sunday sabbath

Well yesterday concluded the schoolroom project, which entailed painting the bottom half of the classroom walls gray, and scrubbing the chairs because they really needed it! Then we rested a bit by playing some cards games and then going to eat PIZZA, which was really a fun treat!

 dan

 george

 patty

 elaine, pam and clean chairs!

 

Pizza! Along with Sandy, Eric & Christine Helgemo, and the potential orphan directors who came down to continue the process in praying about whether God is calling them to lead at Three Angels. 

Tomorrow we head home and are sad to leave! But God did amazing things on this trip, in and through all of us we are trusting, because of His grace and provision. Please pray for safe travels and transfers through customs. Thank you for walking this journey with our team. We consider you part of our team as God heard your prayers. We are so thankful for partnering with us! Thank you again!!

Love, the Haiti team :)

back row (l-r) George & Evan Gumas, Dan Robinson, Elaine Conner, Armine Khushigian
front row (l-r) Bill & Chris Conner, Patty Heron, Pam Robinson, Dina Previti

happy 4th of july... from haiti!

Friday was another eventful and enjoyable day! The Lord continues to protect and provide for both the team and for Three Angels.
A few people took the trip with Mark Bradley up to Archaie (90 minutes from Three Angels, without traffic), where Church of the Saviour helped donate the cost to build a school. They got to see the work the Lord is doing there, despite the children not being in school because of the summer. They also got to see one of the beautiful Caribbean beaches, which reminds us that Haiti has many beautiful places here!

 Patty and some kiddos

The rest of the team stayed at Three Angels to continue the project of cleaning the schoolrooms and painting. There was a lot to scrape and clean to prepare the walls for fresh paint. It has come a long way and looks so bright and welcoming!

 Pam scrubbing away

 this one is harder to see but that is definitely Elaine climbing up the wall!

 green top half is FINISHED! on to gray...

As tomorrow is Sabbath, the team will get to go to worship with Sandy Miller (guest house manager) and Eric and Christine Helgemo (directors). It will be nice to spend time in worship together and the church is English-speaking, full of many other missionaries. 
Continue to pray for our team as tomorrow is our last full day, since we leave at 6am Monday for the airport. God has been faithful and it has been a great week so far! 
Thank you for your prayers; God is answering them!!!

a haitian thursday

Today was one of our favorite days. Two of our team members had birthdays! Elaine Conner and Dan Robinson, so we celebrated them all day. 
After a delicious breakfast, we taught ESL again to the teachers, where they each brought in word they wanted translated. The words they chose were creative: heaven, God, wisdom, conscience, eat and money etc. 
Then we headed to the farm to work. We took our toilet paper rolls filled with carrot seeds, along with a packed lunch, and a lot of water and bug spray. We worked for several hours preparing soil to plant watermelon, picking the ripe cantelope and watermelon which we enjoyed with dinner, planting carrot seeds, and preparing pomegranate saplings to be planted. We got our hands dirty and it was so fun. No one got any extreme sunburn, despite it hitting 107 degrees! Our dinner discussion was quieter than usual as we were somewhat comotose from a day of good, hard work, but after a great meal and chocolate birthday cake, we recharged and headed over to the school to clean the walls of the classrooms to prepare to paint as our next project. 
Many of the team really enjoys working. Although the Carribean mindset is often laid back, we have been excited to be productive and complete the list of projects we've been given and thankful for the opportunity to be here. 

 some trees started at the farm 

So far, our completed projects are:

• planting grass in the orphanage yard
• painting the orphanage fence and railings
• painting the orphanage upper staircase
• scraping and painting the orphanage ceiling
• treating the orphanage roof to prevent water leakage
• cleaning the solar panels 
• planting seeds (watermelon and carrots)
• painting the 12' x 8' white board in the family center
• cleaning the schoolroom walls 
• organizing and alphabatizing the 200+ medical files at the clinic

So far, we have seen God's handiwork and provision everywhere. Spending time with the people here on staff, seeing the little ones in the orphanage, and getting to know the Haitian culture has been a gift to our team. We are thankful for continued health and strength to allow us to work hard and serve in the ways God allows us. Thank you for continuing to pray! We need it!

the view

 dinner at the guest house

 dina 

[photo cred: chris conner]

dinner with the Bradley's

 the new white board

 planting grass

 rooftop view

painting at the orphanage 

  chris painting upside down!

 at the zoo at the Baptist Mission

 Bill, Elaine & Chris Conner

the view.

7.1.15

We are finishing up Day 3 of our trip here, we are loving our time and everyone is doing well! Several mosquito bites later, no one has any known diseases at this point and we are enjoying some late night snacks after a full day!
Monday, we landed safely and managed to gather all 20 of our checked bags. It was a miracle because we realized at the baggage claim that no one had a list of the bags we had checked. But lo and behold, there they all were! Praise the Lord. 
We settled into the guest house after Sandy greeted us, the guest house manager who is wonderfully hospitable. We spent time with Eric Helgemo, Three Angels Country Director, and talked through all the projects that needed to be done in order to make a plan. 
Tuesday, we started the day with a delicious breakfast and then most of us headed to the orphanage to paint. We painted the outside railings where the little ones play, scraped the ceilings, cleaned the solar panels and prepared the playground for grass seed to be planted. Some focused on painting the 12' x 8' white board in the newly built Kembe Fem Family Center. 
After lunch, we spent time organizing the many files for the medical clinic here on site. We also got to spend time with Christine Helgemo and her children. It was a very productive, enjoyable work day. We played games with Eric and his children to end the day with an exciting game of Pictionary.
This morning, after pancakes we went over to the school on site to spend time with the elementary teachers who want to learn ESL. We helped them create an alphabet dictionary for their own reference later and sang several rounds of "Head and shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes!" It was fun and I cannot get that song out of my head. :)
Back at the orphanage we finished our painting projects and no one fell off any ladders or roof. It was fabulous and the paint spruced it up nicely!
This afternoon, we went to visit the Baptist Mission on the top of the mountain, which was the first mission in Haiti I was told. The people were kind, the view was spectacular, and the ice cream was delicious. 
Tonight, after our debrief, discussion on John 9 and prayer, we are winding down. Some are calling it a night while others are preparing carrot seeds to plant tomorrow at the farm. Sandy has come up with a wonderful idea to prepare the seeds by using TOILET PAPER!!! [and the paper rolls will be repurposed for other projects, Sandy said! She is so resourceful! :) How many uses are their for toilet paper roles, I wonder...]
We are having a fabulous trip so far, working hard, enjoying the evening breeze after 100 degree days, and experiencing God's peace. A theme we have noticed here is that is it very peaceful. Despite the challenges many Haitians are experiencing, we see God at work everywhere in and through the people here. They are such a blessing to us, and we pray God is using us as we seek to serve Him, Three Angels and the community here. 
Pray for a productive day tomorrow, continued health and team unity, and that God will lead us!
Thank you!!!

Haiti || 2015

We are packing up for our trip down to Three Angels in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, again! 

Please pray for our team as we travel, that God's helpful presence would be obvious along the way, that He would provide protection over the team, and that we would be His servants as we spend time with the orphans, students, staff and community of Three Angels.

Check back to follow the team throughout our week and find prayer requests that arise.

We are so thankful to have the body of Christ supporting this mission!

www.ThreeAngelsHaiti.org

www.cosnet.org/care

Haiti team:

• Bill Conner
• Chris Conner
• Elaine Conner
• George Gumas
• Evan Gumas
• Patty Heron
• Armine Khushigian
• Dina Previti
• Danny Robinson
• Pam Robinson