haiti update

well I have a lot to say... I wasn't able to get online because the router at the guesthouse was major funky until I installed the new one tonight.  it's like night and day... before you had to point your computer in a certain direction and sit in a certain spot.  Now you can get internet all over the house, and I'm guessing it's faster too... my computer wouldn't connect at all to the new one.

anyways... so we got to haiti.  the plane to Haiti had very few Haitians... it was strange... We got to wait at the airport for our ride and practice our Creole for like 2 hours.  The airport is way different.  It's first world now, or nearly... Before you got off and walked onto the tarmac... now you are just in a stinky hallway that isn't air conditioned and you go down some stairs to a shuttle that takes you to immigration.  After immigration you find your bags among a sea of pushing people - they are in a room and there is no little loopy belt thing... they are just thrown on the floor and all over the place.  anyways I was glad to get out of the airport - it's not one of my favorite experiences.  we kind of just hung out yesterday (Saturday) and relaxed... it was a pretty long ride to get here.  I was in the back of a white caged truck on the ride home, so my view of the destruction was limited.  I saw a lot of tents, but I think I am going to go closer to the downtown area tomorrow - which apparently is where it is worse.  It's really great being here and seeing all the kids again, I'm looking forward to what God has for us in this week.

Today I went to church... So of course, my tradition is to purchase a whopper for the pastor of PAP Fellowship... but most of the orphanage goes to a closer church to the orphanage now.  Thankfully one other guy here wanted to go and we got someone to drive us.  I really enjoyed the message as always.  The 3-day old soggy whopper was delivered.  We prepared for this week today, a lot of us will be filling positions at the school that need filling.  I will be supervising the new computer lab and hopefully taking pictures/video and Alicia will be teaching hip-hop dance... And Alicia will be doing some meeting with the staff and working out logistics stuff too!

Well, I wish I had a more exciting update - I do have pictures though which are kind of exciting.  The highlight of my day was probably getting the internet to work on this new router haha. For more check out my flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucastheexperience



Alicia learning Creole


The house behind the guesthouse

Earthquake in Haiti

Dear Friends -

I am sure that you have all heard about the massive earthquake in Port-Au-Prince.  We are trying to get updates from the Manasseros and the others on the ground, but cell phones and other forms of communication are limited.  We have heard from a few different sources that the Manasseros and the kids are all OK with only one minor injury.  This is definitely a huge praise report considering how much this quake hit the rest of the country.  We have also heard that the Manasseros are running a medical clinic out of the boys home. We will try to keep the Child Hope website updated with new information as much as we can.

We so appreciate your prayers, please continue to pray for the Manasseros and all the people of Haiti. 

If you would like to contribute to earthquake relief please go to http://www.eDivvy.com/childhope-haiti.  Your contribution is tax deductible.  eDivvy.com is offering a 5% matching contribution.


Lucas

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The kids smell like gasoline

delmas 32-feeding program-3399
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

Last night I was looking at pictures of some of the kids here at the orphanage when they were on the street. It is amazing to see the change that has happened in five years both physically and spiritually. The lady who was showing me (Lauren) the pictures was talking about how she was going tomorrow with one of the boys (Junior) to minister to street kids. I am all for that, and told her I wanted to come and take pictures.

So at about noon today Markenson, Junior, Lauren and I piled into the car. It was full of presents for the kids and my legs barely fit in the front seat. Our first stop was Church on the Rock which is a really large Haitian church. After unloading some gifts we waited for the main worship pastor who was coming with us. As we were waiting, the noon service started. The worship was amazing and after awhile they started singing something like "We worship you God"... People were roaming the aisles, hands lifted high. I noticed I was probably the one white person standing around in that room out of hundreds of Haitians. This seems to happen a lot and I am kind of becoming used to being in the minority. One lady who was worshiping then looked at me, stopped and gave me a handshake. I really don't know what the message communicated between us was, but I found it somewhat humorous. Anyways they kept singing the same thing for about ten minutes and I thought I could just stay here all day and listen to this.

Then, it was time to go. As I left I could still hear them in the street singing that same song... I walked with Markenson and the worship pastor through a market, up some stairs and into a small crowded room where a Haitian man was preaching to some kids. There was a belt on the table in case someone got out of hand. When that man was finished, Markenson gave a passionate message little of which I could understand. Junior did the same. As I was standing there and the room kept filling up more and more I noticed the smell of gasoline as the kids moved around. Lauren told me she had tried to wash their clothes, and wash them well and it still wouldn't rid their clothes of the stench of street life. Pastor Gary tells me many of these kids struggle with drugs. For many of them, it seems like there is little or no hope... But then you can look at Markenson and Junior. Preaching to these kids who are in the place they were 5 years ago. Amazing. Then the message was finished. Lauren tells the children their only hope is Jesus... They don't have to pray to Jesus to get a Christmas gift or food, only if they will truly and want to accept Him. Many kids prayed, please pray for them that their faith would be authentic. We then hand out gifts which - with so many kids crammed into this little room it could have easily been much more chaotic than it was. Food is served. It's time to go home.

Time for the feeding program and then a birthday celebration for one of the kids who came from the place I was just at...  Many of the kids at the orphanage lived lives like the kids I saw today, some of them are even from that same street I was on.  Running through the streets, begging, malnourished.  Until God rescued them.

It's hard for me to think where those kids I saw today are right now at 10pm. Are they dodging traffic? Doing drugs? Kids like this only have one hope.

Hand Paint: Cite Soleil comes to us

Hand Paint
Originally uploaded by LucasTheExperience

Today was an interesting day... I was doing my normal updating website/calendar thing and decide to venture over to the boys home to see what is going on with Christmas outreach prep and perhaps take some pictures. I hear something going on in the Bins and notice there are a bunch of kids there. Someone tells me they are from Cite Soleil. Someone else tells me many of them have never been outside of Cite Soleil. If you don't know what Cite Soleil is you can google it or I can tell you that it is a pretty crazy and dangerous place that most people didn't go to (although it has improved from ridiculously dangerous I hear)... Susette then grabbed me and asked me to take pictures which (sarcasm) really takes some leg pulling to get me to do. Well pretty much I hung out with these kids all day. Their bright smiles were captivating. Some of us had 5-15 kids hanging on us at once. I didn't really know what to do... My Creole is so limited this is one of the times I really wish I practiced more. I still had a great time laughing and hanging out with these kids and they got to play and sing worship songs and do hand painting. They loved the camera, almost to the point where I would have to take a break from taking pictures to keep from getting mobbed. I really hope to be here if and when this happens again...

Here is some worship the kids were doing today: