We’ve arrived!  After a problem free trip, we have arrived in St. Louis du Nord.  So much has changed, yet not always for the best.  Things seem more difficult on the surface for the Haitians.  I assume the ecomony has affected them even more so.  Yet,  we are excited about seeing friends and creating new relationships for the Lord.  Lord, give us the energy, the paitience and the courage – Steve Vitaniemi

Outlook CC and Bethel CC are back in St. Louis! We returned this evening about an hour before dinner and were more than happy to get off the truck! I think our prayer lives got much better on the trip out to Beauchamp!

There had been rain for about four days prior to leaving and our biggest worry was the river. We had to cross a decent size river in order to get to Beauchamp and if it was too high, we wouldn’t be able to go. All of our group and the staff was praying very hard that we would be able to cross and we did! Most of the trip there was up hill and it was rough going at times. There is some clay in the soil here and when it gets wet it is very slippery.

When we got to Beauchamp we learned that, though the trip took three and a half hours, it was only 26 miles from St. Louis du Nord!

In Beauchamp, we were working on the sewing room that Teresa is working on for the women of Beauchamp to learn a trade and be able to earn money for their families. We made shutters for the windows, a work table and brought plenty of cloth and sewing machines!

The Outlook group (with the help of the wonderful Bethel group) did a VBS/carnival for the children of the nutrition program. We had arould 200 or so children there and we had SO MUCH FUN!! We played games, did a lesson, made crafts, played soccer and handed out goody bags.

Today we walked to the local market and got to see how the people of Beauchamp get their daily wares.  The first thing we saw was the parking lot of donkeys and a few horses!

Our trip back to St. Louis du Nord was much shorter than the ride out due to the wonderful sunshine we had the past two days. The roads were dried out  and much easier to traverse. We arrived around 5:00 p.m. and learned that our checked luggage would need to be packed and ready to go by 9:00 p.m. What a welcome! We quickly got to work, with a break for dinner and devotions. As of this writing, people are scurrying about trying to get things organized so they can go to bed.

Continue to keep all the groups here in your prayers as some are leaving tomorrow. We’ll keep you all posted on our doings here at in St. Louis du Nord!

On Tuesday, we got another taste of the chaos which can become of the nutrition program. The Outlook CC put on a carnival, with the help of the Bethel CC group! We handed out about 200 goody bags and many more pieces of candy. Once again, the balloon animals were the most popular.

Tuesday afternoon, another group went out to do Meals on Heels. They were able to meet people in the neighborhood and minister to them. David has been working with the nursing and medical students, doing physicals on the gran moun. So far they have found a couple of ailments that require attention as soon as possible. Barb, Morgan, and Emily went to the birthing center Tuesday night and helped deliver a baby. When a baby boy was born, his mother let our gals name him!

By the time you are reading this we are hopefully going to be in Beauchamp with Mike and Theresa Grant. Continue to pray for us while we are in Beauchamp, when we come back on Friday, and that the rain will hold off until we get back to St. Louis. Merci Beaucoup!

Bonswa,

I can’t believe we’re here! I think it will take a long time to reflect and sum into words how amazing this trip is.  Each day is so exciting and event filled that I can’t keep track of the time. God has such a wonderful way of keeping us feeling safe and secure.   These people are so great,  smiles on their faces and the children love to be held or just walk and hold your hand.  I’m so grateful that the Lord put us here to love and lead others to Him.

Love You All,

Jessica Houser                                                                                                                                      Tomoka Christian Church

Bonswa,

My heart has been very heavy with all that my eyes have been witness to.  My best guess of what life was like here did not even come close.  It is tragic here, yet the smiles and love of the Haitian people reach in and grab a hold of your heart and they look at us with hope.  It is such a powerful feeling to spend time loving them and sharing God’s word.  I have felt safe and healthy here with God’s healing hand. This being my first mission trip I have a new appreciation for missionaries  who come to Haiti.  I will pray for Haiti  and for the missionaries that dedicate so much of their time and make sure that the Haitians hear about hope through Jezi (Jesus).

Isaiah 6:8                                                                                                                                     Nehemiah 1:5-11                                                                                                               Romans 3 & 4

With Love, Stacey (I love you and miss you Eric and Zak)                                                                                                                                        Tomoka Christian Church

Babay, m’a we ou pita

THE RAIN HAS STOPPED! After 3 days of rain we woke this morning to a beautiful sunrise to start our day (although it just started raining again tonight at dinner). The Hottman team left early this morning for the boat ride to Tortuga for a dance camp and sports camp. The team from Outlook ran an amazing carnival this morning at the mission’s nutrition center. The Tomoka team spent the morning clearing a banana tree field for a new garden and started some of our construction projects for the baby orphanage. The nursing team spent most of the day working in the clinic providing health services for the children. After lunch the Tomoka team walked into town and led over 200 children in a sports camp playing soccer. The kids had a fantastic time and were so happy to be outside playing.  Just picture 6 fields with 36 kids on each field running, laughing and sandals flying up through the air (sometimes higher than the soccer ball!). After the sports camp the Tomoka team worked hauling a huge pile of sand up to the roof one bucket at a time and were joined by some of the medical team that were happy to be outside in the sunshine. Before dinner some locals setup a market in our gathering area to sell handmade arts and crafts.

That was an incredible day and it was great to see God working in so many areas and touching so many lives in only one day. We are so proud to be here representing our families, churches and communities from home and miss you all very much. Please keep us in your prayers every day that we can continue being blessed every day here in Haiti.

Brian Johnson

Tomoka Christian Church, Ormond Beach, FL

We cannot see anything we are typing. Anyway, we had a good day. It was very wet. We had fun. Jesus is neat. Also, we fed the granmoun (old people) down by the ol’e beach right near past old man Rivers. Its real easy to find, just follow your nose till you hit the strawberry patch. if you hit the orange tree you’ve gone too far.  Moreover, we helped lay tile at the Miriam Center and now it looks flippin sweet. We believe the kids are gonna have a blasty blast on it. We spent some time with them on it today, sleeping and otherwise neglecting our duties, but from what we gained from the time we spent playing with them, they appeared to love it. Their smiling faces brought joy to us. The tiles we put down are like those rubber tiles that don’t hurt when you fall on them, rendering them awesome for playing and sleeping. Nevertheless,despite the appearance of the amount of work we portayed in this message, we managed to sleep and eat way too much food today. We are having a great time even though we wish we had brought ponchos.

Missing you already,

Melissa Kerce and Charles Luke Putting (son of Joe the Great).

p.s. we miss you spencer

Greetings from St. Louis du Nord! Getting to see the good works NWHCM is doing in the name of the Lord has been a great way to start the year 2010. The group from Outlook Christian Church in McCordsville, IN has made it safely for our second trip and we are anxious to get things done!

Our first introduction to Haiti was learning about “Haitian time.” Our flight from Port au Prince to Port du Paix was scheduled to leave at around 2:45 p.m. but there wasn’t enough space for everyone in the plane. One group left and OCC decided to wait for the next flight. We ended up leaving Port au Prince around 4:00 p.m. It was a good chance for us to rest!

The alarm clock for the ladies on Sunday was the rain. We had been sleeping on the roof without tents hoping that it wouldn’t rain. Lo and behold, 6:00 a.m. came and so did the rain! Luckily that was about the time we needed to get up anyway! Some of our group went to church here in St. Louis and others went out to La Forge. The trip to La Forge was by bus the first bit and once we crossed the river, we were on foot. The 15 minute walk turned out to be 15 Haitian minutes so the blancs were in for a long walk! When we got to church, there were four of us who went into the children’s class to teach. What fun that was! We did a skit, crafts and games; the children were amazed when we started talking to them about snow! Mike preached a wonderful message that everyone reading this can relate to: God loves us the same! It doesn’t matter if you are American or Haitian, rich or poor, have many material things or few, God loves us the same!

After we g0t back to the compound, ate lunch and the ladies got our hair braided, we were able to take a tour of the mission. I knew NWHCM helped a lot of people in many different ways but it’s hard to grasp how much they help until you see it for yourself. Between the medical, dental and eye clinics, birthing center, Miriam center (special needs), orphanage and gran moun, the compound is like a self-contained city.

Plans for today were changing by the minute! Our original plan was to run a carnival with the children at the nutrition program; because of the rain, many people did not come because the roads and paths were too dangerous to traverse. When we went down to see how many children were there, we decided to go ahead and make balloon animals for them. That turned out to be an interesting idea. No one realized how chaotic things would get in such a short period of time. After a few moments, the dust settled and the balloons were being made at lightning speed!

Mike and Theresa Grant came back from the States today and made it safe and sound. OCC and Bethel Church of Christ (OH) hope to travel with the Grants to Beauchamp on Wednesday, as long as the river is not too high.

Keep us in your prayers the rest of the week and you will hear from us later!

Hello to everyone!

Ellie Newberry from Savannah, Ga~

This was truly a God driven mission for me from the start. I had no idea that I was going to Haiti until the September 27th, flight left October 2nd. God is AWESOME! I have loved every minute of everything we are doing here for God’s people  in Haiti. Although there have been a few overwhelming situations, this has been an experience of a life time, touching the heart’s and soul’s of so many spiritually and physically. Being a LPN, I have been working in Pre-op and Post-op. Having translators with us to talk with the patients is exciting, learning a few words and phrases in Creole. It has been very rewarding caring for the Haitian community!

The friendships with all the staff here at NWHCM and the people here on the mission, has been Awesome! Everything just falls into place when it is God driven, because it was already His plan!!!

NWHCM, with the grace of God and God driven, is an awesome place to serve God’s people. I have only seven more days remaining to serve the Haitian community, I look forward to every opportunity to enjoy serving God’s people here!

God Bless,

Ellie Newberry

One of the fruits of our work here is to see changed lives, and the changes we see repeatedly are improvements in health for many suffering persons.  What is equally important is the chance to see lives being lived for eternity, and in some cases being a part of that change for the first time.  Today we had three young men and one woman who knew in their hearts that today was the day for a public profession of their decision to follow Christ.  What a joy to share in this experience on the roof of the mission, and with family members (some new, some old) present to celebrate as each one arose from the saving waters of new life.  Due to our on-going water restrictions the baptismal was small, but we were true to God’s leading and heard four resounding “Hallelujahs!” as they smiled through the living waters covering their bodies! (See the photos posted for today.)

Praise to God for His work in this place…

Steve H. (Scottsbluff, NE)

This week has been a great joy. It has been wonderful to see old friends and meet new ones. It is always a pleasure to return to the mission and see the changes that have been made. The new birthing center is beautiful. The Miriam Center is colorful and full of the joyful laughter of children. We are all so happy to be here, but we are realizing that it is the simple things that when missing, cause the greatest personal distress to Americans. Like being low on toilet paper and bathing in a bucket. So unimportant are these simple things compared to the real issues outside these gates. Things like children going to bed hungry and mothers faced with deciding which child can eat today.  Somehow I think we will all survive without toilet paper.

Diane