Fourth Presbyterian Church

After a long day and night of traveling, we finally made it to Haiti! We loaded up our belongings on the bus and began our drive to Les Cayes. Once we made it to our lodging facility, we settled in and ate a delicious Haitian meal. We are now getting some rest for the day ahead of us tomorrow. Praise God for all He's done to bring us here and what He'll continue to do through us this week.

We awoke refreshed and renewed to begin our first day in Haiti. Since it's Sunday, we attended the church we will be partnering with this week. The church is a short walk down the road so while we were walking, we were greeted with beautiful Haitian smiles! We experienced church like we've never experienced it before. Haitians are so passionate about what God is doing! We saw the truth behind God being the God of the universe, not just America. Returning from church, we took the Sabbath day seriously and took time to rest. It's important for us to see rest as a precious gift the Lord gave us to teach us to lean completely on Him for strength. Some of us even gathered around a television to watch the last world cup game with some people from the community. The day ended with supper and a time of worship. We are excited to begin our first work day tomorrow! Be in prayer for relationships to be built.

Today began our first ministry day! We walked to the church and divided into four groups. Each group went into the community to spend some time interacting with the people we'll be working with this week. Some even took time to ask about their life and pray over families. It was out of our comfort zone but we are blessed with this opportunity to serve Jesus here! After lunch, we gathered at the church for kids ministry. We told the story of Noah's ark. It's important to know the power and promises of the Lord. We played games, sang songs, and colored. The kids were wonderful to work with! Be in prayer for tomorrow- we will be building benches that the pastor specifically asked us to make. It'll be such a blessing for them. Glory to God!

To start of the day we ate a delicious breakfast then had some time to spend seeking the Lord. It's essential to find Him as our strength, our guide, our motivation before we go out into ministry. After, we headed out to the church. Starting off, we sanded and painted the wood. While some of us worked on the wood, others passed buckets of dirt from one pile to another. It may seem very small but it means so much to be a small part of the Lord's work.

After our construction project, we gathered some kids from the community to play some games on a soccer field. On of which was duck duck goose! It was so much fun forming these relationships.

Arriving at the church this morning, we jumped back into our routine of passing buckets of dirt and painting tarnish on the wood for the church pews. We love seeing the progress. They are coming along quickly!

After lunch, we walked to the soccer field for kids ministry. We formed a group of Americans and a group of Haitians for a big soccer match! Of course, the Haitians won! Our evening was filled with worship and seeing the glory of God in the sky!

We finished some of the benches for the church this morning!

Here's a finished product! Praise God!

We spent the afternoon relaxing at the beach. In the media, Haiti is seen as a bad place to visit. But today, we saw that that's not all Haiti is. Haiti is beautiful with beautiful, strong people! Tomorrow we begin our journey home. Begin praying for safe travels and full hearts!