Haiti

Hanging out at the school.

The band is warming up.

The school.

The valley behind the house.

More Mural Pictures

Caitlin's Mural

This year Caitlin got to paint her fourth mural in Haiti. This year she got to paint the mural on the main road. It was so neat to have a different location and reach a different group of people. She wanted to focus the mural on the importance of family, children, husbands, and wives, and above all else LOVE. We were painting in a location that had many guys that gave us trouble with their comments. But on our last day we were able to have a really neat conversation with one of them. He was thinking that the mural was for the Devil since it had red in it. It opened a conversation about the mural. We were able to talk about the red signifying Jesus's blood and the sacrifice that God made for us. We were also able to talk about the importance of family and loving one another. Caitlin painted a pigeon in the mural, which helped us to talk about the Holy Spirit and the beauty of God's love. Really neat moment. Was a neat year fro Caitlin and her painting. It is such a blessing to Camp Hope to have her paint these murals, brings such life to the town.

Handing out Bibles

We had a church donate 40 school bags to the children in Haiti. Here we are passing out the bibles. The boy in the very front with the smile as bright as the North Star lite up when he got his bible. As they opened the bibles you could see their eyes embracing each picture. Looking at the colors, details, and watching their minds begin to wonder about the picture. For some this was their very first color, picture, book. They were 15.

Camp TIME with the Older Children!

Water balloon toss was ridiculously funny. It took so long for me to communicate how to play. Once they got it, they laughed so hard. So much fun to just watch them play.

Making worlds out of balloons and paper mache. We made the worlds after the story, The First Creation in our Creole bibles.

So Many More Precious Children

This little boy was at the hospital. He became Kim's best friend while we were there. He was there for malnutrition. Many children that suffer from malnutrition hate begin touched, but every time you saw Deselmet his arms would open and he would walk for you. He was precious. Our prayer was that he would smile before we left, unfortunately we did not get to see that. Please pray for this little boy as he was struggling to get healthy.

Precious Children

A day at the River with the children Staying at the Hospital

This was our adventure to the river. A nurse that was in Haiti liked to get the children out of the hospital for the day and swim. We decided to tag along. The water was so warm and almost disgusting, but we closed out mouths and jumped in. Up the way the livestock came through, a little worried about the water, but the Lord protected us. It was a day of laughs. One moment Sarah and I decided to go crazy with the water and drench the children, it was precious. They laughed so hard. Made our day!

More Camp Photos

We had a birthday party for all the children since many of them do not know their actual birthday. We celebrated with a pinata.

Making crowns for the birthday party.

They love this thing

Camp TIME!

This year we served 120. We had three weeks of camp. We were blessed and were able to feed the children everyday this year. The camp held so many sweet moments this year. One of the most treasured moment was when we took out the Polaroid cameras to take each child's picture for his/her frame. Each child clenched that photo like it was a hundred dollar bill. So neat to see the value of a simple picture.

Our AMAZING Workers

(Top: Louvna, Bottom: Wilfet)

(Fertilan and Caitlin working together to paint)

This year we had a prayer that we could have some Haitian teenagers work for us. A prayer was to create a camp where they could have ownership and contribute to the program. We were so very blessed with five, wonderful, energetic workers.

Wilfet, specifically held a special place in our heart this year as we got to see the Lord working in his heart. Every morning before camp we would do a mini bible study with the workers. It was during this time that we got the opportunity to talk more with Wilfet about the Lord. After a couple of days Caitlin started doing English lessons with him. In no time, Wilfet would be at our house everyday at 2 for English. With English came amazing opportunities to speak to Wilfet about the gospel and God. One day we began to talk about temptation, voodoo, redemption, sin, and forgiveness. At the end of it we invited him to church with us on Sunday. On that Sunday I rounded the corner to find Wilfet in a nice pair of slacks, button up shirt, and shoes polished to the T. It was one of the sweetest sights. I would have thought it was his first day of school. The following week we talked to Wilfet about the importance of teaching your friends about the Lord. The next Sunday Wilfet showed up again for church, but this time he had a friend with him. We left Wilfet on our last days with tears thinking about how we had to leave him. The Lord blessed us with a unique and amazing friendship. The last day we stood with him and we felt like we had gained a brother. Wilfet holds a special place in our hearts. His circumstances present many difficulties to his life. His mother passed away, father crippled, leaving him with little help for school, but somehow in all that he endures his energy, smile, spirit, compassion radiate daily.

My one prayer for Wilfet is that he continues to seek after the Lord and knows that the Lord has a future for him no matter the trials that he will face and endure. My prayer is that one day Wilfet will have a family and raise his children on the strong foundation of Christ.