Well, we were just having too much fun to send updates! Sorry! (And
then it got to crazy trying to get home...)
Saturday morning we were off to the Dominican Republic for the OMS
retreat. We had breakfast with the Gross family at 6am and were at the 'bus station'
before 8am. The bus station was quite
different from bus stations in the states. It looked like a little hole in the
wall when we pulled in and they announced, "We're here!". There was
barely enough room for 2 buses, a very small outdoor waiting area, and a small
office. We unloaded everyone and
everything from the cattle truck, handed in our passports, and waited for our
bus to be ready.
A while later Brett Bundy emerged from the office and said that there
was a 'slight problem'...they forgot to get the bus money before we left the
compound. Everyone began pulling out their wallets and within minutes we had
what was needed - over a thousand dollars. (Many missionaries giving up a large
portion of their shopping money - which is huge since they only go into the
Dominican once a year where they can stock up on things they just can't get in
Haiti.)
Just before we reached the border, we stopped and several men boarded
the bus to exchange money for us. At the border, we stayed on the bus, filled
out paperwork, handed up our passports, and were through before we knew it.
It was strange how different things were the moment we crossed the
border. The land looked different, the plants were different, the homes were
built differently. There was still much poverty and trash strewn about, but not
to the extent as it is in Haiti.
We stopped at a little buffet style, open air restaurant for lunch. The
chicken was amazing and it was great to stretch our legs and get our first
experience in the Dominican not looking through bus windows. Before getting our
food, I headed for the bathroom along with many other ladies. In the bathroom,
none of the stalls had toilet paper. As we looked through each stall, a woman
holding a roll of tp appeared. She smiled and began to hand out just enough to
each of us. After using the restroom and washing our hands, she handed us
another wad to dry our hands with - it
was definitely different. The kids were all treated to ice cream bars (which is
another rarity in Haiti) and we were back on the bus.
We finally arrived at Sosua, but our bus couldn't fit down the street
to the resort entrance because of construction next door. So, we all unloaded,
grabbed our bags, and lugged them down the block and around the corner. All 31
of us and our luggage piled into the open air lobby to check-in where we were
greeted and served a cool glass of juice.
After settling in, we all headed to the open air dining room
overlooking the ocean for dinner. The missionaries were in heaven with the selection
on the buffet, and were especially excited to see that they had decorated for
Valentine's Day. Little Kristina Bundy was SO excited about getting to eat
watermelon, but they didn't have any out for dinner. They did have just a few
pieces they were using as a garnish around the roasted turkey and so she
settled for hot watermelon and was happy as a clown (she also had some moments
during retreat when she was scary as a clown - she has been battling health
problems that cause her to crash and become a totally different person if she
doesn't load up with protein every 2 hours.)
During dinner the waiters handed out single red roses to each woman
which made the evening even more special.
Just after dinner we crowded together under one of the canopies for a
worship service and to kick-off retreat. Despite the rain we had a great time
playing games, singing songs, and listening to the waves crash below us. There
was also much anticipation about the days ahead.
After our service ended, we joined the special Valentine's Day Karaoke
night back in the dining area. Phil Dicks (who had come to facilitate the adult
retreat) sang several songs from musicals like Les Mes and Steve Gross showed
off his Kermit the Frog impression. Nathan even got into it with a little Johnny
Cash singing Folsom Prison Blues. It was a great way to break the ice between
those of us who had come to lead and the missionaries we were there to serve.
It was a blast and we spent most of the night laughing both at and with one
another.
Sunday morning when they finally gave us access to our meeting spaces,
we began with worship all together in the adult room. Then we split off and had
our first session with the kids. They listened intently, participated, and
engaged in our discussion as we introduced the theme for the week, "The
Pursuit of God" and talked about how God has been pursuing us from the
very beginning and that He will be until the very end. We discussed how God's greatest desire is for
us to turn and pursue Him in return.
We quickly saw how sharp and connected to God these kids really are.
The first question I asked was "What is salvation, and what does your
faith mean to you?" Every answer they gave was grounded in the idea of
living in relationship with God. No 'get-out-of-hell-free' or 'go to heaven
someday' Sunday School answers. These kids understood that being a Christian
was about so much more than just going to heaven or escaping hell - from our 6
year old to our 9th greater - they got it.
After the lesson, we broke out the scrapbooks and soccer balls and the
kids went ballistic! They were SO excited about them and dove right into
crafting. (THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who helped get the scrapbooks ready!
Our hours of cutting and gluing paper definitely paid off - Bailey, I hope you
have fully recovered from the short term fear of paper you developed while
helping!)
When the parents came in to check on their kiddos during the break,
they were just as excited about the crafts as the kids - and surprised that
even the younger ones were more than happy to stay with us through the break
and into session two. They were especially excited that the craft wasn't
something that would just be thrown away, but something they could keep to help
them remember what they learned and what God was doing in and speaking to them
at retreat.
Session two began after a short break (which the kids spent completely
consumed with their crafting). We sang
more songs and jumped right into our lesson about how God wants us to
come close to Him so He can speak to us and we can hear his voice.
Then it was time for lunch and our longer afternoon break. Nathan spent
break swimming with the kids and hanging out by the pool with the missionaries.
I offered to give essential oil massages and had 3 takers right away and three
more lined up for the next day. I finished up just in time to head to our
afternoon session.
Session 3 brought the story of God calling Samuel and learning to
recognize and obey God's voice. The kids again were very engaged and without
knowing it, began to tell the Bible story I had planned for the next day. Funny how God works like that, finding such
small ways to validate what you believe to be His plan.
After dinner we were supposed to have a kids' movie night and adult
game night, but little Lily Ayars was in bed with an earache so we rescheduled
for the next day and spent the night all together playing games and in
fellowship.
Monday morning sessions were about chasing after God's heart and
seeking His presence. During free time I gave more massages, and Nathan and I
spent some good time hermit crab hunting with the 4 younger girls. Our evening
session was about repentance: Jesus must increase and I must decrease.
We were responsible (with the help of Phil and Connie) for the kids
during dinner and straight into movie night so the adults could eat together
and spend the evening without kids. Surprisingly, even the youngest were happy
to eat with us (and they ate well), only running to mom and dad to say a quick
hello from time to time.
After dinner we rounded all 12 kiddos up for movie/game night. The
younger ones were super excited to watch Meet the Robinsons for the first time.
Brianna and I stayed with the little ones, but the older kids wanted to do
nothing but play Mafia (their favorite game at retreat). So Nathan played Mafia
and Brianna, Connie, Phil, and I watched the movie together. The kids were
glued to the movie and even little 3 year old Sofie Ayars made it through
almost the first half of the movie before being ready for mom and for bed.
Stacey timed it perfectly though, she was coming in the door to get Sofie as I
was headed out the door to find her!
6, 7, and 8 year olds: Lily, Kristina,
and Sarah made it through the whole movie (with a little cuddling during
the scary parts) and Nathan and the big kids had a blast playing Mafia. Then it
was off to bed to be ready for a last fun-filled day!
Tuesday morning we had the kids from just after breakfast until almost
lunch so the parents could do their much anticipated grocery shopping. We told the parents the night before to send
their kids to "Kid's Club" (as Lily and Sofie so lovingly named our
session times) prepared to swim. We planned to go swimming with them all when
we finished our session while waiting for parents to return.
We spent most of the session working on a surprise for the adults - the
kids were going to plan a worship service for that evening to close out the
retreat. They decided to take the adults on the journey they had been on during
retreat and shared a scripture verse, song, and/or thought/challenge from each
of our sessions.
During our morning session we also talked about the difference between
seeking God's hands (what He can do for and give us) verses His face (who He
is). We challenged them to be a generation who would seek His face and they
really seemed to connect with the challenge.
Connie and Phil joined us and we spent time praying over each kid
individually. Nathan and Phil prayed over the boys one by one and Connie and I
prayed over the girls one by one. It was a powerful, sweet, holy time that I
wouldn't trade for the world. We asked each one if they had any prayer requests
and prayed for those (most were that they would grow closer to God) as well as
prayed however the Lord led us.
The things God brought to our hearts and minds to pray for each
individual was spot on and each kid connected with our prayers in a deep way,
almost as if they were grabbing a hold of each word, clutching them tightly and
tucking them away into the depths of their hearts. This, I believe, was the most impacting time
for both the kids and for us. The time we spent praying built relationships
between each of us that could not have been built any other way - no amount of
talking or laughing or swimming or game playing or hanging out or wave watching
could have built the type of connection that was established in our
spirits through that time with the Lord.
...before we knew it - it was time to SWIM!
Parents began to return as we swam and Nathan and I spent some more
time crab-hunting with the little ones, mafia-playing with the big ones, and
wave-watching with everyone. We also decided to join a group going to check out
an art museum that Steve Gross found on one of his morning runs.
So we headed out of the resort walls for the first time and began what
turned out to be quite an adventure! After debating about whether to call a
couple of taxis or take moto-taxis, we decided that motorcycles would be wayyyy
more fun - and much cheaper, so we
headed up a block to see if we could find some willing drivers.
We found a few moto-taxis waiting on the next corner and 100 pesos per
motorcycle later, we were on our way! Nathan didn't have his feet on the pegs
so our driver (who didn't speak much english) had to pull over to get us all
situated. Our group had gone on ahead and once we got back on the road, we
quickly realized that we turned right and everyone else had gone left.
I thought maybe he was taking a shortcut to catch back up since we had
stopped, but then he made another right that took us out on the highway that
led out of town - we knew we had a problem. We started to try to communicate
with him that we were going the wrong way, but we couldn't exactly tell him
where we were supposed to be going because we had never been there - and we
didn't even know the name of the museum. Luckily he was able to call of the
other drivers and find out where we were supposed to be going.
He turned around just before a large intersection (yeah, that was a
little scary...) trying to squeeze our motorcycle hauling 3 people through
traffic that was trying to get around us and traffic coming the opposite
direction in a country where there doesn't seem to be many road rules, and we
were back on track = insane!
We pulled up to this large castle-like structure where we found our
group circled together praying for our safe arrival. Once laughing and sharing
about our adventure, we realized that we were still missing Phil! We weren't too concerned for him since he had
a reputation of stopping here, there, and everywhere to make conversation and
to make friends.
A few minutes later we see what looks like Phil coming up the large
hill to the museum. "There's Phil!" someone said. "Wait, is that
the same shirt he was wearing when we left?" we asked. When he arrived we
all starting laughing as he had a brand new, and quite bold, Hawaiian shirt on.
He introduced us to his new friend and driver - Charlie, and shared about his
adventure. Charlie works for the visitor center and had all kinds of
connections and had shown Phil around a little.
Connie insisted that Phil treat everyone to the museum since he made us
all wait. After doing the math and paying the man, we stood in awe of huge
stone sculptures in the first room. We made our way into the first courtyard
and quickly realized that the majority of the art was very dark art. Wooden
sculptures of demon-like creatures with snakes coming out of their eyes and
mouths filled the courtyard along with metal wall hangings that portrayed the same
kind of darkness. Intermingled between them were beautiful sculptures of heads,
metal art/sculptures, and paintings that were so different from the rest.
We also found that the artists had quite an obsession with UFOs as much
of the art included portrayals of UFOs. There was even a room filled with large
UFO statues/sculptures....it was a little weird, we have pictures to give you a
better idea. The next courtyard was the darkest yet and some of the ladies
began to feel uneasy and chose to slip out of that area quickly. We also learned that most of the art in that
section was from Haiti, which is what we thought given the voodoo-like
depictions.
Our tour guide then led anyone willing down a dark spiral staircase
into a dungeon-type room. This room held what looked like a barbecue with
wooden sculptures of skeletons on roasting sticks. In the back there was a
large wooden sculpture that looked like the face of Satan. I didn't stay down
there too long: Dark + Creepy = totally not my thing. I wasn't really scared at
any point, I just didn't care to stay long. As we came face to face with these
demonic images I kept mulling over scriptures about our victory as Children on
God over the powers of Satan and darkness (which I had a vivid dream about
Friday night).
Some decided they just wanted to get to the top to see the view they
had raved about and up we went. We explored each floor quickly (mostly just
more dark art mixed with a UFO theme, but the architecture of the building was
quite intriguing). At the top we had a great view of the ocean and of the
mountains.
Back at the resort, we prepared for our last session of the retreat.
The kids arrived and we spent almost the entire session practicing and putting
finishing touches on the worship service they would be leading after dinner.
Little Kristina (who is usually super shy) brought her own kids song book and
requested that we sing "Jesus Loves Me." We found a good place to fit
it in and to everyone's surprise she agreed to lead the song! (Can you say ADORABLE!)
The adults had finished up but I still needed 5 more minutes to quickly
race through our last lesson about seeking God together. We challenged the kids
to remember that they are all part of the body. Although they are young, they
are as much a part of the body as anyone and that we felt that God had a plan
to use them as a group of young people to impact Haiti for His glory.
We challenged them to model themselves after the New Testament church -
devoting themselves to prayer, fellowship, and breaking bread together. We
encouraged them not to be afraid to be thought of as "too spiritual"
if they saw another in need of encouragement or prayer, but to listen for God's
voice leading them and to follow through with whatever He calls them to - even if
it is scary or hard or they think someone will think they are stupid or silly.
They latched on and we ended with a great sense of excitement and anticipation
about what God might do both in and through them if they choose to allow Him.
After dinner we headed back to the same canopy we kicked-off retreat
under for our closing service. Some of the adults had no idea that the kids
were planning to lead the service and they were joyfully surprised. Each one
took a turn sharing, from the youngest to the oldest (except for Sofie who was
just ready for Mom after 4 days filled with sessions), they all participated.
It was awesome.
Little Kristina led her song without hesitation and wowed everyone with
her boldness. The 3 youngest recited
John 3:30 three times in a row with motions: "Jesus must get bigger, but I
must get smaller." (more absolute cuteness!) We sang songs in between and
closed up by singing Oceans with the waves crashing all around us - powerful,
awesome, beautiful!
We were so proud of these kiddos - they were just amazing. Kristina
never fought me once about eating her protien snacks which meant no crashes
during kids club! Sofie, for the first time ever according to Stacey, stayed
with the kids and loved it for all but the last part of the last session! Everyone
engaged and participated. Even the teenage boys, the moment I would expect them
to be done and disengage, they would become even more engaged - it was awesome
to see them being leaders, volunteering and being excited to read verses,
actively and seriously participating in discussion, singing the songs AND doing
all the motions while encouraging and helping the little ones follow
along. The girls were great too, and it
was really special seeing how God was working through each of their different
personalities uniquely.
They are all just something else...something wonderful...something
beautiful...and I do truly believe that God has something in store for them to
accomplish for Him and with Him and through Him in the days ahead!
Wednesday morning we had breakfast, took pictures, and loaded up for
the long drive home. God gave us another easy (and somewhat quick) passage at
the border and we were back in Haiti before long. Everyone was exhausted as we
piled all of our luggage and all of us onto the cattle truck for the short
drive back to the compound. A jackknifed tractor trailer (which are rare in
Haiti) kept us from going the usual route and we ended up on the road along the
river - a part of Haiti I had never seen (and many of the missionaries said
they had never seen). Imagine a dirty
river laden with garbage, people, shops, and homes all built on what appears to
be ground but is truly a trash pile on both sides. We had only ever seen the
river from the bridge on the main road to the airport. This view was much more
raw and in your face, and it seemed to go on forever. Sad. Heartbreaking.
Reality.
After arriving back "home" at the compound we all got settled
and headed up to the Gross' for the rest of the day. Nathan, Steve, and Phil
went traunchula hunting. I (of course) opted out and stayed to help Melissa put
away all the goodies she had brought home from the Dominican: blocks of
mozzarella and cheddar cheese, a chunk of deli ham, sausage, canned soups,
yogurt, cream cheese and more (none of which you can find in Haiti). We chunked and bagged and labeled and froze
most of the bulk items and finally got to just sit for a while.
Steve came in at some point and said he had to change into nicer
clothes - apparently they slipped into the church at the bottom of the compound
to check out the revival service going on and Phil ended up on stage with
Pastor Lucner. Steve had been in shorts and in the Haitian culture, that is
just not appropriate for church. Steve went back down to 'retrieve Phil' and a while
later they still had not come back. Melissa and I were ready to call it a night
and so we went looking for them.
In the church yard, which was overflowing with people who couldn't fit
into the church since it was so packed, I ran into Pastor Job and Wawa (one of
our translators from our first trip to Haiti) and invited them to come visit us
the next night - what was supposed to be our last night in Haiti. We finally found our guys and after going to
see the tranchula they had found (I was not excited about this, but wanted to
be able to say that I saw one), which was huge and creepy and scary and BLAH!,
we decided it was bedtime.
Thursday morning, our last planned day in Haiti, we had another
delicious breakfast at the Gross household (that Steve can make some mean
breakfasts and Melissa's smoothies are De-licious! Actually, everything they
fed us was beyond good!) After breakfast we spent some time hanging out with
the kids and then I went to give Angie Bundy a massage (her Chikungunya was
flaring up again and she was feeling pretty awful).
I came back to the Gross house to find the guys drinking fresh coconut
water right out of coconuts from the tree in their back yard. The Gross'
Haitian sons had climbed the tree and were chopping away and preparing each of
us a coconut - it was pretty cool, and delicious!
Lunch was ready and we all gathered up to head to the market to buy
food for Daniel's neighborhood kids (he feeds them every weekend and teaches
them as often as he can since many of them cannot afford to go to
school.)
Our first stop was to pick up Rose (a friend if the Gross' and teacher
at Cowman School) so she could be our guide and help negotiate prices at the
market. She doesn't like it when people try to charge her friends more just because
they are white. Some vendors will argue that they can afford to pay more, but
as Rose told someone trying to charge Melissa the equivalent of $20 American
dollars for a used lunchbox, "She wouldn't be shopping here if she had
that kind of money!"
Rose's home is the last just before the river - this river is the same
river we drove by the day before where the whole neighborhood comes to dump
their trash (and where all the trash flows when it rains). Rose said they have
had trash piled up to their doorstep before but that there are plans to cover
the trash with sand and try to deter people from dumping there. It would take a
lot of doing, but they have hope!
Rose and her husband David ("Coach" as they call him at
Cowman since he is the gym teacher) invited us into their home. For Christmas
they had replastered and painted and Melissa said it looked so different and
brighter than it had before. Melissa then commented on Rose's new stove she had
also gotten for Christmas. The new stove was just a small 4 burner cooktop that
was sitting on top of their oven. Melissa said Rose had been so excited to get
that stove since it was so difficult to get the charcoal started outside in the
dark and have breakfast ready before school. We then learned that Rose had not
yet been able to use her new stove because they did not have a propane tank to
fuel the stove. They had been saving, but weren't able to afford one just
yet. We said goodbye to her 2 boys and
thanked Coach for letting us borrow her for the day and set off to pick up
Daniel on our way to the market.
The market was crowded and we would have been SO lost without Rose. We
picked up some fruits and veggies (Melissa got a whole bag of Guava for the
equivalent of 1 American dollar which we made the most delicious nectar and
smoothies from!) and were ready to hit the bulk store for the things Daniel
needed. Nathan and the guys took a short trip to the meat market (which
apparently was quite a site and quite a smell) and were back in time to help me
pick out some snacks for Pastor Job's family and the other friends we were
expecting that evening.
We also found a propane tank on the top shelf of the bulk store, which
Phil and Connie so graciously purchased for Rose - she was beside herself with
joy! It was beautiful to watch it all unfold. They also helped Daniel buy some
of the extra things he needed and we were off to Daniel's neighborhood.
It began to rain and we continued wet, but content, in the back of the
pickup to Daniel's home (Connie and I wore ponchos but Nathan Md Daniel were
soaked). We knew we were there when the truck quickly became surrounded by
children calling Daniel's name. He led us down a small alley into an even
smaller alley (only wide enough for one person to fit through) back to his home.
His home was a very small concrete room filled with cooking and
cleaning supplies for his ministry. His bed was a small opening in the top of
the wall that gave him less than two feet head space to slide into. He said
that children sleep on his floor every night because they feel safe there.
Outside his home is a small outdoor kitchen area (probably nothing like you are
thinking...picture a 2 foot ledge where he can burn the charcoal and cook).
There was also a hole in the ground covered by a piece of wood - this is their
well where they draw very dirty water which they add bleach to for dishes and
hand washing. I'm not sure where they have to go to get clean water for
cooking, but I know it is not readily available.
There was also a small 'courtyard' that we could all barely fit into.
That is where the children gather to eat and for classes that Daniel teaches
for those who cannot afford to go to school. It was humbling and convicting to
see his sacrifice for these children. Everything he has is for them - he spends
his money, uses his home, and devotes his time to helping them build a brighter
future. He doesn't have much of anything, but he gladly gives it all. He hopes
to be able to expand his ministries and is waiting for the Lord to provide a
way. Until then, he goes on helping whoever he can, however he can, whenever he
can.
We got back to the compound later than expected, changed into dry
clothes, and headed straight to the Gross' for dinner so we could be back in
time for our guests to arrive. We weren't sure, however, if anyone would even
be able to come since it was raining quite hard.
Pastor Job and his family did make it when the rain finally let up a
bit. they were still quite wet when they arrived, all 3 on their only mode of
transportation: a motorcycle.
.... more of our story to come! ...
Love,
Hannah and Nathan
