What I learned from the Kids and King's Garden

NOTE:  This post was meant to go up yesterday (Monday night) so this actually what happened yesterday -

Today was our first full day with the kids - finally!!  We went to their church service at the orphanage on Sunday, but only were able to see them for a few minutes  - today we had all day!!

The animals went in two by two

We started the morning with a VBS at the orphanage.  This year's theme for the VBS is "superheroes of the Bible" and today we learned about Noah.  We started by making name tags and then singing.  We then met Noah, who came to talk to the children about his story.  We are not sure how we were able to get Noah to come all the way to Haiti, but one thing I do know, he looked a lot like Papa Don! (or shoudl I say "Papa" - as all the kids have already come to call him)

Once the children learned the story of Noah,  they acted out the story themselves complete with costumes and props.  There were two masks of each animal, and the children had an especially great time finding their twin to board our ark.

One thing that always strikes me when I am in Haiti with these children is that they are willing to give anything a try.  We brought some animal finger puppet craft kits, and all the kids ages 4-18 were ready to enjoy the craft.  When we handed out the animal masks, everyone put them on and got excited to be in our little play.  There was no holding back, no worrying about not being cool, just pure joy of trying something new and different.  My prayer for these kids is that they will always be open to what life has to offer them, and that life will offer them all good things.

Nicolette and Uno

London Bridges Falling Down...

We also had so much fun just playing with the kids in the afternoon!! After lunch, I opened up a suitcase we had brought that was full of things to play with in the afternoon - puzzles, games, bubbles, beach balls, bad mitten, frisbees, etc.. It was fun to see our team turn into children as they got excited about playing with toys all afternoon.  At one point we had coloring with some of the kids, a frisbee game, basketball and Uno - all at the same time!  I'm not sure who had more fun, the kids or the team!  It's a wonderful thing when God asks you to serve him by playing games with these beautiful children.

We spent the evening  with Danielle leading preparations for tomorrow's mobile clinic.  We prepped medications for the clinic and learned as much as we could from Danielle's experience with the mobile clinics last year.    We aren't sure what the situation is going to be where we are going tomorrow,  we don't know how far it is - we are pretty sure they don't have running water and maybe no bathroom.  But we are trusing God that everything will come together and the medical team will be able to treat everyone who comes to the clinic and us non-medical folks will be able to help wherever needed.  This will be a new adventure for me  and I hope to be just like the kids at King's Garden - open to this new adventure and whatever it will bring.

Stephanie