Glory to God for all his many blessings....

Our second day in the trenches of Haiti began with an amazing and powerful Haitian worship service at 6:00 am. After about a ten minute walk, we arrived at a huge tent and were greeted with the sound of many beautiful voices being lifted to Him in prayer and praise. The Spirit was alive and present with each and every person as they spoke their prayers out loud, paced and lifted their hands in praise. It was an amazing experience to share in, as the deep faith of each Haitian poured from them into all there. We were blessed to have our translator with us, since the services was in Creole, and could understand the message that was spoken, which was to remove all the things that separate us from God having our full heart and giving our life to him. This seems to be the foundation of the culture of Haiti. This is a country that has little to nothing, the most extreme poverty you could ever imagine, but what they have is God. They have no stuff getting in the way of their heart and God. They have a faith like no other. I have said these many times since arriving here, these are the most beautiful people I have ever met and I have seen the most horrific living conditions imaginable.

After our early start to the day, we replenished with breakfast and headed for our first orphanage for the sick and dying babies of Haiti. As you can imagine, it was a very emotional day as we held, fed and poured our love into this beautiful children....even if it was only for a few hours. It was amazing to witness the dedication and commitment the women that ran the orphanage have for these children and that they have given their lives to God and serving his most vulnerable children. Many of our hearts broke wide open as we felt helpless in what we could do for this children. However, we found comfort in praying over them before our final good byes and a few shed tears.

During the middle of the day, we had the pleasure of going to a second orphanage for the children born with special needs and developmental disabilities. These children had the brightest of smiles and full of such life as they requested rides on strollers, pushes on swings and most of all hugs. We were able to bless many of them with bandanas and it was priceless to see all of them wearing them.

It seems that it is almost hard to express in words the feelings that we receive from every experience and every interaction we have with every precious child and every set of eyes we look in as we are greeted. Our hearts are broken for these people, but yet so full as we witness their faith and joy.

We are all so truly blessed to be in this place, where our "stuff" is removed and God has full access to our hearts. He is having His way with each of us on our team and we hope that through this blog, you will also open your hearts to His calling for you.