Celebration Sunday with a Potluck

Every once in a while it’s good to take a moment to Celebrate the good things around us. This Sunday we celebrated all the fantastic volunteers we have at MBC. Pastor Aaron started by having the Children’s Church, Nursery and Olympians Coordinators up to the front. Then all the volunteers in these areas were asked to stand. They were not all in attendance but Aaron listed 70 people!!! so amazing. Then Pastor Tim’s area in Music and Small Groups included at least another 30 people. Pastor Harv also had everyone in Care & Compassion, Cafe 77, Food Services and First Impressions stand. There are around 60 more people serving in these areas. So how’s your math? My calculations say that’s a lot of people working together to build the Kingdom!

Potluck: WOW!!!

Did you know that’s the first time we’ve done a plain Potluck with no instructions except: Bring Food, then we eat. It turned out SO WELL!! There was so much delicious food and the variety was just perfect.  We had great attendance and everyone enjoyed it very much. Probably something we will do again!

April 18, 2012

It was really hot today…even the Haitians thought so. We went to the market in the morning. We had a great time. We toured the bakery and at the end one of the workers started taking pictures of us with his phone. I guess they wanted us to know how it felt to have your picture taken. It was quite amusing. I gave them each a Canada bracelet. We even found some chocolate bars and Pringles!! I haven’t eaten mine yet. I am saving it for after supper. We had about 120 kids for VBS today. It was less than we had last year when I was here but it was nice because it was less hectic. We stood at the gate and greeted the kids again. Some of them hugged and kissed us. They are so sweet. I am going to miss that. I am still hoping to meet my other sponsor child before I go, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. Charmaine and I are trying to get the blog done early today so we can play cards with the others. There is a game going every night but we haven’t joined them yet because we are just too tired. Tomorrow night we won’t be able to because we have to get up at 2 am your time to leave for the Port-au-Prince airport on Friday. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel home. See you all soon.

So yet another day is almost done. We are just waiting for supper – I think it’s a little late because there were two houses to be dedicated. We went on Monday – there’s not enough room for all of us to go at the same time. Yes, it was so hot today. My nose and forehead are peeling! I am going to miss seeing all these kids at VBS. As Michelle said – she and I greet them at the gate and it’s so much fun. We shake their hands or give them a hug and a kiss – they’re so affectionate! Today they made a coffee filter “papillon” (butterfly). They did so good! I really enjoyed walking to the market today. The Haitian people love it when you shake their hands, so we did a lot of that. And said “Bonswa” a lot!! One little girl was playing hide-and-seek with us for a little while. The market is so interesting – some people don’t like it, but I found it fascinating. I wish I could have taken photos but that’s not really allowed. Other than the guys in the bakery – it really was funny. They totally laughed at us. They let us take photos inside the bakery because we bought something. I can’t wait until you see them – it’s unreal. No sink in sight!! The bread is quite different here. It’s very dense and flat, and hard to chew. Today was a good day for me – I had lots of energy. Yesterday – not so much. Tomorrow morning we will find a few things to do, then we’re going to the beach again. I have a wonderful story – at the beach the other day, I bought two necklaces for my girls. (Pretend to be surprized girls). To make the story shorter, I left money here at the office for him, because I hadn’t brought any to the beach. It turns out I overpaid – and today he was waiting for me here to give me change. I was so amazed! Well – I think that’s about it for now. We’re quite hungry – I sure hope we’re eating soon!! I am really going to miss these people. I have learned so much from them. They really are amazing, strong and very passionate. But I am looking forward to seeing my family again! Michelle is craving McDonalds – so Ivan better be prepared to stop there on the way home. We are only allowed on the computer in the evening, and considering how busy tomorrow evening is going to be we won’t be able to blog again. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about our time in Haiti. See you soon!! Thank-you for all of your prayers! We are safe and healthy!

April 17, 2012

Hello all. I can’t believe that another day is over. Only two left. Today was kind of a slow day. The morning anyway. We cleaned up the mangos after breakfast and then we sorted and put away the donations that we brought. The afternoon was kind of hectic because we had about 115 kids for VBS. Things went really well though. Today’s craft was a Salvation Bracelet. This involved stringing beads and the kids did really well. Claudianna came to VBS so I got to spend some more time with her. There was a church service in the evening. Anyway, it is way past my bedtime, so I will let Charmaine tell you about the rest.
I can’t believe it’s almost over. I knew it would go by fast, but wow. Today we did have a little slower day. We had some struggles getting ready for VBS, but it all worked out in the end. Michelle and I have taken the job of waiting by the security gate to usher the kids in. We greet them and then tell them to head to “l’eglise”. It’s nice to see them coming every day! Keep in mind that the kids get out of school at 12, have to walk home who knows how far, then they walk back at 2. Then today they had to walk home again at 4, then come back at 5 for church. What can we tell you about VBS? The children are adorable. But man, are they wild! They’re absolutely crazy. They also try very hard to tell you that they haven’t received a snack, when we know they did. “You! You! You!” they call, and point to their mouths. It’s very difficult to say sorry, no more. It’s awesome to get hugs from them, I love it. Later on, we had church. It was supposed to start at 5, but it started around 6. Haitian time. Still getting used to it. It lasted for 2 hours. The leader from the American team spoke, and Pastor Marc translated. Then they opened it up to the Haitians to come forward to be prayed over, and I went up to pray with them. That was a stretch, but an amazing experience. I wasn’t spectating, Pastor Harv. One thing that has really blessed me this week is watching the Haitian people worship. They sing for at least 45 minutes, and during that time they make it through about 4 songs. They are all up and moving, and at some points every one of them is praying out loud. It gets very vocal at times! It’s very cool, though. Well – guess what. It’s almost 10:30, which means it’s way past my bedtime. So we’ll chat again tomorrow!!! Bonswa!!!

April 16, 2012

Hello all. Well it’s the end of another day at Haiti Arise. I am soooo tired. We cleaned up the area where the kids were going to play games during VBS, and then Charmaine and I helped serve lunch at the school. What a blessing it was!! God is doing great things here through Marc and Lisa and I am so excited to be a part of it. We had 58 kids at VBS today. Pretty good considering it was only announced this morning at school. We are expecting probably double tomorrow. A funny thing happened today when Charmaine and I were waiting for kids and counting them as they came through the gate. Some young men were walking by and one of them was looking at my watch and pointing. I thought he wanted to know the time, so I was trying to tell him what it was. Meanwhile, the security guard was laughing and he sent him away. We asked him what he had wanted. He told us that he liked my watch and thought I should give it to him as a gift. Good thing someone else was there or we could have got ourselves into trouble. The Haitians love it when we do silly things while trying to understand what they are saying. We also got to go to a house dedication this afternoon. I will let Charmaine tell you about that. Please continue to pray for our health and stamina as we near the end of our time here.  Is anyone reading this blog??  We don’t see any comments.

 

Kom ou ye!! That means “how are you?” I hope you are all doing well. We had another busy day today. It’s only 8:30 and we can barely keep our eyes open! The house dedication we went to was so moving. Sister Luc’s house was destroyed in the earthquake, and Haiti Arise built her a new one. It was completed a short while ago and she was waiting for it to be dedicated before she moved in. A man named Bob and also Pastor Marc prayed and blessed her and her new house, and then handed her the keys. She was so grateful! We were blessed to have been able to see that. One thing that amazed us was how many people are living in little communities off the main road. There’s probably no accurate number for how many people are in this area. We passed an area where there were quite a few tents still set up as well. One thing that we have to get used to here is something called “Haitian time”. So today VBS was supposed to start at 2:00. There were only a few kids here at 2, and they trickled in all through the afternoon. Some kids came up just as the children were being dismissed at 4:00!  Right after supper we went for a walk up the road to the South Campus.  It’s all fenced off, and it’s huge.  Marc and Lisa have big plans for that area.  It’s going to have an administration office, two elementary schools, a high school and a children’s village.   Well, that’s about all for now. I think we’re too tired to think about our day! Michelle and I are usually the first ones in bed! There’s usually a game of “up the river” going on, but we’re just too tired to play cards. We’re not exactly sure what we’re doing tomorrow morning, but we’re pretty good at finding things to do. There’s always mangoes to pick up!! Thank-you for covering us in prayer! There doesn’t seem to be any major illness going through the house and no one is injured. Bless all of you and have a great day!

 

 

 

 

 

April 15, 2012

Today has been a very restful day.  We had church in the morning, prepared for
VBS after lunch and then had a much needed nap in the afternoon.  We had time to reflect on the past week.  I can’t believe we only have 4 days left
here.  We are helping the American team
with VBS this week so it will be really busy.
Charmaine and I are planning to help serve at the lunch program at
school tomorrow.  I came here to bless
the people of Haiti and I am sure that they have blessed me more.   That’s really all there is for today.  Thank  you
for praying for us.

April 14, 2012

We had a wonderful day today.  Charmaine and I stayed back while the rest of
the group went to the market.  We had an
awesome visit with Pastor Marc.  He told
us that he and his wife Lisa would love to come and share at our church this
summer.  I am really excited for our
church to meet them.  We also got to go
to the beach.  What a beautiful, relaxing
day it was.  We have worked really hard
this week and it was nice to have a bit of down time and also to get to know
the California team better.  They told me
that I have a neat accent.  I said the
same to them.  We all didn’t think that
we had accents.  Weird.  We had some really good laughs on the way
back from the beach comparing how we each said different things.  Supper was good….we had goat.  It was good.
We see a lot of goats around here so it’s kind of sad to think about
which one we are eating.  Oh well.  It was nice to see children at the
beach.  Things seem less desperate this
year.  I know I have said that before,
and I am glad that I am seeing it everywhere so far.    Tomorrow is church and they told us we could
help with the children’s church if we wanted.
Kind of excited about that.
Please keep praying for us.  Some
of us got a little too much sun today and aren’t feeling well.  It is really hot.   Anyway, I will let Charmaine have a turn
now.  Talk to you all tomorrow.

 

Bonjou!   It’s 8:30 or so Saturday evening, and we are
so tired!  A day in the sun sure wipes
you out.  We had a great morning up on
the roof while everyone was at the market, as Michelle said.  It was so nice and peaceful up there, with
only a fraction of the Haitian workers up there.   The Haitian workers are paid anywhere from 5
US dollars a week to 20 US dollars a week depending on the type of job they
do.  Yesterday when we were hauling all
those buckets I just kept thinking of something one of the long term
missionaries living here told us – every bucket we haul is one less that the
Haitians have to haul. The morning flew by.
I have been truly blessed by how the Cornerstone group has welcomed us in.  For the most part we feel like we’re part of
their group.  We have lots of laughs and
all really work well together.  That’s
something I was a little worried about, since I didn’t know them before
coming.  We have had some frustrations
with another group that is here, but I’m praying that God will change my
attitude towards what is going on.  We
will be helping them with VBS starting on Monday, so hopefully when we’re
working together we’ll get to know them a little better.  I wasn’t in the truck with Michelle on the
way back from the beach, so I missed that part of it.  I walked back with a handful of people, and
the guy who led us was from Red Deer.
He’s been here 6 times before and gave us a really awesome guided
tour.  At the end, right outside of the
Haiti Arise compound, he took us to a little fenced off area where there was
almost like a little community.   There
were some shacks and a bunch of people, and we visited for a little while and
had some laughs.  His two sponsored kids
lived there, and we met one of them.
He’s about 13, and to make a long story short after the earthquake he
came to the clinic and had been mutilated by someone.  Very sad story.   It’s hard to fathom that pretty much
everyone we’re meeting would have lost loved ones in the earthquake.  Michelle and I are really hoping that on
Wednesday we will be able to go to the market since we didn’t go today.  The only problem would be that there is a big
pour scheduled for Wednesday, which means it will be extremely busy.  But we’ve asked one of the men from the other
team to take us with the translator he had today.  They went to the market but asked their
translator to take them into one of the tent communities and were able to
witness to some people, pray for them and had someone accept Christ.  So let’s hope it works out!  Well, I should probably get going.   It’s definitely time for bed!!   Talk
to you tomorrow!!  Bonswa!!

April 13, 2012

Hello again, this is Michelle. Sorry about missing yesterday, but
Charmaine and I don’t know what happened. Thought we posted it. Anyway, it was
a really good blog and we are disappointed that you missed it. Oh well, that’s
what happens sometimes. We had a really good day yesterday…. If you can
believe it, we cleaned up the garbage dump!! Yes Pastor Harv, it’s true.
Michelle Guenther and Charmaine Macooh were in the dump. I love the smell of
rotting mangoes. Yuck!! The explosion that happened while it was being lit was
kind of scary, but we survived. No environmentalists showed up to investigate
the black smoke coming from Haiti Arise either. The fire will probably smolder
and smoke for the rest of our time here because of the humidity and rain we get
almost every day. Spent the rest of the day cleaning up on the yard because
Haitians don’t use garbage cans. When one dumping area is full they start
another. At one dump site there was a truck in the way so Charmaine and I,
strong women that we are, pushed it (manually) out of the way. It was pretty
impressive. Since there was so much to do and it seemed overwhelming we got
kind of discouraged but God knew what we needed to get our spirits up. A man
from the California team came over to us and asked why Canadian women were so
ambitious. He couldn’t believe how hard we worked. We told him that we were
hardy like shrubs that stay alive in a cold climate. Went on a walk in
Grand-Goave and I was amazed at the progress they have made there. I didn’t see
any rubble left from the earthquake and there were a few new buildings. It is
awesome what God has done. Today we worked even harder. Since the Lafarge truck
didn’t show up, we had to pour 1500 square feet of concrete that was 8 inches
thick by hand. That means….. bucket brigade!!
Not just any bucket brigade but this was for a concrete pour on the 2^nd
floor of the technical school.  So 5
gallon pails of concrete had to travel up a ladder.   I also
got to meet 2 of my sponsored children and their parents today.  It was awesome!!  I am so glad that my family is able to
sponsor them.  They were so happy for
their gifts.

Hi!  I will try to condense
what I wrote yesterday into a shorter post, so I can still write what happened
today.  So as Michelle said, we cleaned
up the dump yesterday.  It was very
gratifying, and so nice to be outdoors for the day.  It’s just beautiful here – so lush.  Banana trees, all kinds of palms, and massive
mango trees!  It’s funny to be in church
or in the house and hearing a huge “bang” as a mango falls.  I would not want to be hit on the head by a
falling mango.  I was hoping that stupid
rooster that makes noise all night would get nailed by one.  Darryl has been entertaining us with all
kinds of stories about Pastor Tim as well, which we’ve been enjoying.  The absolute highlight of Thursday was when I
realized that my sponsored child was at the school here in the compound.  So within 30 minutes I was sitting at the
table with him, showing him all the goodies in the backpack I brought him.  It was so fun!  He has the most adorable smile, my heart just
melted.  This has totally been the
highlight so far.  Well, one of them…

I think that’s about  all I’ll
write for Thursday.  There’s so much!  Today is Friday, and it was an amazing
day.  I spent the first two hours of the
day shovelling sand into buckets.  I don’t
expect to be able to feel my arms tomorrow.
There’s a certain way that they want the buckets filled, and it’s not
the easy way.  But working with the
Haitians was so much fun.  They would
teach me words for sand, gravel, pail and shovel so that when they were on the way
back they could call out what they wanted.
If it was the gravel pile, I was off the hook for a few minutes!  I was so sweaty, I was absolutely soaked.  We all were.
It felt good though!  Then I went
up on the roof as well, and joined the bucket brigade.  That was fun too.  The Haitians are very expressive, and they
get really loud at times.  It’s quite fun to watch!  One of the guys couldn’t laugh without jumping up and
down, and we couldn’t help but laugh even though we had no idea what he was
laughing at.  Probably us.  I have been amazed at how easily they
laugh.  I was expecting them to be
miserable or just depressed or something.
We broke for lunch, and when Michelle and I were almost at the house two really little
adorable girls came charging up to us and threw their arms around our
legs.  It was so fantastic!  Then, as soon as I came up to the house I
realized that Fritzson was waiting for me on the steps.   He wanted to see me again!  I was so happy!  It was great to see him, and I found someone
to translate that I would see him again over the next week because I had to go
for lunch and get back to work.  What a
blessing that was.  It’s so easy to see
God’s handiwork here, it’s just so beautiful.  Well, I’m having trouble concentrating right
now because I’m tired and there’s lots going on in the main room, so I think I’ll
call it a night.  Tomorrow there is the
choice of markets in the morning or work.
I think I’m going to work and leave the markets until later in the
week.  We are going to the beach later, which
we are all really looking forward to.  God
Bless you!  Hello to my wonderful family –
I love you and miss you so much!  And
Lisa – I miss you too!!  Told you I would
think of you!!

April 12, 2012

 

 

 

Michelle & Charmaine on a Community Walk in Haiti

April 11, 2012

Greetings all, this is Michelle blogging from Haiti. Sorry about the delay, but there was a problem getting onto the internet. We arrived safely yesterday and spent the day getting settled. Went to a church service in the evening. What a blessing!! Didn’t realize how much I missed it here. Today we sorted all of our donations, painted a bathroom/shower house and went on a walk in the community. Guess who came to meet us?? Claudianna!!(I met her the first year I was here and spent time again with her last year) What an answer to prayer! We are here with a group from California, so right now there are about 30 people plus 3 long term missionaries staying here. We are all getting along great. Our team will be helping the California team with a VBS next week. Should be fun. Please continue to pray for us. God is at work here. I was amazed at all the improvements in Port au Prince. Things are beginning to get back to normal. (Haiti normal). Anyway, I will hand this off to Charmaine. Talk to you soon.

Hi everyone! I wish all of you could experience this. You hear about places like this, but until you actually experience it, it doesn’t sink in. The ride from Port au Prince to the Haiti Arise compound was very interesting. There is still rubble, although it has been cleaned up a fair bit. Garbage – upon garbage – and more garbage. Everything just gets thrown out onto the road or into a corner. The smell is quite strong in places. There are pigs wandering around, as well as goats, chickens and emaciated dogs. If you meet someone’s eyes – you see their pain in just that split second. The really hard part is when we were stopped, they could come rushing up to the vehicle clutching bottles of water trying to sell them to you. Unfortunately our van didn’t have any air conditioning so our windows were open, making us easy targets. Quite hard to keep saying “no” over and over. Someone in our van tried taking a photo of a man and he almost threw something at us. The adults do NOT like having their photo taken. I can’t really blame them, though.

Just before supper tonight we went for a community walk. With a security guard, of course. The children would come running to see us, and they love getting their picture taken. “Photo! Photo! You!!” so we’d take their photos and then show them the picture right away. They really laughed at that!! But what a humbling experience it was. Everyone should experience it once in their lives, just to gain some perspective.

Tomorrow (Thursday) we will probably not accomplish much, but Friday will be a very big day of work on the Technical Institute. Marc and Lisa have very big plans for this place! This morning someone set a fire just outside of the gate, so the men had to help put it out before breakfast. There is still opposition even though they are doing a good service here.

We will try to get on tomorrow again, and possibly post some photos! I’ve taken about 200 so far, and Michelle probaby has as well. Talk to you soon!!

Charmaine

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