On the flight to Miami, I got to sit with Matthew and Julie. Matthew is a missionary and has been living at Danita's Children for 2.5 years. He is also from Shoreline. It was nice to learn more about the orphanage from Matthew and what to expect.
I sat by the window and got to see the sun come up. The colors on the clouds were such a gorgeous dark pink. Such a beautiful thing that reminded me of God's presence on this journey with me. It also reminded me of our trip to Hawaii when we hiked and biked down Mount Haleakala. We were on a volcano high above the clouds and got to see the sun dance on the clouds as it came up. It was truly breathtaking.
We had a layover in Miami and we grabbed a bite to eat at Wendy's in the airport. On the second flight, I got to sit with Shawn. We had a lot in common and it was great getting to know her. We landed in Cap Haitian. We had to walk down the stairs out of the airplane.
There were mountains in Haiti. Not what I had pictured in my mind. It took awhile for us to get through customs, but we made it.
We divided into 2 groups and got into vans. I was with Julie, Krystal, Sandy, Amy, Gloria and Vivianne. They loaded our luggage on top of the vans and we drove nearly 1.5 hours from Cap Haitian to Ouanaminthe.
The main mode of transportation is by motorcycle. We saw as many as 5 people on one motorcycle. They would honk and speed by us.
There are no driving rules in Haiti so it was a bit like driving in Mexico. Lots of people in town were trying to sell things on the side of the road. There was so much poverty. I took tons of pictures from the van window as we drove to Danita's Children.
Outside the window is the Clinton Foundation. This was funded to help provide homes. The houses are all colors of the rainbow and very close together as you can see below.
We arrived at the orphanage, Danita's Children. This is the van we rode in. Notice the man getting our luggage off of the roof.
Once inside the gated property, I immediately felt safe. The complex was beautiful and so were the children that greeted us. Below is a picture of the Caleb House. This house is the home to children that live in the orphanage and it was donated by Shoreline Church in honor of Caleb Koke, the pastors' son who was relocated to heaven at age 17.
The older boys from the orphanage got our luggage and took it up to what would be our home for the next week.
We were staying on the 3rd floor of the newly built medical center. This is where we stayed.
We had a community bathroom. The electricity and water turn off at night at 10PM because they are on a generator. We were not able to flush the toilets during that time and toilet paper had to go in the trashcan. Showering consisted of water that barely trickled out of the faucet. We would fill a plastic cup with this water and splash it on ourselves to clean. The water was not heated either. We were thankful to even have running water and electricity. The accommodations were better than I had pictured in my mind. We were also told to not drink the water, close your mouths in the shower and use bottled water to brush your teeth. This took a lot of getting use to. After unpacking and making our beds, we headed to dinner. We had a Spam casserole with green beans and a roll. A wonderful missionary, whom we ended up calling Mama Jill, made a delicious Sprite cake. We loved it so much, she made it several times for us that week. I went to bed, but couldn't sleep, even though I had been up for nearly 24 hours. Too much emotion and excitement for what lies ahead.
The next morning, I got up early to watch school formation. We got to interact with some of the children as they were coming to school. The school has approximately 300 students, 108 which come from the orphanage and the rest from the village.The students line up by grade level outside the school. They sing songs, pray and do the pledge. It was amazing to see.
The students were happy to see Matthew Paul again as he had been in the states for a few weeks.
The younger children wear red and white uniforms and the older students wear blue and white.
This is the secondary school in the background.
Saying the pledge and raising the flag.
This is a short video of the children singing during formation.
Of course being a kindergarten teacher, I had a heart for the youngest students. They were so small. They looked like they were about 2 years old, but they were 5.
We went to eat breakfast. We had eggs and toast. We would eat in a community gathering for friendship and fellowship in this room.
This is Ginnette. She is from Port Au Prince and came to be a translator for the women's conference. She has an amazing story as she was an orphan herself, came to the US and got her nursing degree and is back helping out in Haiti. She truly has a heart for God. Anita and I got to hear her story that morning. She has a magnetic personality and I have already spoken to her several times since I have been home. She will be a friend for life.
I got to interact with a few more of the younger students after breakfast. This first picture is of their school. All of the lower grades are together in one big room, but separated out in groups. I was surprised by their lack of teaching materials. The teacher just had a blackboard and chalk and the children practice learning by rote memorization.
Here is another cute 5 year old drinking water from a bag.
The next part of the day, we got to take a walk into the village. This was one of my most favorite memories from the trip. We literally walked outside the gate and walked down the street. We were inviting people to the women's conference on Friday and Saturday. You will see how the people are living in complete devastation in these pictures. This first picture has the medical facility right behind the concrete wall. Trash is dumped and burned here.
These cactus were all over Haiti. Lots of them served as fences in front of homes.
Kids by themselves in the street eating some popcorn.
A typical home.
Krystal is teaching these boys sign language for I love you.
This was our group posing with a family that has a close relationship with Danita's Children. In the black t-shirt is Brittany, a missionary who has been with Danita for seven years and runs the malnutrition center. This family is close to her heart as she helped to save the girl's life that is in front of her.
Broken bottles on top of walls to keep people out.
This is the well. This is the village's source of water. Three times a day it will overflow. Everyone comes from town with buckets and bottles to fill up so they can have water in their homes.
Many people carry things on their heads. Most don't use their hands.
A sweet girl peeking out of her house. Notice the dirt floors and tin door.
There is no form of sanitation and trash is everywhere, so are goats.
This cow is still alive and was just taken into the gates to the slaughter house.
This is a bakery that we went to. It is a branch of Great Harvest.
They even had scripture in the bakery on the wall.
Someone was washing clothes at the river.
More goats eating trash.
In this picture, it is hard to tell, but if you look closely in the trees, you can see the top of the medical center at Danita's Children. This is like a lighthouse for the village, which has no kind of medical facility. When a child is seriously ill, they have to cross the border into the Dominican Republic to get treatment for them. There is a lot of feuding between the two countries and often they do not want to treat the Haitians.
There was even a pig eating trash too.
This was a family in the village that was very special to Matthew.
That was a 3.8 mile walk. We came back to a delicious lunch of grouper, rice and beans, fresh pineapple and broccoli.
Next, we got to tour Danita's facility. Brenda, who has been a missionary there for 13 years was our tour guide. We felt quite at home with her as she reminded us of our very own Lynn Cherry. She has such a passion for what she does and she will filled with stories of Danita's vision and how she started out her mission to build and orphanage 17 years ago. Below is the outside of the church from the side.
This is inside the church before the Shine conference. They ordered 150 more chairs as the registration for the women's conference continues to increase daily.
This is Brenda telling us about the many uses for the church. It use to be the school. It also housed orphans from the Port Au Prince Earthquake for 3.5 years.
This is inside the secondary school. It still strikes me that there is such a lack of posters and books in the classroom. The children go through grade 13. There were many students in their 20's in school. It just depends on what age they begin school. They have a very strict curriculum taking lots of science, languages, math and Bible classes.
This was the dental clinic, all from a donation by a wonderful dentist in Tennessee.
This is the brand new medical center that will be opening soon. This is the waiting room.
An examination room.
Beautiful pictures of the children line the halls.
In the second floor of the medical center is the malnutrition center. Brenda is showing us a peanut protein solution that they use to help feed the malnourished children.
These are some of the before and after pictures of some of the children that were in the malnutrition center.
Here are just a few of the children that are currently there.
These are Danita's dogs, Snow and Ice, who will be great watch dogs soon. They live on the 4th floor of the medical center.
Views from the top of the medical center overlooking the church and some of the orphanage homes.
The Caleb House from the Medical Center.
Just on the other side of the bridge is the Dominican Republic, literally a 2 minute walk from where we were staying.
The cream colored house in the back is the first home that Danita purchased as she began to take in children and teach them. This is before the current location and was most recently the home of the malnutrition center before it moved to the medical facility.
This is a look into the village from the medical center.
Beautiful mountains in the background.
This is our group posing from the balcony.
This is the Caleb House that Shoreline donated.
There is a plaque inside the home to honor the pastor's son, Caleb Koke, who lost his life at the age of 17 in a car accident.
This is inside the home. Each home has a house parent/missionary that stays with them. The children are housed in bunk beds that are to the right of this room.
Looking down the hall where the children stay.
This home is the Baby Rescue House, which holds the special needs children.
There were several high needs children in here. I got to spend more time with them later in the week. This sweet little girl has hydrocephalus.
I immediately fell in love with Watson. He told me "hi" as soon as I came in the room. You will see more of him later.
I wanted to spend more time here, and I got to later, but first we had to go to Safari Sunday School. What is that you ask? Well, every week they load up a truck and go to a nearby village and do a Sunday school lesson to a neighboring village/school. We all piled into this vehicle.
We drove a few miles into a different village. This was a schoolhouse that was being used for Safari Sunday School. The children were taught a lesson about Cain and Abel.
We passed out suckers after the lesson and got to play with the children.
This boy looks sweet, but he was only charming me so I would give him either my phone, my camera or my sunglasses. He tried to take all 3 from me at one time.
We even got out the hula hoops. Vivianne is a good sport. Her mom grew up in Haiti so she even spoke their language and could easily communicate with them. They speak Creole here.
Nicole is a good friend of mine and could always be found with a child in her lap.
Julie has the biggest heart and the best laugh!
Danielle made friends every where she went.
This pregnant mom who looked like she was about 14 already has a sweet child. We were told that the women have about 10 children, often all from different men. They hope to find a provider each time, but many men do not stay with them.
When we returned, some ladies got into the volleyball game with Danita's children before dinner.
We had BBQ chicken for dinner. then we did devotions with two of the older boy groups. We went to their home and prayed with the boys afterward. This is my friend, Edna, leading one of the devotions that night.
The next day, we drove 3 hours to get to Labadee Beach. This is a port for several cruise ships. Can I just say that this was one of the worst van trips ever. The roads were nonexistent going up and over the mountain to the beach. They were dirt roads and there were so many bumps from all the grooves the water had made in them. It was one of those trips that made you scared to be close to the edge for fear of falling off the mountain and never being heard from again. However, when we finally got there, it was beautiful. A few pics in the city of Cap Haitian on the way there.
We got out of the vans and loaded our stuff onto smaller boats.
The ladies from Danita's Children had prepared a yummy lunch of rice, beans, chicken and plantains for us.
There was a Royal Caribbean cruise ship docked in the harbor.
This looks like a water park that the cruise ship could go for an excursion.
Another one of our boats. We took a total of 3 to a beach area where we could swim.
This is the pier where we docked our boats.
This man kayaked up to our boat to show us his catch.
Some of the natives had caught some crab, fish and lobster and offered to cook it for us. Some people took them up on it. I was told before the trip not to eat shellfish, so I didn't take the risk of becoming sick. The ladies said the crab was good, but not so much the lobster. No one got sick from this, so in hindsight, I wish I had tried it. Better safe than sorry.
Nicole got a lobster.
An area behind the beach.
There was an area where we set up our lunch that looked like a mini bar/counter.
The three boats we took to the beach.
On the drive home, this man had at least 30 live chickens tied to a pole on his motorcycle.
When we got back, we quickly cleaned up for supper. We had spaghetti with Italian sausage meat sauce. They don't eat beef over here as it is not trustworthy. We had Wednesday night church. I was really excited that we sang 4 popular Christian songs in English and they all knew the words. Anita Janke and Amy O'Donnell gave the message and they both knocked it out of the park.
The last two nights in the village, we could hear voodoo going on. After going into the village, they were upset with what we were trying to do by inviting women to the conference and to come to know Jesus. We interceded in prayer that evening and we did not hear them any more.
The next day was all about getting ready for the Shine conference. I mainly worked on organizing the dresses by sizes and making gift bags. Each woman got a new dress and a gift bag that contained a Bible and some daily essentials. We had over 550 dresses and bags ready to go.
Our lunch was chicken, rice and beans. This is the meal that the children have daily. I really enjoyed it. The chicken was spicy and very flavorful and tender.
Danita spoke with us and thanked us all for everything we had done. We organized for a few more last minute details and then we could have some free time.
We got the afternoon to enjoy with the children. This was my favorite part of the trip. Here are the older boys playing soccer on the cistern.
I had so much fun with this little girl. We could not communicate verbally, but she came to find me each day.
My friend, Nicole always had children around her too.
I watched these boys push each other on the skateboard. The one in the blue shirt lost his arm in the earthquake, but that didn't stop him from skateboarding. He was rather good at it too.
Pastor Anita never wasted time. She was constantly witnessing to the boys.
This is my friend, Shandely. I met him on the first day. He rode with us on the van from the airport. He lives in Matthew Paul's house. He immediately reminded me of Matt Damon. He has this big smile and a heart of gold. He is quiet too, a lot like my brother. He is 20 years old and in grade 12. I'm disappointed the picture below is blurry. This boy captured my heart. I ended up sponsoring him as I know he is going to be a world changer.
Our pastors from Austin came on Thursday. Here is Pastor Cheryl.
Here is Katy getting her hair braided.
This was another group of boys that I loved to play and hang out with.
Edna is teaching them how to play a game on her iPad. They were fascinated.
After dinner that night, we had devotions with all the women and our pastors. We shared our favorite memory of the trip so far.
Friday morning, we got up and went to the church. Instead of morning formation, the students lead a time of worship and praise. They sang and did school trivia questions.
This is my friend, Katiana.
Here is a better picture of Shandely.
This was the kindergarten group in their section of the school.
Nicole and I spent our afternoon in the special needs house . Here is the boy, Watson, that melted my heart. He does not use the right side of his body, mainly his arm/hand.
This series of shots is me playing peekaboo with Watson. It got him giggling pretty hard (me too).
Nicole loving on the children.
This is my friend Gloria with the children.
We had to quickly change for the Shine conference. Women started coming as early as 2:00 for the conference that began at 5:00. I was assigned a greeter at the gate with Katy and Danielle. We welcomed them by saying "Bon soir". They got to come in and pick out a dress. Then they waited outside for the conference to begin. I took a quick shot before the conference. Nearly 600 women came. The church was overflowing.
Ginnette, our translator, received the first dress. We love her!!!
Women waiting outside since 2:00 for the Shine Haiti women's conference.
Women picking out dresses.
The line from the second floor of women waiting for dresses. 
Danita is sharing her vision for the future. She said for the first 17 years here, she has been focusing on the children. Now she plans to continue the work that God has done here at the Shine conference and have a monthly gathering of women for Sisterhood Haiti.
It was a packed house. There were women sitting in the chairs outside later on too.
Women at the alter call giving their lives to Jesus.
Pastor Cheryl delivered an awesome message to the women.
She also can sing beautifully. This is Karissa who came with Pastor Jessica from Oklahoma, Shine Tulsa.
One of Danita's students brought me to tears with her testimony and inspiration.
Pastor Cheryl, Pastor Jessica, Danita and Pastor Laura
As the conference ended, we gave every woman a necklace that said Jezi se tout baggay, which translates to Jesus is everything. This is the same necklace that was given to us during our Shine conference in Austin.
Sharee and I got to pass out necklaces outside with Pastor Jennifer Crow.
Matthew Paul with his necklace too!
Danita told the women that we had another present for them as they left.
They were all given a hot meal of chicken, beans and rice with plantains when they left the church along with a bottled water.
Then the women were given gift bags which contained the Bible, a mug, some lotion and a towel.
These older boys helped so much during the conference. They ushered and served in a way that pleased God. They are the future of Haiti and a fine group of gentlemen.
We spent the afternoon converting the church into this setting. This was a special dinner to honor all of the people who work at Danita's Children. Both Danita and Pastor Laura gave a message.
This is Pastor Richard at church on Sunday.
Pastor Laura gave a sermon on Sunday too. There were a couple of hundred extra people at church, according to the missionaries.
A pretty girl in her Sunday best.
On the last day we were there, a baby was brought to the malnutrition center. She was 3 months old and weighed 4 pounds. Her name was My Love. We didn't think she was going to make it as they couldn't find a vein to start an IV. From what I hear now, she is doing very well now.
One last goodbye to Shandely at the airport.
Goodbye, Haiti. You will be forever in my heart. All in all, this was a fabulous mission trip. We will be back next year. I believe this is just the beginning of what God has in store for Haiti. One of my fellow colleagues called Haiti a beautiful disaster, which sums this up perfectly. With your help, love and prayers, together we can make a huge difference in this country.
If you are interested in learning more about Danita's Children or sponsoring a child, please follow the link below.
