3 Days in Haiti!

 Where to begin, yesterday I woke up refreshed! Thank you God for sleep!  Grayden made us pancakes for breakfast and then we got ready for church.

Church was incredible! I went down with the Teagan, Grayden and Bridgely while Laurens and Cheryl went to the Canadian Embassy with Ana and Mina. I don’t even know how to begin describing church… there were so many people. Bridgely and I weaved our way through a sea of people until we got to our seats. There was lots of worship, most of the songs were in Creole but sometime they sang part of the song in English. One song that stood out to me went something like this…

With out your love

without your grace

I don’t know whom I’d be

with out you.

These people have lost friends, family members and they are still worshiping with all they have. At one point I got goose bumps all over my body… you could feel the Holy Spirit in the place.  As Diana described in a previous blog and I truly agree… to hear the Haitians lift up their voices in praise to their maker is “The loveliest sound”!

The kids soon left me to go to kids church so I was sitting alone while the pastor was preaching. I must have looked really lost as shortly after a lady named Janise came and sat beside me and told me that she was going to help me. She began to tell me that she lost her 3 year-old daughters late last year, my heart broke for her. She explained that God gave her to her and then he took her so that was life and God wanted her back. What faith!  She interpreted the whole service for me. The pastor spoke about the earthquake and how we don’t know how many more days, hours or minutes we have left on this earth so we need to commit our lives to God and the commit our lives to telling others about the God because when we are gone its too late so we must respond now. After the pastor finished preaching about 25 people accepted Christ. Praise God! I thanked Janise and she returned to her seat.

In the afternoon I played with the van der Mark kids. While we were at the park some of the children from Hope House came up to play with us. There was one little boy named Stevenson who reminded me of Clayton Porter (my pastor son) he was crazy, wild and always had something in his hands that he was swinging around. (Clayton-I will send you a picture soon! And please don’t grow while I’m gone!)

Also Mina and Ana painted my finger and toe nails… needless to say they look beautiful!!! My fingernails are pink with white polka dots and my toes are purple with blue stripes. They had to clean it up a bit but they did a good job for 6 year olds!

I am having a great time getting to know them!

They wanted to sleep with me last night so the three of us slept in the queen bed. They were little bundles of heat and I had to push them away a few times in the night but it was fun!

This morning was my first day at school. We have class in a one-room school that is right next to the house. I got to officially meet all the kids and observe the girls and see what they know. I think I will just be watching for a few days until I really dive in.

On a sadder note, we lost another patient yesterday. He was about to go for surgery and he died. Cheryl told me he had a blood clot in his leg that traveled to his heart and took him instantly.  We have a team of surgeons in for a few days and doctors and nurses working around the clock. They are doing awesome work; continue to lift them up in prayer!

In closing I got my bag back today and I’ve never been happier to have a cold shower and put on clean clothes!!!  I am so happy to have clean clothes and treats from home!

Love, Blessings and Clean Clothes!!

Leeann