We arrived a little behind schedule today, but God always knows what He is doing! We hopped into the back of our 'ride' for the week--it's a local public transportation called a taptap--and headed to an orphanage called Life is Hope to love some of the kids there. It was a precious (but short) time. We headed across town to our lodging location for the week and had a wonderful meal before a quick team meeting. Off to bed we go--ready to attend church bright and early in the morning!

Last night, we sang some of our team members to sleep while practicing for this morning. The three of us girls sang for church this morning and we watched and listened as the congregation sang a lot. We arrived at church at 7:30 this morning and walked down a large hill to a tent where a sound system was being set up. Seeing the church tent fill up was so amazing. Ushers had to search for seats for those last stragglers. What a blessing it was to be a part of such an alive church. We will be working on the building for this body of believers this week. We are excited to get to work! This afternoon though--we get more time with kids! We are heading back out to Mariani to play for a couple hours. We are looking forward to meeting them!

This afternoon we had the opportunity to go back to Mariani to build relationships with some of the kids here. We played soccer, frisbee, and simply loved being with the kids! Many of us helped with the balloon animals and enjoyed every minute of it. This really will be a great week! So far, we have loved being here in Haiti! All for the glory of God!

When we arrived at Mariani, we dropped our bags and picked up blocks. Just today we passed over 300 blocks from the starting point to half way and then the same number of blocks to their final destination. In between block lines, we did bucket lines too! We were kept super busy, but still had time to build relationships with the kids at Mariani--they helped a lot!

The first day was full of hard work, but we can already see progress on the church at Mariani! Excited to see how the next days will go!

Today we were blessed to be given the opportunity to spend time with the precious children in school at Mariani. They all gathered to hear--and see--the story of Peter walking on the water. Some of them even were able to help by being the waves, the disciples, and even the storm! It was a great time with a great message followed by some singing. What a great start to the day!

To another! We moved those blocks today! We finished moving the stack of blocks from the ground to the roof and then started moving a small pile to another location. We were busy moving blocks for a long time and then it was time to pour a section of the floor--so onto a bucket line for cement. A truck load of blocks came late this afternoon, so back to blocks we went! It was a great way to end the day: getting all the blocks half way up the big hill! We're all a little sore, but we'll be ready to go again tomorrow!

Very small team but lots of energy. Yesterday and today could be called the block days. After pouring the front section of the roof yesterday, we unloaded a small truck of 200 blocks from the bottom of the walk way and moved them to the side of the temporary church shelter. This morning, after a good time spent alongside the kids, doing school ministry, we moved the 200 blocks to the original spot where we moved 600 to start with the church walls. This afternoon, we moved another 200 from the road to the side of the church again. We are so blessed to be a part of the beautiful work! Our goal is to replace the 600 :)

Kids ministry. What a fun way to start our day! what did our skit base on this morning? The three Israelite in the fiery furnace was definitely a wise choice. With the tall Kevin as the statute, Pastor Van as the story teller, and the rest of the crew and some kids involved as fire, the king, the three Israelite, guards and the audience, we have had a great time laughing and sharing God's word before we jumped in the hard labor. Kids were really receptive and fun to act with. We finally realized that the God of the three Israelite is their God and their Lord.

God created the earth. And it was GOOD. He gave us responsibility for the earth we live in, so how can we do that in a simple way? By keeping it clean and teaching others to do the same. We can make a difference. We taught the kids at school that today, then we taught the kids from the community to do the same thing. We took some time with the kids to help them clean their school yard. Some of them really got into it. It was so great to see the kids so excited about filling a bag full of trash to make their place clean.

We said goodbye to our friends today at Mariani. Some of us visited people in the community while others had community people come to us. It was a blessing to be able to pray with our new friends knowing that if we don't see them again on this side of heaven, we will see them on the other! What a great way to end our week!