Staff Appreciation Dinner

The Slumberland team had the privilege of treating the entire Healing Haiti staff to an Appreciation Dinner.  We have done this the last three years and it has grown into a very special night.  The Healing Haiti staff serves over a thousand people a year that "go" on a Healing Haiti missions trip.  We treated them to a dinner out at a local restaurant,  the ladies were dressed up beautifully and had great time with a photoshoot.  We had special music from Don Fadell (Don wrote a special song for the staff), Matthew and Michael sang a song, and Madam Kisnell sang a special song for the group.  We gave a gift bag to each staff person to tell them how much they are appreciated.  They are a great staff and more than deserved a special evening.

Fun was had by all!

Word of the Day…

Each day, we’re challenged to come up with a word to summarize our thoughts or experience for the day.  Today was a day that I approached with some apprehension, a day when I knew I would have emotions flowing, a day we’d be visiting the home for sick and dying children.  I’ve got four daughters and to think of any of them being in the situation these beautiful young children are in, would be unbearable.  I saw people come together today and so the word of the day for me was…

TEAM… I approached my word a little bit differently.  We have this amazing group of individuals  through Slumberland, people who love and care for the people of Haiti but also for the other members of the team, and then there was an amazing group of people at the home for sick and dying children, the nurses that take care of these children, and then finally, the group of people working at the Apparent Project who provide jobs for hundreds of people so they can create wonderful works of art to bring to the world and help Haiti…. all TEAMS of people… For me the day, the word TEAM, boiled down to this:

An acronym:  Time Encountering Amazing Masterpieces….

God created us all, we’re masterpieces; from our bodies, to our minds, the way we NEED to help each other.  Today, I saw that in action and I truly had a day comprised of Time Encountering Amazing Masterpieces.

Matthew

Hope

Hope

The babies hope we will hold them

they hope we will love them, comfort them

they hope we will feed them, or give them a drink

their parents hope we will save their babies, make them healthy

The Nuns hope we would change the babies, hold them, feed them

the babies just want the hurting and fevers to stop

I Hope I Can Help!

My wife is at home hoping I will adopt them all

I hope they are cured

I hope the Haitians are learning and a change will come

I hope in some small way we are helping to Heal Haiti through God’s Love

Brandon

Transformation

Beauty out of ashes, we often ask, how can that be?  Well today we saw it happening. For years we have stood at the dump, stood in the waste and garbage and wondered how God could use this piece of land.  Today our group saw the transformation , out of the rubble is rising a church and school that will serve the people of Cite Soleil. As the children gathered and sang, as they have for years, “God is so Good,” we experienced that goodness, for years it was by faith, now it is a reality!!  Praise God, God is so good.

Barb

Faces...

The day was filled with many children each with a different expression.  I wish I could understand their language and know their thoughts.  Some of their eyes are filled with piercing pain, others filled with joy, others with the innocence that only a child could have living in conditions that no one would choose to live in if they had a choice.  Below is a sample of the many children we held, hugged, picked up and loved today.

Day 2 - Citi Soleil

And so it begins… a blog post coming from a perspective of someone who has not experienced Haiti, someone who is blessed to be where he is, with a home, clean water, air conditioning, everything I need to live comfortably, a person stepping into the antithesis of comfort…. We packed up this morning after having an amazing breakfast prepared by the Healing Haiti staff, and headed to Citi Soleil… My world was rocked as we drove into the area where we were going to be distributing water to people who needed it.  A few tears welled up as I saw children running, already with with their arms wide open, to receive me and the others as we stepped off the Tapp Tapp.  One step off the Tapp Tapp and they basically jumped into my arms, smiles as big as anything I’ve seen, just wanting to be held.  They would just stare at me smiling, looking at their reflection in my sunglasses, leaning their heads on my shoulders, kissing my neck, starved for affection and I was happy to oblige… their smiles made me smile!

The lines for the water truck were somewhat hectic, each person filling whatever they could of the precious resource we all take for granted… clean water.  I don’t think I’ll look at water the same after visiting Haiti.  Bucket after bucket, pail after pail, big or small, whatever would hold the H2O.  We were able to hit to separate areas of City Soleil, but I could’ve done that all day.

I’m here with a great group of people with hearts to serve, and I look forward to the days ahead to see how God is going to move and speak to me….

Peace, from Haiti

Matthew