A Trip of Faith

Life is back to normal, hustle and bustle no time to rest, no time to love a child who needs a hug that day. This was not the case a week ago for 9 individuals who traveled to a new world and met the most amazing people, many of whom weren't over 3 1/2 feet tall. Faith Lutheran Church's mission team spent 5 days at the Love Takes Root orphanage building a Sukup house and growing in God's love along side the 40+ children. Here is our story.... Day one. We arrived in Port Au Prince on Tuesday and made our way through the winding road over the mountain and into Jacmel (only two of us got car sick). We first went to the orphanage and were greeted with the most amazing singing. The warmth we felt from the moment we entered the lunch room was immediate. The children are amazing and so strong in faith already. Day two. Up and at 'em and ready to begin our building of the Sukop house, which was to be used for food storage at the orphanage only to discover...NO bolts. God had a plan and today it was for our group to talk about and share Him with these children. (We did get the materials of the Sukup house moved to the location we were going to build it). We did VBS with the children as well as put some needed slip guards in the shower areas and put some door knobs in the doors. We played with sidewalk chalk too! Now we were no longer strangers we were friends and children in Christ. What a day! Day three. No bolts so more VBS and play time with the children. More door knobs went in as well. Joan was busy doing some basic medical needs for the children and Theone was busy taking more pictures of these beautiful children. They posed so cute we all got a chuckle from this. Day four. Bolts are here! So the work of the Sukop house began. It was over cast this day so we were blessed to work in the shade instead of the full blast of the sun. We met the contractor Dave, who was a Saint to our building crew. We hired 5 of his workers to help us with our project. They were amazing young men who worked very hard with us that day. We finished nearly 85-90% of the building that day. As we winded down our day and took a minute to rest the children all gathered around our sweaty messes and shared Gods love with us. Kathy, Joan and Theone also did more VBS with the children this day. We also took out the parachute and played with the children....so many many smiles and laughs I think my cheeks still hurt from this day! Day five. Our last day at the orphanage. We were again blessed with Ed and Dave to help finish the Sukop building. We finished fairly early this day so we were again able to do more VBS with the children. A few of our group also attended the church service at the Orphanage...Pastor Lee was able to give an amazing message to the children too. This was a hard day for our Faith group. We needed to look into those big brown eyes and say goodbye. It was amazing how in five days they had touched everyone of our hearts. Our sons, Connor and Reid grew so much in their faith this week I can't begin to even explain. Many hugs and tears were shed this day. Faith Lutheran's mission group went to an orphanage in Haiti to share the love of God and spread the word of Jesus to children who don't have the access to this like we do and we came back more filled with the spirit ourselves! Al said it best...we entered a country with so much need we thought we could never do enough and left an orphanage feeling that Yes we can make a difference. Thank you Rick and Barb for allowing our group to experience this awesome trip. It has forever changed our lives and we hope it has impacted a little bit of those children's lives. Until our next adventure to La Concorde....God Bless!