Jen's First Blog Post!

Bonswa from Ayiti! This is my 4^th trip back to this beautiful country & I cannot begin to explain how surreal it feels each time I set foot back into this country.  Arriving yesterday afternoon to familiar sights, familiar smells & familiar faces made me feel like I was back “home” for another week.  After settling into the base & eating an amazing Haitian meal, we headed up to the Overlook up the mountain.  It is such a beautiful view that overlooks the city of Carrefour, where we are living for the week.  We spent some time taking in the view & greeting some of the locals, before heading back to the base.

I personally slept pretty well for my first night back in Haiti, but some of my teammates woke up to the sounds of roosters, dogs (which I did not hear) & the normal sounds of Haiti.  After everyone was awake & we ate breakfast, we headed to Pastor Robby’s church.  I always love going back!  There are now many more familiar faces to me & our team got one of those famous “Pastor Robby hugs!” The worship time is always amazing.  The church has been learning the song, “Our God is Greater” in both Creole & English.  After singing it in Creole, the church sang it in English.  How amazing to our team to be able to sing in unity with our Haitian church.  It was great to see our friends again, Turenne, Jonas, Lukenson, Lukson & many others.  I also loved seeing the children again & our team is looking forward to a week of VBS with them!

After church, we came back to the base for lunch & then we sorted all of the VBS things, reviewed the order of VBS & Alicia spent some time talking about our small group activities.  We are going to introduce Pastor Robby’s church to the concept of small groups.  We will be breaking the children into groups based on their age.  We are so excited about this, so please pray that this will go well & that those in the church will begin to understand the importance of small groups & why we do them.

As I close, I must say to any of you who have been here before, you know just how hot it can be here.  Let me say, yes it is still hot, but the breeze that has been coming through the windows has been absolutely amazing!  To sit on the porch during the day & in the evening & not sweat, has been pretty nice. J  Even sleeping has been bearable!

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us!  We appreciate it & we are looking forward to a great week in Haiti! Love to my kiddos…Kaylee, Ashlyn & Josiah.  Both Gady & Jonas have been asking when you will be coming to visit Haiti!  One day soon!

Jen Van Dalen