To Fly Would Be An Awfully Big Adventure

I don't care what anyone says... Flying is magical.  None of your complicated explanations or equations or diagrams will convince me that airplane work because of science.  Nope.  Airplanes are pure magic.

So even waking up at 3:30 in the morning could not put a damper my excitement: I'm going on a plane.  To Haiti.  With Max.  I have dreamed of this moment for literally years, and it has finally come!  We are going on an adventure!

Max, unfortunately, did not entirely seem to share my infatuation with flying... After we landing in Port au Prince, we took a short car ride to the small airport where we boarded a small five-passenger plane.  Don't get me wrong, Max was a champ... But let's just say the VIP seat in the COCKPIT was a bit wasted on him.  (Pictures and videos to come, though they might be a little shaky, for reasons I'm sure you'll be able to infer.)

We finally arrived in Port de Paix just in time to unpack a little and then head out to St. Louis to see some old friends.  We got to hang out with Wesline for awhile at the new One Stop, a group of shops and restaurants they just built, and shared meal with her.  I was really glad Max finally got to meet one of my closest Haitian friends.  After that, we headed back to the Mission to catch the Miriam Center kids after their nap.  My own personal rule: Never visit Haiti without visiting Steven.

Sunday was church, which was intellectually exhausting... I spent the whole hour and a half service trying to whisper to Max in English any bits of Creole I was catching.  It forced me to pay extra close attention, but you'd be surprised how tiring it is to do that.  Both of us were pretty wiped after that...

Max spent most of the rest of the day hanging out with Moselin, the student who leads worship for the family.  They had quite the jam session: Max taught Moseline "With Everything" and Moseline taught Max "Mwen Adore W'" ("I Worship You").  Max also showed him "Faith is a Gradual Process", which is a song with just 11 words, one word added each time you start over.  With some help, I translated it into Creole, so they were able to sing it in both languages.  It really sounded beautiful.

Max's birthday was Monday!  We celebrated by organizing the library and painting a ti marche (little market).  Just kidding... I mean, we did all those things because that was how House of Moses asked us to serve, but the par-tay was later.  We had a big cake and cold cokes and Max got sung to in both English and Creole.

I can't tell you how happy am I to be here with Max.  Please continue to pray for us while we are here--for God to reveal His plans for us.  Look out for a guest post later this week!  :)

#weregoingonanadventure

A Special Treat for You!

This is my fourth trip to Haiti, but my first trip bringing someone with me.  My beautiful and brave Mommy wrote a guest post tonight!

"After years of delays and changes, I have finally made it to Haiti with Melissa.  We arrived yesterday and made it through customs quickly.  I had a treat on the flight over since most of the passengers were Haitian and apparently knew each other.  They were getting up wandering around chatting with each other throughout the flight.  It was wonderful to see the joy and playfulness of the people as they were headed home.

The hospitality here is unbelievable.  Everyone is friendly and helpful and the country is beautiful.  At the airport, we met with a group we will be working with all week and I enjoyed watching the camaraderie as the Haitians moved the luggage for 15 people to the hotel.  They were a great team working seamlessly; it was like watching a game of Tetris.  We stayed the first night at a hotel in Port au Prince and met several groups of people and had family style meals and worship. 

This morning, we woke early and I enjoyed a cup of coffee and watched the sun coming up from the balcony.  We had breakfast and they loaded the luggage back on the bus to go to the bus station where the game of Tetris began again taking all the luggage from the little bus to the big bus that would be home for the day. We took a bus from Port au Prince to Port de Paix.  A real bus, not a tap-tap.  It was amazing.  I absolutely loved watching as the driver navigating the streets and potholes and people and other vehicles.  A special blessing: no one got sick on the bus ride (a first for Christie). Ginger did the trick, Nikita.  After arriving and unpacking, we enjoyed dinner and worship with the whole House of Moses family.

I can’t wait to see what else God has in store for us this week.”

Love from Haiti,

Melissa

Throughout Haiti and What Melissa Found There

"The time has come," the walrus said,
"to talk of many things...

of shoes
So I didn't finish everything on my Haiti Truck-It List... so I decided to change it into a Haiti Bucket List.  In other words, just because I haven't seen Steven walk yet, I will someday.  Therefore, "see Steven walk by himself" is officially on my new Haiti Bucket List

I have, however, seen a lot of improvement.  Some of it is physical.  Steven is already walking much better then the first time he tried.  He especially walks better when he is wearing his shoes!  But some of his improvements are mental.  Whereas he used to tire and give up easily, now he asks me to walk with him.  I even caught him walking around holding onto a wheelchair by himself once!

I nearly started crying when I was holding him today.  He knows I'm leaving, so he latched on and told me I couldn't go.  How old does a kid have to be to be able to sit on your lap in a plane?...

and ships
Oh, nothing makes me feel more like a pirate than sailing to Tortuga--expect maybe sailing at camp with Nikita, Dominic, and Sarah...  Anyway, my most recent sail out to Tortuga made me feel more like Peter than a pirate.  The waves were so crazy I really did half expect Jesus to come strolling across the water telling them to calm themselves down!

I only got to see Wencha a couple of times this summer, and her mother even less often, which makes me sad.  But the girl's definitely growing up without me... I wish I could have seen her one more time, but I will see you again someday.

and ceiling wax
Okay, okay, so I know that the original poem actually says "sealing wax..." but come on... It's punny!

How could I forget the new ceiling on the church in Berger?  That is still one of my favorite moments this summer.  We planned for a new tarp, and God gave us a new ceiling altogether.  Praise God for plans gone wrong!

of cabbages
I haven't talked much about Aquaponics this summer... in fact, I may have not mentioned it at all since last summer!  So for the newbees, here's Aquaponics in a nutshell: Fish in big tanks poo, poo fertilizes water, seeds float on water--BAM--vegetables without soil.

Last year I kept you updated on the progress of this greenhouse being built.  This summer, it was finished being built, but just wasn't being run yet.  We are in the beginning processes of  starting it up though!  We have fish food (which I helped carry down Haitian-style, if you can imagine that...) and are waiting for fish.

Eventually, we will be able to grow all sorts of vegetables that don't even normally grow in Haiti.  You know what this means, right?  Lettuce in our salads instead of cabbage!

Okay, okay, so maybe there are more exciting things about this than lettuce in a salad... but you get the point.

and Kings
There's really only one King worth talking about here, and I think you can take a wild guess who I'm referring to.  It seems to me that a lot of Haitians look down on themselves for being poor.  They won't come into church because they don't have the "right clothes."  They won't pose for a picture because they're "dirty."

What a blessing it has been this summer to remind them that we are all sons and daughters of the King--that makes us royalty!  Sometimes even I need that reminder...

and why the sea is boiling hot
There are not too many things in this world worse than spending a whole day sweating in Haiti and looking forward to the beach, and then jumping in to boiling hot water.  Opposite of refreshing.

I remember, though, all those crazy hikes we did and jumping into the Infinity Pool.  Now that was refreshing.  I will never ever get sick of the beauty of Haiti.

and whether pigs have wings!"
"When pigs fly."

That's what people say when something is impossible.  Well, I'm happy to say, ladies and gentleboys, that pigs have been flying today!

Wednesday, I left for Beauchamp to check out a couple of communities in the area.  The best way to describe how it went would be something like this: Satan really really really didn't want me to go.  God really really really could care less about what Satan wanted.

The plan was to spend all day Thursday looking at two different villages and then leaving this morning.  But it rained Wednesday, and the second community (Viewjoupa) is high up in the mountains.  So that got scratched.  So we went to Savoyard and checked it out.  Super great community.  And then our four-wheeler broke down.  It turned out that Atrel was not much further and the mission hasn't even checked it out yet.  So we got some motos (Satan: 0, God:1) and I got to see two communities yesterday anyway.  (Satan: 0, God: 2)

By this time, I considered myself pretty done.  We can't see Viewjoupa.  Too far, up a mountain, too muddy, etc.  But Odinas, the Haitian who runs Beauchamp, said we could see it in the morning.  *Spoiler: here's where the pigs start to fly.  So this morning, we woke up, packed breakfast, and headed up the mountain.  When taking a moto up a mountain with bad roads... let's just say we both did a whole lot of praying.  Don't worry... if it really wasn't safe, I had to get off and walk up the mountain to meet him at the top.  I did a lot of climbing this morning.

So we're going and going.  The moto breaks down more than once, but always starts back up again.  (Satan: 0, God: 4)  And we get lost.  In the mountains.  Of Haiti.  Just when I was about to give up and suggest we just go home, Odinas points to a man and says, "That is the pastor of Viewjoupa."  And then, all of a sudden, pigs flew! (Satan: 0, God: 5)

Long story short, we got to Viewjoupa safely, against all odds, and I fell in love with a third Haitian community.  Oh yeah, and God beat Satan five to zip.

Creole Lesson:
Amen!
Hey, some words are just universal.

PS Ten points to whomever knows the book reference of this post.  No Google-cheating!

Flying home tomorrow!

Church Squared

Church Service #1

I went to church in Port de Paix this past Sunday because a friend of my group was preaching there.  I ended up sitting next to a side "door," which basically looked like a big open window a foot from the ground.  I was having a hard time focusing on the service because two girls were standing outside that open door watching me.  So I kept watching them.

I wanted to invite them in so badly, but I was torn.  Would the people get offended or annoyed that I let those dirty children into the church?  Would they think less of me for ignoring the sermon?  So I just waved at them from my seat and they smiled and pointed at me.

Finally, I couldn't ignore God punching me in the shoulder... so I stood up and sat on the window frame.  I motioned for them to come sit with me and one girl finally did, Tabina.  So I took out my Creole children's Bible and started to read to her.  The other girl, her cousin Nitchy, still wouldn't come near.  She would shake her head and point to her clothes.

By this time, another younger girl joined us at the window, Fondline.  I broke my communion cracker in four pieces and gave one to each of them and saved one for myself.  "Nou manje sa paske Jezi te mouri pou nou," I told them.  "We eat this because Jesus died for us."

Eventually, we graduated from the window to the narthex.  I climbed out the window/door and walked hand in hand with the girls to the front of the church.  (This was Attempt #2 of getting them in the narthex, by the way.  They weren't having it at first...)  Now Fondline's brother Lendz had joined us.  Nitchy was standing outside the door, and the other three were sitting with me inside the church, reading the children's Bible.

At the end of the service, I wanted a picture with my four new friends.  Tabina, Fondline, and Lendz jumped right in, but Nitchy kept saying no.  "Mwen sal."  I'm dirty.  I asked and asked, told her she wasn't dirty--she was beautiful.  But finally I just took a picture with the others.  Pretty bummed, I started to head for the bus to leave when Nitchy came running.  She wanted a picture.  Stay tuned for the beautiful picture of Tabina, Fondline, Lendz, and, of course, beautiful Nitchy.  :)

Church Service #2:

On Saturday, my group all went to the small two-cell jail in St. Louis to visit the prisoners and bring them some food.  The prisoners wanted us to come back, but the group was only going to be here for Sunday and Monday.  We don't usually visit on Sundays, and Monday we were planning on Tortuga.  So we asked permission to hold a church service for them.

Sure enough, God set it all up for us to come in at 2:00, not long after returning from Port de Paix, and hold service at the jail.  We sang some hymns, and they sang some for us.  We shared communion (bread leftover from lunch and red Tampico).  We prayed.  We shared a message.  Each of the nine people also got a New Testament Bible, which they started reading right away.

I have to say... it was a pretty beautiful service.  No lights.  No sound system.  No fancy lyric slideshows.  No interpretive dance.  No pews.  No air conditioning.  Just two cells, some leftover food, a Bible, and God.

Prie:
My group also went to the brothel on Saturday.  I usually like to take the kids aside and read to them while the others do a devotional with the women.  So we all went outside.  For whatever reason, the young kids weren't as interested... But two of the older girls, maybe 10 or 11, were listening.  I asked them if I could pray for them, and I found out that Matilda's parents both died in the earthquake (she's now living with her cousins) and Jennica's father has also died.  Please pray for both of these sweet girls!

Loue:
A couple of weeks ago, I met a girl named Nandy, who has special needs.  I blogged about her, asking for your prayers as we tried to get her into our outreach program.  Today I was able to take a couple of the Miriam Center workers with me to find her house.  (Sidenote: I found the house!  This is a big deal seeing as when they asked me where it was I said "Well... it's by the shore, but the road is paved... we passed a carpenter!")  Anyway, praise God that we not only re-found her, but also found out that she has a sister with special needs also: Sabrina.  The mother, who is a widow, was told to come to the mission for more information about the programs.  Yay!


Creole Lesson:
Most of the time during a Haitian service, I will know the tune to their songs, but often won't know the words to sing.  This Sunday, I was lucky enough to be sitting next to someone with a songbook who shared with me.  Here was the chorus:

Briye pou Jezi kote ou ye.
Shine for Jesus wherever you are.

Whether it's at a church window or a jail or a brothel or a house by the shore past the carpenter!  Shine for Jesus wherever you are!

X Marks the Spot

I love the market.

And for awhile I didn't know why.  It's busy and crowded and dirty and smelly.  People get frustrated with the blancs blocking the path, then beg for us to buy from them.  We get overpriced.  It's hot.  The money is confusing.

And yet, I love the market.

I finally figured out why!  A couple of the interns and staff went with Melonnie to the big market for some vegetables.  She mostly wanted green bell peppers, along with some other things.  I have never since bell peppers in the market before, so I was a little doubtful... "They are hard to find... Keep an eye out."

And that's where the fun begins!  I began searching every stand, looking for bell peppers.  In the meantime, I would get excited over other rare treats, like pineapples (giant ones!) or variety packs of cookies.  We searched and searched in vain.  No bell peppers.

In the States, I would have been annoyed.  "You don't have bell peppers?!  Are there some in the back?"  In a world of WalMart it's hard to imagine not having exactly what you want available to you at all times.

But none of us were annoyed.  Bummed, but content.  I climbed back into the tap-tap saying, "Sorry, Mel... That was fun!"  And that's when I realized that it was the trill of the chase.  Shopping in Haiti is like going on a treasure hunt.  You are looking for that one rare treasure--the prize.  If I saw pineapples every time I came to the market, they would no longer be a treasure.  I would pass right by without a second glance.  But I don't.

It doesn't matter so much that you find what you're looking for... but that you search.  It's always different, ever-changing.  What will be at the market today?

I feel like there are tons of "lessons" I could pull out of this little story for you... but I won't.  I'll let you take from it what you will, or nothing at all.  It's just some food for thought.  (Bahaha, get it?)

Prie:
Last couple of days for WWW Camp!  I love all of you!  Have fun and love campers for me!

Also, I'd love to be rid of this cough/sore throat.  : /

Loue:
I get to see everyone soon!  I love you guys!

Creole Lesson:
"Paske, kote riches ou ye, se la ke ou ye tou." -Matye 6:21
"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." -Matthew 6:21

I'll probably delete this later...

Okay, friends, here's the deal:

No, I haven't found a way to watch the Olympics here yet.

No, I DO NOT WANT ANY SPOILERS.

ESPECIALLY not for the girls gymnastics team.  I want to watch us cream China with my own two eyes.  PLEASE don't tell me what is happening.  I will cry.

Depressed and Deprived in Haiti,
Melissa

PS I already got the "Ryan Lochte creamed Michael Phelps" spoiler.  Literally jumped on a table in celebration.

Extreme Makeover: Haiti Edition

A common first impression upon arriving in Haiti (my own included) is "I can't believe how much trash is around!"  There's no garbage man to take the trash to the dump, and there definitely aren't $200 littering fines.  People throw their trash in the streets, on the beach, in the water, wherever they are.  I often have to resist the urge to start picking it all up like some unorthodox community service worker--as Jason Mraz would say: "It's like picking up trash in dresses!"

Something strange happened to me this past week, though, while I was at Beauchamp.  We were walking down the path to the soccer field one day when I saw a styrofoam take-out box.  My first thought wasn't, "Ugh, trash on the road again."  It wasn't even, "Styrofoam never decomposes!  Ah!"  My first thought, I kid you not, was, "That would make a great sail for a toy boat!"  We kept walking and soon I saw a whole trash bag hanging off a cactus.  "That would be perfect for making kites!"  I thought.

(Look on my Dropbox page to see some sweet examples of these cools toys: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2tll4qpjbq9d1us/9R9t95DDnz)

Somehow during my time here, my perspective has shifted.  I stopped seeing disgusting trash and started seeing the potential for something beautiful.  The same Jason Mraz song might call this a "Beautiful Mess."  

Isn't this how God sees us?  A beautiful mess.  We are so messed up... so dirty.  And yet in God's eyes, we are beautiful treasures. He makes beautiful things out of us, just as Haitian children make beautiful things out of garbage.

There are lots of ways you can make something beautiful out of something ugly.  I call this "Extreme Makeover: Haiti Edition!"  Here are some before and after snapshots of makeovers this week.

Before: sand and rocks
After: a delicious beach picnic

I was playing with some kids at the Anse a Foleur beach last week and thought it would be funny to put a small rock on one kid's head.  "Chapo!" I said.  "Hat!"  The kids thought this was hilarious and began giving me and each other "chapos."  From there, we turned sand into rice and beans, shells into plantains, seaweed into spaghetti, and ocean water into juice.  It was quite the feast.

Before: a concrete classroom with wooden benches
After: a stage

So after the church filled up, there were still some kids on Tortuga who didn't fit

inside.  So my group decided to improvise a little... We took the extra kids into

the schoolhouse: a concrete building, empty besides some wooden benches.

There they picked out some future actors from the crowd to perform Daniel and

the Lions' Den.  Super cute.  And the kids that would have been left outside the

gate still got to hear a message.

Before: an awkward situation
After: a beautiful ongoing relationship

So we tried out something new at Beauchamp this week... something different.  "Community Meals" they called it.  Basically Odinas (the director at Beauchamp) chose some families he knew in the area.  The mission provided the food, and each family cooked the meal and hosted us for lunch.  At first the idea sounded awesome!...

It was awkward.  We walked in and the woman seemed uncomfortable.  There were five of us: three group members, a translator, and myself.  There were four plates.  She told us we could serve ourselves and then left.  Well... this is not what we had in mind.

We asked her to come join us.  The point was to eat WITH the family, get to know them, etc.  So she came in awkwardly and watched us eat.  I tried to start some conversation, but she was shy... When we finished eating, we passed our plates over for them to reuse.  I didn't give up.

I kept talking to her and learned a bit about her family.  She told us she had seven kids, and when we asked their ages, she said 12-14.  We looked at each other... seven kids in two years?  So we asked.  It turns out that this woman had taken in orphans along with her own kids.  A woman who only had enough plates to feed four people at a time took in extra kids.

It turns out that her oldest adopted kid is 20 and going into his junior year of high school.  When I asked, she responded, "He wants to be a doctor but, of course, no opportunities."  This started a whole converstaion about possibilities to help him out.  I made it clear that I wan't making promises, but that I would talk to some people.  I got to talk to the group there who are partnered with Beauchamp (Neighbors Project) and also John and Christi about how he can apply for the House of Moses.  Please being praying for opportunities to open up for Dalson!

The next day in Beauchamp, we were trying to figure out what we wanted to do... Some people wanted to do hut to huts and some wanted to check out the market.  We decided to do both: get groceries from the market and take them to our Communitiy Meals family.

So we got to see our famliy again.  We thanked them again for lunch the day before and gave them some food.  Then we prayed with them.  Rosadette and Shelda have both had miscarriages (the latter not even looking old enough to have a baby at all...).  Please pray for these women and this famliy that I have grown to love.

Thank you God for turning the original awkwardness into a beautiful new relationship.

Before: a wall and a kid who "can't walk"
After: Date Night!

The wall outside the Miriam Center was painted white so that they can project movies on it now (without a blue tinge...).  So it was movie night downstairs!  I went with my date, Steven, who shared his popcorn with me and held my hand.  When Elf finished, we danced to the credits music.  First, I carried him and we swayed... later he put his feet down, and I held him up as he danced.

Sorry, Max.  I may have found a new dance partner.  He's my little "sweetheart," as they say in ASL.

Prie:
I've been trying to be intentional about writing down specific names to pray for and help.  You've already heard about Dalson, Rosadette, and Shelda.  Here are some other people I met doing groceries ministries:

-Nandy: a girl with special needs that we are trying to get into our outreach program

-Odalus Olondieu: a man with one blind eye we are trying to get onto the eye surgery team list

Please pray for them by name!

Loue:
There is a Christian-run hospital in Beauchamp!  I didn't know it existed before... A girl had a bad asthma attack while we were there, and they were amazing.  We are being taken care of over here.  No worries.  :)

Creole Lesson:
The Basics
Koman ou rele?: What is your name?
Ki laj ou?: How old are you?

The Answers:
"I don't know my last name."
"I don't know how old I am."

I guess I shouldn't be surprised... but these were some responses to our questions when we were working on sponsorship pictures at the orphanage.

You make beautiful things.
You make beautiful things out of the dust.
You make beautiful things.
You make beautiful things out of us.