The team from Celebrate Church in Knoxville, Iowa have been caught up in sloppy buckets of concrete and dusty serpentine roads. But they have not moved so fast that the small moments were  pushed aside to be forgotten. Small moments. Important moments. Transformative moments. 

To read the team’s previous blog, click here.

Hello all! Today’s blog (day 2) is brought to you by Ross Iddings and Robert Woodle. Today our  group split up into two smaller groups; one which mixed and poured concrete floors, and the other which handed food and supplies out to 7 different Christian households.

The concrete team poured the floor of Odenes’ house, a member of Many Hands Agronomy team. We worked together with a group of Haitians to mix, bucket in, pour and finish the concrete. The work was messy but it ended with a fingernail-painting-turned-street-dance party extravaganza.

The food/supply delivery team had an extremely eye-opening experience as we loaded up 7 bags of rice, beans, full heads of cabbage, spaghetti, powdered broth, oil and cleaning detergent. We visited 7 different households, all of which were Christian. The first house belonged to a man who only had one son left. He was very gracious for our visit as he showed us his house and recently-swept dirt front yard (this is something that made him very proud). After praying with him we said our good-byes and headed up the road about 20 minutes (mostly at 15-25 mph) to a small community of 6 families. These families had lived in the same location for upwards of 70+ years. The oldest of the individuals we came into contact with was a 93 year-old woman named Odiana, nicknamed Ma-dodo. She was a woman of great faith who seemed to always have praise for God on her mind. We visited each of the five houses, giving supplies and food along the way. Some may say that our group didn’t have as much “fun” as the other, but in its own way the “fun” was found in the teary-eyed transformative moments that we experienced. 

Our daily prayers are as followed: 

Ross: “Lord thank you for the day and the friends we met and experiences we shared. Bless the families we delivered food to and the household we poured concrete for. We give thanks for all that you have given us and pray for safety going forward on our journey. In Jesus name, Amen.”

Robert: “Dear Lord, thank you for this amazing opportunity to change lives and to experience personal transformation through encounters with our brothers and sisters. Let our hearts be opened to the nuance of this Haitian Culture and act like a sponge-soaking up and expelling blessings everywhere we’re led to go. Be with us now and forever, Amen.”

Have a great day! (I know we will!)