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| Quiet time on the porch at the Mission. |
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| John, our companion for the week. An orphan the Mission has taken in. |
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| The church located on the Lifeline property. Stones were tithed by villagers so a church could be built for them to worship in. |
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| Welding Vocational School, Sewing Vocational School and site of new warehouse at the Mission. |
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| Cement Block Maker which once working will make 2,000 blocks per day. |
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| The Cantina where thousands of meals are made each day on propane burners and then distributed to schools and orphanages. |
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| View of the Cross at Lifeline from the soccer field. |
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| Medical Clinic at Lifeline. The last medical team at Lifeline saw 1,600 patients in one week! |
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| The Sewing Vocation School at Lifeline. |
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| Walking down the road from the Mission to the new orphanage property. |
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| Workers beginning to dig the trench for the wall around the orphanage. This project will bring much needed jobs to the local village. |
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| Our guest team mate, Landon, with some new found friends. |
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| Our first VBS of the day. Elfie did a wonderful job teaching the children the Creation story. |
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| Robinson was Elfie's interpretor. |
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| Paper flowers was the craft for the day. The children loved the colors! |
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| The third orphanage we visited that day and held the second VBS there. |
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| VBS was held in their church. Their was a "heaviness" in the air at this orphanage. Much sadness. |
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| The voodoo temple that was visited. |
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Donald Curtis, President of Children's Lifeline arrived and joined our team. He brought a friend along with him. Landon, a 19 year old young man from Tennessee. Landon quickly became one of our team members and we were blessed to have him along on our many adventures. It was a blessing to have Donald with us as well. Arnold Lemke, Founder and Chairman of the Board was with us as well. Arnold is now 80 years old and rarely makes it back to the Mission. He was such a delight! He would visit with different team members, especially the teens, and tell them about God's work at Lifeline and how it all began many years ago. We also had as a constant companion while at the Mission, John. A 2 year old orphaned boy the mission took in several weeks earlier. He was adorable and won the hearts of everyone the moment we saw him. After the morning rituals, Donald took the team for a tour of the grounds and different parts of the mission. We toured the classrooms and the kids sang for us. The team ended up singing a song for each class as well. What a special time that was! The children would laugh at our hand motions to the songs we sang to them. We saw the church, the Catina where the thousands of meals per day are made that get transported to the surrounding villages/schools/orphanages. Then we toured the medical clinic, saw the sun ovens, the block maker warehouse facility, the welding facility, the sewing vocational school and the large cement slab where a new warehouse will be built. We also walked again through the surrounding village and went to the see the new property that has been purchased to build the first orphanage for Lifeline. Construction on the wall for the property had begun. God blessed this team with enough donations for this trip that not only covered expenses, but $7,000 was able to be given to Lifeline to build the wall around the orphanage land. What a blessing! The property is beautiful. The local villagers call it "The Garden". It is full of fruit trees and water flowing through it. After lunch, some of the team stayed back to continue repair work on needed equipment at the Mission. The rest of the team headed off to Barbancourt and led two VBSs. The first VBS took place in a small, very run down church for an orphanage that was very small and the children only had stick homes to live in. Very primitive. The team did a wonderful job with VBS at this location and the children enjoyed their time very much. The second VBS that day was done in another church at an orphanage that had better facilities than the first. This orphanage had begun after the earthquake. The man who ran it had found many orphaned children after the earthquake and began to care for them. He housed them in small tents along side a village road and tried to feed them and give them schooling. Lifeline staff found them one day and eventually helped to build the orphanage buildings they now live in. The children enjoyed the VBS very much but there was a heaviness you could feel inside at this orphanage. Many of the children never smiled. Sadness. You could only imagine what many of them were still dealing with after loosing all they knew just a little over a year ago after the earthquake. Our hearts were heavy for these little ones. Donald also wanted to show the team a voodoo house. Donald has befriended this particular voodoo priest. It was a little creepy to say the least but Donald did a wonderful job of explaining to the team how Voodoo came to be in Haiti and the role it plays in many Haitians lives. He explained the murals on the walls and what rituals took place in the different rooms there. We were glad to leave that place. After dinner and a time of worship, debrief and prayer, we went to bed during another heavy rainstorm. You can see the ocean from the Lifeline property. At night you can sit on the porch and watch the storms rolling in across the ocean. Amazing.
"Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall." Ps. 55:22
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| The Cantina at Lifeline. |
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| The sun ovens at the Mission where bread is baked for distribution. |
