Sunday May 30th: Day #2 in Haiti

Believe it or not, the sun in Haiti comes up about 4am! The MOH runs on a generator and so around 5:30 in the morning, the generator goes off. So your thinking why does that matter?? No generator= no electricity for fans, which means by 5:35 we were all dripping in sweat so we just got up for the day (there was no need for an alarm, as soon as you were soaked in sweat we knew that it was time to get up ). I got to take a 2 min "Haitian" shower which goes a little something like this...turn on water and rinse body off, turn off water and then lather with soap and shampoo, turn on water to rinse off again (of course while doing all of this be CAREFUL not to get water in your mouth) oh and did I mention flip-flops? Needless to say I was grateful for this 2 minute freezing shower..Unfortunately as soon as I got dressed I was sweating again!

I learned a lot of lessons during my time in Haiti..Lesson Numero Uno I learned during breakfast...On the menu for the morning was cereal and toast, harmless right?? WRONG!! I eat cereal and toast all the time for breakfast so I was pretty pumped especially since I was hungry! Lets just say I found out the hard way that milk in Haiti is extremely HOT...Needless to say I stayed away from cereal the rest of the trip...Next on the agenda was church at the MOH. Today was a very special day in Haiti, it was Mother's Day!

This was my first real experience with the Haitian people! I was amazed at how friendly everyone was to us, especially the parents. These people were some of the happiest people that I have ever seen. Church was amazing. There were hundreds if not a thousand Haitian people in the service. Worship was indescribable, it brought me to tears. Here I was, in Haiti, holding a 3-year old Haitian girl while worshiping God in one arm and holding another Haitian girls hand. It was like right then right there we were all the same and nothing else in the World mattered besides God.

Children of all ages were singing and praising God.The worship songs were half in Haitian Creole and half in English. It was awesome for the different cultures to come together. We are all the same, created by God, and at the moment it felt so real. Church lasted 3 hours and even though I was HOT, I did not want the worship to end. Claudel, the worship pastor, said it best. "In America, it's easy to make it with out God, but in Haiti if you don't have God, you have nothing. We may not have a lot here, but we have God, and to us that is everything."

After church, my team got to eat at a Haitian restaurant, Gwo Papa Poul. All I can say isYUMMMMM!!!!!

That afternoon we were given the opportunity to go on a tour of the MOH. Journey Church (the Church I attend) partners with the Mission of Hope, and although I had heard about it, I had no idea what it would really be like. Mission of Hope is huge! On their mission base, they have a church, school, orphanage, medical clinic (best in Haiti), two giant medical supply tents, a food distribution tent, a donation tent, a team house, more houses for staff, and they are building new orphanage housing, a new cafeteria, and a new team house and dining hall. Their property alone is about 75 acres, and they run this whole organization with a few North American staff and a lot of Haitian staff.

Here is the patient ward..

Medical Supplies Tents...

Here is the MOH orphanage, aka the Hope House...currently they have 59 children and they are working on expanding the orphanage in the near future!

After the tour we had a yummy dinner and then we had an amazing opportunity to hear Ruben's testimony. After, we had team time and then got ready for bed!! Here is a video of his testimony that was taken later in the week!