond excited when they know that their friends (they call them family) from the U.S. is coming to play with them.  They played, sang, danced, cried, laughed and prayed with our kids.  It was a week made up of memory making for sure.  The teens will write their own blog for the week which we’ll post here soon.

We took the best “rule following” group we’ve ever had in late July.  We were blessed with 5 teens and their parents from Trinity Episcopal Church (Upperville, VA), Lisa and Laura from Chicago and our group Registered Nurse, Renee.  It was an emotional, fun week.  The Trinity group performed a daily bible lesson,skit, song and craft.  What a gift to our Kay Anj kids.  Jonah and the whale was their favorite!  We attended church at Legliz de Dieu Vivant in an extremely poor community.    The church is literally built in a landfill.  Renee tended to the children and adults with basic wound care while Olivia handed out chewable vitamins to all of the little children with orange hair (malnourished) and distended bellies.  The church itself had a dirt floor, shredded tarp for a roof, cardboard pulpit and beautiful Haitian people with unshakable faith and love for the Lord.  A service none of us will forget for a very long time.  You never see or hear God more clearly than in Haiti against this very dark backdrop.

Our second church service on Sunday was spent with Linsey and Justin’s street boys.  They are a very rough group of boys who have been abandoned, abused growing up on the street.  They protect themselves with “gilettes” (razor blades).  Some of the boys asked Linsey about going to church.  Knowing they didn’t have the proper clothes or shoes (most don’t have any) she knew they wouldn’t be welcome in most Cap Haitien churches.  With the help of Park Valley Church Linsey and her baptist pastor friend, Isaac, began a regular Sunday service in the park for the street boys.  They come very hungry and are given a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and juice.  After all of the gilettes are confiscated they listen to Isaac preach for a little while.  Our group made the sandwiches and spent time with the boys during the service.  A few try to start a fight,then a couple take off running but it just one hears the message, God wins.

We played “duck duck chicken” with the  children (and many adults!) in Limonade .  They laughed, screamed and loved every minute!

The kids favorite day of the week when teens from the U.S. come is….Beach Day!  It is a day for kids to be kids and just have fun.  We had 71 people including our 44 kids, 9 mama’s, 16 of us, Archibal and Sony!   Joe brought drumsticks and taught some of the kids to play on a bucket!  They sounded as if they’d been playing for years!

We spent time visiting our friends at Haiti Hospital Appeal and Children of the Promise.  At Haiti Hospital Appeal we learned about our friend Reninca’s cholera hospital, prayed with her spinal cord (most from the earthquake) patients, and played with her disabled kids.  At Children of the Promise our group met 58 babies, all malnourished and sick that are being taken care of  and hopefully will be reunited with their families.  Our Kay Anj kids volunteer at both of these organizations so we were able to watch them in action!  It was amazing to watch Luciana, Yolande, Tanise, Renal, Vedline, Danise and more  help disabled kids get dressed and diaper malnourished babies.  They are the hands of feet of Jesus to these children.

Thank you God for a very special group.  Thank you for their hearts for our Kay Anj kids!

(August trip part 2 to come!)