We are coming off an incredible week with a visiting team from a very supportive church, led by wonderfully dear friends. I need to get to bed and it has literally taken me all afternoon and evening to get the photos below to upload on the internet, so now I am going to let them do most of the speaking, since it has gotten late and mornings come early.
Our time with the Iowans from Grundy Center United Methodist Church began late Friday evening. My Haitian sons were almost as anxious as I was to be reunited with Pastor Phil and Connie Dicks, who had come to Haiti last February to help with our field retreat. (They are longtime friends of mine from my early 20s when I took a summer job at Lake Okoboji UMC Camp and they are the type of folks you just want to share with everyone you know.)
Here's Phil together again with Johnny, Mikenn, and Ruysdael.
Phil and Connie brought with them Bobby Jo, Jerry and Linda, and three teenage girls, Reagan, Stephanie and Savannah (their granddaughter). They also brought over a dozen suitcases packed full of all sorts of goodies - some for our family, some for Cowman School, some for the kids our friend Daniel feeds in his neighborhood, and some for the various missionaries serving on the field.
It took Melissa HOURS to sort through what they brought and what fun she had doing it!
Samuel and Caleb got busy right away on some Pop Tarts and Pringles.
Saturday morning brought a trip to the Citadel. The Grundy Center folks turned out to be an adventurous bunch! AND they welcomed along my Haitian sons and our good friends and co-workers, Rose and David, and their two boys.
Heading up the mountainside:
Our destination:
Rose and David's beautiful family:
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Johnny, Ruysdael, Mikenn and I:
Phil taking a group selfie on the steps of the Governor's Palace:
The official group picture:
Connie heading back down the mountain.
Sunday morning found us crowding into the TINY "courtyard" in front of Daniel's house to meet the kids he feeds each Saturday and Sunday morning. It's always an eye- and heart-opening experience.
That visit was followed by worship with our friends at Grace en Sion church and a visit to Rose and David's house.
Our kids never get tired of hearing Phil's stories. The more he stretches the story, the more they laugh.
During the week, the team kept busy visiting various OMS ministries, helping out at Cowman, and distributing radios while sharing the Gospel.
At Cowman, Jerry and Phil were instrumental is kicking off the next essential piece of our ongoing construction project: setting supports into place in preparation for a poured concrete roof to the dining area.
I was glad to catch Linda one morning to talk to my class about some of her life experiences working in higher education in the States.
In the afternoons, the group was more than willing to visit various adult English classes. Here Bobby Jo is holding conversation with some of my adult students - very useful as they seek to become fluent in English.
The three teenage girls were all bold enough to practice conversation with strangers as well. Here's Reagan, seeming to truly enjoy the experience.
Meals for the team were at the Holiday House. Phil sometimes complained that the food was "too American". He craved Haitian food, so my Haitian sons did what they could to appease him - homemade pikliz from Johnny's mom, mangoes and coconuts pulled fresh from the trees, AND spaghetti juice - but that's coming up...
Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, was another workday at Cowman School, but with it being the team's last full day, we tried to cram in as much experience together as possible. That's why we ended up making the drive downtown after school, even though the sky was threatening rain.
Our goal was to get to the meat market at the center of Cap Haitien ...
And to greet Johnny's mom, Therese, at her work-site.
Mission accomplished. She seemed thrilled that the team made that extra effort to meet her.
We spent a good 45 minutes weaving through stalls selling everything from crabs to breadfruit, scarves to spices. Then the skies opened up and all the shoppers and sellers started to head for cover.
Rose and my Haitian sons were along as guides. Rose helped Phil successfully haggle for five giant wooden spoons. (??)
Usually one can travel from the market back to the mission grounds in 25 minutes or so, but once the rain started to fall in sheets, we loaded up the cattle truck and ... sat in traffic for the next hour and a half. (It was only later that someone pointed out the giant blue tarp behind the driver's seat in the cab. It never even occurred to me to look for a tarp!) Everyone in the back (which was everyone but me) was soaked to the bone. But apparently they did a lot of singing and dancing to stay warm.
By the time we returned to OMS, the air temperature was probably in the lower 70s, but Mikenn, Johnny and Ruysdael were shivering like they were on the verge of hypothermia. They said they had never been so cold in their entire lives!
We got the boys warmed up with hot chocolate and some borrowed clothing from Caleb. I thought they were going to climb into the oven after Melissa took a couple of pumpkin pies out.
After their dinner at the Holiday House, Melissa invited the team up for a final gathering at our house to enjoy those pies together. And there was something about the familiarity of that pumpkin pie and gathering with friends and family that made it finally FEEL like Thanksgiving Day.
And there was something about the Spaghetti Juice that made it feel like Thanksgiving Day IN HAITI. ;-) Mikenn, Ruysdael and Johnny were determined to introduce all of us to this special drink consisting of cooked spaghetti, some of the water it cooked in, condensed milk, sugar, salt and ice cubes. All thrown together in a blender and thoroughly liquified.
Savannah and Caleb were among the first to try it. Everyone was willing, if not eager, to give it a try.
And here's the guy who BEGGED for more Haitian food experiences:
He was just joking. Phil had two or three cups of spaghetti juice before we cut him off.
And then, after the familiar and the experiential culinary experiences, Jerry and Linda led the group in sharing the timeless food of holy communion. What a way to end our Thanksgiving Day and our truly blessed week together!
It is only through the body and blood of Jesus!
Our last morning together was short, but fun. Connie and the team gathered for our Friday morning chapel service and ...
Phil was in charge.
It was perhaps the most energetic chapel Cowman has ever seen.
But in the blink of an eye, it was time to say goodbyes. The boys couldn't even muster a half-smile for a photo with Stephanie...
And there were gifts given and tears shed ... and a spirit of unity that I predict will endure even the separation of a couple thousand miles.
Thank you, Phil and Connie and team, for your willingness to give up the comfort of home, the holiday feasts with family, and the safety of the familiar to join us for spaghetti juice! Your generosity is unparalleled and your love is contagious. And thank you, Grundy Center UMC, for sending your FIRST Haiti mission team - we know this sort of ministry isn't possible without the faithful support of the folks back home.
We love you guys and we will miss you until God brings us together again!
