THANKS, ERIE!

I would like to thank the Erie team kids who came down to Haiti a few months ago.

In January a team came and they brought a lot of youth. Their ages were between 15 and 18. They were really nice to me and I had a really fun time with them while they were here. At the end of their time here they said "We're going to send a box full of stuff for you. What would you like? I said cereal, or more specifically Apple Jacks, which, as you can see from the picture, they did. 

My favorite meal is tacos and my birthday was coming up and I knew I would want a special birthday dinner so I said to my parents a few days before we received the box that I wanted taco sauce from the US, and they sent it in! That's really special to me so thank you so much. And of course my whole family LOVED the Oreos.

Thank you!!

 

Ice cream!

Here are some pictures from two Sundays ago. 

 

We got ice cream! There was a great ice cream place downtown that we never knew about before that Sunday. Ice cream is kind of rare for us here or expensive, but the ice cream was cheap there. I had some great chocolate ice cream. That ice cream was the best I'd ever had in Haiti. I can't wait to have it again!

One of the things you see here every day you probably won't see in the U.S. At this time of year is the lizard.

Lizards are all over the place here. They come in a lot of different sizes from a foot long to only an inch like this baby one in the picture. They like to hang out on the screens over our windows and by the front porch light, but you can really find them anywhere.

Jesse Tree

As a New Years resolution I'm going to try to make blog posts more often, but shorter. I'll do a picture and caption at the least. So here is my first one this year.

This is my dad finishing the job of taking down all the Christmas decorations last Saturday.

He's holding an extra Christmas decoration we made ourselves at the beginning of December that we hung on the wall. We called it the Jesse tree because that is what an advent book, that we have, suggested. Every day we hung an ornament that had to do with a different lesson in the book that we read leading up to Christmas. The book was about "unwrapping God's greatest gift."

summer part 1 by Caleb

          I figure I need to put my summer in three or four parts because it was so busy which was part of why I didn’t do much blogging over the summer. So I should start with the end of school. We had a fun in the sun day. We played water games for most of the day. We played water volleyball where you partner up with someone, form teams, and use a towel to launch a water balloon to the other team’s side. We also had water balloon fights and launched water balloons at targets (our target might’ve been Mr. James, Samuel’s teacher). Then the next few days we were packing and saying good-byes to friends.

Water volleyball

          Then Hannah got chikungunya, or something like it, (chickengunya is a virus carried by mosquitos that makes your joints hurt really badly for a few days to a few months) but she slept through most of it. My parents tried waking her up several times to see if she wanted to go to dinner with the Heckmans, our friends, but she would say no and go back to sleep. Now she has no recollection of being woken up at all. Then my dad got it and then my mom got it a day before we left.

When we arrived in Florida, we had to stay at an MFI house because we couldn’t get the rental car we were going to use to get to the resort we were planning on staying at. The next day we got the rental and got to see our Grandma Trudy again. Everybody was happy to see her. We stayed at a resort called The Fountains for about three days, enjoying the pool and American food.

The MFI house

 

As soon as we got out of the van we were hugging our Grandma Trudy.

The pool

All of us in the hot tub.

We saw our old dog Oreo. We were excited to see her, and she was excited to see us.

We returned home to Indiana at about midnight a few days later. The next morning we got up at 9:00 to see our friends, the Combs. I had a good morning catching up with my friend, Matthew, and playing. I can’t remember all that we did, but I do remember being really excited to see them. All that week, I saw them every day. One thing I loved doing was youth group. Sometimes I went early if I was at the Comb’s house because Matthew was in the middle school worship band and he had to be at the church an hour early for practice. When youth group started, we ate. They had sandwiches, chips, brownies or cookies, and soda. 

The Comb's trampoline

Matthew, Samuel,and I

We also played fun games like, one of the most memorable ones, nine-square. It's a game that we played set up with PVC pipe. Samuel and I helped set it up. First, we made nine squares all connected together. The catch was that the squares had to be supported in the air. So we made the whole thing upside down. In retrospect, it may not have been the best idea. First of all, all the poles that were supposed to be holding the thing up were duct taped in. Our plan was to flip the whole thing over at once. A bunch of poles came undone. More duct tape. It worked, but we spent an hour on it. When we were done, it got taken apart in about ten minutes. The point of the game was to keep a ball from going through the square overhead from hitting the ground. It got passed from person to person. That’s just one of the most memorable youth group experiences for me.

OMS CONFERENCE - Caleb

         We spent over two months in the U.S. this summer and now we're back in Haiti. We went to a lot of different states and churches. One part of the summer I really enjoyed was the OMS mission conference in northern Indiana. It was at Wesleyan University. It was great! I feel like I learned a lot from being there. It was from a Thursday night to a Sunday afternoon. In the mornings, the youth would meet together and we had fun games and small groups discussing our spiritual gifts and how God calls us. Everybody had lunch together. In the evenings there was a service with missionaries speaking about different things like Homes for Haiti. Then there was a message. One night they talked about running the race from beginning to end. The guy giving the sermon said that sometimes as people get older, they slow down and forget what the joy of the Lord is. He encouraged everybody to keep going and run the race to the end. This fits in with a line I spoke in a church musical I was recently in. I wasn’t really a character in it, but I was part of the choir. In one of the songs called “Eye on It” I stepped up to the microphone and said a verse from the Bible: “Therefore, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus.” It’s just one of the things that stood out the most to me.

                The OMS Conference was a great experience and I can’t wait for the next one, but I don’t know when that will be. Here are some pictures...

This is one of the activities we did. We each had rope tied from one hand to the other. It was in-between the other person's arms, though, and you had to try to get your arms out without breaking the rope. Nobody could figure it out so my dad, who was leading the activities for the youth, had to show everybody how to do it. You have to loop your hand through the other person's loop of string around their hand.

This is the pool on the campus.

This is the cafeteria. They served great food three meals a day. 

Early one morning there was a 5k run/walk for Homes for Haiti.

This is me running the first part of the race. Even though it says finish line in the distance it isn't actually the finish line.(We found out later in the race when we thought it was the finish and it really wasn't.)

Another youth activity.

They also had a rock climbing wall that was lots of fun. 

Our friend, Bob Riggles, also lead the youth.

He and his wife, Jill, have twins: a boy named Turner and a girl named Lily Jo.

Us and the Riggles.

LEAVING - by Samuel

I can hardly believe that my first year in Haiti is coming to an end.  Two weeks from today I will be in Columbus, Indiana.  My family will be staying in my Grandma's house over the summer.

Yesterday, I went to the beach with the Heckmans as a final goodbye to them.  We will only see Ethan and Haylie one more time at prayer meeting.  Prayer meeting is on every Wednesday afternoon.  The adults go inside to pray and worship while the kids play outside. 

MRS. PRESTEL by Caleb and Samuel

A few weeks ago my sixth grade teacher came in for one week. Her name is Mrs. Prestel. She came with her husband, Dan. It was really awesome! We had a lot of fun. We got to show them our home and what it's like to live in Haiti. I think it was a great experience for them - I know it was for us.

One of the things they got to see was the orphanage which is something Mrs. Prestel helped me out with last year. She helped me put together a fundraiser that raised money for the Potter's House.

Mrs. Prestel brought in Easter stuff to give to the orphans.  The things we delivered were these(to each child): an Easter egg, (that was full of starburst, chocolate, stickers, and balloons), toothbrushes, and water-bottles.

With them we went to the Villa Cana (which is a hotel), a beach, up the mountain side, and to some of the kids Daniel is feeding (which was so emotional that Mrs. Prestel cried). Daniel is a Haitian who feeds starving children.

Let me share with you a few photos...

Mrs. Prestel came to the school and taught us about poetry. All the students loved it!




Mr. and Mrs. Prestel brought cereal, pop tarts, and other goodies for us.

 

 



At school with a lizard in her hand?!




These are some of the treats she brought in for the orphans.




The Prestels treated us to the Villa Cana several times. We had an awesome time there.




These are the eggs, filled with little candies, that Mrs. Prestel brought in for the orphans.




This is Mrs. Prestel standing with the kids in front of the orphans' new house.




This is Mr. and Mrs. Prestel standing in front of the school (The principal's office more specifically). Mr. Prestel helped with P.E. and that kind of stuff. By the way, the volley ball net was a big hit and only one Frisbee I know of has been thrown over the wall.





They brought Phase 10 with them which is a card game. We  had a blast.




This is us on our way to Daniel's house where he was feeding starving kids.




These are some of the kids Daniel is feeding.





A kid's sandals broke so Mrs. Prestel went out on the street to buy her a new pair and ended up buying about five more pairs for kids without shoes.




The kids after their new shoes were bought and the Prestels.




This is Mr. Prestel and me in the back of the truck in front of the restaurant La Kay. 




This is a game the Prestels showed us. It's called Zip Bang. Basically you have to not show your teeth and say either "Zip" or "Bang." If you show your teeth, you're out. That's hard when you want to laugh so much.

 

 



More Zip Bang.

 

 



That is us getting off at Dhaloo Beach. Dhaloo is a beautiful place.

 

 

 



This is us at the beach. We all really enjoyed it!

 

 

It was really fun to show them our home and the way we live here. I think they really enjoyed the visit too. It was only a week, but I think it made a big impact on their lives. Who knows, maybe they'll be back next year!

SHARING THE GOSPEL - Caleb

Two weeks ago, I went with a visiting team to do radio distribution on a Saturday morning. 



We left at about 8:30 am.  The ride to the church was about 20 minutes long. 



We all went together in this church building and prayed. 





Then, we set out into the village. 



We were all in groups.  My group had our translator, Mr. Reggie (who happens to work at Cowman School), and three team members who were named Richard, Nathan, and Mark. 

The first person we visited accepted Christ.  She even invited us into her house to pray.  I noticed a little girl hiding behind a curtain and peeking out. We were all holding hands for the prayer so I invited her in too.

 

 

This is the first person I spoke to. I think I did a good job speaking with the second person I talked to. I froze up at first, but Richard told me I could share about how I became a Christian. So I did. I talked about how I came down to the basement one evening when I was about seven or eight.

 

This is when I felt the Holy Spirit, because I was afraid my story wasn't going anywhere, but all of the sudden I started getting ideas and they immediately became words. I said that I accepted Christ into my heart because I knew he loved me and told her that I know he loves her too. She said she planned on going down to a Baptist church to accept Christ someday. Mr. Reggie took over and told her maybe this was the day. She didn't want to accept, but she let us pray with her. I learned a lot throughout the day. God taught me much. I want to do that more often because it is a great experience.

 

(I have to say thanks for the photos in this post - the first five photos were taken by Kylee Cox and the last one was taken by Richard Clingerman.)