The teams wraps up their final day in Haiti, with the gift of giving and loving, while they say goodbye to their new friends.
You can catch up on the teams Day 6 here.
Hello from Haiti!
This is our last blog post from the Sylvain campus and to say that we’re all sad about that is an understatement! What an amazing week we’ve had – it’s so hard to know we’re leaving this beautiful place and heading back to our lives in the States soon.
Today was filled with distributing goats and assisting with a concrete floor. The floor went into a home occupied by a single mom with 11 kids (the oldest was 18). Yep. 11 kids! Most of the kids were present which meant that the kids on our team were able to have kids to play with and fingers/toes to paint. We could sense that the mom is very burdened by her circumstances – a sense of heaviness. That resonated with the moms on our team quite a bit. Her own mom died a few months ago and I’m sure not only was she still mourning that loss but she was feeling somewhat alone. So, we tried to steal away moments where we could bless her with some pampering – painted fingers and toes and an awesome massage from Jodi. We all wondered if she ever got to sit down for that long. The floor will be a definite blessing to her family but we also pray that it will give her some confidence and hope.
Concrete floor for a family-mom and 11 kids in a small house Jodi pampering a mother of 11 kids with a massage Concrete floor group including workers and the family First goat to be given this morning
We also got to bless 9 families with goats – pregnant goats! The goats have been on our campus grounds for a few days so some of our younger team members grew quite attached to them (even naming all of them – one name in particular was pretty appropriate!). The goal of the goat program is to bless these families with a pregnant goat and if the goat ever has a female kid, that kid is given back to the program so they can continue breeding goats to give to families. So, the goats can provide food, milk and income! It was quite a sight to behold – 17 “Blancs” (white people) walking down the street with 9 goats on “leashes.” Only in Haiti.
Goats are ready to deliver Many Hands Agronomist Claudin explains the MH Goat program to this recipient Giving goats
We took a small detour to deliver some clothes to the family we met earlier in the week – where some of our team painted the house. After giving her some clothes for the mom and kids (widow with 4 kids), she asked in Creole if we would pray inside her house. It was a bit of a funny moment because our translator didn’t quite get the translation right and we thought she wanted us to PAINT the inside of her house! What an honor to pray for God to envelope this family in love and provide a bright future in this beautiful, new house.
We had more down time today than we’ve had all week which gave everyone a chance to reflect (and pack). Our devotion time tonight was rich with many things:
- Hope for the people we’ve encountered
- Sadness that we have to leave
- Gladness for the bonds made
- Thankfulness for this wonderful place and staff that welcomed us and laughed with us
- Confidence that we will see these people again – whether on a future trip or when we meet again in Heaven.
We cannot thank our prayer warrior friends enough for thinking of us and praying for us this week. The Holy Spirit was alive and working. We accomplished much and loved boldly. We laughed (a lot) and cried (a lot).
Please continue to pray for travel mercies. We leave before dawn tomorrow and head to a beach resort near Port au Prince for a night before flying out early on Sunday morning.
Bondye beni ou!
Blessings,
Wendy Liskey
You can catch up on the teams Day 6 here.