Day 6: Hangin with the Boys

I know you were all waiting on PINS and needles…we found our camera in the van!! Thank you Lord! I KNEW I didn’t lose it. :0)

Today was the last day of VBS. As soon as we got to the church they told us that there was going to be a wedding taking place at 11:00 and we had to finish an hour early!! (Not to mention it look like we maxed out the occupancy of the church- at least an extra 75 -100 more kids) Yikes! We had a jam packed day, learning the last Bible point…God Wants you to Finish Strong!! The verse was out of 2 Timothy 4:7-8 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day.” Today was the day we did the backpacks for the craft. As you saw in my earlier post our church worked on the backpacks for a LONG time and MANY people helped us color one side of over 600 back packs!! We told the kids that when they use the backpack they should remember that there are Christians all around the world working together to finish strong!! The kids loved the back packs and as soon as craft was over they put it on. Even though we were rushed near the end we had another opportunity for kids to come up to the stage who had accepted Jesus into their heart. We had 25 kids come forward today!!

It is customary to serve a traditional Haitian meal on the last day of VBS so the ladies started cooking at 6am so they could have it ready in time. We served rice and beans, chicken (which Christian picked off the bone sometimes using his teeth…eeek), a beef/veggie sauce and salad (a piece of lettuce and a tomato). And guess what??? SURPRISE we ran out of food before we had served everyone. By this time we were pros at running out…we didn’t panic and waited patiently till the next batch arrived. For some reason today was more hectic then the others. So many of the leaders from VBS stormed up wanting to take food for their groups, it was a mess. The interpreters and people helping us were yelling and trying to get people to move back…so finally we were able to get things under control… It was so hot and the food assembly kind of made me lose my appetite, so I enjoyed the beef jerky I packed for my lunch.
The wedding was getting ready to start so we wisked the boys of Zanfan out to the street to get in the vans to go back to their house. Doug, Jessie and I had not yet driven in one of the tap-taps so we decided to ride with some of the boys. Our security guy Michele rode with us to ensure we would be safe. For those of you that don’t know a tap-tap is a truck that has a camper shell on the top, with metal grids below it holding it up, there is enough room for you to sit underneath it. It is the taxi of Haiti and quite fun and exhilarating to ride in, besides the metal grid/bars that you hit your back on as you bump along the road. We all arrived safely at Zanfan after a thrilling ride through the city.
Mike, Doug, Christian, Lloyd, Bob and Jimmy headed out to the cemetery to take the street girls back (they had been at Zanfan working on bracelets again) and to also visit where they live. Doug shared with me that they were shown around the cemetery seeing where the girls sleep and bathe. He told me what a horrible environment the girls are in and what their living conditions are like. These girls are rough and hard….with good reason, they have had to protect themselves because they have no one to care for them or look out for them. Jimmy, the director of the boys home, Zanfan is the one who introduced Mike and Carrie to the street girls. Jimmy does help them and occasionally brings them food as well.

While the boys on our team were at the cemetery the rest of the team hung out at Zanfan. I had a great time teaching the boys how to make bracelets. They all would point to the ones I was wearing and then point to themselves. It was so cute to see them asking me to show them how to make them. There were about 8 boys all at once making friendship bracelets together. Most of them don’t speak much English, but they do know some words and they like to try and teach you words in Creole. My pronunciation is terrible as well as my memory and the boys would crack up as I would try to repeat words and sounds after them. Many of them are learning English in school so they pick up words and phrases fast.

Tomorrow Jimmy and Katia are getting married, but not all of the boys will be attending the wedding so we had a celebration at the boys’ home tonight. Mike and the guys picked up PIZZA and CAKE on the way home from the cemetery. We were all SO SO SO excited to eat pizza and it totally hit the spot since many of us didn’t eat lunch. We had a BIG party with Jimmy, Katia and the kids. All the boys know us now and want so much to hang out with us, to talk with us, hold hands, laugh, play games and just spend time with us. So many of them love my long hair and want to touch it and braid it. I’m sure because their hair is so different. We had a major dance party on the front patio with everyone. Jimmy pumped up the music and we must have had over 40 kids moving and grooving to the music. The weather cooled down and a thunderstorm started, with the most refreshing rain!! What a special night we had all celebrating Katia and Jimmy!!

We returned home later than usual, but it was probably one of the most fun nights so far. No meeting tonight for our team, everyone is relaxing. We are having trouble with the internet…possibly from the storm so I will post pictures tomorrow.

Please pray for Jimmy and Katia’s wedding tomorrow that everything will go smoothly.