Days 1 and 2

Hello from Haiti!

First of all, thank you all for your prayers, and please keep it up! :)

It feels great to be back in Haiti! Everything is so completely foreign, and yet somewhat familiar from being here before.  I just want to say really quick that our new team members, April, Brooke and Kate, are doing great and I am so proud of them! Haiti can be overwhelming at times, and they all seem to be handling it very well.

So, I'm going to try to give you a quick summary of our trip so far, before I fall asleep...

We flew from Ft. Lauderdale straight to Port-au-Prince.  Customs was quick and painless - much less crowded than last time. And we actually got all of our luggage! :)  Greg and Jasmine sent a bus to pick us up from the airport, which was really nice, since we each got our own row to stretch out on.  Driving down along the coast for most of the trip, we reached the orphanage with no problems and very little traffic.  Being in a bus really helped, since the biggest vehicle usually rules the road. 

Greg and Jasmine were elated to see us, and we were excited to see them too. It was also wonderful to see some familiar faces amoung the children and be able to hug them once again. 

We arrived just in time for dinner, and then we joined their evening worship time before having our own Bible study time.  Josh has put together some daily scripture readings and questions to think through, and they are all about the characteristics of godly love. Yesterday we looked at patience. 

Soon after that, we headed to our tents, got situated, journaled for a little while, and then went to sleep. 

Since today is Sunday, we had church this morning.  Most of us went and got babies to hold during the service.  I got to hold a precious little one named Josiah, and I am definitely in love.  He's almost 3 months old, but he's so tiny.  Jasmine said that they just got him a couple of weeks ago, so they have been trying to feed him enough that he puts on some weight. 

Now back to church... It was held in one half of the classroom building.  (There is a building for pretty much everything now, except for us, of course.  We get the cool tents again. :) I like tents. Can you tell?)  One of the ladies who work here led the worship time and Jasmine did the teaching. 

After chuch, Sarah and I spent some time with the toddlers.  They are an energetic bunch, and so cute.  Some of the other girls went over to spend more time with the babies, and the guys worked on trying to move some new beds into the girls' building.

Then we had lunch, and afterwards the guys got to work on digging a trench to put in a drainage pipe.  We girls brought some of the little girls into the dining room to do some coloring.  When they had finished, we went and took showers.  We worked on our Bible study and rested for a little bit until dinner.  April, Kate, and Brooke went and helped the ladies in the baby room, bravely facing the prospect of changing lots of diapers, all for the sake of love. :)

Dinner was great: lots of rice with some veggie sauce to put over it. Somebody had told Jasmine that today was my birthday, so the kids sang happy birthday to me while we were all in the dining room. And Jasmine, whose kindness and generousity continues to amaze me, gave me a very sweet gift.  Evening worship time was right after that.  Later this evening, we gave Greg and Jasmine the supplies we brought for them and then we had our discussion time.

That brings us up until the present time, and now I think I'll head off to bed.

Here are some things you can be praying for:

• Deep, restful sleep for all of us - most of us came into this trip feeling exhausted from midterms
• Rest for Jasmine, who has been feeling completely worn out today
• General strength, endurance, focus, patience, joy, and a godly love for our teammates, the Martinsons, and the kids

Thank you all for all of your prayers! It is a great encouragement to us to know that you all are standing behind us and going before us in prayer. 

For the Haiti team,
Hannah



p.s.  To my family: thank you for all of the cards! :) I love you guys so much!!!  And, Bekah, your comic card was absolutely hilarious, and I had to share it with the team! :)