South Dakota Team – Church Clothes and Seedlings

by | Jul 31, 2018 | Team Blog | 0 comments

Upon sowing his seeds, the farmer noticed that some fell on rocky soil while others fell on good soil. Trey from South Dakota shares about the seeds he saw planted today. Some were already trees, planted to give hope to a family. Others were planted deep in someone’s heart. All were a testament of God’s goodness.

To read yesterday’s blog, click here.

Wow. Sitting as a group listening to plans for visiting the famous Citadel tomorrow, dripping in sweat from another night of Haitian soccer with the kids, and exhausted from a long day of ministry in the sun. It wasn’t quite as packed as some previous days have been, but the ministry was still incredible. God is good!

Today began with our team getting to be a part of weekly staff devotions here on campus; a chance for us to meet some of the Haitian staff for the first time and get to know others better. It was a time of encouragement – for all of us – simply a half hour of fellowship among brothers & sisters in Christ singing praises, reading Scripture, and being in community together. The passage today was 1 Corinthians 12:1-3, the beginning of a chapter concerning spiritual gifts, with the idea of the Spirit enabling us to proclaim Jesus as Lord. It was the beginning of a fun day working with the Haitian staff, an enjoyable blessing for sure.

The first person we got to work with was Pastor Jean Ronel, as our Aberdeen team got to be a part of the final process of a fundraiser to provide clothes for families in need. Some ladies stayed back to work on the bundled bottoms project, while the rest of us went with Jean Ronel to bless some families he had picked out. This was the first time Many Hands has done something like this, so while there is no status quo, today’s focus was on providing nice clothes that the Haitians feel comfortable wearing to church. One reason many families state for not going to church is their lack of ‘proper’ clothing, and so we were out to meet the need for some families. The clothes we bought in the market on Saturday made for a crammed tap-tap, but as the Haitians do we all found somewhere to hang on and off we went. A trial run of anything new can always have its unforeseen surprises, and today was no exception. Due to how far the houses were from campus, along with their distance from the roads and some other circumstances, we were only able to stop at 5 houses. While it was a smaller number than we had hoped for, it was a good enough sample size to reflect on how it went and see some of the good things and the rough spots. But for the families we did get to visit, it was a big deal, and made it well worth the effort. The joy of having not just clothes, but new clothes, and not just new clothes, but clothes [and shoes] that fit properly showed on some people’s faces and in others’ prayers, a wonderful sight to see. So while it was an interesting run for us, it was very much a success to those families. While on our final few homes, we also crossed paths with Pastor Lumanes, as he was out making house calls and evangelizing in the area. It was pretty cool to see the same man so passionate in his sermon yesterday with that same passion today while in the community visiting with children, parents, and any wanting to listen.  

After another delicious lunch from Beatrice  and Evenie, our incredible, talented and fun Haitian cooks here at the campus, we spent some time learning about Power to the Parents. It’s a program designed to teach mothers of preschoolers at Many Hands about making a living from agriculture and gardening, while providing them with the tools and supplies needed to do so. We listened to Claudin explain how the program worked and share stories about the first year, and also got to visit with and ask questions to seven of the moms who were there as well. It was great to see the way that these people jumped at the opportunity they had to learn a sustaining practice, and hear about the effort they gave in every day putting their learning into action. After hearing about and seeing their garden, almost everyone from both teams and and some Many Hands staff split up into two groups and visited six families in the area, taking them mango, papaya, cashew, and coconut saplings and planting them as well. I personally thought it was a rather fun time; our team got to hang out with many neighborhood kids who tagged along, and we also spent time with two internship members, Fridnan and Lovely, who were a joy to work with. At each house we broke the ground, planted the trees, gave them their first watering, and prayed with and for the families, all three of which they were happy to receive. It was another way we were able to serve and share the love of Christ with the Haitians. 

As has been the case in all our days here, many card games were played, many memories made, many bouncing road trips taken, and many tasty mangos eaten. And while that might have been a great way to lead into a talk about the many hands serving Christ together this week, I think it’s important to point out another thing that was continued from past days. There were a lot of seeds that were planted. Not just on people’s property like we got to do today, but also in people’s hearts, something you can do anywhere in the world, not just in Haiti. 

Thank you from the team here for your support and your prayers, God continues to work in mighty ways in Haiti and we are blessed to be a part of it! As we have told many people here, the same goes for you. Bondye beni ou. God bless you. 

~Trey Harms

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