I live in Michigan but I think it's important enough that I'm going to be there. I hope you'll be there too! Or at least, I hope you'll support it financially!
GLA’s First Annual Fundraiser to be held in Colorado Springs August 24!
God’s Littlest Angels cordially invites you to a Fundraising Evening with Dinner Cruise and Auction on the S.S. GLA –“The Love Boat”. Our goal for the evening is to raise $50,000. All proceeds will go toward building a new orphanage in Haiti for abandoned and orphaned children.
Pre-boarding begins at 5:00 PM. The ship sets sail at 5:30 PM with a Silent and Live Auction of Haitian arts and crafts followed by a dinner cruise starting at 6:30 PM. Come and enjoy an authentic Haitian meal. Door prizes drawn every hour!
Captain Stubby will call all aboard for an evening of food, fun, laughter, and inspiration. Watch for a special guest appearance from one of the world’s most beloved stars. Enjoy the live and silent auction and some unforgettable entertainment.
Remember the GLA Love Boat sets sail at 5:30 PM at Sunrise United Methodist Church, 4005 Lee Vance View, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Call Jean Bell for ticket information at 719-638-4348. Tickets are $30 per person. All children adopted through GLA get in free!
We realize most of you live too far away to come, but please pray for a successful evening for our fundraiser. GLA is not well known in Colorado Springs, so we need lots of prayers that people will hear of our event and want to come. If you know anyone in the area that would like to attend, please let them know!
If you are unable to attend, you can still help the evening be a success by making a donation to the building fund. You can do this via PAYPAL with a credit card on the GLA web site at http://www.glahaiti.org/what_you_can_do/financial_help/ or you can send a check made out to “God’s Littlest Angels” to our US or Canadian Offices. No amount is too small.
Send US funds to:
God's Littlest Angels
c/o Mrs. Jean Bell
2085 Crystal River Drive
Colorado Springs, CO 80915
Send Canadian Funds to:
God’s Littlest Angels, Canada
P.O. Box 984
Okotoks, Alberta
T1S 1B1
CANADA
Be a part of the vision for the orphanage…together we can make the dream become a reality!
Sunday, July 29, 2007
A Note from Dixie
Hi!
I am leaving on August 8 to help finish up the preparations for the International GLA Fundraiser Day in Colorado. We are excited about having this fundraiser in Colorado. We have had several in Canada but none this organized in the USA.
Even if you can not come because you live too far away, please help us by praying that we will have 300 people come to enjoy the evening with us. We have lots of Haitian arts and crafts for the silent auction, Haitian vanilla and coffee, a trip to Paris, France, and many more items donated to help raise the funds needed to build the orphanage!
Please join us on August 24, 2007 in Colorado Springs for our GLA Fundraiser. John and I will be there to visit and share the news of what is happening in Haiti.
Blessings,
Dixie Bickel, RN
God's Littlest Angels
Orphanage Director
www.glahaiti.org
I am leaving on August 8 to help finish up the preparations for the International GLA Fundraiser Day in Colorado. We are excited about having this fundraiser in Colorado. We have had several in Canada but none this organized in the USA.
Even if you can not come because you live too far away, please help us by praying that we will have 300 people come to enjoy the evening with us. We have lots of Haitian arts and crafts for the silent auction, Haitian vanilla and coffee, a trip to Paris, France, and many more items donated to help raise the funds needed to build the orphanage!
Please join us on August 24, 2007 in Colorado Springs for our GLA Fundraiser. John and I will be there to visit and share the news of what is happening in Haiti.
Blessings,
Dixie Bickel, RN
God's Littlest Angels
Orphanage Director
www.glahaiti.org
Thursday, July 19, 2007
If a picture is worth 1000 words, I think this picture is worth 8000 words!
As those of us who work with orphanages in Haiti say, "It's all about the kids."
Sunday, July 15, 2007
And here's her July 14 Update
Hi everyone!
Well, another week has passed in Haiti! It's been a very fun, tiring, and a bit more eventful week. A few exciting things to start out...
On Wednesday, we had an exciting day. We went up the mountain a little ways to a town called Kenscoff. There is an orphanage there that GLA helps to support. It's called Les Enfants de Jesus Orphanage, and you can see some more about it at http://www.glahaiti.org/our_ministries/les_enfants_de_jesus/ . It is a very small orphanage, with only about 20 children that live there. They don't have much at all in their house. All of their walls were pretty dark and dirty, so it seemed like a very depressing place. 10 of us, the volunteers and the team who is here, went in with around 8 gallons of paint and gave it an enormous face lift! Instead of a dirty, dark purple for the walls, the living room and kitchen were a very bright yellow, and the bedrooms were a light blue and green. It was a lot of fun! We all were a mess, but it was a great day. It was interesting working with oil based paint because all of the paint wouldn't wash off our hands at the end of the day unless we used paint thinner. One of the girls got green paint splattered all over her face, and she still has a little bit of green on her eyelid, it's really cute! It was also nice because the actual quality of the painting didn't matter quite as much as it would have at home. If we dripped on the floor a little bit, it didn't matter much at all. They were very appreciative and loved the new look of their place. We also had the chance to hang around with the children there a little bit, when we needed to escape from the paint fumes in the house (they didn't have very good ventilation- we all started to feel a little bit high!) The children there were very sweet and friendly. They loved having their picture taken and having the chance to just sit by you. I think part of the reason that I enjoyed having the chance to go and paint was the opportunity to make a tangible difference. I know that the work with the children here is very important, and it makes a huge difference in the lives of the children, but often you can't see how much of a difference you have made in their lives. You have to just trust that God will take the love and energy you are pouring into these children and use it to touch them. This was an opportunity where we could take before and after pictures. We could see as soon as the paint went up on the walls how much of a difference this would make in the orphanage, and how much it would brighten up their home and lives. While both types of mission work are definitely needed, it was nice to have a chance to do the other kind and I definitely enjoyed it.
We also did a picture day on Thursday. Once a month, GLA takes pictures of all of the children that are currently here. These pictures are sent to all of the adoptive families, and for the children that don't yet have a family, they are kept in a file for when they go home, so that they will be able to have "baby pictures" of sorts. There just happens to be a professional photographer here with the current team from Edmonton, so he was put in charge of picture day at the baby house. The volunteers were in charge of bringing children up from the nursery, getting them cleaned and lotioned up, and then put in nice clothes from the picture day box. We helped get the kids that we brought up to smile/look, and then changed them back into the clothes they came up in and brought them back down. It's always a lot of work, but its kind of fun too. We got an amazing 65 kids done in 3 1/2 hours! The photographer was really good at getting the good shots pretty quickly. There were 6 kids that we needed to do on Friday because they were asleep when we tried to get them, but otherwise we were done at 2:15, which is amazing. There is a total of 96 kids at the main house that we needed to photograph. I think that we will be doing the Toddler House sometime in the coming week.
Saturday was a fun day around here. A couple of the girls went on a rice feeding. There were a lot of us who wanted to go along, but there shouldn't be more than four at a time so we don't totally overcrowd their truck, so I'll be going again next week, and taking two "newbies" along with me (people who have never gone on a feeding before). I wanted to go with them so that they won't be totally lost and confused with what's going on. It'll be a fun thing to do on my last saturday here (sob!). I hung around here for a little while this morning, doing nothing in particular, and then headed up with a bunch of people here to see the new land that GLA purchased and will be building on. Unfortunately I didn't know we were going to see the new land when I went down to the main house, so I didn't bring my camera with me, but it was still really neat to go see. I'm glad I had the opportunity to go up there. It's a gorgeous property. There will be so much room for everything that they will need, and because it's higher up the mountain, it's really comfortable! There was a slightly chilly wind up there, which is highly unusual for Haiti. They say in the winter months, it's almost cold! Crazy. They are currently working on building the wall, and it's coming along very well. It's up to 5 feet tall in some areas around the property. I'm so excited for the improvements that GLA will have when they are able to be up here, and I'll definitely have to be back again sometime to volunteer in the new building. There is also an incredible view of the city of Port-au-Prince from the land. It was pretty hazy today, but it was still really nice.
Once we were done checking out the land, we headed down to the Baptist Mission. I met Britt and Troy Livesay there and ate lunch with them, and then Britt and I went over some more math stuff while Troy went out and did some sight seeing. He went up to Fort Jacques, but said it was a pretty worthless trip. I think that Britt and I got through all of the first chapter now. She only has 3 more to do now :) I got some ice cream before I left, which tasted really good. Not as good as the stuff back home does, but for not having ice cream for so long, it still tasted really good. The Baptist Mission was really busy as there were many mission teams that came in, but it was fun. The rest of the day was pretty lazy and I just sat around and read. It was nice to have a break with nothing to do.
I'm planning on going to the kreyol church with the toddlers again tomorrow. It should be pretty good. We don't have anything else planned besides that yet.
A few prayer requests...
Please pray that the passports would be released very quickly so that more children would be able to go home to their forever families. We have 50 passports that we are waiting for. Thankfully, 3 more children were able to go home this week, but there are still way too many children here and they need to go home!
Please keep me in your prayers as I prepare to leave a week from Tuesday to go home. It's going to be very hard to leave all of the children here that I've grown to love so much, and all of the new friends that I've made. It's also going to be difficult adjusting to live in America again after living here for a longer time.
Thanks for all of your prayers! I appreciate you all!
Love from Haiti,
Kristin
Well, another week has passed in Haiti! It's been a very fun, tiring, and a bit more eventful week. A few exciting things to start out...
On Wednesday, we had an exciting day. We went up the mountain a little ways to a town called Kenscoff. There is an orphanage there that GLA helps to support. It's called Les Enfants de Jesus Orphanage, and you can see some more about it at http://www.glahaiti.org/our_ministries/les_enfants_de_jesus/ . It is a very small orphanage, with only about 20 children that live there. They don't have much at all in their house. All of their walls were pretty dark and dirty, so it seemed like a very depressing place. 10 of us, the volunteers and the team who is here, went in with around 8 gallons of paint and gave it an enormous face lift! Instead of a dirty, dark purple for the walls, the living room and kitchen were a very bright yellow, and the bedrooms were a light blue and green. It was a lot of fun! We all were a mess, but it was a great day. It was interesting working with oil based paint because all of the paint wouldn't wash off our hands at the end of the day unless we used paint thinner. One of the girls got green paint splattered all over her face, and she still has a little bit of green on her eyelid, it's really cute! It was also nice because the actual quality of the painting didn't matter quite as much as it would have at home. If we dripped on the floor a little bit, it didn't matter much at all. They were very appreciative and loved the new look of their place. We also had the chance to hang around with the children there a little bit, when we needed to escape from the paint fumes in the house (they didn't have very good ventilation- we all started to feel a little bit high!) The children there were very sweet and friendly. They loved having their picture taken and having the chance to just sit by you. I think part of the reason that I enjoyed having the chance to go and paint was the opportunity to make a tangible difference. I know that the work with the children here is very important, and it makes a huge difference in the lives of the children, but often you can't see how much of a difference you have made in their lives. You have to just trust that God will take the love and energy you are pouring into these children and use it to touch them. This was an opportunity where we could take before and after pictures. We could see as soon as the paint went up on the walls how much of a difference this would make in the orphanage, and how much it would brighten up their home and lives. While both types of mission work are definitely needed, it was nice to have a chance to do the other kind and I definitely enjoyed it.
We also did a picture day on Thursday. Once a month, GLA takes pictures of all of the children that are currently here. These pictures are sent to all of the adoptive families, and for the children that don't yet have a family, they are kept in a file for when they go home, so that they will be able to have "baby pictures" of sorts. There just happens to be a professional photographer here with the current team from Edmonton, so he was put in charge of picture day at the baby house. The volunteers were in charge of bringing children up from the nursery, getting them cleaned and lotioned up, and then put in nice clothes from the picture day box. We helped get the kids that we brought up to smile/look, and then changed them back into the clothes they came up in and brought them back down. It's always a lot of work, but its kind of fun too. We got an amazing 65 kids done in 3 1/2 hours! The photographer was really good at getting the good shots pretty quickly. There were 6 kids that we needed to do on Friday because they were asleep when we tried to get them, but otherwise we were done at 2:15, which is amazing. There is a total of 96 kids at the main house that we needed to photograph. I think that we will be doing the Toddler House sometime in the coming week.
Saturday was a fun day around here. A couple of the girls went on a rice feeding. There were a lot of us who wanted to go along, but there shouldn't be more than four at a time so we don't totally overcrowd their truck, so I'll be going again next week, and taking two "newbies" along with me (people who have never gone on a feeding before). I wanted to go with them so that they won't be totally lost and confused with what's going on. It'll be a fun thing to do on my last saturday here (sob!). I hung around here for a little while this morning, doing nothing in particular, and then headed up with a bunch of people here to see the new land that GLA purchased and will be building on. Unfortunately I didn't know we were going to see the new land when I went down to the main house, so I didn't bring my camera with me, but it was still really neat to go see. I'm glad I had the opportunity to go up there. It's a gorgeous property. There will be so much room for everything that they will need, and because it's higher up the mountain, it's really comfortable! There was a slightly chilly wind up there, which is highly unusual for Haiti. They say in the winter months, it's almost cold! Crazy. They are currently working on building the wall, and it's coming along very well. It's up to 5 feet tall in some areas around the property. I'm so excited for the improvements that GLA will have when they are able to be up here, and I'll definitely have to be back again sometime to volunteer in the new building. There is also an incredible view of the city of Port-au-Prince from the land. It was pretty hazy today, but it was still really nice.
Once we were done checking out the land, we headed down to the Baptist Mission. I met Britt and Troy Livesay there and ate lunch with them, and then Britt and I went over some more math stuff while Troy went out and did some sight seeing. He went up to Fort Jacques, but said it was a pretty worthless trip. I think that Britt and I got through all of the first chapter now. She only has 3 more to do now :) I got some ice cream before I left, which tasted really good. Not as good as the stuff back home does, but for not having ice cream for so long, it still tasted really good. The Baptist Mission was really busy as there were many mission teams that came in, but it was fun. The rest of the day was pretty lazy and I just sat around and read. It was nice to have a break with nothing to do.
I'm planning on going to the kreyol church with the toddlers again tomorrow. It should be pretty good. We don't have anything else planned besides that yet.
A few prayer requests...
Please pray that the passports would be released very quickly so that more children would be able to go home to their forever families. We have 50 passports that we are waiting for. Thankfully, 3 more children were able to go home this week, but there are still way too many children here and they need to go home!
Please keep me in your prayers as I prepare to leave a week from Tuesday to go home. It's going to be very hard to leave all of the children here that I've grown to love so much, and all of the new friends that I've made. It's also going to be difficult adjusting to live in America again after living here for a longer time.
Thanks for all of your prayers! I appreciate you all!
Love from Haiti,
Kristin
Guest Blogger Kristin again
Sorry, I've been really swamped and haven't had time to put some of Kristin's updates on. So here they are.....
July 8
Hi everyone!
Here's an update an the past week! It's really starting to hit me this week how incredibly fast my time here is going!! It seems like I just got here, not that I've been in Haiti for almost 4 weeks already. Crazy. I wish that I could stay for a lot longer, but unfortunately, I'll just have to deal with it.
A few special things that we've done this week...On Thursday, we had a birthday party for all of the kids at GLA who have birthdays in June. Yes, we know it is now July, but we don't really care. (Actually, June was such a crazy month here that they forgot.) One of the volunteers made and frosted a cake, and we got some juice made and blew up some balloons. We took all of the kids that we needed from the nursery up to the balcony and got them cleaned up and in nice looking clothes. I think we ended up with 9 kids at the party. They got to play around for a little while, and then they ate. We also take a bunch of pictures to send to adoptive parents. Sometime next week, we are going to do the July birthday party too- actually in July though! Crazy idea!
Wednesday morning was kind of fun. We stayed back at the toddler house and cleaned out and cleaned in our bedrooms. A lot of the volunteers who come here leave stuff behind, because they have things that they don't really want to take home, or that they forget. I had an incredible stash of stuff in my room. We laid all of the unclaimed items out on a bed, and then we went "shopping". I picked up some mandarin oranges, hand sanitizer and bug spray. Molly kept all of the left over stuff incase other people come who didn't remember to bring any of those things. We also wiped down our dressers and stuff, cleaned the bathroom, and swept all of our floors. Things get really dusty here, so it definitely was needed.
For the fourth of July, the volunteers (because we were all Americans) made peanut butter cookies. I frosted them too, which was kind of fun. We also made little napkin rings out of construction paper that we decorated for the fourth of July, and we made little cards with bible verses on them about freedom. It was a fun night spent putting them all together, and then we enjoyed them at supper too. We had some amazing hamburgerrs for supper that night, which made it seem more like the Fourth of July too.
On Saturday, Britt from the Livesay family was going to come up here at around 10:00 for some help with her math homework. I've done the course she's doing right now , and she wasn't really getting it, and there isn't exactly an over-abundance of people in Haiti who understand college level algebra, so she wanted to come up here for some tutoring. They had a bit of trouble getting here, because their truck kept overheating, and an errand they were going to do before they came to GLA took way longer than they though. They ended up being a few hours late, but it was still great to have her come and to see part of the Livesay family again! We got a couple hours of math studying in, and then just hung around until Troy could come back and get Britt. I think they are going to try and come up here one more time before I leave for some more math help.
We got three more volunteers in the week, which has been fun. They are all from Alberta. I now have two more roomates, so I no longer have my own bedroom, which is good. It's a lot more fun this way. We (all of the volunteers) have a great time hanging out with each other. Saturday night we played a rousing round of Dutch Blitz. We play card games or watch movies or sit around and talk a lot at night. It's a fun time.
Sunday morning was another pretty lazy morning. I slept in, and then laid around in bed for a while too. I did my own devotions on the balcony again, instead of going to the Haitian church. We went down to the main house for lunch, and I don't plan on doing anything for the rest of the day. I've been really tired/lazy/lethargic this past week, so I'm going to use today to rest up a bit so I'll be ready for another week of serving God's children.
We have a lot more people coming in this week, which should be very fun. Right now there are only 10 people around the table at dinner, which is very unusual as anyone who has been here before can attest to. Tomorrow, there is a team of 4 people coming in from Edmonton, a adoptive family coming from the Netherlands, and Laurie Bickel comes back. The family from the Netherlands is adopting a 4 year old girl and 6 year boy (ages are my best guess). I'm very excited for them! There are a few more families that could possibly be coming down before I leave, which would be very exciting! We also had a single adoptive mom from France come down to pick up her son. I love being able to see the new families being formed! The lady from France was so precious yesterday when she was telling us how nice it is to be important to someone now. She speaks really good english, which makes it a lot easier to communicate with her.
Thank you to those who have been praying for the new children we recieved here in the past few weeks. They are all doing very well. The twins are eating and growing very good. The little girl with the skin problems is starting to look better, even to my untrained eye. We also haven't had anyone very sick for a while, which is a great thing!
I don't know if it's just because I'm pretty tired today, but I can't think of anything else exciting that has been going on here. I think it will just end up being a shorter update this week! Please continue to keep all of the work being done here, both by the staff and volunteers, in your prayers, and keep the children in your prayers! Thanks!
Love from Haiti,
Kristin
July 8
Hi everyone!
Here's an update an the past week! It's really starting to hit me this week how incredibly fast my time here is going!! It seems like I just got here, not that I've been in Haiti for almost 4 weeks already. Crazy. I wish that I could stay for a lot longer, but unfortunately, I'll just have to deal with it.
A few special things that we've done this week...On Thursday, we had a birthday party for all of the kids at GLA who have birthdays in June. Yes, we know it is now July, but we don't really care. (Actually, June was such a crazy month here that they forgot.) One of the volunteers made and frosted a cake, and we got some juice made and blew up some balloons. We took all of the kids that we needed from the nursery up to the balcony and got them cleaned up and in nice looking clothes. I think we ended up with 9 kids at the party. They got to play around for a little while, and then they ate. We also take a bunch of pictures to send to adoptive parents. Sometime next week, we are going to do the July birthday party too- actually in July though! Crazy idea!
Wednesday morning was kind of fun. We stayed back at the toddler house and cleaned out and cleaned in our bedrooms. A lot of the volunteers who come here leave stuff behind, because they have things that they don't really want to take home, or that they forget. I had an incredible stash of stuff in my room. We laid all of the unclaimed items out on a bed, and then we went "shopping". I picked up some mandarin oranges, hand sanitizer and bug spray. Molly kept all of the left over stuff incase other people come who didn't remember to bring any of those things. We also wiped down our dressers and stuff, cleaned the bathroom, and swept all of our floors. Things get really dusty here, so it definitely was needed.
For the fourth of July, the volunteers (because we were all Americans) made peanut butter cookies. I frosted them too, which was kind of fun. We also made little napkin rings out of construction paper that we decorated for the fourth of July, and we made little cards with bible verses on them about freedom. It was a fun night spent putting them all together, and then we enjoyed them at supper too. We had some amazing hamburgerrs for supper that night, which made it seem more like the Fourth of July too.
On Saturday, Britt from the Livesay family was going to come up here at around 10:00 for some help with her math homework. I've done the course she's doing right now , and she wasn't really getting it, and there isn't exactly an over-abundance of people in Haiti who understand college level algebra, so she wanted to come up here for some tutoring. They had a bit of trouble getting here, because their truck kept overheating, and an errand they were going to do before they came to GLA took way longer than they though. They ended up being a few hours late, but it was still great to have her come and to see part of the Livesay family again! We got a couple hours of math studying in, and then just hung around until Troy could come back and get Britt. I think they are going to try and come up here one more time before I leave for some more math help.
We got three more volunteers in the week, which has been fun. They are all from Alberta. I now have two more roomates, so I no longer have my own bedroom, which is good. It's a lot more fun this way. We (all of the volunteers) have a great time hanging out with each other. Saturday night we played a rousing round of Dutch Blitz. We play card games or watch movies or sit around and talk a lot at night. It's a fun time.
Sunday morning was another pretty lazy morning. I slept in, and then laid around in bed for a while too. I did my own devotions on the balcony again, instead of going to the Haitian church. We went down to the main house for lunch, and I don't plan on doing anything for the rest of the day. I've been really tired/lazy/lethargic this past week, so I'm going to use today to rest up a bit so I'll be ready for another week of serving God's children.
We have a lot more people coming in this week, which should be very fun. Right now there are only 10 people around the table at dinner, which is very unusual as anyone who has been here before can attest to. Tomorrow, there is a team of 4 people coming in from Edmonton, a adoptive family coming from the Netherlands, and Laurie Bickel comes back. The family from the Netherlands is adopting a 4 year old girl and 6 year boy (ages are my best guess). I'm very excited for them! There are a few more families that could possibly be coming down before I leave, which would be very exciting! We also had a single adoptive mom from France come down to pick up her son. I love being able to see the new families being formed! The lady from France was so precious yesterday when she was telling us how nice it is to be important to someone now. She speaks really good english, which makes it a lot easier to communicate with her.
Thank you to those who have been praying for the new children we recieved here in the past few weeks. They are all doing very well. The twins are eating and growing very good. The little girl with the skin problems is starting to look better, even to my untrained eye. We also haven't had anyone very sick for a while, which is a great thing!
I don't know if it's just because I'm pretty tired today, but I can't think of anything else exciting that has been going on here. I think it will just end up being a shorter update this week! Please continue to keep all of the work being done here, both by the staff and volunteers, in your prayers, and keep the children in your prayers! Thanks!
Love from Haiti,
Kristin
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Guest Blogger Kristin - She's writing more than I am!
Hi!
First, I want to apologize. The email I sent out with the pictures had a different picture than I meant on it. The nice one I said I was sending of Lidia actually ended up being a picture of Stanley. I'm sure most of you figured that out, but I just thought I would clarify.
This past week has been a lot of fun! Very exhausting, but a good time none the less. The four volunteers who are here right now have been helping the team from Alberta out with VBS every morning. They were very glad to have our help, which was nice, and we all had a great time. I'm thinking that I would love to try and take a group from my church down to GLA next summer to do a VBS for the toddler kids, so I really appreciated this inside look of what works and what doesn't. We only had the 33 oldest kids at VBS, all of the 2-4ish year old kids played upstairs instead. The theme that they were trying to get across through the whole week was that God loves you. It seems like a simple message, but I think it was done very well! They used a different bible story each day to show how God loves us. Monday was the parable of the lost sheep, Tuesday was the story of Blind Bartimaus, Wednesday was the story of the feeding of the 5000, Thursday was the story of the Jesus calming the story, and Friday was the story of Zaccheus. Each day the kids made a snack and a craft relating to the story. My "job" every day was to help the team member in charge of the snacks. We helped the kids make their snack, and then we served them when it was snack time. It was really cool how they made everything tie in. On Monday, the kids made sheep out of a half of a banana and shredded coconut. On Tuesday, the kids made their own cookie with pieces of brightly colored dough. On Wednesday, they made their own bread with bisquick dough and cut fish out of cheese slices with a cookie cutter, which we actually served to them in baskets they made for the craft. On Thursday, we made boats on a sea with melon slices and finger jello, and on Friday, we decorated cupcakes for the party that Zaccheus had at his house when Jesus came. I don't remember what each of the crafts were because I wasn't helping with them, but they all tied in really well too. Of course, each day we also had several singing times, with some neat songs that the kids really grew to love, and they had a story. We kept hearing the kids walking around singing the new songs they learned after VBS was done even. We also tried to get a few group games in, with a parachute or balloons, and occasionally they had some free play time too. My church was doing VBS this past week, and I was kind of bummed that I wasn't going to be able to help with that. It was nice to be able to help with a VBS here instead. The kids all loved it and they had a great time! We had one volunteer who just walked around with a camera each day taking pictures, and then we should each get a copy of the pictures, so I should have some great photos to show you all when I get home.
On Saturday morning, we slept in, which felt wonderful! We lounged around and watched a little TV, and then went out for a full day of shopping! We went to the Baptist Haiti Mission, to shop and eat lunch, and then we went to the look-out point where you can see the entire city of Port-au-Prince, and then we went to the city of Petionville to do some shopping on the streets and in an art gallery there. I was very successful, and spent a boat load of money! The nice thing is that I don't feel very guilty about spending too much money here, because I know that the economy can use it! Especially at the Baptist Mission, where you can be certain that it goes back to the people who made the stuff. I got some gifts, and some stuff for myself too. We kind of just sat around the rest of the day, recovering from our crazy week.
Sunday was another lazy day. I slept in for a while, and then did my own little church service off of the balcony. No one was going to Quesqueya Chapel this week, and the Haitian Church was having their annual anniversary celebration, so that was guaranteed to be a very long service(at least over 3 hours long). I decided it would be better to just do my own thing. It was great to have the chance to remind myself why exactly I'm here- it's all about Jesus. He has done so much for me, and loves me with such an abundant and everlasting love. I'm here to share that love with others through my actions, to share the gospel of love through whatever I do. The rest of Sunday will be a pretty lazy day too, without much going on.
One thing that has been very cool to see is how some of the children that I was assigned to last year have changed and are thriving! God has been very good to these children!
A few prayer requests...
We've gotten several new children in this week, even though we don't really have the room for them. Pray for all of these kids as they adjust to orphanage life without a mom and dad.
There's been a lot of delays in Haitian adoption recently. There is a guy who is in charge of the courts in Port-au-Prince who has to approve something at the end of the adoption process. He needs to get out of that office so badly, and someone who actually cares about the children needs to get in. Dixie said that there was a chance he might get replaced this weekend. Pray that this did happen, and if it didn't, that he will get replaced soon or have a total change of heart and stop holding up children's adoptions. There has also a hold up in the Passport office. All children need to get a passport in their new adopted names before they can leave the country. There are 50 kids here at GLA who are waiting for a passport! So many kids are really close to being able to go home, but they and their parents are still waiting. GLA has occasionally been getting a few passports out, but please pray that the person in charge at the passport office will start signing those papers like crazy! Any prayers for the adoption process here would be greatly appreciate, because we need to be able to start sending some kids home, so that there is room to take in new children.
I don't know all of the information about the latest status on the virus here, but I know that we haven't had anyone on an IV for a while. I think that there are still sick kids, but no one who is really, really sick, which is a great thing! Please continue to keep the health of the kids here in your prayers.
Please pray for the volunteers who are here. Pray that we would have the patience and strength to keep on loving our assigned children in the way that they need, even when they seem pretty unlovable. Pray that our children will be receptive to our love so we can make a big difference in their lives. Pray that we will all stay healthy so we can better serve.
Thank you in advance for your prayers!
It was kind of depressing to realize this week that I'm almost half way through my stay in Haiti. Time has been going so incredibly fast, it's unbelievable! I'm glad that I have three more weeks to work with my kids, though. With my trip last year, I would have been leaving about right now, and that's way too soon.
I hope that life is going well for all of you!
Love from Haiti,
Kristin
clogirl@sbcglobal.net
First, I want to apologize. The email I sent out with the pictures had a different picture than I meant on it. The nice one I said I was sending of Lidia actually ended up being a picture of Stanley. I'm sure most of you figured that out, but I just thought I would clarify.
This past week has been a lot of fun! Very exhausting, but a good time none the less. The four volunteers who are here right now have been helping the team from Alberta out with VBS every morning. They were very glad to have our help, which was nice, and we all had a great time. I'm thinking that I would love to try and take a group from my church down to GLA next summer to do a VBS for the toddler kids, so I really appreciated this inside look of what works and what doesn't. We only had the 33 oldest kids at VBS, all of the 2-4ish year old kids played upstairs instead. The theme that they were trying to get across through the whole week was that God loves you. It seems like a simple message, but I think it was done very well! They used a different bible story each day to show how God loves us. Monday was the parable of the lost sheep, Tuesday was the story of Blind Bartimaus, Wednesday was the story of the feeding of the 5000, Thursday was the story of the Jesus calming the story, and Friday was the story of Zaccheus. Each day the kids made a snack and a craft relating to the story. My "job" every day was to help the team member in charge of the snacks. We helped the kids make their snack, and then we served them when it was snack time. It was really cool how they made everything tie in. On Monday, the kids made sheep out of a half of a banana and shredded coconut. On Tuesday, the kids made their own cookie with pieces of brightly colored dough. On Wednesday, they made their own bread with bisquick dough and cut fish out of cheese slices with a cookie cutter, which we actually served to them in baskets they made for the craft. On Thursday, we made boats on a sea with melon slices and finger jello, and on Friday, we decorated cupcakes for the party that Zaccheus had at his house when Jesus came. I don't remember what each of the crafts were because I wasn't helping with them, but they all tied in really well too. Of course, each day we also had several singing times, with some neat songs that the kids really grew to love, and they had a story. We kept hearing the kids walking around singing the new songs they learned after VBS was done even. We also tried to get a few group games in, with a parachute or balloons, and occasionally they had some free play time too. My church was doing VBS this past week, and I was kind of bummed that I wasn't going to be able to help with that. It was nice to be able to help with a VBS here instead. The kids all loved it and they had a great time! We had one volunteer who just walked around with a camera each day taking pictures, and then we should each get a copy of the pictures, so I should have some great photos to show you all when I get home.
On Saturday morning, we slept in, which felt wonderful! We lounged around and watched a little TV, and then went out for a full day of shopping! We went to the Baptist Haiti Mission, to shop and eat lunch, and then we went to the look-out point where you can see the entire city of Port-au-Prince, and then we went to the city of Petionville to do some shopping on the streets and in an art gallery there. I was very successful, and spent a boat load of money! The nice thing is that I don't feel very guilty about spending too much money here, because I know that the economy can use it! Especially at the Baptist Mission, where you can be certain that it goes back to the people who made the stuff. I got some gifts, and some stuff for myself too. We kind of just sat around the rest of the day, recovering from our crazy week.
Sunday was another lazy day. I slept in for a while, and then did my own little church service off of the balcony. No one was going to Quesqueya Chapel this week, and the Haitian Church was having their annual anniversary celebration, so that was guaranteed to be a very long service(at least over 3 hours long). I decided it would be better to just do my own thing. It was great to have the chance to remind myself why exactly I'm here- it's all about Jesus. He has done so much for me, and loves me with such an abundant and everlasting love. I'm here to share that love with others through my actions, to share the gospel of love through whatever I do. The rest of Sunday will be a pretty lazy day too, without much going on.
One thing that has been very cool to see is how some of the children that I was assigned to last year have changed and are thriving! God has been very good to these children!
A few prayer requests...
We've gotten several new children in this week, even though we don't really have the room for them. Pray for all of these kids as they adjust to orphanage life without a mom and dad.
There's been a lot of delays in Haitian adoption recently. There is a guy who is in charge of the courts in Port-au-Prince who has to approve something at the end of the adoption process. He needs to get out of that office so badly, and someone who actually cares about the children needs to get in. Dixie said that there was a chance he might get replaced this weekend. Pray that this did happen, and if it didn't, that he will get replaced soon or have a total change of heart and stop holding up children's adoptions. There has also a hold up in the Passport office. All children need to get a passport in their new adopted names before they can leave the country. There are 50 kids here at GLA who are waiting for a passport! So many kids are really close to being able to go home, but they and their parents are still waiting. GLA has occasionally been getting a few passports out, but please pray that the person in charge at the passport office will start signing those papers like crazy! Any prayers for the adoption process here would be greatly appreciate, because we need to be able to start sending some kids home, so that there is room to take in new children.
I don't know all of the information about the latest status on the virus here, but I know that we haven't had anyone on an IV for a while. I think that there are still sick kids, but no one who is really, really sick, which is a great thing! Please continue to keep the health of the kids here in your prayers.
Please pray for the volunteers who are here. Pray that we would have the patience and strength to keep on loving our assigned children in the way that they need, even when they seem pretty unlovable. Pray that our children will be receptive to our love so we can make a big difference in their lives. Pray that we will all stay healthy so we can better serve.
Thank you in advance for your prayers!
It was kind of depressing to realize this week that I'm almost half way through my stay in Haiti. Time has been going so incredibly fast, it's unbelievable! I'm glad that I have three more weeks to work with my kids, though. With my trip last year, I would have been leaving about right now, and that's way too soon.
I hope that life is going well for all of you!
Love from Haiti,
Kristin
clogirl@sbcglobal.net
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