48 hour day...

Hello blog followers, friends and family...

I am currently waiting for my club sandwich and sipping on refreshing coca cola. Let me tell you... Our team is wiped!!! We taxied into porta au prince about 930 this morning, most of the team was pretty exhausted... Eyes in a glazed over state.

We were greeted by. Mr. Bigs who as usual lead us through the gauntlet of aggressive and persistent men who ALL thought we needed their help. Jackson and Jimmy picked us up and then we headed to the hotel to drop of all the 13 bags, 11 carry ons...yadda yadda!

Then we made a quick hour stop over at Pierre's orphanage. A couple cool highlights are

1. Getting to see Angie and Ruth at the orphanage. We also met Ruth's husband, Todd, who happen to be there because they were going to be baptizing Anne Sarah. If you recall from the last trip she was one of the first Lil newborns that Jen and I held. There is a pic of Anne Sara and me in the rocking chair at the orphanage. So excited for Ruth and her family to welcome her to their home. They are currently in the process.

2."Mega mind", or Immanuel , was a lil timid at first but he warmed up to me and fell asleep on my legs shortly after I reassured him I was here to love on him!

3. Filder and franz were back in the mix and I chatted with themm for a few minutes as well. Fortunately for us, Franz joined us for the rest of the day.

Next we headed to Zanfan Lakay, the boys home. It was a different welcome when we arrived because many of the boys were not home from school yet. So instead of a huge swarm of love. We were greeted with love for a good straight hour with staggered hugs and "Dougie!" from my boys.

I must say that it was awesome to see them and they all seemed super excited that I was back. They loved the mustache... I mean why wouldn't they? But... Their eyes turned to concern or sadness as they repeatedly asked, "Dougie, where is Jenny?" I told them that she missed them and that she would hopefully see them in the summer. They def wanted to see her... And yes, they asked about Kristan, and Jessie as well. Nicky and Carolyn were also missed and they are waiting for your return.

Highlights from Zanfan Lakay:
1. Hangout time and lunch with Creole chicken, Mac and stuff, and rice, rice, rice. Oh how I love rice!!! katia , Nadia, Jimmy took good care of us and we were well fed with ice cold coke.

2. Jam session in the kitchen with Jeff Lucky, my roommate, playing bob marley, oasis, and lots and lots of worship songs. We did some sweet harmonies to "How He Loves." The boys started to huddle around and they were singing all the worship songs with us. Super cool moment!!!

3.Zakat where Jimmy, "Papa Demo", rules the streets was pretty gnarly. The food distribution and passing out of bags (shirts, lollipops, toothpaste and brush, candy canes and toys for the lil ones.) I got to share a quick 2 minute sermon to the men waiting for food and provisions and bless the food. Then Jeff and I sat on top of Zakat with guitars in hand and played a lil mini concert with Steeve Joseph accompanying us with the new djembe that we brought! We had to make a quick exit when the street people started to get disgruntled and turn it into a shoving match. We were outtie five thoutie! Who would have thought that bringing a bag of hats and passing them out would turn into such a fiasco?

4.Minute to win it challenges... face the cookie and back flip we're huge hits. We broke them into six groups with leaders- Ivnet, Reginald, Patrick, Mackenson, T- Blanc, and Clivens. These are my boys and did a fantastic job leading their groups! I have lots of pics of all the kids trying to move the Oreo down their face. As for back flip, we just had the leaders compete and T- Blanc owned it by getting all 12 pencils flipped and caught. Later, I had him try 30 sticks and he caught all of them flipped on the first try! Incredible!!!

5. I had a heart to heart with Ivnet, who asked me if I could take him home and help him with his studies. Too much emotion and too much to write about! I told him that I loved him, that. I was praying for him and that God is going to take care of him.

Welp, I think that's enough reflection for now. I will be adding pics some time tonight. Thanks for all your prayers, and support. I would love to hear from you encouragement as our team ministers here in Haiti.

tomorrow on the agenda... going out to the land, party at Maison orphanage and day one of Zanfan Lakay Christmas extraveganza!

Dougie signing off... Love you Jen! Wish you were here with me!!!