Dixie Baptist Church

By the grace of God alone, we have finally made it to Haiti! We were immediately blown away by the beauty of the country and her people. We are so excited to see how God works in, through and around us this week! We know that God has already been working in this country and in the lives of these people. Therefore, we trust that He is the One who will be leading this trip, changing hearts and lives in the process. Pray for us and the ministries we will be participating in. Pray for eyes to be open and hearts to be softened!

This morning we had the privilege of worshipping with the Haitians. This was a special Sunday for the congregation because it was the final service in their week long revival. We were so excited to be able to share in this experience! They were all so welcoming to us; the first thing the worship leader asked us to do was to mix in with the rest of the congregation. What a beautiful picture of the Body of Christ. We had a wonderful time singing and listening. We were also allowed to share with them. We sang How Great is Our God and One Thing Remains. They enjoyed our english worship just as much as we enjoyed their Creole worship. Praise the Lord for the beautiful body of Christ!!

This afternoon, Bethany armed us with different ministry tools that will be very useful for us this week. We learned about a ministry that Praying Pelican Missions participates in called tree ministry. In this ministry we will be teaming up with a member of Pastor Lourens' church as we reach out to the community. We will walk door to door offering prayer, support, encouragement, and also offering to plant a tree in their yard. We are so excited to start this ministry tomorrow! The other ministry tools we got to practice was called life stories. We partnered up with someone we didn't know very well, and basically just poured out our hearts. We shared our life, testimony, struggles, and requests with each other. This was such an awesome team building technique. It is also something that will be very effective for us back in the States! Pray for rest tonight as we begin our first full day of ministry in the morning!

What a day it has been! God has definitely shown up and shown out today. After devotion and a delicious breakfast, we headed out to begin VBS at Life is Hope Orphanage. We started at the boys orphanage this morning. We played games and had an interactive bible study involving bubble gum! We taught the kids about creation and about how God breathed life into each one of us. At the girls orphanage, we made pretty crowns and played games. We taught the girls the story of Esther. They loved the story and loved their new crowns. We also played games and sang songs together. These girls are so beautiful, inside and out!

This week we have the absolute privilege of working with a local pastor to reach out to his fairly unreached community. Today was the first day we got to participate in this ministry; we loved every minute of it! As we plant the trees for these people, many doors are opened to share the Gospel, and that is exactly what we got to do this afternoon! We even got to witness five children surrender their lives to Christ. Not only are we planting physical seeds, but we are planting and watering spiritual ones as well! We are so humbled that God allowed us to be a part of this moment!

To wrap up for the day, we went back to the boy's orphanage to do some beautification of the building. Most of us cleaned and painted; some of us got to work on passing cinderblocks for the wall. We are excited for these service projects to progress throughout the week!

This morning, we started at the boys orphanage. Our lesson today was on the Ten Commandments. We incorporated a scavenger hunt which the boys loved! Not only did they seem to enjoy it this morning, but they also seemed to be taking something away from what the Lord was saying. After spending time at the boys orphanage, we headed to the girls orphanage. There, instead of splitting up into different study groups, we felt like we needed to focus more on building relationships with them. So, with the lead of our awesome Haitian staff, we played games and sang songs together!

After lunch, we went back to the boys orphanage to do some more face-lifting. Some of us got to work mixing concrete and passing blocks and buckets of water. The rest of us continued washing and painting the interior and exterior walls of the orphanage. We got so much done today!

After lunch, we went back to the boys orphanage to do some more face-lifting. Some of us got to work mixing concrete and passing blocks and buckets of water. The rest of us continued washing and painting the interior and exterior walls of the orphanage. We got so much done today!

Ashley, along with the rest of the team, did such a good job painting the kitchen at the boys orphanage today!

We were so excited to participate in tree ministry again today! Yet again we saw God move in mighty ways. It is such a blessing to have Pastor Lourens working hand-in-hand with us. His desire to spread the Gospel in his community is so encouraging! Continue to pray for him and his community. Pray that the Holy Spirit would be thick and moving!

This morning, we had a great time with the girls of Life is Hope. For the devotion, we shared the story of Ruth. We talked about how our inner beauty is more important than our outward beauty. The Lord sees us from the inside and loves us just the way we are!

After spending that precious time with the girls, we headed over to play with our boys. There we were able to present them with the Gospel and the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Some of them decided it was time to give their lives to Christ! We are so humbled that God would allow us to be a small part in these boys' lives! Be in prayer for each other these boys, especially our new brothers in Christ!

This afternoon, we headed back up the mountain to continue with the tree ministry. This time has been such a blessing, both to us and the beautiful people of this community. This evening was so much fun! We bused the boys from Life is Hope over to Pastor Josué's to play a soccer match against the boys in his orphanage. They had so much fun playing with other kids. It was so much fun to be able to organize a game between both orphanages. It was awesome to see how exited they were to play together. After the game finished, we did a Bible study at the field. One fourteen year old accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Praise the Lord!

Today we got to experience even more of the beauty that Haiti has to offer! We started the day by traveling across town to the awesome Sugar Cane Factory. There we had a yummy American lunch of hamburgers and french fries. We really enjoyed each other's company. Next, we traveled another hour to the beach! We were blown away by the beauty of how the mountains collided with the ocean. God was definitely showing off when He created this place.