Hope Reformed Church – Just Getting Started

by | Feb 3, 2018 | Team Blog

The Hope Reformed Church team from Spencer, Iowa, have started their week stay with us. With a jam-packed day serving in the community, the team begins preparations for the 3rd annual ‘Colors of Hope’ color run in Haiti!

Hi friends, you will be hearing from us girls a few times this week. Today we woke up at the crack of dawn (6:30 to be exact) in order to make it to our work site on time. As usual, Mike taught us various lessons: including one being the difference between cement and concrete. FYI, Cement is the powder that makes concrete when combined with sand, gravel, and water. Another little fun fact Mike taught us for this fine evening is that a gallon of water weighs 6.34 lbs!

Anyhow, while pouring concrete floors, we formed an assembly line, passing back and forth full/empty buckets of concrete (not cement). This allowed us to work as a team, finishing our first team project. We put concrete floors in all four rooms plus the outside patio. While pouring the last room, we girls had the opportunity to play with some of the kids in the neighborhood. This included blowing bubbles, jumping rope, and throwing foam darts at one another. 🙂

The team celebrate with the cement crew over a job well done

The homeowner receiving the concrete floor preparing lunch for the workers

Lunch is ready for the workers!

While the majority of us went to lay the concrete floor, a few of our fellow teammates stayed back at the compound and started various projects. Some of the men started building a canopy for Irene’s Place, a new guest house, and some of the women stayed back and painted new desks for the preschoolers here at the compound.

Lunch is ready for the workers!

Then we all came back to have lunch together and took a small break to get ready for the busy afternoon. We spent the rest of our day preparing for the Color Blast Run tomorrow. We went around town passing out shirts for the designated kids to wear tomorrow. This included visiting Pastor Francois to go over final details. Here some of our team members got the opportunity to visit and purchase gifts from the pastor’s wife’s boutique.

We got back to the compound and practiced an eye-opening skit to perform tomorrow after the run. The team also blew up balloons and filled up squirt bottles with powdered paint to add a burst of color to the event. (Maybe this will distract from the fact that we girls will be in the back heaving and panting while the Haitian children make this strenuous activity look like a simple sprint.) Our day started coming to a close with Jackie teaching the whole team “The Cup Song” rhythm which we will help the kids learn after Mike’s many words of wisdom that he shares in his talk.

Our night came to an end with Sharron giving a wonderful devotion about love.  During this, she challenged us to give up some of our time to show love to someone else. This can definitely be something we can start applying to our lives here in this beautiful country full of life-changing experiences and people who show their love to us so easily. Check in tomorrow to hear all about the Color Blast!

Yours Truly,
Carli, Brenna, Caitlyn, and Kiersten