It's day two of our Haiti journey and God is continuing to show his face in every direction. We started the day off with an 8:00 a.m. breakfast, which definitely hit the spot. We enjoyed eggs, hotdogs, mangos, and watermelon. The fruit in Haiti is so fresh and delicious. Breakfast was followed by a devotion led by Leah. It's funny how God works sometimes. After the adventurous day we had yesterday and the many battles with Satan, the devotion was right on time. The devotion talked about taking time out to enjoy the moment, cherish where you are in life, focus on your surroundings, and be blessed for the simple things in life. God has blessed us in so many ways, and we have to be thankful that we are here and able to be his servants.
Once we wrapped up our morning devotion, it was time to load up the bus and head for home. That's right, to me, Bohoc is my second home. And for many on our team, coming to Bohoc is just like going home. We are a part of the community and we are all family. So, you can imagine the excitement and joy as we loaded up the bus with our luggage. It was time to head home!
We pulled out of the Mon Chez Moi Guest House around 9:30 a.m. and headed out on our four-hour journey. It was an absolutely stunning drive. You wouldn't believe the picturesque views of the mountains, lakes, and rivers, and not to mention the Caribbean blue water. The scenery looked like something out of a Hollywood movie. It was breathtaking. After passing the postcard perfect views and battling the rocky, roller coaster roads, we arrived at our final destination.
As we crossed the familiar stream and saw the community members hard at work, we knew we were home. We had arrived in Bohoc. For many of us, arriving in Bohoc was bittersweet. We were happy to be there, but we received the unexpected. We stood up and started cheering as we arrived at the Haiti Unlocked Guest House, but the bus driver didn't stop. He kept on going. So, eventually, we asked Jedlain, our wonderful community leader and translator, where we were headed. Then we received the news. We were not going to be staying in the center of Bohoc, but on the outskirts of Bohoc and near Pignon.
The Haiti Outreach Guest House welcomed us with open arms and was a familiar place to many of our team members, with many of them having stayed in this house on prior trips. So, it wasn't what we were expecting, but we know that this trip is not about us, but it's about God. We are here to do His will and he has a plan. Putting our emotions aside, we arrived just in time for lunch. And, it didn't disappoint. We enjoyed a meal of turkey, rice, and beans.
With about two hours to kill before meeting with the Leadership Council, the team had some down time. Some members decided to take it easy and grab a quick nap. Others jumped on their mobile devices and laptops to handle business (or check Facebook). And the others joined the children and young adults outside. What a sight to see outside. Witnessing the team practice English with the young adults, play soccer with the young boys, blow bubbles with the little girls and wrestle around in a field full of animal droppings was a true example of God's love. The love this community has for newhope church and the love that they have for Jesus is unimaginable. It makes us even more intrigued and excited for the upcoming days.
Once the Leadership Council arrived, we bid farewell to our new friends and headed inside for a brief meeting before dinner. Abidas, the President of the Council, opened the meeting by sharing his excitement and joy to have us in the community and how he is so glad to see us. Five of the 10 members of the Leadership Council were in attendance and they each shared their gratitude, joy, and love for our team and for our church. They even thanked Pastor Benji for allowing us to come to their community and spreading the love of Jesus Christ. Below is a brief transcript of the meeting with the Leadership Council:
Abidas: "I'm very excited to see you. I praise God for allowing you to get here safely. I'm
thankful for you coming and I am especially grateful to those of you who are here for the first time. We welcome you to our community. I can tell those of you who love our community because they keep coming back, and we are so thankful for you. You are always welcome."
Jerome: "My name is Jerome and I am the Vice President of the Leadership Council. It is a pleasure for us to meet with you this afternoon. I become younger every time I meet you. We thank God for having you. We thank your church for allowing you to be here. We already hope that the people who have come for the first time will come back. We love having you and may God bless you."
Madame Emma: "My name is Madame Emma and I am so happy to see you again and we invite you to come back. Thank you for coming and God bless you."
Pastor Isaac: "I am happy to see you. We are glad to have you in our community. Thank you for coming to be with us. I love you."
Fahly: "It's a pleasure to have you here. God bless you and I love you. Thank you for coming to our community"
Once the introductions of the Leadership Council were complete, our team introduced ourselves to the members of the Leadership Council. Every one stated their name and mentioned how excited they were to be in Bohoc and among the community members. They stressed their passion and love for the community and wanting to return to their second home. We thanked the Leadership Council for always welcoming us to their community and for allowing us to work along side them and be with them. After introductions from the newhope team, Adibas continued the meeting with an update on several community projects that are in progress.
Adibas: "Blessings to you for coming. The community is always happy and excited to have you in our community. We thank 410 Bridge for sending you to our community. A few of the projects that were are working on our the water system project and the child sponsorship project. The water system project, we hope to get it up and going soon. It's in the planning stages. Our biggest project is the child sponsorship program because it's for the kids. We want to thank you for everyone who helped with this program and made it possible. One of the biggest problems in our community is being able to send the children to school and the sponsorship program makes that possible. That program is a blessing to our community. We thank you and we hope God will continue blessing you for your love. What you are doing this week is the greatest thing you can do for this community. We appreciate you going into the house and praying, spreading the name of Jesus to the children and everything you do for our community."
Being able to see how the much the sponsorship program means to this community really touched my heart. Having been a part of the team in April that worked to get all of the Bohoc children registered for the program, it was truly a blessing to see how much it has made an impact on the community and how it has helped them. And knowing that all of the children that we registered for sponsorship during that week were sponsored by a member of newhope church is even a bigger blessing. Look how God works!
The meeting concluded with a brief closing from Jerome and Adibas.
Jerome: "We are praying that the days coming, will be a blessing to you, and that you will enjoy your days in Bohoc. The Leadership Council is here to help and assist the community of Bohoc. You will see how much they love you. I'm sorry because you have to leave, but we know that you love Haiti and that you will be back. The last night that are you are here, we will meet you to debrief and to see what we can do to make things better."
Adibas: "I want to apologize for the other members of the Leadership Council. We have five other people left. They are preparing for church tomorrow. I hope while you are here in the community that you will get to meet them. We thank you for coming. We hope to see you in church tomorrow. You will be at our church. Have nice dreams!"
The meeting closed and we said our farewells. It was then time for dinner. We gathered around the table as a team for a scrumptious spaghetti dinner. It was a delicious meal that was complemented with squash and bread. And, we can't forget about dessert, which was vanilla cookies with chocolate filling. They were pretty tasty if you ask me, but I am a chocoholic. At the conclusion of dinner, we gathered around for our daily debrief, which was led by Leslie.
Now, it's quiet time and we are getting ready to call it a night as we prepare for another beautiful day in Bohoc tomorrow. Our children's activities committee is meeting to organize the activities for tomorrow as we prepare to head to Kris Sel Espwa in the afternoon to teach English and play games with the children of Bohoc. Everyone else is heading to bed.
Tomorrow should be a fun day as we head to one of the local churches in the morning, participate in home visits, where we will pray for various community members, and spend some quality time with the children teaching English and building relationships. I'm going to call it a night and head to bed. Until then ...
Reah P. Nicholson
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