Since I imagine we won't be spending a lot of time online during the short time we are in Haiti, I thought I would share a little more about what we are hoping to do while there, and some prayer points. These past months of preparation have flown by, and it seems pretty surreal, to me at least, that we are actually leaving tomorrow! A huge thank you to everyone who has supported and encouraged us this far in the process, whatever your means of support has been – financial, prayer, car wash customer J. This has been a humbling and faith-building experience even to this point. I'm excited to see how God continues to move in our hearts and in Haiti.
While we hope to remain flexible in how we spend our time in the country, we do have some tentative plans for how we will be serving the kids and staff at Gift of God Orphanage (run by Faith Missions International). While there, we will likely be doing a couple work projects like painting and building a wall partition, as well as spending time with the kids. We also will be giving the orphanage staff some time off and serving the kids an American meal of Mac & Cheese (which apparently they love, but don’t get often due to how expensive it is in Haiti). We may even do some laundry for the staff, which I imagine they have a lot of (52 pairs of socks, pants, shirts, yikes!) I love that we get to bless the orphanage staff, who care for these kiddos day in and out, and give them a well deserved break. For those who haven't heard this already, this orphanage is for school age kids (5 years +), who likely will never be adopted – as most adoptive parents are looking at infants and toddlers. Thus, the staff at the orphanage is really focused on training these kids up into mature, contributing members of the Haitian culture – hopefully a new generation of Jesus following leaders. However, they did just take in a little guy named Franz (?), who is about 2 years old, so we'll also be bringing some supplies like diapers that they have need of. We’ll also be visiting the site of a new orphanage that is being built by All God’s Children International. And, just in the last couple weeks, a new member has been added to our team, due to an urgent need on the part of AGCI for some plumbing work to be done at the new site. Praise God that this man was available , equipped with the right skills, and able to basically drop everything and join our team at the last minute!
Here are some other specific ways that you can be praying:
- For strength and grace to love and serve in whatever capacity is needed; unity and flexibility as a team.
- That the kids and Haitian staff members would feel encouraged and blessed by our presence there; that we would be able to meet specific needs.
- For eyes to see what God is doing in Haiti, and for inspiration to know how we as individuals, families and a church can join in this movement in the future.
- For our own growth in Christ, that this experience would bring each individual closer to God's heart for orphans and the poor.
- As one team member said, that we would come back with a story to tell that is God's story, not ours.
- For health and safety for the team while traveling and while in Haiti. Specifically we have a couple nursing moms who aren't able to take the meds for malaria, and we have 1 team member with a medical condition that will need to take extra care.
- For family members here at home who we will be leaving behind. Several of our team members are young moms and/or dads who will be leaving young kids with spouses or grandparents. Pray that this would be a sweet time for those at home, and pray for extra strength for all the great dads and grandparents who are taking on extra responsibility so we can go! And pray for those of us leaving behind little ones, that we would not worry, but rest in God's peace.
We look forward to sharing more as this story continues to unfold. Thank you all so much for being part of this journey!
- Sara, for the Haiti team
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