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Our March 2008 mission trip took place from March 26th through April 11th, 2008. We had a team of 7 people from Maine and New York on this trip (but it was not the same 7 people the whole time). This 7-member "Seven for Heaven" team also performed a record-breaking work project, seeing just 2 more children than the record-breaking October 2007 team. The Team - Week 1 (photo taken inside MFI's terminal at around 6:30 a.m. - don't we all look bright-eyed and bushy-tailed?) rear (left to right) Deb Eklund, Jamie Charles, Philip Charles front (left to right) Julienne Begin, Tammy Poulin, Becky Toulouse, Lorraine Mitchell  The Team - Week 2 (Philip Charles and Kathy Farmer could each only stay one week so they switched places halfway through the trip)rear (left to right) Jamie Charles, Lorraine Mitchell, Becky Toulouse front (left to right) Deb Eklund, Kathy Farmer, Tammy Poulin, Julienne Begin  Although Becky and Julienne are both experienced world travelers, this was their first time to visit Haiti - but we're sure it won't be their last!  (left) Jamie and Julienne interviewing children with the help of some of the school staff.Once again, our primary purpose on this trip was to add new children and to update many of the children in the Sponsorship Program. We were still able to "process" 2 children at one time but with our wonderful crew of measurers, we discovered that we did not need two separate measuring stations.  So we worked with two interviewers, one measuring crew, and two photographers, along with one other support person to ferry the children from station to station and to do other supporting jobs such as writing the children's names on white boards and other incidental responsibilities. In this way we were able to interview, measure and photograph a record-breaking 673 children on this trip!(right) Our wonderful measuring crew, Tammy and Lorraine, measuring children in Danda.  (left) Philip working as the support person for the crew on Week One.  (right) Becky photographing one of the primary girls in Terrier Rouge.  (left) Deb photographing one of the primary boys in Terrier Rouge.  (right) Kathy working as the support person for the crew on Week Two. (In case you hadn't noticed, Kathy had fun with this job!) Because we have been working with the same staff at the school in Terrier Rouge for 5 years now, we have come to know and love them just like family. When we had finally finished our huge work project, our faithful friends, "FiFi", Lilie and Luvrance, wanted to pose for photos with our whole crew.  (left) Julienne, Lilie (Pastor Noel's secretary for the school), Luvrance (the principal of the primary school), "Fifi" (the 5th grade teacher), and Jamie  (right) Lilie, "Fifi", Tammy, Lorraine, Kathy and Luvrance celebrate a job well-done  (left) And even though the photo crew worked outside alone every day, we couldn't leave them out when it came time for photos! "Fifi", Lilie, Becky, Deb and Luvrance look thrilled to have finished another huge work project. We couldn't do this job without the help of our wonderful Haitian friends! Thank you so much to all the staff at each school who drop their regular responsibilities at the schools to work with us during our twice-yearly visits!  Not all our work with the children on this trip was for the Sponsorship Program. We also had a Bible Story and Craft time with the children of the church on the second Sunday afternoon we were in Terrier Rouge.(left) Kathy and Becky dressed up as "Mr. and Mrs. Noah"  The story we shared was the account of Noah and the rainbow. First Deb read the account from the Bible in English and then Julienne would read the same account in French.  After reading the story, the children worked on the craft project - making a bracelet with beads to represent all the colors of the rainbow. Working on a craft project with 300 children who speak Creole and not English often presents some interesting difficulties but things went very smootly this time!  After the children had finished their bracelets, our good friend, Stevens Charles, who is a seminary student in training to become the pastor in Ouvray, took over for us and led the children in some wonderful singing - and we happily joined in! (left) The finished products! (right) Stevens Charles    We also made a hospital visit at the Justinien Hospital in Cap-Haitien. We went there to visit little Rose Guerlande from Danda who was there to have surgery to correct a serious birth defect.  Rose is doing well now but will need more surgery in the near future. If you would like to contribute towards the cost of her medical care, please contact us.  We also had some fun throwing a birthday party for two of our little friends - twin sisters Dieudeline and Sedeline - who turned 8 years old during our stay.  All the guests had a great time and it was a joy for us to be able to do something special for these two precious little girls, whose life is very difficult. As always, a very important part of any of our visits is the opportunity for team members to get to know their sponsored children and their families, as you will see in these next photos.  (right) Becky meeting the family of her sponsored child, Rose-Kattie.  (left) Kathy meeting her newly-sponsored child, Ketsy, for the first time.  (right) Lorraine with the new baby sister of her sponsored child, Staylande.  (left) Julienne meeting the huge family of her sponsored child, Darlendie.   (above) Philip & Jamie with the family of their sponsored child, Rooderkens. (right) Tammy with the family of her sponsored child, Rose-guerline.  We also enjoyed some relaxing down-time. Here we are treating ourselves to a real restaurant meal at Lakay in Cap-Haitien with our Haitian driver, Carlo. The rest of these photos really speak for themselves!       We even caught Pastor Noel, Marie and Pastor Marc in some rare moments of down-time!   We'll leave you here with our page dedication -  This page of trip photos is dedicated to the memory of our dear sister in Christ, Theodica Manigat, who passed away during this visit to Haiti. When we would ask her how old she was, she was never sure and would just say, "I don't know....I've been alive a long time!". As is common for many Haitians, she would mark the year of her birth according to who was president at that time. She always insisted she was born when Boisrond Canal was president but since his term of office was from 1876 - 1879, this doesn't seem likely. Needless to say, she was one of the ancients whose true age was known only by her heavenly Father, who decided her time on this earth was finished. She is now with Him, worshipping with the other saints around His throne and will be dearly missed here on this earth. We look forward in anticipation of that glorious day when we will be rejoicing at His throne with her. "Aye, yi, yi, Zoom Zoom!"Theodica Manigat - ???? - 2008 |
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