There were many incredible moments on our trip. One of the things that stands out for me was the unity we all experienced.It was wonderful that we worked well together. If there were moments of frustration and disagreements, it was rare and we put them aside to focus on our work of serving our Lord. I miss the team already and I hope our friendships will continue.

One day when we went out distributing food and praying for families, there was an older man about 70 years old, who stood with child like faith . After praying for a lady and her young children, this man came forward and gestured with his hand that he wanted to be prayed for with a hand laid on his head. It reminded me of Jesus' word to accept the kingdom of heaven like a child. What an honor to pray for him !

I found it difficult to dream about that work being completed in Haiti Arise and also surrender my rights to be involved in it. Perhaps its best to commit all to the Lord and trust Him to raise up the right people to accomplish it. There were moments I pictured my family down there enjoying the opportunities to serve and love the people; not only my immediate family but my church family. Well thats a tremendous picture of the spiritual reality- family and friends at home were involved with us through prayer and financial support, blessing us from their hearts. Thank you!

One more situation I,d like to share. God uses the weak things of this world to confound the wise; and our moments of weakness He is our strength. We went out one day to distribute food and I volunteered to give a testimony. Why did I do that.? I guess deep down inside I wanted to encourage the Haitians to look to God and trust Him. I had no idea what to say but the Lord likes it when we trust Him and rely on Him. We walked around this " tent city" with over 200 occupants and prayed for peace and for God to move in their lives, and their hearts. As we walked through a market area without purchasing from the vendors I was aware of their desperation. I was reminded of years before when I sold wooden products at the local farmers market in Halifax. Many weeks I returned home with little or no sales and questioned God wondering how He would provide for my family . We were desperate, in debt, and saw no way out. We went to the local food bank several times over a few years. God got us through those difficult times! Now I found myself thanking Him for allowing us to go through that time of desperation. He worked His compassion into my heart. Perhaps He had this moment in His mind back then. I was moved to tears !

When the time came for me to give a testimony of Gods character - His goodness -I knew what I needed to share! So as I them of this moment in my life, I encouraged them to Trust God. He would care for their needs and help them. I was moved to tears again at this moment and the Haitians present blessed me, prayed for me and thanked us for being there to help them. Wow! What a blessing! and the Lord surrounded this time and the following food distribution with His peaceful presence. There were many opportunities to pray for people and see joy on them as we gave out food and care bags. We represented Gods love not only from ourselves but from our friends at home. Thanks for sending us out! What a blessing! John Loney

We've been home for 5 days. Now Emily will blog.

Five long and very boring days have passed since I left Haiti. I have talked to several people about my trip and every time I find myself talking about the beauty of Haiti. It truly is a beautiful country! Before I went to Haiti all I saw on the news was destruction, rubble and intense poverty. When I saw Haiti with my own eyes I saw something different. I saw children smiling, playing and content with their simple toys. I saw forests of mango, banana and palm trees. I saw communities working together so that they may grow and regain their strength. But despite it's beauty it still is a poverty ridden country that needs our help. It was hard for me to see children running about the streets with no clothes or parents that were without work and they couldn't support themselves or their children.

It was an amazing chance for me to really see how blessed I am. I always knew I was blessed but when you see poverty with your own eyes your whole view on being fortunate changes. I am so glad the Lord for placed me in Canada and gave me a family who loves and supports me. I can't thank Him enough but some how I find my self jealous of the Haitian people. It made me very frustrated until I realized that I was not jealous of their stuff or the warmth but I was jealous of their love for each other and God. I was jealous of their openness and how we walked up to them and started preaching. North Americans would never allow that because we are to scared of opening our selves to each other and being put in an uncomfortable spot. It was if the Haitians had no fear and I want to see that here in Canada.

It was very difficult coming home. I'm tired of our secluded and afraid society. I love the Haitian people and can not wait to meet with them again. I most definitely will take the next opportunity to get back to that wonderful land if that is Gods will. So, Lord please make it your will for me to go back!

Signing out, Emily Dombowsky

Sat. Feb.19; a fresh snowy white morning with blue sky, and sun streaming in the window. Janet has freshly painted and cleaned the whole house. I see the pet cat and her dish.Panic hits my chest and brain because I know the Haitian people we visited won't have a meal as big or as good as our pet today. Their homes won't be clean, if they are even intact.The charcoal from yesterday's meal, or the remains from the burning garbage pit in the yard, will hang in the air. The path that they will walk today for water or food will be full of rubble and garbage. The rest of the country is similar. Thankfully Janet and Nic are getting up so we can recount our stories,cry and even thank God for the good we saw in Haiti. In a country with not much, God is doing quite a lot.
There were two and three hour church services that were the most joyful,peaceful,worshipful services I have experienced. Haiti Arise is making progress on the children's village, medical clinic and technical school. All that has been donated is going to a good work! The bottom line for me is that Marc and Lisa's ministry is with the people and that by taking responsibility for these projects, many Haitians have turned to salvation in Jesus. Lives are being built, not just buildings.
One personal story: Our family was praying and hoping Nic and I would get the chance to meet Nesda, the girl our family sponsors in Haiti.Because of the earthquake, prearranged normal channels were not working. I shared with Marc our hope to meet Nesda and believed she lived in the next town, a short 15 min. away. He said he would check into it. The next day brought bad news. Her village was across the island, over the mountains and bad roads separated us.Marc said he maybe knew of a ma
n in that town and he would keep checking. For three consecutive nights our team members prayed for God to make a connection with someone so we could find Nesda. On Wed. afternoon, with one day left, Marc pulled me aside and asked if I had my contact info. on Nesda. I immediately reached for the slip of paper I kept carefully in my pocket. Marc invited me to sit down in the busy dining room.I am thinking "bad news" but am surprised to look up into the face of Nesda!! I was shocked and Marc was laughing and it was incredible! She and her mom had traveled over two hours on the back of a motorcycle to see us! The mystery of the missing link turned out to be that the pastor from Nesda's church had been a school mate of Marc's from grade one to grade twelve! Amazing!!
Thank you to all of our fellow team members and to our supporters and prayer partners, if you would like to hear more, give us a call!
David

Thanks Kathleen for making this easier. Coming back from Haiti to California is the true culture shock. I`ve been on many of these kinds of trips, to South America, Mexico and Africa. This one was the most profound. So when people ask me (a hundred times), "How was it?", I always find myself wanting to say "Awesome" or "Great" or "Incredible" or some other cliche`d response, because, in fact, it was awesome and great and incredible. But what does that all mean when, for most of the trip, you`re face to face with "incredible" poverty and "great" barriers to progress and "awesome" feelings of guilt and inadequacy when trying to share the Gospel, or you have to leave some still hungry? I feel like it all came into focus for me on this trip. It was the "awesome, incredible, great" Grace that God gives in the face of everything that is uncomfortable, or that doesn`t smell right or is unsightly, or any feeling of inadequacy or irrelevancy. His  "great" Grace enveloped and permeated and oozed at every moment, so that I was never repulsed, or defeated or anxious, but rather eager to go again and help even more. It was an "awesome" experience, and it will be "incredible" when I learn that I can experience the same "great" Grace here and serve Him here with the same eagerness.    david nelson

Blessed Once Again

Well, first of all I would like to thank everyone involved with this trip, from financial supporters, prayer warriors, to the team members and families! It has been a huge blessing to Haiti Arise Ministries and the Haitian people! But most of all God and our Lord Jesus Christ was honored through everything that was accomplished for His Glory!!

For me, it was an honor to serve with every team member as we worked, worshiped and ministered amongst the Haitian people. Each member of the team was a shining light to all whom we came in contact with, from children to seniors, we will remember their smiling faces and expressions of grattitude for the rest of our lives. It was easy to see that every team member was spiritually called to this missions trip for specific individual purposes as we ministered over the ten days. With 25 members on the team, it was clear to me that everyone walked away truly blessed with the satisfaction of fulfilling the call in which they have been drawn to.

There were many many highlights for me on this trip, but the two that I would like to mention are the youngest members of our team and the families. First of all, the teenagers and young adults of this team would be some of the most mature young adults that I have had the privilage to lead and serve with. These young men and women served and ministered to the young and old with a true spiritually driven servants heart. This is a real testimony to the parents of each one! Secondly the families of this team were a real blessing to watch as they journeyed together from start to finish. The respect and love that they all shared together was truly inspiring to watch as they experienced God's favor on them in Haiti.

It has been an honor to serve with each and everyone of you!

Eric Fawcett

Back from Haiti

Yesterday was a long day to say the least. We got up at 5:00 and loaded the vans and were on the road to Port au Prince by 5:30. The ride to and from Port au Prince in my opinion was the scariest part of the whole trip. The roads are at times trails through river beds, narrow and many speed bumps, sometimes having big cracks about a foot wide from the earthquake, but the traffic is crazy. People driving on the wrong side of the road at times to get ahead, horns beeping, bumper to bumper traffic and in the city, children coming up to the vehicle when stopped in traffic begging the "blanc" for money or food. It had rained the night before we left so some streets were full of water as they don't have sewer systems to take it away. There was lots of garbage, mud and debris in the streets as people were trying to walk through the streets and keep clean and dry.

We arrived at the airport about 9:00 and flew out about 11:30 to Miami. We quickly made our connection to Toronto as they had to hold the plane for us. We arrived in Toronto at about 7:30, went through customs and had a bite to eat as we were all getting quite hungry. We left Toronto about 10:00 and arrived in Regina about midnight (1:00 Haitian time) to cold and snow. What a contrast from the morning! Gathered our stuff and said some goodbyes then drove back to Moose Jaw and home about 2:00 a.m. My bed felt good to say the least. It is wonderful to see my husband as this is the longest that we have gone without communicating since we've been married.

I have left a piece of my heart in Haiti. I enjoyed the work that we were doing there, but the people really touched my heart. The children are delightful and love to touch us by rubbing our white skin, playing with our straight hair, holding our hands when we are walking or sitting our knee when we sit. We had VBS with them for two days and they loved it as much as we did.

I loved the women's conference and spoke to the ladies about the beatitudes and how they serve God when they serve others with those "attitudes." I gave many hand massages to the ladies on the beach and was surprised to think that most of them cannot swim even though they live so close to the ocean. I enjoyed watching the men cook for the women and hearing the banter back and forth as they prepared the meals for the weekend.

The rice distribution was a awesome experience. To share some food and hygiene bags with them and pray God's blessing upon them on their families was humbling. One lady asked if she could pray God's blessing upon us, because they wanted to encourage us too. What a blessing we recieved by giving to these people. WOW!!!

It was nice to see the progress of the different projects going on in Haiti but the people who live there are the ones who impact you. Not the projects. They do appreciate the effort of the different aid organizations, but they really need a hand up not a hand out so that they can become self sufficient and can provide for their own families. That is what Haiti Arise is trying to do and I really think they are on the right track.

I believe God did open the eyes of my heart and I did see Jesus high and lifted up, shining in the light of His glory. Pouring out His power and love and the people sang Holy, Holy, Holy. What a awesome time and I am so thankful that I got to experience this first hand. If you ever feel God asking you to go on a short term missions trip, be obedient and take the opportunity and privilege to be blessing and be blessed and help those in need who don't have the same opportunities that we have.

Thank you all who were praying for me and our team. I couldn't not have gone through this without God's strength and the prayers of His people to encourage me.

It was wonderful to be together with "Team Haiti" and connect with you all. Especially my room mates Marilyn, Michelle and Kathleen. Good times and great talks. Thanks for putting up with my snoring too.

Blessing

Cindy Knelsen

Andrew's Post

Hello Everyone!
This is my first post on the blog, me and the internet here have not been on great terms. Today marked the start of a new week, but also the last one we will be here for. We started today with a rice distribution in downtown Grand Goave. We arrived at a square in the community that was populated by a tent village. John bravely shared a testimony with the people there, after which we started giving out rice and hygiene bags. I was asking people after they had recieved their rice whether they would like to pray.

One woman was praying with three members of our group, when i was asked to translate for her. My Creole is pretty poor, but i was able to understand her in French. She had asked that the group pray first for her church, her mother and father, the community and the whole country. Then she asked to pray for us, because she appreciated how generous and caring we were, and that she was truely thankful for what we were doing.

It was a really moving moment to see the impact of what we are doing here, and that while we are busy praying for the people of Haiti, the people of Haiti are busy praying for us.

Once we returned home I started helping with the pouring of the concrete roof for the medical clinic. Again I was inspired by the heart and work effort of the Haitian people. There were two groups of workers, one pouring cement on the roof, while the others filled buckets bellow and mixed more concrete. I became a sort of race to see who could work faster, as those on the roof were asking for more concrete and down bellow they would be joking that they weren't bringing back the buckets quick enough. It was a pretty good day of work and that section of the roof was finished and I ended up with a bit of a sunburn as a reward for my hard work.

The trip so far has been a really amazing experience. Everyday seems to bring new challenges but also new rewards. The people of Haiti are beautiful and proud. It is true that many of them leave difficult lives, but have relationships with those around them and with God that are something to strive towards. I am looking forward to all the experiences in store for us all before we leave for home.

Bless you all and see you soon.

Feeding The Poor

Hello everyone,
Today we did our rice feeding and there where 217 families, represented. Before we started we had 2 of the team share with the families gathered, Micheal and John. Speaking to the people of God's love for them. At the end of this the Haitian people wanted to pray for us and our families, it was very encouraging. We supplied them with rice and hygiene bags and then asked them if we could pray for them, there were only a handful of them that said no. It was AMAZING, and overwhelming at the same time. To be able to touch these people and pray a blessing on them touched many of our hearts. Tears flowed everywhere, and God's love was shared.
Sharon Fawcett

karen finally blogs

Well this is the end of day 5 here in Haiti for me. I would like to say that the village wall is complete, and we will be starting the first house, but that has yet to happen. However, progress has been made on other building projects. I've been privileged to work with several team members, including my sons Tyler and Andrew, on the wiring for 2 of the 3 community houses that have been constructed so far. Though we are rookies, there are several people here who are able to give us direction and correct our blunders. The first house is only a few minutes walk from the main compound, the second about 10 min walk. The path feels like: over the road, through the woods, etc, because it is. We pass by tethered pigs, cows and goats as well as hens, chicks, and roosters. Also a variety of kinds of houses, including wood frame structures covered with plastic tarps, sturdy concrete block homes. Some of them are sound, and some of them have been abandoned. No matter what shape the house is in, all of the people we meet greet us with a friendly bonjou. While we are at work in the houses, we usually are visited by plenty of kids and adults who want to see what is going on, and what we are doing. This has been so rewarding, as we get to interact with them... the Creole language is mostly beyond my ability, and my French is not much better, but we manage to smile a lot and have fun. The site for the children's' village is along our route to Mme Luc's house. It is a wonderful site, with some big trees scattered about the property, just waiting for kids to climb them. Maybe construction on the wall has been held up because we have not yet come up with the plan that God has in mind for the children's homes. Marc and I have discussed the plan, and he has thoughts for looking at the possibility of making them 2 story, in order to accommodate more children. I am looking forward to further conversations, and trust that the Lord will lead us to His grand plan for the children.

It seems impossible that we are at the half way point of our trip. Sunday will be a relaxing day, with a trip back to the beach after church in the morning. The break will be nice, but it will be good to get back to work also.

God bless all of you at home who are praying for us.

Karen

Saturday Morning - Day 5

The team is off and running again this morning, while I spend some time on my bed, keeping my feet up.  I seem to have developed some severe swelling in my feet and it makes walking difficult.

As I am typing, I can hear the Haitian men outside preparing supper.  It's a two day process. They are making chicken and rice.  They started yesterday afternoon, and then arrived around 5am this morning to continue.  The preparation is very different than how we do it in Canada.  All I can say is Health Canada would have a hay day with this  :)
 The ladies conference will move to the beach today and we will pamper the Haitian ladies with hand massages, painting nails, jewelry making and teaching crocheting.  We are expecting 80-100 ladies, so we will be kept busy.

Some of the team went to experience the outdoor market here in Grand Goave.  I gave three of the ladies a shopping list to buy some items for the hygiene bags we will be giving out on Monday at the tent city.  It will be interesting to hear of their experience and see how they made out as it is not like shopping in Moose Jaw  lol.

The rest of the team is working on various projects - wiring homes, working on the security wall for the children's village, doing last minute prep work before pouring the medical clinic roof and even installing an air conditioner(which is very important) just ask those staying in the rooms that don't have them.  It is difficult to sleep and some have moved their mattresses to the roof to get some relief from the heat.  Hopefully by tonight, they will have some airconditioning.

Everyone is healthy and seems to be getting on very well.    It's hard to believe we have been gone almost six days already.

Signing off for now.
Kathleen

Always count your blessings

Well, it's Friday night - the end of our first week of this adventure. I've been having an incredible time so far and am so glad I decided to join the group for this trip. Most of the work I've been helping with is wiring houses that we constructed some time ago for a couple of the women who work for Haiti Arise. It's been great learning more and talking with the Haitians who have been hanging around with us while we've been working. We've almost managed to finish two houses in three days, since we became much more efficient after day one - working together to solve the problems that come at us around every corner. There is something to be said here about doing a LOT with a little.

Our surroundings have been so interesting, from the beauty of the landscape and climate to the hardship of daily life for most people living here. It's also been fascinating to see the different tent villages and the names of various aid agencies plastered on them. Many of those groups don't seem to be around any more...and many of the tent houses are empty. There have been many explanations for why that is and they have all been revealing about how difficult the situation is here, and the immense obstacles that still exist on the road to recovery for Haiti and its people.

Thanks to everyone on our team for their patience, cooperation and good spirits so far!

Tyler

Day 4 in Haiti

First of all, I would like to say Happy Birthday to my husband Randy - I miss you and love you - hope you have a great birthday in the city of Vancouver with all the IBC students. Yesterday, I had quite the surprise at supper. We were eating some sort of spicy  stew and my first bite contained an entire Jalepeno pepper- complete with the stem! I was literally speechless for a few moments and then in some pain - it felt like my tongue was burnt and then my face began to swell a bit.  Eating a banana helped take some of the heat after that.  Scott, one of our team, had the same experience yesterday at lunch as well. I don't know about him, but i am examining everything before I eat it now!

I went to the ladies conference this morning. Lisa Honorat and Cindy (from our team) shared what God had laid on their hearts. The Haitian ladies were very responsive to what they had to say.  The worship was wonderful and God's peace was sweet.

The Haitian women who came to the conference (just under 100) were served lunch in the compound - a meal that the Haitian men prepared.  They started working on it early the previous day.  We could hear them early this morning (well before 5 am) working some more on the meal.  The men had makeshift bamboo dividers set up so that we (the women) could not see what exciting things they were making.  Some of the men where wearing what looked like hospital gowns to prepare the food.

Following the lunch the Haitian women were given gift bags (things like hand sanitizers and lotions, etc that our team had brought with us). Tonight is the couples conference.

Tomorrow some of us will go to the market in the morning, and then join the Haitian women at the beach for the last bit of the women's conference.  We are enjoying wonderful fellowship as a team and with the people on the Haiti Arise compound.  The experience has been wonderful so far.

Michele Krieger

Greetings from the 4 Fitzs

Wade and the boys are spending alot of their time working of the wall although, yesterday they managed to squeak in a visit to the ocean!  It's always a treat to get cool here any way at all.  Marilyn  is involved in the Women's conference at the church.  There are 80 ladies attending. This is a very big treat for them as they do not usually have these types of things for them.  The Haitian men even cooked breakfast and lunch for them today - even more rare.  Marilyn has had the opportunity to speak with the help of an interpreter on God's love for us as women.  We have had some amazing times of worship.  The boy's are already saying that they do not want to leave here.  We are all well and energetic.

First Blog from Alex...

Alex here, what a day this was. God is so good. This morning we got to walk around and pray for the land where the Children's village will be. There is some oppostion to Haiti Arise because some people don't want to give up a path that is used. This is delaying the wall construction. I'm sure there is a reason for this though...Perhaps we are supposed to minister to these people who are opposing it? God knows the reason, and he will show it eventually.

I got the chance to observe and take part in door to door ministry and food distribution with some of the very poor people in the area. One family had just lost their mother, and their father had to leave the 5 children to find a job to support them. This was devastating to me. Having said that, they still had hope. Christ is at work in Haiti. Many people are going to church, not all Christians, but the seed is being planted. The joy of the Haitians is very obvious. They shout for joy to God in church and openly talk about Him on the streets. I wish I had this joy. We have lots to learn from the Haitians.

I made a Haitian friend today, Kelly. He is a very encouraging person. He has a passion for life and learning everything he can. He is 20, knows 3 languages, and has more maturity then most adults in Canada, but yet he is full of joy from the Lord. I look forward to continuing to get to know Kelly.

Tomorrow we will begin the work on the wall. This will be hard. Pray for everyone's strength and attitude in the coming days. Life is good here in Haiti. God Bless,
Alex

Day 2 in Haiti

We started off the morning with devotions at 6:30 am in the outdoor chapel. Following breakfast we went on a walk about to see the Haiti Arise compound.  We saw the spot where the technical  school used to be and heard about all the things that will be happening in the future within these walls.  We spent the morning walking near the main compound and to the site of the new orphans village, to the goat farm and then back to the compound.  Haiti reminds me a bit of Malaysia where i lived with my family in 1976-78.  The scenery is beautiful!  Mango trees, banana trees, coconut and palm trees. We saw lots of homes intersperced among the trees. Most were shacks or tents - no one seemed to have much.  The Haitian children loved to follow us around and made a game of coming up behind us and poking us in the side.  When we took pictures of them, they were thrilled to see their image on the camera screen -  they thought that was really funny.

The afternoon was spend working on various projects.  I worked with some of the ladies going through all the suitcases of supplies that we brought.  We were able to assemble over 200 hygiene bags containing washcloths, deodorant, towels, toothbrush and toothpaste, combs, soup, shampoo & hand sanitizers.  We will be distributing these at a tent city later in the week.

Some members of the team went out this afternoon with interpreters to the village of Grand Goave (within walking distance) they went home to home and prayed for people and gave out some food.

Thank you for all the people who are praying for our team. 

Michele Krieger

Haiti is amazing! I want to stay here and not go home. Arriving in Port-au-prince was so different than what I had expected. I find that what was on the news is so much more focused on all of the negative. Although there is a lot of devestation and rubble I find there is a lot of beauty here as well. Also it is almost to chaotic to see all of the rubble. I find it hard to beleive that Haiti was once known as the "Pearl of the Carribean". Many homes that we past on the way to Grand Goave were very badly damaged and on such an angle it was strange to see them still standing. I love the people here. They are very friendly and interested in you.
Something I found funny was that when the other Emily and I went into the town to get hardware supplies a girl looked at the braces on her teeth and looked absolutely disgusted! we tried to explain that this is normal in Canada but they only laughed. Hahaha it was great! Us Emilys had a great laugh afterwards.
-Emily Loney

Fitzpatricks are in Haiti

We went from -29 in Regina to +29 in Miami.  Now I know why people decide to move south!  Anyway, it is amazing and astonishing to see such extreme poverty in Port au Prince. Here in Grand Goave the land is lush and beautiful.  This morning we went on a walking tour of the Childrens village site and goat farm.  Along the way, we walked by some homes--some of wood, tents, even plastic and concrete. We are having fresh papaya for lunch--yummy!

-Marilyn for the 4 Fitzs

Great day in Haitit

We arrived at Haiti Arise safe and sound.  I was glad that I couldn't see the oncoming traffic as we road in a old school bus from the airport. Traffic is crazy and scary.  I had a good night sleep last night and felt quite rested finally.  We went on a prayer walk this morning around the complex, children's village and goat farm.  The country is beautiful and lush but most houses are inadequate.  Some new houses are being constructed and they hopefully will stand firm in the event of another earthquake.
We attended a church service last night and it was wonderful to see how the people praise the Lord.  They have hope and they are not defeated and they praise and pray like this.
Hello to my family at home.  I miss & love you. 

Cindy Knelsen   

We have Arrived!

The team arrived at Haiti Arise about 2pm this afternoon.  All was quiet in Port au Prince and it was a good drive from the city to Grand Goave.  Everyone is adjusting to the heat and culture and is a bit tired this evening, so I think it will be an early evening.  6:00AM comes early!

Hopefully, a couple of team members will blog in the morning.



Kathleen

Headen' For Haiti

My bags are packed and at the door. I'm just going down to the barn to say bye to my husband and then I'm off to Regina to spend the night (part of it) at my nephew's.
I find myself quite emotional today and am really trying to fight back the tears. We had wonderful church service today and pastor Chad had a message just for me. "Help me in my unbelief." I belief God is doing a wonderful work in Haiti, but will what we do make a difference? I belief so and pray for His will to be done.
I have many family & friends who are praying for me and I thank you in advance for your continued prayers and good words & blessings.
I keep thinking of the doxology:
Praise God from whom all blessing flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts
Praise Father, Son & Holy Ghost.
Amen

Open the Eyes of my heart Lord

"Open the eyes of my heart, Lord, open the eyes of my heart, I want to see you, I want to see... to see You high and lifted up, shining in the light of your Glory, pour out your power and love as we cry Holy, Holy, Holy..."

Those words have been going around in my head for the last month.    As I am preparing for my 5th trip to Haiti, I'm  praying that God will open the eyes of my heart, to see Him,  and help me to see what He sees.  Haiti is a country that has been totally devasted and yet many of her people serve the Living God with exhurberance and by their example we can learn a thing or two.   They(the Haitians)  have so little and yet they are joyful.  I remember, the first time Vernon went to Haiti and he told me, they have nothing, and yet they sing  "This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it"  If I had nothing, would I abe able to sing those words and mean it?    Oh I am sure they have their down times and it is a struggle for survival, they wouldn't be human if they didn't,  but every time I visit Haiti,  I come away with a fresh appreciation for what they have, (which is obviously not material) and what I want in my life.  I want to serve the Lord no matter what the circumstances, to let Him lead in my life.

On Monday morning, bright and early at 6AM, (actually for many of us our day will begin at 2 or 3 AM) our team of  25 will set out on an adventure together, and we will share many experiences.   Some will be difficult, some will be exciting, and rewarding,  some experiences, we may even  find difficult to find the words to express what we feel.    I pray, that for each team member, God will meet with them.  I pray He will give us His strength to do what He has called us to do.  My prayer is that each team member will come away with a new perspective on life... on the life that I so many times take for granted.   On how even when a person has little they can still be so rich in the Lord in their life.    Would I have the gracious, joyous spirit of the Haitian people, if all was taken away.    I hope so... but I wonder.   I think it is something that is cultivated.  Out of adversity comes strength.  Perhaps that is the secret. 

Open the eyes of my heart Lord.....