Haiti the last day

Words can't express the feelings that I am feeling tonight. I sit in a comfortable and clean hotel when just a few miles down the street there are 100 children living in an orphange. It is a wonderful orphange that feeds the children healthy nutritious meals. It is the place the people send thier sick children because Chris and the others know how to care for them. Yet, in the midst of that we saw conditions that were appalling. I saw several special needs kids who were in need of services, yet in a country like Haiti this is probably not going to happen.
I was doing really well until I walked down to the toddler room that was in the downstairs of the house. There is a sliding glass door that goes outside. All the toddlers 2-6 are kept down there. They play with each other, eat at picnic tables and bath outside. Some of the children showed me thier beds, they were all neatly made. All of this sounds great, that was until I walked out back and the children started to climb me. Literally they were climbing my legs. At one point I was holding 2 children with another one crying at my feet. They were preschoolers seeking attention, affection, and love. Many of them have adoptive parents who are waiting the 2-3 year wait to bring them to the US. It broke my heart. I am not a person who cries, yet I could not help but cry and wonder why. Why was I so fortunate to be born to parents who could afford me... why did God allow this kind of action to take place. The tears rolled down my cheeks and a little boy who had put his fingerprints all over my glasses touched the tears and smiled a smile that could only be straight from God.
As Karen and I have pondered where God was today I think that God was in disguise. God was in the faces of the adoptive parents as they waited to hear where they were in the process, God was in the little smiles and laughs that i heard dispite the smells, urine and other liquids.
I continue to wonder what God desires for Stillwater to do about this situation... What is our response to this kind of poverty and abandonment. Most of the children at HIS home are children whose parents can't afford to care for them and so they have to give them up. That is an extreme love to give up your child to parents in another country for the good of a child. What is it that we are to do? Do you have any suggestions? Please feel free to comment. I would love to hear other opinions.
Blessings and Grace

Haiti Friday

My heart has broken today.... In the states we see people who beg on the street and we are unsure if they are really in need. Here in Haiti they are always in need. There are children who live on the street who have to wipe down cars to make enough money to get by. I could not believe the amount of poverty and hopelessness. We walked through the streets today, the people stared at us... some of the children followed us when we left. they wanted money or food. I so wish we could have taken our food and given it to him. I now have a new perspective on food portions. I throw so much away and so many have so little.

My prayer tonight is for all the people without food have food. I don't know how but that is my prayer.

blessings, Marie

Pictures from day 1-3 in Haiti. Sorry for any blurry ones
Marie

Haiti day 3

So, I really left sunny Ohio and traveled for more than 12 hours to get to a place where it rains and it is cool. Yes God has a strange sense of humor. Karen and I went to the Baptist mission on the Mountain today. It was a 45 minute drive on the way up and 1 hour on the way home. We rode by so many poor people today... people digging through the trash looking for something, I can't imagine what they were looking for... but they were digging. We saw some men selling gravel in bags that they had carried on thier heads. The smells were okay today, I think because of the rain. I got caught in a rain downpour, it was so neat to see God's grace fall to the earth. As we rode home in the van, the small rocks that were drive ways were swept into the road.

I have found it more difficult today to see God working among the people. However it is easy to see God in the children. It is pretty cool to watch the children from the orphange who are visiting with thier adoptive parents. They are still very much in community, taking care of each other. Two sisters chatter in French/ Creole back and forth. It is pretty neat.

The Baptist mission was interesting, there was one couple who traveled to Haiti and stayed to build the baptist mission. It was one family who made a difference in this mountain community. I have posted some pictures of the mountain. They have learned how to farm on the side of the mountain.

I continue to pray for you all, please pray for us.

Blessings and Peace

Marie

Haiti day 2

me in the box truck and me with the little girl who was car sick.

I am not sure that I can adequately describe the things that I have seen today. We can start with the smells. There is a mulitude of smells that surrounds the city of Port au Prince. The food cooking, the charcol fires, the engine exhust, the burning trash, the garbage, the sewage, the standing water, the soapy water that people took baths and then dumped.

The poverty is almost overwhelming... or at least I think it is poverty. People live in houses that are partially built with cement blocks, tin roofs, sometimes huts made with banana leaves and palm branches. The children in the towns were sometimes in just a shirt, or with no clothes. I seem to have a knack on spoting the naked people. The people take bathes in the streams that further down the stream are filled with garbage and people washing clothes.

Two hours later... We made it to the beach with the rain drops falling every so often.... the beach was filled with peebles and rocks. It was fun to look for the beach glass and shells. The children all loved the beach... It was wonderful to watch Wood in the water. Karen as always has an eye for detail, she found numerous conch shells. I walked right by several and Karen came behind me and found them.

As the afternoon ended we loaded up, all 27 of us in a 14 person van. I volunteered to hold a little girl who is known to get sick in the car. I am not sure how happy Karen was when I said I would hold her. At one point I thought she was going to hurl, and Karen kind of gently moved forward so no splashing would occur. But, no incidents... she was wonderful even without vomit.

I got a chance to talk to Chris, the orphange director about us coming for a mission trip. She wa happy to have us come and rock babies, play with toddlers and read to elementary children. I think Karen and I will go to visit the United Methodist hospital and mission. I think that I will have pictures to post so stay tuned.

I continue to see God working even in the midst of extreme poverty. It is something to be the minority.

thanks for the prayers... we feel them.

Blessings and Peace

Haiti

Well, we finally made it... I can't believe the humidity here. I thought my hair was kinky in Delaware.... I look like bozo the clown. Pictures coming soon. Karen now has a new point of reference when the hot flashes come... she can now compare them to the climate in haiti. it sure is hot!!

No seriously... We made it from the airport after looking for our luggage for over an hour to the orphanage where we picked up several children... Wood being one of them. Oh i almost forgot... we traveled in style... in the back of a box truck. The Haitian people thought we were crazy, only white fingers sticking out in the windows of the truck. We bounced and bounced and bounced, better than any rollarcoaster. Watch out Cedar point Hal's driving and the Port au Prince roads will give you a run for your money. Karen and I decided that we could now understand what hotter than Haiti means... we add to it hotter than the back of a box truck in haiti.

We saw lots of people, mostly men, the people sold things on the street, everything from bananas to toothpaste. We all decided that simply having the garbage truck come on Thursday was such a blessing... we saw lots of trash on the side of the road. At one point there was a river with rocks jutting out... the trash was stuck on the rocks all up and down the riverside.

At one point we ran out of gas as the sun was going down on a hill. We were so relieved to have the doors open that we hardly noticed. We traveled about 45 minutes from the orphanage to the hotel. We are happy to have airconditioning and tv. We did have domino's pizza for dinner. Tomorrow we head to the beach... what fun. They said it would a couple hours... Karen and I are praying that is not in the back of the truck.

In all seriousness, please pray for Wood, Jody's adoptice son. We are praying that his paperwork has been completed and is ready for the attorney. We are save and doing well.

Blessings

Marie and Karen

Haiti or bust!!

Greetings from not so sunny Miami,



Well, I thought we were getting to Haiti on Monday, but apparently we needed a lesson in patience and flexibility. We missed our connecting flight in Tampa so we were held back to from Haiti. We got a hotel room and crashed for the night. It was a 12 hour ordeal, yet we still laughed and saw God's grace around is.



Some of the things I saw yesterday:



A man with the longest dreedlocks that I have ever seen. They were down to his ankles. Rudy Rasimus talks about how his goatee is a filter to keep judgemental people out. I wondered if this was the guy's filter. He seemed like a nice guy. I guess you can't judge a book by it's cover.



The woman who helped us initally at the United ticket counter was having a rough day. She was short and did not break a smile the entire hour that we stood next to her. She did however go and ask the questions to see why we were still waiting to be helped.



I saw a little girl who was shy at first and then opened up to Karen and I. She now talks to us nonstop. A girl after my own heart.



I am praying for all of you. I know that transformation happens when we least expect it... look for those changing moments at each intersection today.



Blessings and Peace... we are off to Haiti (or so we think)



Marie

Dancing...

Wow today has been quite a fun day... the sun was shining, the wind blowing... what more fun could I have had than to watch a bunch of little girls dancing thier hearts out. It was so much fun tonight watching one of our own dancing center stage at Northmont H.S. She was a beautiful sailor, saluting her heart out. What a gift it was to watch her.

Hope your mother's day is great and rewarding. Tell the women in your lives how important they are to you.

Blessings,

Marie

This week we learned about the prophet, Jonah, he has always been one of my favorites! Why??? Jonah is just like me, he has the same unwilling spirit that I have when God calls me to do something that I just don't think I should have to do! Maybe the work God wants me to do is painful, maybe it is thru a period of suffering that I can be drawn closer to the one who can make me whole, but I don't always see what God sees, and I run from the pain and the change, because, honestly, change can be very scary! That's why I love Jonah, he runs from God, he runs as far and fast as he can in the opposite direction, sounds like something I have done! I can relate to Jonah, I understand his frustration at God, why would God send me to Nineveh, those people are not good enough for God, why not just get rid of them, the world would be a much better place. Jonah refuses to do what God knows must be done, and he runs. Somehow, God always seems to get our attention though, and in Jonah's case, he simply cannot ignore God any longer, and finally he agrees to go to Nineveh. But even after he is there, and he has preached God's message and told the people they must change their ways, he refuses to offer any forgivness, even though God has forgiven Jonah for running from him. How often do I do that, how often do I quickly accept forgiveness from others, yet refuse to offer even the smallest hint of forgiveness to those who ask for it? Like Jonah, I often refuse to see God's grace at work in myself, and in others, and I miss the whole point! Jonah is so angry that God has chosen to forgive the people of Nineveh, he wants God to punish them, they deserve to be punished because those people have hurt Jonah, and he wants revenge. He is blinded by his own anger, and cannot see that God's saving love is not just for him, but for every person in creation, even for those who have hurt us in the past. What do we do when those who have hurt us repent and change? To often we stay angry, which really only hurts us, we carry our anger and bitterness throughout our lives, and refuse to do the hard work of forgiveness.
I have had to do the hard work of forgiveness in my life, with someone who hurt me deeply and often. For a long time I punished that person for their choices and actions, but really I was punishing myself and those closest to me, because in my refusal to forgive I became a person I would not recognize today, someone full of anger and spite, I didn't have room for God's grace and I had no idea how to extend that to someone else. But through a long and hard process of growth in my relationship with God, with people around me to hold me accountable, I was able to learn true forgiveness, and it has changed my life! I have joy and peace in my life, love and laughter have made their way into my heart again when I didn't think that was ever possible again. Through God's grace and his constant and tireless walk with me, my life has been transformed into something I could never have imagined two years ago, and only God could do that!! Through Jesus we have salvation in action, where do you need to see through God's eyes in your life today??
Heather

Green day at Stillwater on MillerLane

We planted, we weeded, we pulled, we pushed, we threw, we shoveled, we racked, we mowed, we stopped and ate chocolate. The green team at Stillwater on Miller Lane had fun as we transformed the courtyard and the church yards into beautiful beds. The children now have a great place to play.

Check it out!!

Blessings, Marie