Aftershocks

This Monday morning at 4:30am and Tuesday morning at 1:30am Haiti experienced 4.7 aftershocks. We haven’t had aftershocks that big in a while so needless to say it shocked people. Just when you think you are in the clear they start again. The clinic was full of injuries from the aftershock … not from building falling but from people running out of their houses and falling. One of our interpreters sprained his wrist and another hurt his foot. The past couple nights some people have chosen to sleep outside so they do not need to run out of their house in the middle of the night in fear. Each aftershock brings back emotions from the initial earthquake for those who experienced it. It truly breaks my heart that my friends are living with this fear that they do not want to sleep in their own house. We have it so good in North America; we put so much faith in material things that could be gone at any moment.

Ana and Mina Memorized a verse in school right after the earthquake… it is very literal but very true.

God is our protection and strength; he always helps us in times of trouble. So we will not be afraid even if the earth shakes and the mountains fall into the sea.

Psalms 46:1-2

Please pray for all my Haitian friends and Mission of Hope staff that they would continue to turn to him for comfort.

Pray for the aftershocks to stop.

Also pray for my friend Gabby in the ward. I have been going down to the ward almost every night to visit patients and hang out with people down there. Gabby has a wound vac on his leg and told me he told me today that he was going to have surgery tomorrow. He told my friend Sarah thet God is healing him and his going to continue to heal him.  Just pray that his surgery would go well tomorrow and that we would have a quick, smooth recovery. I will go visit him tomorrow and see how everything went. I also just talked to Cheryl about him and she said that he has been a patient of theirs since they first opened their clinic; he would come daily or weekly (I can’t remember what she said) to get his dressings changed on his Ulcers. Cheryl said they have been trying to get him to the states to get this taken care of but praise the Lord we have surgeons coming to the Mission of Hope who can not only help earthquake victims but help people like Gabby. So tomorrow he will have a skin graft done and this will prayerfully fix his problem and the Ulcers won’t come back. So pray for Gabby tomorrow, he is probably mid-twenties, hes super sweet and whenever I see him he has a smile on his face! I will try to post a picture soon!

Love Blessings and Praying for the aftershocks to stop,

Leeann

P.S. I just had another Haitian experience… I was sitting outside writing my blog and this is a PS because this was suppose to be a serious blog but I walked into my room to go to bed and there was a little mouse sitting on my top bunk… I started to silently freak out and then went over to the van der Marks to get help. Cheryl gave me sticky pads to trap him with. I put them on the floor and he soon got scared and basically jumped right onto the trap. He began to squeal as I was screaming through this whole thing too.  So I ran back out of the guesthouse and a volunteer from the medical team got him off the sticky trap for me. Now I can go to sleep knowing there isn’t a little mouse sleeping with me.

Home

Home, what does the word home mean? As I battle with homesickness and move place to place, longing for a place to settle in and call my own and Mission of Hope is full with people helping post earthquake I think about what the word home really means.  According to dictionary.com it is a house, apartment, or other shelter that is the usual residence of a person, family, or household.  Graduating from Tourism and Travel I laugh at myself because after being away for short periods of time I’m longing to go home. I have experienced many new things in the past two and a half weeks and it’s just the beginning. God is molding me and teaching me that HOME is where he plants me. Haiti is my home for now. 

For the past week I have been staying in the Rumford’s house while they were away in Florida on vacation. They arrived home yesterday so Lindsay and I will be living in the Guesthouse for the next couple of week. Yes Lindsay, I am very excited that I now have a friend and room mate! I met Lindsay for the first time when we traveled to Haiti together on the Canadian Forces plane. Lindsay is a nurse who came to work at the clinic and ward for a few weeks but has decided to stay for the next four months as the Medical team coordinator assisting Cheryl with all the medical team scheduling and communication. This not only is a blessing to Cheryl as this will help her with her work load but I truly believe God send Lindsay to be a friend to me for my time here.  I am excited to get to know her more and have someone to go on this journey with me.

The last 5 days have there has been a lot going on down at the church of hope. The President of Haiti declared Friday Saturday and Sunday National holidays to fast and pray for the country.  The Church of Hope held daily services from 6am-12pm and again at 6pm-8pm. A few times over the weekend, when relaxing in my room I turned the fan off so I could hear the singing. You could hear the worship all the way at the top of the hill almost a kilometer away. I feel like I’ve been repeating myself every time I blog, but every Sunday I go to church there are more and more people.  Sunday morning Lindsay, Diana and I went down to church together around 9am and found a spot at the very back.  We arrived during worship; the energy in the room was very high! During the three days churches all over the country held services to pray for their country and people during this desperate time. Many gave their lives to Christ growing the kingdom of God! I can’t wait to see how many people are at church this Sunday after the services. Also yesterday was Carnival or Mardi gras here in Haiti, yet another holiday and there was another service at the church.

Lindsay and I went down to church yesterday and sat with the Hope House children.  On Monday the missionary kids and I went to a Valentines party at the hope house. This was my first time meeting all of the kids it was craziness but fun! Monday and Tuesday night at church I have been sitting with my new buddy Widler from the hope house. Widler is 5 years old, he is very cute and sweet, I love him!

I’ve been in Haiti for two and a half weeks now and have truly fallen in love with Haiti. They are the friendliest people I have ever met, the food is fantastic and the views and sunsets are breathtaking.

Love, Blessings and Home Sweet Haiti,

Leeann 

P.S Here is a link to my Pictures of my time in Haiti so far.

What a busy week!

So I think I owe you all an update. It’s been a crazy busy week.

I had a full week of school but I was just observing and helping because of my fast arrival. The girls are doing very well for just starting to learn 5 months ago. I hope my Creole is as good as their English in 5 months. I think that with one on one attention they will improve greatly.  I am really looking forward to teaching them and watching them grow in the next 5 months.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go into Port au Prince with Cheryl when she took some doctors back into town. Where to begin… Between the mission and Port au Prince we passed numerous tent cities. These are people who had lost their homes and have made homes using large sticks and bed sheets.

As we drove into the city you started to see large buildings flat as pancakes, you’d see the sheet of concrete that was the top of the building and the rest of the building under it. Then you passed building that were still standing but were not structurally sound. We passed one building that was partly broken but was being held up by pillars. It wouldn’t take that big of a push to have the rest of that building come completely down and there were people sitting right on the rubble in front of it. Then we came up to the Presidential Palace, we got out to take a picture and it was like wow. That was the symbol of the destruction for me. This large majestic place was in pieces; Haiti’s government building was gone.

Driving out of town we passed many piles of rubble. Trucks were taking loads of rubble from the city and dumping it along the roads out of the city. Also on the way home Cheryl pointed out where people had marked out plots on the land. They had taken rocks and formed squares to claim plots of land where they were going to rebuild their homes. Soon that area will be covered with houses.

Needless to say, it is going to take a long time to get back to “normal”.  It was very sad to see a country that didn’t have much to begin with, in this state. Garbage everywhere, rubble everywhere, I’m still taking it all in. It is much different for those who know what the buildings were like before the earthquake, I will only see from pictures.

On a brighter note church was PACKED and I mean PACKED today… Sanding room ONLY. When I thought we were full about 2 songs into service another bus load arrives. It was incredible. There was a guest singing group there today so we had a short sermon and lots of singing! The whole church was a party, it was so much fun! I couldn’t understand a word people were saying but the energy in there was so awesome! Double the amount of people went up for alter call again today. Haitian Church is my new favourite thing!!

Prayer Request:

-Pray for energy- those girls and the sun ware me out!

-Pray for the medical teams that continue to come in. They were working very hard. Pray that they don’t get discouraged; We have lots a few patients this week.

-Pray for the van der Marks as they try to get the twins adopted to go on a much needed family vacation.

Love Blessings & Overflowing church!

Leeann

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

Finally in Haiti

This Blog was writen Last night! Will post about today soon!

So this blog is a drastic change from my last blog. I am actually in Haiti right now. Its true! I can’t believe it but am I finally here. I know what your saying… I wasn’t suppose to go until Feb 10 and then my flight got cancelled! I know. 

Friday night while I was out with Lorena checking out the ministry centre where I am holding my fundraiser dinner, I got a call around 4:00pm. Cheryl was trying to get a hold of me to see if I was able to be on a flight out of Trenton at 5:30am this morning! Whoa GOD!  So I had to cram 2 weeks of packing into 8 hours.

We left around 1am this Saturday morning for Trenton and headed to the Canadian Forces Base, I was riding on a military cargo plane. It was quite the experience. There were seats on both sides of the plane.  I happened to be sitting beside a 3900 pound jeep like vehicle. We ended up not leaving the runway until about 8:15.  A few minutes after we were in the air the pilot came over the speaker system and announced that they would start the on board meal momentarily! NO WAY! This was not at all what I expected. They gave us each a box that had, a sandwich, two juice boxes, a fruit cup, cookies and an apple. I arrived in Haiti and my luggage did not! I gave a lady my name and number and a description of my bag and they are going to contact us when they locate it. We think it went to California as there was another plane going to California from Trenton leaving soon after our flight did. 

Long story short, I was needed in Haiti and we had to make the most of an opportunity when it came.

Prayer requests:
-Pray that God would give me the wisdom to know where I am needed to be a help to the van der Marks
-Pray that my luggage would be found
-Pray for Ana and Mina’s adoption to keep moving forward.  

Love, Blessings Haitian Heat!

Leeann

   

Perfect in his time.

Very shortly after I wrote my blog last night I found out that American Airlines flights into Port au Prince are cancelled until mid-late feb, not sure the exact date.


Needless to say I have many emotions once again! In a matter of minutes I went from feeling so close to leaving to what seems like forever away. I am heart broken as my body is here and my heart is in Haiti already! 


Yet another way God is in control of every part of this trip ! I know he is in control of everything and his timing is perfect but sometime things just don't make sense or don't go the way I want them to go or planned them to go. Its frustrating but I am going to try my best to trust that God has a plan and he is teaching me patients! 


This is a short blog, I will keep you posted!

2 Weeks and Counting

As the trip nears, I am finishing up shopping and getting stuff together. As I look around my room it is over flowing with things that I need to start putting in a bag. Its going to be like a jig saw puzzle as I put things in the bags to make the best use of space as I only have two 50 pound bags and a 40 pound carry-on for 5 months worth of living supplies. 


As the trip nears I have many emotions, I'm excited to finally get there, meet Ana and Mina, to see Cheryl who I haven't seen in about 7 months, play with the children at the Hope House, experience the Church of Hope, move into my first apartment, and just to meet and share the love of Christ with the people of Haiti. I'm nervous, about moving to a new place, not sure what the next 5 months holds and its a new experience. I'm sad, to leave my family and friends, 5 months is a long time and I've never been away from home that long before. But over all I'm excited!!! 


"I don't know what my future holds but I know who holds it"


God knew that there was going to be an earthquake when he called me so I just need to trust that he has big plans for me in Haiti and be ready to be obedient to him.


I am in daily contact with my friends at Mission of Hope and am very excited about the relief efforts they are doing in Haiti. They gave out their Millionth meal as of Saturday and continue to do medical clinics. 
To read about what Mission of Hope is doing or to hear stories from the Staff at mission of hope click on the links to the right under 'Favourite Links'. They are incredible people who are obeying Gods call for their life by being his hands and feet in Haiti. Please pray for them as they are physically, mentally and emotional exhausted from what they are experiencing. 


If you would like to support my 5 month adventure to Haiti please read the blog below and see the Financially support info on the right side. Also I am having a fundraiser dinner... see details below.

Leeann's Haiti Fundraiser Dinner

When: Saturday Feb 6th at 6:00pm-9:00pm

Where: The Sanctuary Ministry Centre 2009 Wycroft Rd Oakville

What: Good food, 50/50 Draw, Cake Auction and More!

TICKETS: $25 per person

All funds raised will directly support my mission work at the Mission of Hope in Haiti.

Please let me know by phone or email if you are interested in coming as we have limited seating and need to let the caterer know numbers as soon as possible!

Thank you for your love and support as I begin this adventure!


Love and Blessings,


Leeann