Return.

Our trip was amazing.  We are sitting in the Miami airport right now, getting our minds around the abundance we see, and admittedly partaking ourselves as we sit at TGIFriday’s ordering huge plates of food.

Everyone told us re-entry would be hard, but we are just scratching the surface of emotions as we see high heels, glitter purses, large screen TVs, free flowing water and food. And it's weird that everyone has shoes.

We don’t know how to summarize our trip, so in honor of our teenage boys, we thought we would create a Top 10 List, David Letterman style.

The Top 10 Favorite things we did in Haiti:

10. “Uncle Tom’s” jokes – and all our awesome Team Leaders from Healing Haiti.

9.  Watching our boys barter for souvenirs in the marketplaces in Port au Prince and mountain areas.

8.  Doing “word of the day” each evening and hearing how our day’s work uniquely impacted each person.

7.  Visiting the orphaned elderly: praying, singing and delivering food and enjoying their company.

6.  Church!  Sunrise service at the outdoor tent church and Sunday morning worship with the Grace Village children – replete with bilingual translation, children leading worship, the worship flags being used for the first time and the inclusion of the local community of Titanyen!

5. Riding in the “Tap Tap”, singing songs and spending awesome time bonding with the world’s best Haitian staff! 

4.  Our first glimpse of “heaven” up on the hill – Grace Village Orphanage – meeting all the kids after so much anticipation and delivering all the donations we collected. 

3.  Ministering at the Home for the Sick and Dying Children – and witnessing a worldwide ministry in action.  And loving those little babies. 

2.  Water truck ministry in the Cite Soleil.  Between the eager children, riding on the side of the truck and knowing we were serving the poorest of the poor free water who would otherwise have to pay, it was a highlight of our week.  And we never thought we could be so grateful for a cold shower after a hot, dirty day!

1.  Impromptu Soccer in the street outside the guesthouse that turned into 6 nights straight!  Watching our boys “love our neighbors” through the universal language of sports was a God-given gift.  Seeing the boys (and girls) on the last night when we said they could keep their EP jerseys make a decision to collect them all and keep them in one place so they could keep playing soccer was a joyous moment we won’t soon forget. 

Our team’s theme verse for the week was John 15:16 – which says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.”    Little did we know how that verse would impact our mission - the boys have already begun praying and planning a dream of building a soccer field for the boys they built relationships with for a week in that neighborhood with the name of “Chosen Fields.”

 

As Moms we couldn’t be more proud of our boys and the way they served the Haitian people.  And with the help of God, we continue to pray there will be much fruit in these treasured communities imprinted in our hearts . . .

Maybe even a soccer field.

With love and thanks for all your support and prayers,
Sarah, Marijo, Karla and Kris (and Nick, Ben, Tim, Matt and Jacob)