Our final day!

This is our final day in Haiti. It is so hard to believe that 2 weeks have gone by so quickly and yet so much has happened.
We visited a field hospital this morning and helped organize their pharmacy. It was amazing to see this hospital that is in an abandoned amusement park. It is run by volunteers and provides free medical services for the people in the area. We were able to pray for a few people including a mother with her baby who was having trouble breathing.
This afternoon we stayed at basecamp and prepared for our trip home.

So I thank you for reading my ramblings and am looking forward to being back in Canada!

Jana

Goat Fences

The day started out with a plan to build a goat fence but once again God's plan is so much bigger than ours. We travelled to tent city once again to finish our project. Our promise gardens were begining to sprout and in order to NOT feed the local goats we needed to build some fences.
Tent city has become a very special place to our team, we have built relationships with many of the leaders and people who live there. When we arrived we were surprised by how many people were waiting for us. It seemed like the entire community came out to be with us. We were able to build our fences but we were also able to bless Pastor Jones (pronounced Jonas) with supplies for his school and a new bible for himself. We ended our time with a prayer time with the leaders of the community and the people that we led to the Lord from tent city.
In the 12 days that we have been in Haiti we have seen a physical and spritual transformation of this village. When we first arrived there was a small plot of land with a plywood box of a building on it and nothing more. And the people were very sceptical of what the American's (or all white people) wanted from them and with their community. Today by the time we left there was a school which had been painted. An extention to the school which provides shade during the hottest parts of the day and serves as a community gather place. There are 5 promise gardens that are already starting to sprout, with goat fences. Approximately 10 banana trees have been planted on the grounds that make it seem almost oasis like. That is the physical changes....

Spiritually we have seen a young man who had a heart for the community start a school alone, now he is being helpped by the National Foursquare Church, we have seen the "mayor" of the community give his life to the Lord. We have seen a change in him as to how he leads his people. We have led another young man to the Lord who lives in the community and we were able to pray with many people and play with many children. As we prayed for this group of people today we could see a new church growing before our eyes. God is so Good!

This afternoon we were able to take part in the beginner's english class. It was great fun and we all had the opportunity to talk with people. Mariola was able to share with one of her students and led him to the Lord! How the Lord has blessed us!

We are preparing for our return home and had many goodbyes to say today. We all found this difficult but at the same time we realize that we have done what God has asked of us and for now it is time to go home. Though I would think a return trip may be happening for some of us.

Once again we thank you for your prayers and we look forward to seeing everyone this weekend.

Girls Orphanage

It's a good day!

Things are a little different around here. We all know that we are going home in the next few days so our thoughts are a little more somber.
This morning was spent around base camp with various projects and preparing for tomorrow. Then this afternoon we went to the girls orphanage again. This time our main goal was to spend time with the kids and perform a skit. Our skit was a great hit! We adapted the story of a Little Red Hen. Thanks to our interpretor Sam and his sense of humour we all laughed a great deal. I think the girls will remember the Canadians.
Our team has nicknamed ourselves the finishers, since we don't like to stop working until we are finished our jobs. We have learned that in Haiti that is not always possible but last night one more piece fell into place.
When we came to Haiti I was very interested in the Tilapia farm because I have a friend who was doing similar work in Sri Lanka. Since day one I have been emailing her to try and get some answers for the team here. Yesterday we were able to have a live video chat and get some great information and for a valuable contact for Foursquare Haiti. (Thanks Jenny!)
I was happy to be able to "finish" that task.
We have had the opportunity to experience the querks of Haiti today. Thanks to the local 24 hour strike we were unable to get water delivered, so we have had to go to the church for showers and REALLY conserve water. Thankfully the water truck is scheduled for tomorrow morning!
Yesterday we went to a lookout over Port au Prince on our way back from Pastor Bellande's orphanage. Check out Rhonda's pictures...
 You are invited to view RBerkhiem's photo album: 3500 Feet
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It's a GOOD day!

This is my new phrase. Every day I wake up here and say "Its a good day". It seems everyday keeps getting better.

Johanne from Saskatchewan had a burden for Jean the leader of tent city. She really felt that she needed to speak with him before we leave Haiti. Last night we prayed that she would have an opportunity to speak with him about Jesus. This morning when we were at church we noticed that one of the committee members from tent city was at church and then a few minutes later Jean came in. We were ecstatic! After church Johanne was able to speak to Jean and Gerald (the committee member). Johanne was able to lead Jean to the Lord this morning and we found out that Gerald is a believer. So now the "mayor" and council member of tent city are Christians! And Jonas the school teacher is going to start a bible study with the men!

PRAISE GOD!!!  IT'S A GOOD DAY!!!!

This afternoon we were able to go to Pastor Bellande's orphanage. It was a wonderful experience. Pastor Bellande is an orphan who was raised by a pastor. He now wants to look after kids in the same way he was saved physically and spiritually. Currently he and his wife are supporting 12 orphans and 2 of their own children. He is picking up the 13th child on Tuesday from a mother who cannot look after him.
This man is a true example of someone laying their life down for another.

IT'S A GOOD DAY!!!!

English Class

Robert's group at english class

God is doing some wonderful things here in Haiti. It will be interesting when we get home to find out who is changed the most. My guess is the people here is Haiti will remember us fondly as the hard working, crazy Canadians, but we will be forever change by the people that we have met and can now call our friends.

Today we helped in the intermediate english class that Pastor Debbie teaches. It was another incredible experience that God allowed us to take part in. We split into small groups and spent time with a few people, so when we came back for lunch we all had great stories to tell from our time.
This afternoon was spent with more manual labour and it was good to work and come home covered in dust. We were working close to the road and I am convinced that the Haitian drivers speed up just to create more dust.
This morning the first of two containers that hold the new church building arrived at the property! Pray the other makes it tomorrow!
I am going to close with a poem that one of the students wrote just after the earthquake...

Thank you for all your prayers.

Black day,
Edge of night
Hope no tomorrow.
A song of pity
Rang my fargile ears
Mothers who weep blood
Weeping water
Blood as a sacrifice
Purpose of this cursed decor
That beautifies our landscape
In a tincture of pain.
The setting sun
Cursed those men
Black colour
and reddened fears
Dasy of misery
Day of wrath
a cloud of dust
wet the humid air
The world is changing
Haiti is perishing!
The roaring loudly
Harmonized our minds,
Reversed and unstable
Bodies crushed under the weight
Houses collapsed
The blood flows freely
Port au Prince to chaos
And it continues
With tears in eyes
And yes we are...
Viewers of disaster!
Crumbling schools
Universities engulfed
Education goes up in smike.
And here...
In a flash all has changed
The wood is ash
House dust and
The night looks bleak
Clam as the wind,
Silent as silence
Souls who sleep
Eyes closed, eyes wide open
But only...
The sunlight of the day
On yesterday's nightmare
Tan these bodies
Lying in the street
Lying in the ground
Oxygen mortified
Polutted by the smell
Dead cool
And it's done...
We woke up
Yet this dream is real
And still the same decor
While most of disbelief
We believe!
A spirit of despair
Lived in our hearts damaged
A rain of tears
Washed our eyes
All is lost,
Everything is destroyed
There is hope.
The wind held its breath
And make room for silence.
Air sprinkled our heads
Freshness of God

While water

Wind our heard with its sweet comfort breeze

But in vain...

There are now

One hope

One dream

One desire

Die!

But hope is still alive!

By Lionel St Jean

Clean water free for the community as a gift from the church!

HOPE. Everywhere you look in Haiti there is despair, but with every Christian I meet you see a great vision and Hope for their country. God is in this place!

New Orphanage

After a long hot day yesterday we took it fairly easy today. We were able to go work on the new property that one of the orphanages with be built. Currently Pastor Bellande's orphanage is in a rented house and they will have to move within a year. The national church has bought a new piece of land to build a permanent home for the children.

As we drove up to the property our first glance at it was that it is a beautiful oasis. Some of the words that came to mind when we saw the propert and walked around it was, special, amazing,hidden, holy, a picture of hope, a surprise. You can just imagine children playing on the property. We spend a very hot hour cleaning and preping the land for the future building.

This afternoon we were back at the church preparing more manna packs for the next distribution. At 5 pm we attended the 4 pm crusade meeting. (talk about Haiti time!) The service wrapped up about 7:45, a bit long when you don't understand anything. Thankfully I had my own interpretor, a young man name Geraldo, he offered to take me through the sermon. It was a great message on evangelism.

Tonight we are all exhausted and will be in bed early. 

Happy Birthday Lisa!!!!

The pictures below are of the food distribution yesterday.

Food Distribution Day

First thing this morning we met at the church property to do the very first food distribution to the community. We had given away 247 tickets to the local leaders to distribute and had prepared 300 packages to give away. We were very excited and felt like we were prepared, knowing that there was a good chance a few extra packages would be needed. The doors opened at 9 am and the line up was long. People had started to come hours earlier to make sure they received their packages. Jean the leader of the tent city was at the door with his committee and had organized the people. We were very grateful for their help. These wonderful men had their communities best interest in heart and many of them had given up their tickets for others.
When we started handing out packages it was heartwarming to see how Jean and Geraldo made sure that every person received their package and no one was pushed aside. They really had a father's heart for the people they serve.
Within about an hour we ran out of people with tickets but not people wanting food. We sent the people back to the community school and gave the leaders 50 more tickets to hand out. Within the next half hour we continued to hand out all our pre-made packages and ran out. We had promised that every person with a ticket would receive a manna pack. So we made more.

Here is a little of God's math.....

We handed out  247 + 50 tickets = 297
When we counted the tickets that were returned to us, there were 457 tickets in our box. That is an extra 160 tickets. PRAISE GOD!!!!!!! Is this a miracle or what???!!!!

We fed 3000 people for a week today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This afternoon we spent time preparing for next weeks distribution. We get to do the dstribution next week as our last farewell! How FUN is that.

Another praise report. The young man that we prayed for yesterday came to the food distribution this morning. He was smiling from ear to ear. We prayed for joy and boy was he joyful. I can't wait to see him on Sunday.

Today Pastor John Booker received more good news from a tractor company. They had requested a tractor to be donated but the news was great. The company offered as many tractors as they needed along with mechanics, supply spares parts, engineers to analyze the soil conditions and to teach people plowing techniques.

The bakery has been slow in progress due to the lack of yeast. Hurray we found some yeast yesterday and ate some fantastic buns this afternoon for a snack. Thanks Jara.

Michelle does this sound like the heavens are opening up like in your dream!!!!  Praise God! The excitement is reverberating within the teams.

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What a Day...again!

Today began with the packaging of 300 Manna Packages. These contained 5 manna packs (a small pack that makes a complete meal for 6) and 15 seed packages. Through these 300 packages we will be able to feed 1000 people for a week! We are so blessed! Our team has had a wonderful opportunity to serve here. Tomorrow we will be a part of the largest food distribution to date at the church. The tent city that we have been at for the last couple of days is only 500 meters beyond the church walls. All property in Haiti is walled. It is very significant to the people as well as having security benefits. This will be the first time many of these people have come to the church. We are very excited about that because the church has a deep well that produces clean water. They open 3 water taps outside the church for the community to get water. (There are pictures of them at the link) The church opens these up to the community for 2 hours every morning and 2 hours every evening. We will have a chance to tell so many more people about the Free CLEAN Water at the food distribution not to mention tell them about the source of Living Water.

When we returned to the tent city to paint the school this afternoon we had a chance to work with some more of the kids, teens and young adults. One young man had been by the school yesterday and we spoke with him for a short while but did not have much chance to share with him. As we talked last night we prayed for him and that there would be an opportunity for him to hear the gospel. Today he came back and helped us paint. As we were almost done he ask me if we would pray with him before we left. Robert spend some time talking and sharing with him and we were able to lead him to the Lord!!!!!! Talk about answered prayers!

When we returned to the base camp we were ecstatic. It had been such a wonderful day and we were so blessed. THEN we found out that then new church building that was held at customs for the last 7 months had just been released!

GOD IS SO GOOD!!!!

So many wonderful things are happening I feel like I can't explain them all fast enough. I hope you are feeling a bit of the excitement that we feel.

Thanks for your prayers and please keep praying for us, Haiti and the church leaders here.

Promise Gardens

What a Day!!!! Today we went back to the tent city. We built the first 5 promise gardens. What a terrific name and we had no idea how appropriate until this afternoon. With the help of the leader of the tent city and a few other gentlemen we dug and levelled the rocky ground, put in the garden boxes and filled them with good soil.  We created quite a spectacle as the people tried to figure out what we were doing. Most of the children assumed that we were installing another toilet. It wasn't until they saw the seeds in the afternoon that the excitment started to spread.

This afternoon we returned to the city and started to plant the seeds. As people saw the progress they wanted to be a part of the action. As children and adults alike helped with the planting it was amazing to see how the people began to take ownership of the project. 

We have seen a tendancy toward begging from many people, but what we saw today was so different. When we finished with the gardens a few of the leaders in the community offered to water the seed/plants every day. Then we were able to distrubute many seed to the people. It was nice to see the ladies come out of their tents to recieve some seeds to create their own garden patch. The atmosphere was so different than any other day. There was a feeling of hope that we hadn't seen before.

How unbelievable the Lord is that He can arrange events so magnificently. We had no idea how popular the gardens would be when we started but the Lord arranged it so that we could personally teach some of the men how to plant and tend a garden before we handed out the seeds. I wish I could see all these gardens bloom and grow over the next few months.

Picture Monday

Here is the link to the latest pictures.

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Monday 21st

Wow what a day! When we started this morning I was planning to brag about the Haitian dinner I learned to cook last night but it seems like a lifetime ago.

We started today with a tour of the church property. There is so many exciting things going on at the property. The land is prepped and waiting for the new church building to be released from customs.

Besides the building there are many sustainable projects happening. A chicken coop is almost ready for the chickens, both roasters and laying hens. The Tilapia ponds built but trying to figure out how to aerate the water. The next steps include Hydroponics gardens and truck gardens. The two other team were working on the new bunkhouses and kitchen.

We moved on from the church to visit a school at one of the tent cities. It was very eye opening! Tomorrow we will be returning to plant the promise gardens and some banana trees.

This afternoon we visited the girls orphanage. It was heartbreaking to see these girls and yet we needed to realize that these were the "lucky" ones who had someone who cared and a roof over their head. (Although the roof was a tent that was half falling down.) We spent time cleaning up the land so that a proper burn pile could be created and the new building built. We all came prepared with our work gloves to pick rocks and garbage but were soon "relieved" of our gloves by the girls. They all loved our work gloves and wanted some for themselves.

Loraine and I were blessed to have our own personal helpers. We were  each adopted by a girl who helped us pick up. Then we were able to spend some time playing and we handed out drawing packs. On Friday we will be returning to do some skits and spend some more time with the girls.

I have tried to explain a little of our day but words really cannot explain what we say and how we feel. We tried to pick a high point and a low point of the day but really almost everything we did had a high and low point.

I will say that as overwhelmed as we feel today God is at WORK in the land!

Photos

If you are interested in seeing Rhonda's photos check out this link....
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We're Going to Haiti

March 18 finally came! It seemed so far away and yet arrived so quickly. We were up at 3 am to catch the 5am ferry. After picking Rhonda up at the border we drove to Seattle to catch our flight. Poor Robert had to endure 2 days of travelling with no other men. We teased him endlessly.
Travel went so smoothly! Praise GOD! It was amazing how everything came together including first class tickets on the way down. Only God can provide first class cheaper then economy! All our flights were great but we arrived about an hour late in Miami, which ment a little less sleep Friday night.Sarurday morning we caught up with the Saskatewan group. It has been terrific to see how our team is blending together so well. We left for Haiti at 9:30 and within 3 hours we were at base camp. We were all plesantly surprised at how smoothly customs and the airport stuff was, then we were ecstatic when we saw our accomodations. Rhonda had done a good job of preparing us for the worse and then we discovered it wasn't so bad. The team here graciously let us nap in the afternoon before our orienation.

This morning we attended church. What a great experience. The base camp is just down the road from the church so it was an easy tut tut ride. (open back pickup where some of us rode.) The service was fantastic, we only understood about a tenth of it but it didn't matter. Many of us made quick friends with the kids, who could not fall in love with those faces!

Tomorrow we start to work earnestly. We may make a trip to a tent city and hand out "Manna" packs. As well as helping with the promise gardens.

There are two other teams here, one from California and one from Oregon. So we will see what projects we can work on together and what we do just as Canadians.

The staff and team member here are terrific and we feel so welcomed.

It is going to be an amazing 13 days!