Market Rewards Team – Shared Blessings

The Market Rewards Team tells about their day spent learning more about God and blessing others. As a team, they’ve found that sharing makes a heavy burden light and a blessing even sweeter. 

Bonswa (good evening)! Friday was another beautiful day here in Haiti. In the morning, we poured concrete floors at two houses. We split into two teams and each took on one floor. Before the floor can be poured, each family must empty their entire house by putting their belongings outside. Now, imagine emptying your ENTIRE house and putting all of your belongings in the yard and hanging your clothes on the cactus fence. This is the exact image we saw when pulling up to the houses. Before starting, we prayed over the family and the work to be done. Then, the men started mixing concrete with shovels.

Making the concrete floor

They know the right amount of gravel, sand, water, and cement mix needed for the floor without measuring it out. As soon as there was some concrete ready, the men shoveled the mixture into buckets and we made a bucket brigade into the house.

Creating the bucket brigade Teamwork is a blessing while moving sand! Bos Tibens stopping for a picture while working hard

The house I worked on had four rooms and a porch needing concrete. We continued working until Christi asked one of us to play with all the kids. I volunteered and enjoyed my new job. The kids each got a wooden toy truck and a bracelet, and then I played bubbles with them. They all loved it; even some of the moms got in on the fun. We played with whirlies and almost got several stuck on the roof. After a little playtime, it was back to pouring the floor and helping finish the last two rooms. The family was so nice and offered us chairs to sit on after we were done working. After cleaning up our buckets and shovels, we piled back into the tap taps to go back home for lunch.  

The concrete has been finished! Better together!

We ate a delicious lunch of rice, pasta, and fried plantains (my favorite food here) and some of us showered to get all the cement off. In the afternoon, we distributed food to the poorest of the poor. However, we don’t just give out food. We also give out spiritual food, a bible in Creole. It is important that each family knows the food and bible are from God, and they can be fed physically and spiritually. Again, we split into two teams and ventured out to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

Carrying rice; it’s easier this way! Spiritual food: receiving God’s word Blessing those in need with food

We took food to five homes chosen by the Many Hands pastors. For the sake of the blog’s length, I will share about the family that hit me hardest. At each stop, we were asked who would pray for the household, and I felt God laying it on my heart to pray at this house. The husband had been in a motorcycle accident and damaged his jaw to the point where he struggled to talk. In addition, he injured his elbow and couldn’t straighten his arm. The crash caused the motorcycle to be inoperable so the man lost his job. He can’t get another because of his injuries so we prayed that God would show him why the accident happened. We also prayed that the man would feel God’s presence as he heals. The man’s wife started talking to us about how she accepted Christ just recently and her husband was thinking about being baptized and wanted us to pray for God to lay it on his heart and become baptized. We prayed again and sang Lord I Need You.

With the man from the motorcycle accident  

As we climbed back into the truck it hit me, they trust in God even in their trials, yet I get mad when the smallest accident happens. I realized my first world problems were nothing in comparison to what this family was struggling with, yet they still trust God. I think God laid it on my heart to pray for them because he wanted to give me a reality check and make me realize we all need to lean into God instead of turning away even in times of trials. At every stop, God reminded me of how blessed we truly are and all the little things we take for granted. After the deliveries, I had the opportunity to ride the motorcycle back with Pastor Lumanes. I loved every second! It was a completely different experience than riding in the truck, and I felt closer to the people both physically and figuratively. Being in the truck, we are seated higher up than on the motorcycle so we are more disconnected. However, I thought the motorcycle ride immersed me more in the culture. I will cherish the view of the mountains and the ride along with all of the houses and people we contacted throughout the day. In the evening, our group had Tampico juice and we all had another delicious supper.  

Before bed, a lady came and braided some of our hair, and we did devotionals on the porch. Thank you for all the prayers. Please continue to read the blogs and stay up to date on our time in Haiti. Also, pray for the health and safety of the team and that we can be a blessing to everyone we come in contact with over the course of the trip. Bondye Bon (God is good)!!!