Missions Trip Recap December 2016
Hello from Dream Haiti!
With a heart filled with joy we are writing regarding our recent trip to Haiti. Even with short notice and during the Thanksgiving season God made a way for our trip and we were overwhelmed with the generosity that all of our friends and family poured out to make this trip possible. We were blessed to have our dear friends, Allison and Stephanie join us for the duration of the trip. It was truly special to have them experience Haiti with us. Entering the airport we had four large luggage bags full of donations and two carry ons. We were able to cover the expenses of our trip and then some, which we were then able to pass on to our team.
Although we were not able to reach the hardest hit areas from the hurricane as it was becoming more dangerous in those areas, we were able to serve several days in the southern part of Haiti, Jacmel. Here we served the community, distributed donations and partnered with a couple named Irene and Erik who live in Jacmel. We were able to help in the areas of health and hygiene. We also visited a small school in the area where we were able to put on a program for the kids in the community. This is where Ismail had the chance to shine as his heart is to motivate, inspire and teach children.
During the second half of our trip, we were able to travel up north to visit our team in Source-Matelas where they put on a kid’s program in the community every week, a highlight of our trip. If you don’t know what our kid’s program is (Kid’s Club), this is where all the kids in the community come together and learn from our leaders, play games, hear the gospel, share their gifts and talents and spend time together. It was beautiful to see how our leadership team in Haiti has grown and how each of them continue to develop into incredible, passionate and compassionate servant-leaders. We are truly blessed to have each of them make up Dream Haiti. We were able to serve a meal for the children in our kid’s club program as well. We served over 200 people in total! It’s amazing how far a giant pot of rice and beans can go!
On our last full day in Haiti we had the opportunity to travel further north to La Chapelle. This is about 2 hours from the capital, Port-Au-Prince. This is where Ismail was born and grew up for his early childhood years. It is In this community that our vision to build our community and educational center has developed. We have some land secured already and continue to work to raise funds to start building in the future. We visited a local church which is a stones throw away from our land and spoke to the congregation. We distributed some donations, hygiene and baby products, sang with the church, listened to the community members as they shared with us and trained several leaders in the church about the water filtration system we were able to give to the community, a donation from friends back home.
We met this incredible woman in Jacmel as we visited the community. After we prayed with her, she began to cry and said she had lost her daughter just a week before. Even in the midst of tears, this beautiful woman began to pray over us for protection during our trip and then began singing a hymn of praise to God. What an incredible testimony and reminder to us all. God is always worthy to be praised.
Our vision and dreams started to take a more clearer shape as we walked through the streets of La Chapelle together, prayed over our land, and visited with the community. Ismail still has many family members in this area and it was beautiful for all of us to be able to meet them and pray with them on our land. We collected many white stones from the land, which act as our Ebenezer stones. God has been so faithful to bring us to this point on our journey and we hope you will continue to pray along with us as our community center begins to take shape. With God all things are possible. Will you dream along with us? I believe you will and we want to encourage you to dream big dreams that God has created you to accomplish in his mighty and faithful name. To God be the glory.
Currently, we are looking for individuals and groups to build on our partnerships to serve more families in Haiti. We are also planning to visit several different churches in the U.S. this coming year. If you would like us, Ismail and Bethany, to come speak at your church about Dream Haiti and our vision/ mission, please contact us. We would love to share our story with you and get to know you better as well.
Ways to Pray for Our Team
- Pray for wisdom for our leadership team in Dream Haiti. Pray for continued strength and vision.
- Pray for our land in La Chapelle that it will be a place of peace, blessing and hope for all who step foot on it.
- Pray for the finances and resources we need for the community / educational center in La Chapelle to be secured.
- Pray for Ismail and Bethany as they seek the Lord on the next steps for the ministry.
