Haiti Day 2: Work and Rain

HEY EVERYONE!

Internet connect is a success!

What a wild two days it has been and what amazing things God has already begun to do in our group and through our group. After a long first day, we got a good night sleep. We woke up bright and early to get ready for an exciting first day.

Today we began work on a house of a former EBAC orphan named Daniel. The work was relatively simple but physically exhausting. Most of it was taking crushed rock and laying down evenly to begin providing a foundation (you'll see in pictures below). Because of the size of our group, and not enough resources to help build, we split the team into two shifts. One half stayed to work and the other went to EBAC to spend time with the orphans. We reconvened back at the place we're staying and then the group switch locations. It was a great balance for the first day. One half spent working and the other continuing to build relationships.

Near the end of the first day a big storm came, which thwarted our efforts to work but for the most case we got stuff done. Many students (and some adults) took advantage of the rain to have some fun. It was a great time and we really have been jelling well as a team. Tomorrow will bring a different day as we begin a new partnership with another Pastor in Haiti. We will begin some work on a church he is building and spend time making new friends with the kids there.

God has been really speaking to each person, as He made that clear at our first team meeting last night. Just continue to pray that God's love is made known and good, eternal things are done in the time we have here.

Here are some of the pictures from the first two days (connection is slow, so I can only post a couple):

Getting Settled and Reacquainted

All is good so far.  The team arrived safely and all the luggage made it okay too!  Time was spent today with the team getting to know each other better before heading off to the EBAC orphanage.  At the orphanage, team members who had visited in the past reconnected with the children they met before and new Haiti team members made some new friends.  Everyone enjoyed the time at EBAC and look forward to visits throughout the week. Tonight the team will get settled in to their housing, eat dinner, debrief the day and hear about the plans for tomorrow.  Tomorrow the team starts working, off campus, on a house for a former EBAC orphan.

The team asks for prayers for continued safety and wisdom.

An image flashed across my TV screen
Another broken heart comes into view
I saw the pain and I turned my back
Why can't I do the things I want to do?
I'm willing but yet I'm so afraid
You give me strength when I say
I want to be Your hands
I want to be Your feet
I'll go where You send me
And I try, yeah I try
To touch the world like You touched my life
And I find my way to be Your hands
I've abandoned every selfish thought
I've surrendered everything I've got
You can have everything I am
And perfect everything I'm not
I'm willing, I'm not afraid
You give me strength when I say
I want to be Your hands
I want to be Your feet
I'll go where You send me
I'll go where You send me
And I try, yeah I try
To touch the world like You touched my life
And I find my way to be Your hands
This is the lifetime I turned my back on You
From now on, I'll go so send me where You want me to
I finally have a mission
I promise complete
I don't need excuses
When I am Your hands and feet
     Audio Adrenaline Hands and Feet lyrics

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:35

We've Landed in Haiti!

The team has landed safely in Cap Haitian! Praise God! Will be providing updates as they come in!

Getting Ready To Go!

We have arrived safely in Fort Lauderdale, FL. We had a great day at the beach and a wonderful time at dinner together. After a team debriefing, we went to our rooms to get ready for a 3AM wake up call to be in the lobby by 345AM. Unless of course you were in Jeff Arnold's room (Tanner and Andy), you woke up at 330AM and needed to scamper to get to the lobby by 345AM.

Thus far things have been smooth sailing this side of the boarder. Everyone has their luggage. Relationships are blooming. Laughter is happening. A mixture of excitement and anxiousness is in the air. God has been graceful to us thus far in our travels and we pray He continues to be so. Even if things don't go according to plan, we know we're not outside the safety and will of God, and this gives us peace.

We are currently at the international airport, we have checked all our bags, and now we wait in great anticipation to begin our trip. We spoke last night about how following Jesus does not involve the "typical". Following Jesus is a stretch for those who take His call seriously, because it removes us from all we are familiar with. Even on this trip with reoccurring attendees, the new place in which we will be living for the week brings a sense of unknown. But I am confident that God will provide the comfort we need to know we can trust Him. There's nothing typical about following Jesus, and certainly leaving your family for a week, foregoing vacations, and living in less than normal conditions is not typical. God has something He wants to say to each person on this trip. He will speak differently but directly to each member of our team. I expect nothing less than God showing up in the lives of His children this week.

Continue to pray for our team. That no matter what happens, God's will is done and His name known. Pray that as we are blessing others, we will be blessed by our experiences. And that students and adults alike will drink deeply from the love of Christ and be "ruined" as a result of it.

When we get to Haiti, by the end of the day I'll have a better idea on our internet capabilities. If our internet access is limited, we will have someone back home that we'll be relaying information to that will update the blog at the end of each day.

Thank you for your prayers and may God bless your week!

Joel

Pictures and Videos from Haiti Trip 2012!

Here is a link to most of the pictures and videos taken from the trip. They are not in any specific order but they do provide different perspectives from the trip.

ENJOY!

http://nccinhaiti.shutterfly.com/pictures

We are back in the US!

We are back in the United States!

We arrived at the Cap-Haitian airport just a little after 8:30 this morning and we landed in Fort Lauderdale not too long ago. Everyone is safe yet tired from such a long week. We will have a long layover in Fort Lauderdale before we board a flight to Atlanta. There we will have a brief layover before we finally head back home. Our flight schedule has us returning back to Pittsburgh International Airport around 11:30pm. So keep praying that everything goes as planned.

While we are in the airport, I will be taking the time to upload all of my (Joel) photos from the trip. Sometime in the next few weeks I’ll collect the best photos from the trip from different team members and upload them to an account on a photo sight. That way you get different perspectives of the trip taken from different members of the team. I want to use this post to recap what happened during our last full day at EBAC. 

Yesterday, our team and the orphans worked very hard all day in order to complete as much of the basketball court as possible. The day started as we worked together to put down rocks while some of the Haitians mixed together concrete by using shovels, sand, rocks, cement, and water. We first worked on the area closest to where the concrete was being made. Then some team members and the orphans carried buckets filled with concrete to the spot where it needed to be poured. We lucked out this trip by having on hand a Haitian man who specialized in making and laying down concrete. He contributed a great majority of his skills in the completion of this project. As the day went on, so did the buckets of concrete. After we filled one half of one side, everyone took a break for lunch. When we returned we continued to work. Sometime later when the holes were dug out for the basketball poles, we set up a system that would hold the post up while it set in the concrete using ropes. A lot of measuring went into making sure that the posts were even in every area. While the posts were being put in proper position, others continued to work to extend the other end of the court. Once the posts were in place and the ground was dug out on the other end of the court, we formed a long assembly line in order to get buckets from the concrete area to the spot where they needed to be poured. This process took almost an hour and a half as we had to keep breaking for people to form a new batch of concrete. Once it was finished, we knew we still had to put the backboards and the hoop up but we needed to wait until morning so the concrete could set in place. At 5am, some members of the team woke up to finish the job we started. Working initially with flash lights and three ladders, we were able to get the first basketball hoop up. By the time we got to the second one, the orphans were awake and eagerly waiting for us to finish so they could start playing basketball. As we finished on the final hoop, some of the kids started to shoot around on the new hoop. You could see the joy on their faces that they were able to play basketball again. We were scheduled to leave the orphanage at 7am but we ended up finishing the project at 7:03am. It was a job well done. Afterwards, we packed up the bus, said our goodbyes and headed to the airport.

Leaving Haiti is always bittersweet. There are so many relationships that are formed throughout the week, some people started new friends, and others rekindled old ones. At the end of the week, it’s always difficult to say goodbye. Last night, the Pastor that helps with the orphanage prayed for us when we finished laying down the concrete. He blessed the court and the time we spent there. But there was one thing he prayed that really stuck out to me. He said “We are sad to see our friends go, but we look forward to the day when they no longer have to go.” What a great perspective on the hope and reality of Heaven that will bridge the distance between us and these orphans. One day, we will no longer have to leave our friends. We will no longer have barriers between us. We will no longer have to go so far to have so much fun. But rather, one day we will be running, laughing, and playing with them on streets of gold and through the land that God has promised to those who love Him.

God has done so many incredible things through the lives of the people involved in this trip. He has taught all of us the perspective of humility and simplicity. He has shown us that true joy is found in our hope in Christ. He has given us the heart to love others as He first loved us. Haiti is always a life changing trip and my prayer for everyone is that we never lose sight of God and sharing His love when we return back to our lives. I hope we take the light God has shown us in EBAC and share that light with the rest of the world. God loves Haiti but God also loves those who don’t know Him quite yet. As great of an impact we can have in a third world country, we can have an equal if not greater impact in the lives of those around us who are broken and hurting but in different ways.

Thank you so much for your prayers. All of them were answered.

1^st John 4:19 – “We love because He first loved us”

Joel

Haiti Update (Day Three and Four)

The past two days have been wonderful as we've explored into different aspects of our trip.


On Sunday morning we joined the orphans of EBAC for both Sunday School and their church service. It was a cultural experience for a good majority of the group and they learned how people in other countries connect with and worship the Lord. After the service, the team prepared for our trip to the Citadel. The Citadel is a historical landmark in Haiti that simply put is a castle fortress on the top of a mountain. I won't go into the historical details of it's development but let's just say a lot of people and cows died while building it. The climb to the top of mountain alone was physically taxing. We took a truck up a very steep hill and once the truck couldn't go any higher, we had to walk the rest of the way. It's a very steep journey to the Citadel but once you reached the top it was totally worth it. The views alone were breathtaking but the structure itself was quite impressive. The pictures from the Citadel are photos that you should look forward to. Before we headed back to EBAC we stopped by IDADEE which is the sister orphanage to EBAC. God has been doing such incredible things through that orphanage and He continues to build it with the support of those in Western Pennsylvania. IDADEE will be yet another orphanage that God will use to impact greatly the lives of children in Haiti. After our visit we headed back home for dinner and to iron the details for our visit to the beach the next day.


Today we took over 80 orphans to the beach. Like most things in Haiti, it's a long bumpy drive to get there but once you've arrived, it was worth the travel. We often say that the beach is the equivalent to Disney Land because it's so much fun for everyone involved. The kids don't go as often throughout the year so it's a special thing when they go. And the thing is, it doesn't matter whether they are 5 or 15, the orphans love it. This day was yet again one of those days where you discover that we can be content with the simple things in life and this is something that God is teaching us through our visit to Haiti.


When we returned to the orphanage we relaxed before our devotional time. We are continuing to have great Christ centered conversations and we are looking forward to seeing what God does as we close out our time here tomorrow.Tomorrow we are finishing up our work projects as we prepare to head home early Wednesday morning. Continue to pray for us that all projects are finished. Pray God will continue to protect us. I (Joel) stepped on a nail on the way back from our small group tonight but the damage wasn't too bad. Just pray God protects it. 


Thank you for your constant prayers for us. They are all being answered!


1st John 4:19 - "We love because He first loved us"


Joel