Love for Haiti

Matthew and I recently returned from a mission trip to Haiti with Adventures in Missions. I can not begin to try and explain all we experienced in Haiti. We experienced something that can only be explained through your own experience of it. When you take away all the luxuries we have in the U.S. it's easy to feel God, hear God, and see God. There's just no denying that. I'll just try to give you a quick snap shot of our trip via poor quality photos. :)

A typical street in Carrefour, Haiti where we stayed for 6 days
(near Port au Prince)

There's no trash system, so there's trash everywhere!
Eventually the Haitians burn piles to get rid of it.

This was a local market trash/rotten food pile.

Tent cities are all over the place. They represent areas where buildings once stood before the earthquake hit. They have even set up mayors for these "cities"

Our team was estrogen-heavy, but these are three of the 5 guys with one of our wonderful translators. We are forever grateful for our translators! (L-R: Chris, John, Tyler, and Ronnie)

Our team came from all over the U.S. from California to Colorado and Connecticut to North Carolina. Some veterans were more prepared than others. I was highly jealous of the tent and air mattress seen in the back of this pic. (L-R) Kim, Kyllie, Allie, Lauren, Rachel, & Chelsea. Ashley and Kaylie are missing from the room.

Megan in the middle of the two Lisas. Our team was a true family. 

My roomies for the week- (L-R) Danielle, me, Reina, & Sarah= the other Georgia girl. 

Reina and Richard were incredible. They were on their honeymoon!!!

Our leaders seemed to avoid the cameras,
but I snagged this one from crazy Tifany giving directions.
Liza and Tifany were incredible leaders!

I had the humbling privilege of walking into one of the few schools in the area.
This is what it looked like 18 months after the earthquake.

There's no public school system in Haiti. Everyone has to pay.
The men there said that they trust in God's grace to have this school open in the fall. 

The teacher usually stands here to instruct.
I almost lost composure thinking about how much I take for grated my education.

This family belonged to the church we worked with. They sell random items out of their home, seen here, to make a living. I bought a children's book written in English!

Another family's home with some stuff they hope to sell or exchange for other necessities. 

The little boys adored Matthew. They couldn't get enough of him! (but who can really?)

See... he wouldn't let go of him for anything.
We were walking through their tent city at the time.

We put on a few vacation bible schools with the church and tent cities.
The kids had never experienced anything like it.
They LOVED all the songs, games, and activities.

Who could have imagined that stickers would be as precious as gold.

Word got out the the "blancs"(white people) would be doing VBS.
Everyone came for the fun time!

The video below shows me asking each child what his/her name is in Creole. They really loved posing for the camera. It was as if they were movie stars! :)

Another little boy desperate to remain attached to Matthew.
It made me tear up!

Still in full grip of his new playmate.

And he's still thankful to have his hand. 

The pastor's family made us breakfast and dinner daily.
A staple was rice and beans and something like french fries, but the main dish varied.
I couldn't bring myself to eat the fried fish. Matthew was a little more adventurous. His little meal had its tongue out just for him!

Every night our group shared our testimonies outside.
I don't know how anyone could deny God's existence after hearing some of the true miracles that have taken place in all these people's lives. It was a precious time!

There's SO much more I could talk about, but Matthew and I just hope we can carry the Haitian perspective with us forever. It was humbling to feel so loved by people we just met. We wanted to love on them, but they truly loved on us and changed our lives for the better. God amazingly gave us His eyes while we were there. We weren't disgusted by Haiti at all, but fell in love with it and its people immediately.  I pray you remain encouraged by what God is doing in this world, and know that nothing is too difficult for Him!

Bond ye beniw~ (god bless you)

~Truly BlessedBuster