Hello my Trusted Followers,
I must apologize for our lack of blogging yesterday, that seems like it was more that just 24 hours ago...what a long day today!
This morning we started out by getting up before the roosters and we all went to Church on the Rock for a church service put on my Pastor Gary. He was very good as always!! After church we went to Grace Village for a tour which was pretty cool to see changes still being made. I got an opportunity to check on my AED's and all 3 are still in good working shape, thank God!! After our tour at GV, we went to go visit with some of the elders in the elder care program that HH has. Our first stop was with the one and only Marie (105 years old)!! She is such a Godly woman who never complains and is always happy to see people come visit her. She said she prays for more people to stop by and visit her...her prayers get answered a lot :) We continued on and got to visit with 3 of the 5 we had planned. The other two were not at home. We sang songs for them, washed their feet and put lotion on them. They really seemed to enjoy it, as did we.
After this we went right over to Isaiah's Orphanage and played with those kids. We brought some finger nail polish for the girls and a soccer ball for the boys. Keith, Colleen, Kathy and I had our nails painted and it was a lot of fun!!
We came home for the orphanage, loaded up 14 of the neighborhood boys into the Top Top and then we took off with Hanna too to Pizza Amoure, The kids were so quiet on our way there. We had a very delicious dinner. The kids started to wake up towards the end and when we got back into the top top, the kids went nuts!! Yelling and singing and praising God. They did this on their own accord and they were loud deciples of Christ. This was a very tiresome day for all of us and everyone else is in bed while I type this. You know how many times I have nodded off while writing this...sorry in advance for mispelling. I had a great day with all aspects of our trip today. We definately had fun with the the seniors and the youth of Haiti today. Tomorrow is another day and a gift from God. I am so tired right now!!
Good Night from Haiti,
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Day 3 - Sick kids and oozing wounds :)
Hello from Haiti,
I think this is a conspiracy, my team voted to have me be the team blogger...say what?? I would like all of my family and friends to know how today was along with all of my teams family and friends and all of you HH Alum...Ke Bondye Beni'ou!!
Today was a very interesting day, we went to General Hospital in Port au Prince and visited with some very sick kids in their pediatric unit. We stopped on our way to grab some water pouches and some snacks at the store. We divided up the snacks in the top top which was kind of funny bouncing down the unpaved rock filled roads dodging other cars and trucks and people...you know all of you back in the states want some of that!!
Once we got to General Hospital we handed out our treats to the parents of these very sick little babies and then our team went into nurturing mode, one baby after another baby got picked up, held gently, rocked back and forth...and then there was me: My first baby I picked up screamed and screamed and so I put her down pretty quick and decided it was best to admire them from a distance and I actually really liked seeing all of my teammates interact with the kids and I was in awe at how those kids liked them and not me...I mean really? My peeps were so good with them though!! Jeff and Emmanuel hit up the guitar and began to sing and it wasn't long before they had the parents joining in which was awesome too...I also tried to sing and no babies cried during this for any of you who might think differently :)
After our time at the Hospital, we headed back to base camp (our guest house) and regrouped and had a layover before heading out to our next activities. Our team split up and 3 of us went to Gertrudes Orphanage and the other 3 went to the home for sick children. We (this is for Renee) (Colleen, Kathy and myself) were supposed to all help out at the wound clinic but the staff said that they only had room for 2 of us to go. We rock paper scissored over it and Kathy lost, just kidding she didn't loose, she volunteered to stay behind and help out with the sick babies. Colleen and I went to the wound clinic and we had no clue what to expect. We were handed supplies and told to go to work. There was over 30 people with injuries that needed attention waiting for us to start. Every wound we seen was in pretty bad shape, some were full of gangrene, others full of infection and all of them were large and very painful looking. What we didn't hear was any complaining about how much we hurt them. They were all very thankful and pleasant but wow what an ordeal. It was set up like a MASH station. Very primitive ways in which to care for these wounds with basic first aid. All of the pt's could use much more intensive treatments but none are available for many of them which is pretty sad.
We got brought back to the home for sick kids and found Kathy, she said she held many kids, fed many of them, helped change diapers and assisted the staff with other needs, she really enjoyed her time there too!! We had no ride come for us and a staff member got worried and had a gentleman walk us home...it was a great walk through the back channels of the neighborhood but it was a long walk the way they took. Finally we got reunited and heard the other 3 had a blast singing and playing with the special needs kids at Gertrudes!! Jeff is finally feeling 100% and had a lot of fun singing everywhere we went and we enjoyed hearing him. He is a very talented musician and he is a great leader for us!!
Have a good night all,
Matt Johnson
I think this is a conspiracy, my team voted to have me be the team blogger...say what?? I would like all of my family and friends to know how today was along with all of my teams family and friends and all of you HH Alum...Ke Bondye Beni'ou!!
Today was a very interesting day, we went to General Hospital in Port au Prince and visited with some very sick kids in their pediatric unit. We stopped on our way to grab some water pouches and some snacks at the store. We divided up the snacks in the top top which was kind of funny bouncing down the unpaved rock filled roads dodging other cars and trucks and people...you know all of you back in the states want some of that!!
Once we got to General Hospital we handed out our treats to the parents of these very sick little babies and then our team went into nurturing mode, one baby after another baby got picked up, held gently, rocked back and forth...and then there was me: My first baby I picked up screamed and screamed and so I put her down pretty quick and decided it was best to admire them from a distance and I actually really liked seeing all of my teammates interact with the kids and I was in awe at how those kids liked them and not me...I mean really? My peeps were so good with them though!! Jeff and Emmanuel hit up the guitar and began to sing and it wasn't long before they had the parents joining in which was awesome too...I also tried to sing and no babies cried during this for any of you who might think differently :)
After our time at the Hospital, we headed back to base camp (our guest house) and regrouped and had a layover before heading out to our next activities. Our team split up and 3 of us went to Gertrudes Orphanage and the other 3 went to the home for sick children. We (this is for Renee) (Colleen, Kathy and myself) were supposed to all help out at the wound clinic but the staff said that they only had room for 2 of us to go. We rock paper scissored over it and Kathy lost, just kidding she didn't loose, she volunteered to stay behind and help out with the sick babies. Colleen and I went to the wound clinic and we had no clue what to expect. We were handed supplies and told to go to work. There was over 30 people with injuries that needed attention waiting for us to start. Every wound we seen was in pretty bad shape, some were full of gangrene, others full of infection and all of them were large and very painful looking. What we didn't hear was any complaining about how much we hurt them. They were all very thankful and pleasant but wow what an ordeal. It was set up like a MASH station. Very primitive ways in which to care for these wounds with basic first aid. All of the pt's could use much more intensive treatments but none are available for many of them which is pretty sad.
We got brought back to the home for sick kids and found Kathy, she said she held many kids, fed many of them, helped change diapers and assisted the staff with other needs, she really enjoyed her time there too!! We had no ride come for us and a staff member got worried and had a gentleman walk us home...it was a great walk through the back channels of the neighborhood but it was a long walk the way they took. Finally we got reunited and heard the other 3 had a blast singing and playing with the special needs kids at Gertrudes!! Jeff is finally feeling 100% and had a lot of fun singing everywhere we went and we enjoyed hearing him. He is a very talented musician and he is a great leader for us!!
Have a good night all,
Matt Johnson
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Day 2 - Water Truck
Good evening from Haiti,
I guess the energy draining day we had today left the rest of my team zapped to blog, so you get me again :) We had a very good breakfast which gave us just enough energy to get through this emotionally and physically draining day! We ventured off to Cite Soleil for our first water truck stop and it was very exciting to see all of the children and their sweet faces greet us when we came to a stop! Their smiles were infectious, their laughter was musical to our ears, their hugs were so pure and so warm. I got mobbed as did all of my team by the throngs of little ones everywhere, it was awesome!! God put us there to see how they live, to give them life water and to love them up with the love that God put in and on our hearts. It really was sad to see their living conditions, sad to see the raw sewage flowing down the street, sad to see the barefoot kiddos running and walking on broken glass and rusty cans...so sad that it broke our hearts!! We got to hold the kids, play with the kids, deliver water and share God's love, Jezi Renmen Ou kids!!!
We went back to the water truck stop and wow what a back up of water trucks!! It was fun to get to see all of the different companies and the Fire Department with their 2 Fire Trucks!! I really enjoyed that as I work with Fire Fighters everyday and one of our teammates Kathy Messer's husband is a Fridley Fire Fighter...hey Todd!! Once full again, we ventured off to a new stop for me, cement buildings, wide streets, longer distances for hauling water but the same adorable children who wanted our attention so bad that they fought with each other for it. I love all of them wanting to climb on us and they all seemed to really enjoy Keith and me as we have the bigger stomachs...they say we're big and they ask if we have a baby inside...such sweet kids :) I loved seeing the ladies on our team (Kathy, Renee and Colleen) with all of the little kids, they have magical abilities to put children to sleep...I do not!! It was neat to go down the street a ways and see a change in neighborhoods, big difference in housing structures seen. We had a third water truck stop and this one was my favorite. We worked harder, carried more water further distances, played with the kids between hauling more buckets and more buckets. When we ran out of water, I was so happy!!!
We got to go to the warf after this stop and see a bunch of boats, a puffer fish, some fishermen, a man fixing nets and some kids playing in the ocean...pretty cool to see!! I was pretty happy to get there and see the neat sights! We came home and got to go swimming with some of the local neighborhood boys and wow that was refreshing!!!! We had a great dinner tonight followed by word of the day which got interrupted by pouring rain...guess what happened then?? Slip and Slide!!!!! Renee and I were the brave souls to go for a slide and man was that fun!!!!! Anna Collins and Mandi Rae were my first teammates to try the Haitian slip and slide out last Sept and I had so much fun that I had to do it again...I know I am a giant kid but God loves that about me :) Thank you Haiti for a wonderful day, Thank you God for providing this day to give us a glimpse into the daily lives of some of the Haitians, they have so little and never complain, we all could learn from that!! Hey Lois Girgis Coyle, lovely Haitian Tulip right??
God Bless all of you,
Matt Johnson
Monday, September 22, 2014
Journey to Haiti Sept 22nd, 2014
Today was a very early start as many of you can relate! The alarm clock rang at 1:15 am...this is never a good time to wake up!! Late night packing, early rising, early run to the airport, got into the main area and found that no coffee shops are open before 4:30 am, this was tough to handle but we waited and eventually Caribou opened up and a good start to the day was starting to take place. We had a good flight into Miami and met up with our 6th teammate Colleen. She flew in from Pennsylvania this morning and met us in the nick of time in Miami. We had a good second leg of our trip into Haiti!! We had a warm welcome from Maxime and Brunet. Once at the guest house, we got to go on a fun neighborhood tour and we heard lovely ladies singing praises to Jesus and it was such a sweet sound!! We got back and had a great meal as they all are and then toured the property. God hand picked each and every one of us to be on this trip and this being day 1 of 8, he is already showing Himself to us and He is revealing the heart of Haiti!! God doesn't want us to wonder, what can we do? God wants us to see what we can do and do it to glorify His name, well Haiti...here we come with 6 huge hearts, 12 hands and 12 feet, a strong desire to help and do what we can, determination, grit, compassion, love and God's word!!! My favorite bible passage in Haiti is Matthew 25: 31-46 where God talks about being hungry and feeding Him, being thirsty and giving Him something to drink, being naked and giving Him clothes, being a prisoner and going to visit Him in Jail...this passage is about being the Hands and Feet of Christ and making good decisions, ones that glorify God and that by doing for the least of these people you are doing for Christ...whoa!!! Powerful stuff, live life, love many, help regardless of what you can get out of it and really we should just love our neighbors as ourself!! Our neighbors are not just the ones right next door but also they are in Haiti, Germany, Australia, China, Canada...the world is our neighbor, how are you going to treat your neighbors? Haiti holds a special place in my heart and I am so grateful to be here. God Bless you all...Ke Bondye Beni'ou!!!!
Love in Christ,
Matt Johnson
Love in Christ,
Matt Johnson
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