As they begin their week working alongside the people of Haiti, Kayla Dowell and Kallie Holte share how having a servant heart is helping them find joy in any situation.

You can catch on on their previous blog here.

Today was a day filled with diversity. We started the day pouring concrete in two family’s homes. The families lived on dirt floors before today. To make a concrete floor, we spread gravel and then poured a mixture of sand, gravel, cement, and water (concrete). It took about three hours to complete both houses. It was surprisingly hard! We sure used our muscles.

First family who received a floor Second family who received a floor Working in a bucket brigade Mixing concrete is tiring work for some

Forging friendships working side by sde

Still before lunchtime, we were introduced to the Haitian staff who work for Many Hands for Haiti. Let me tell you, they are awesome! They were just as excited to see us as we were them. After lunch we headed out to distribute food to six individuals/families. The receivers praised God and gave Him glory for the huge blessing, which is what we hoped for.

While visiting these families, we spoke in Creole, telling them what sorts of food we brought (rice, beans, spaghetti, oil…) and bible verses. Each one of the fifteen members of our group memorized bible verses so we can better bless families. We always ended with a prayer, with everyone joining in to hold hands (even the neighbor kids would come over to pray if they were outside!)

Showing photos Forming life-long friendships

We ended our day with a college visit to U.C.I. This visit was short and sweet because it started down pouring! Apparently you don’t have the full Haiti experience until it starts down pouring on you when you’re riding in the back of a taptap far away from home. This was a hectic, hilarious experience. We ran back to the truck, piled in the back and headed for home. It was all fun and games until we got stuck on a hill! When it rains in Haiti, the dirt roads turn into a muddy river with lots of divots and crevices.

Unfortunately, after many times of attempting, we could not get up that hill. We turned around to go the long way home (it’s still pouring rain on us in the back of the truck!) To our surprise, there was another large hill the other way. We struggled to get up the hill. After a few failed attempts, we got up the hill. We sang the rest of the way home to help try to warm us up. The whole event took about an hour. Eventually, we did make it back to the house, showered and warmed up.

Wet but joyful

We saw God work a lot through the kids we met today. For many of us on the trip, this was the first real interaction with Haitian kids. They are big bundles of joy. The kids all take care of each other. A sweet, motherly-like fourteen year old girl was holding and taking care of what I believe was her two month old neighbor. The kids joked around with us a lot. It’s amazing to see such big smiles in what we would believe is such a poor situation. The kids showed us what it’s like to have a heart of humility.

Last night we discussed what barriers hold us back from fully submitting ourselves to God. One thing my group talked about was judgement from others around. These kids’ serving, joyful hearts showed us what it’s like to tear down that barrier. Once we don’t care about what others think and fully submit to the Lord, we can have hearts full of joy in any situation.

Until tomorrow.

God Bless,
Kayla Dowell and Kallie Holte

You can catch on on their previous blog here.