Guest Blogger Kristin - Installment #1

Welcome to my first email about my Haiti trip 2007! I've set up this email list to keep family and friends updated on what I'm up to while serving in Haiti. Some of you have asked to be on here, others of you I just assumed would be interested in hearing about my time. If you aren't...well, sorry!

My mom and I are flying out of Grand Rapids at 4:30 in the afternoon on June 10. We'll make it to Miami by 10:30 at night, and then we'll take the final flight to Haiti at 7:10 the next morning, and make it to Haiti by 8:00.

From June 11-June 15, my mom and I will be staying in the village of La Didge, with Troy and Tara Livesay and their family. Troy and Tara run Children's Lifeline International, a ministry that runs feeding programs, christian schools, and they are working on setting up a medical clinic. My mom will be helping out with the medical clinic, and I'll be helping out wherever I can. If you want to learn more about Children's Lifeline, you can check out their website at www.childrenslifeline.net . The Livesay family also has a blog that they update quite often at www.livesayhaiti.blogspot.com that would be worth checking out.

On Friday, June 15, we are going to make it back to the airport by 8:00 and meet up with Lori from GLA. She'll take us back to God's Littlest Angels. Mom will be staying at GLA until June 18, and then she'll be heading home. I'll be staying until July 24, and then heading home. Yeah, I know, that sounds like a really long time, but the three and a half weeks that I spent there last summer went by way too quickly. I wanted to have a lot more time to be able to bond with my assigned children more and make a larger difference in their life. You can see more of GLA at www.glahaiti.org . While at GLA, I will be assigned to 8-10 children that I will need to spend time with each day, to assist them in developmental things, such as walking or talking, and making them feel cherished, which they miss out on by not having a mom or dad.

I don't know how much access I'll have to the internet while we're at the Livesays, but I'll have great internet access while at GLA. I hope to be able to send emails out like this about once a week once I get to GLA. If anyone has questions about what I write in some of my emails, or just wants to say "Hi!", I'd love to hear from you! It's really pretty pathetic to watch all of the volunteers swarm to the three computers on our breaks...we like our email!

I also want to use these emails that I send out to let you know about needs that I see in Haiti that could use extra prayers. I know I've heard from so many of you that you would LOVE to be coming to Haiti with me, but your prayer support is just as important as the work that I'll be doing. The rest of the volunteers and I that will be at GLA can't do what we do without the prayer support of people back home in the states and Canada. So, to start it off, here's a couple prayer requests:

~Pray for safe flights for my mom and I, both flying to Haiti, and when we fly home. Pray that we'll be able to make all of our connections with plenty of time.

~Pray for safety and health in the country. While we aren't really worried about our safety, because we are assured that the people we are with will keep us out of the dangerous areas, Haiti is still a very unstable nation and anything could happen. It's also very easy to pick up "bugs" that our bodies aren't used to, and it's no fun being sick in Haiti. I've gotten sick on each of my other trips, and I'd love for this one to be different. There's also been a bug making its way around GLA with several staff and children sick. Prayers for all of their health would be very much appreciated.

~Pray for the people that we will come in contact with, that we will be able to make an impact on their lifes. I would especially appreciate prayers for the children that I will be responsible for at GLA, that God will start touching their hearts so I will be able to make a difference in their lives. Pray that God will show me how I can touch their hurting little souls and make them feel loved.

~LaDawn, the adoption coordinator at GLA, will be leaving and heading home on June 21 after serving for 2 years in Haiti. That's going to be a very hard good-bye for her to make, and for those of us still at GLA to make. I'm sure she would appreciate any and all prayers.

Thank you in advance for praying! Thank you to all of you for your support for my trip in this summer. It still doesn't quite seem real that I get to be in Haiti so soon, but I'm so excited to be able to go! God has given me a huge passion in my heart to help his children in Haiti, and I'm ecstatic to be able to go to Haiti again and serve God by serving his children.

Blessings in Christ,

Kristin Vanderwell