This blog shares the daily happenings of a multi-church group from Pella, Iowa, currently serving on a short-term mission trip.

Written by Henry Allen on Nov. 13, 2015

Today, the Lord gave us another great day in Haiti.  Beautiful sunshine, great fellowship, and much accomplished.  Everyone on the team continues to be excited about the new Many Hands for Haiti Sylvain Compound and the Lord’s work that is being done there.

Henry Allen, with one of the Thrive children in Sylvain.

Henry Allen, with one of the Thrive children in Sylvain.

The early morning devotions were again held in the gazebo on the Sylvain Compound.  They were attended by team members, Haitian staff, and ladies from the community.  Today’s devotions focused on two topics:  how the Holy Spirit can pray in us and for us when we don’t know what to pray ourselves, and whether or not the Lord is punishing us somehow when we have troubled times.  The latter topic came up as a question from one of the Haitians, and it resulted in a lot of great, enlightening discussion.  Scripture verses James 1:3 and 1:12 seemed to answer the question.

At the THRIVE program, our team nurse and the Haitian camp nurse teamed up to assess the health of all the children from zero to one years old.  Approximately twenty children were assessed, and their mothers were provided recommendations and education for keeping their children healthy.  Furthermore, those children with various illnesses (ear infections, colds, and asthma, etc.) were given medication.  Meanwhile, the other mothers and children praised the Lord in song.  The neighbors cannot help but hear the joy and spirit there.   THRIVE continues to be a great and growing outreach program for the community, teaching Bible stories and providing food.  The Lord appears to be showing his favor on this recently renovated program, with seeds of the Gospel being sewn every day. 

Roselande holding one of the Thrive children. Nurse Marci doing medical checks on the children. Woody teaching at Thrive. Andi Vanderhoff holding the children at Thrive.

The carpentry team, led by Jon Van Woerkum, continued to build needed items for the Silvain Compound.  In the first part of the day, they built shelving and a table in the compound’s kitchen.  Until this time, the cooks had to prepare all the food outside the kitchen and just store their pots and pans in the kitchen on the floor.  Now they will have much more space for food preparation as well as storage along the kitchen walls.  They were very excited and appreciative when they saw the facilities they now have in their kitchen. The team went on to install the shelves they had built on Thursday in the compound’s storage room and then build all the trusses to roof the compound’s latrine. This exhausted the list of construction items that Craig had given the team, and they even ended the day early.

Lots of construction projects happening. Dave Vanderhoff installing shelving in the cooking depot. The cooks were REALLY happy with the newly added shelves. Will Van Wyngarden working on trusses for the latrine roof. Jon Van Woekom putting the trusses together.

The medical mission of the MH4H team (those stationed in Pignon and those visiting from Iowa) was involved in some amazing activities and “Praise Gods” today.  Besides doing the children health assessments, they made a visit to a lady who had severe abdominal edema, resulting in an extra thirty pounds of water.  This condition is very serious and often is fatal.  The lady has twins who are just four months old.  The right medicine was made available (miraculously), and the lady and her husband were instructed on what they needed to do.  They were also advised of some care they needed to provide the twins.  They were so appreciative.  Checking back on earlier patients the medical team had seen on Wednesday, the lady who had a serious ear infection moving into her jaw was doing well and back to THRIVE.  Furthermore, the sick little boy they had prayed over on Wednesday was doing better and was going to the hospital for medical treatment.  Praise God for the healing he is providing here in the local community.

We continue to be inspired by the great improvements the Sylvain Compound is bringing to the physical and spiritual lives of the people in this community.  Craig and Christi and Heidi are working tirelessly to make this happen.  We are blessed to be able to come here and be a part of what God is doing here.  Praise God!

Abbi getting her hair braided. Beautiful sunrise over the plantain trees on the campus. Craig Gabhart and Andrew Vanderhoff going to the campus Haitian style on the moto. We love the kids at Thrive!