Day 3: Church, Home for the Sick & Dying Babies, Christian Light School, Gertrude's Orphanage & Apparent Project!

Today was a pretty packed day for our group as we started very early and attended our first church service at 6am. Although it was mostly in Creole, it was still a very powerful service, all the people there praising with so much passion, you could feel what they were saying and singing in your bones.

We were able to go help out at Home for the Sick and Dying Babies, which is a Catholic based charity here in Haiti, and were just beside ourselves that we got to hold all the little babies there. Being able to just love on them and have them love on us too, in just the simplest way, by just gently resting their hand or their head on you, relaxing into your arms. It was a very emotional time to interact with all the babies and just to know that for that hour or two, you made a huge difference to that baby. Being a representative of God's love and showing that God loves all his children.
We all knew it wouldn't be easy when it came time to depart, putting any of them down is difficult enough, let alone walking away. My personal experience was with this little girl, I'm always going to remember she was wearing a yellow dress and had the biggest eyes. She could tell it was time for me to go and tears just started to roll down her cheeks. I wiped her tears away, gave her a hug and a kiss on her head, then I had to go. Honestly, one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, I had to hold back my own tears. You can walk away from that knowing in your heart you made a difference to a child, but I'm not just walking away with that, all those children made a difference in my life, I am forever changed by those children, by their smiles, their eyes, this whole experience.

The visit to the Christian Light School and Orphanage was a special part of our trip.  The school serves pre-school aged children through twelfth grade.  Since the school is new they are currently graduating their first class with 4 very high achieving students who are expected to go on and do well. The hope is that some day they will give back to others within the Haitian community.   Their education process involves continuous testing to to assure the children are achieving up to the high expectations of the school. The children we saw seemed excited to be in class and eager to learn. The 350 students may represent a small portion of the Haitian children population, but with God's help can be the future leaders and bring hope for the future of Haiti.  Small changes make a big difference over time and in their future. (Wayne & Candi)


The next place we were serving in was a special needs orphanage where we were able to help with feeding the kids lunch and playing with them afterwards. What a rewarding experience to love on those kids that were excited by such simple joys as swinging on the swings, being held, and strolled around in their wheelchairs. We were all very moved and humbled by serving and loving on the kids here. For some of us this was a new experience, for others it was reconnecting with kids that we have loved on in the past. Wayne was a genuine expression of God's love as he reconnected with a little boy with a big zest to laugh, walk and love. Neither of these two encounters we could take pictures at due to the facilities request.

The last thing we did today was we got to go to the Apparent Project, which is a store where Haitians are employed to make all sorts of things like mugs, jewelry, and tin art. By being employed they are able to keep their children, send them to school, and purchase a house with a lock on their door. Everything they make is out of recycled material found here in Haiti from clay to steel drums to cereal boxes. Back in the U.S. we have all these fancy materials we use to make jewelry and crafts, well here in Haiti they make jewelry out of the clay and out of cereal boxes. They pound out steel drums to make beautiful wall hangings, candle holders, little figurines, all sorts of things. It's just so incredible how they can make all these beautiful things out of such simple materials, honestly it's an art form.
~Josey & Julie