Reentry to American Living by Nathan and Lauren

July 25th - Nathan and Lauren

Culture Shock

We are now back in Wisconsin. Back to our comfortable, air conditioned homes and yummy fried American food. There is a lot of culture shock and reflecting, as we experience the US from a different perspective. We miss Haiti so much. We miss the smiling faces of the Haitians who greeted us every day, and the joy of the children who gave the best hugs. We miss the drives down the streets of Haiti, seeing such a beautiful, different culture than the one we are used to. It is crazy to be back to this country where everyone takes the little things for granted, and everything in our day-to-day lives is so simple and easy. We do not have to worry about the safeness of the water we drink, or when our next meal will be available to us. The Haitian lifestyle is so relaxed and laid back, and now we are back to a culture where time is money, and we always feel the need to be busy and rushed.

Haiti Highlights

We feel so grateful to have witnessed God’s incredible power and work being done in Haiti. The Haitians have so much undeniable passion for The Lord. What we have discovered by seeing them interact with Jesus is that no matter where we live, our God is the same. It truly has been life-changing to experience this beautiful country. We desperately want to go back!!! Haiti is a place that everyone should witness themselves. It is very humbling to see people living without the basic things that we consider necessities and daily routines. Our long showers, air-conditioned homes, and cozy beds are so luxurious compared to their lives, yet as Americans we still complain and always want more.

Reflecting

Something we have thought about and talked about frequently is the thought of a Haitian visiting the United States. It definitely was shocking and overwhelming for us to visit Haiti, but it would be 10 times more overwhelming for them to come here. Even walking through an American airport would be astounding for them. We live lives they probably can’t even fathom. This trip was remarkable and life-changing, and we are so grateful for this opportunity. Thank you to all who have supported us and provided for us in this mission! There are still some who are not fully supported and would be overjoyed if you would financially support them in any way you can. Please continue to pray for Mission of Hope in Haiti and the hearts that are being transformed every day. They are doing such outstanding things and truly are changing Haiti. God has worked through each of us individually to grow closer to him and be a part of a beautiful mission in Haiti. Mission of Hope could use your support and prayers always! You can read more about them at www.mohhaiti.org and choose to support a child and make it possible for them to attend school in Haiti.

With Love,

The Door Creek Haiti Team 2016

Linnea Zernov 7-23-16

Linnea Zernov

Bittersweet Departure

We are in the Miami airport now, and it’s a pretty bittersweet feeling. I am sad to go but ready to be home, in my bed, in air conditioning, good wifi, and hot water. Not that I need all of those things, but growing up with them, it is hard to live without hot water and air conditioning for a long period of time. All those things are things that I am fortunate enough to have. When I think about it, those are things Haitians do not have. They don’t have air conditioning, hot water, wifi, comfortable memory foam beds, washing machines and automatic toilets. We take all that for granted and act like we need all that to survive and be happy. For them, love is enough. Many of the people I met and talked to acted so happy, and were overjoyed with their faith and loved Jesus Christ. They didn’t need anything else. They had their family, they had a roof over their heads, and couldn’t wish for anything else. They don’t care that their toilets don’t flush automatically. Its eye-opening; just think, if we all loved Jesus and that’s all we needed, the world would be a better place. There’s a quote that I found today and I absolutely loved it- “If you have been reduced to God being your only hope, you are in a good place.” It’s the truth! If you love and believe in the one true God, nothing else matters because he is the way, the truth and the life.

VBS & SVT

I met a sweet girl during our last day of VBS who couldn’t be older than 3 years old named Carrie. She never talked, but she would hold her arms up when she wanted me to hold her, and would wrap her arms around me and look at me with her gorgeous brown eyes. She wore a cute white dress that could be a flower girl dress, with gym shorts underneath. I had fed her with a spoon during lunch, and her sister, around 7 years of age, was sitting next to us. Her sister was named Myeka. She didn’t speak English, but I could understand what she said with her hands when she would point to something. She told me that I had to feed her, as she couldn’t feed herself, and that I had to help her open her bag of water and help her drink it. She loved her sister, she would take her from my arms sometimes and hold her, and Carrie loved her too. When it was time for VBS to end, and us to go to lunch, a random little girl came and took Carrie from my arms. I teared up a bit, as she was so sweet and I didn’t get to say goodbye to her, (or au revoir in Creole). All these kids were like this too, they all wanted to be held and danced with and have their hand being held. They wanted you to dance with them, and they wanted to wrap their arms around you. So many kids would come up to you and just jump on your back because they loved you even without knowing you.

During SVT we had met many families who were so happy to talk to us. There was one in particular that loved Jesus, and loved going to church. They were a big family, and their friends lived close so we met them as well. The man worked at home, and he fixed bicycles, which he was doing while we were there. I liked watching him take apart the bikes and clean them, it was sort of fascinating. The son had showed us a Hillsong song that he loved, I can’t remember the name of it, but I thought that was so cool that they knew who they were. We loved talking to them; it wasn’t about Evangelizing with them; it was about getting to know them and building a relationship in Christ with them. Afterwards, they said they wanted to see us again and were happy to meet us.

I experienced so many great memories on this trip. I realized what I didn’t need and what I needed most; Jesus Christ. I hope to come back next year. I can’t wait to see how much of Haiti loves Jesus in the years to come, because I believe that the entire country of Haiti can be believers. From sweating from just standing in one place, or waking up with creases from your blankets everywhere, or hugging 5 little Haitian children at one time, they are all memories I will never forget.

Carly Rivest- 7-22-16

Carly Rivest-

Beach Day:

     Today we had our day of relaxation on the beach at Wahoo Resorts. There was paddle boarding, kayaking, snorkeling for $5, and jet skis ($2 for every minute). Everyone tried new activities and enjoyed the salty ocean. One of the crew’s favorite activities was the blow up trampoline in the ocean with a floating slip and slide attached. The goal was to be able to run to the end of the slip and slide without wiping out. The lunch was provided by the resort. There was a mix of chicken, rice, coleslaw, and fried plantains. Last night, we were all advised to apply sunscreen generously and frequently. Some understood this better than others, and most of the team members resemble lobsters. Whoops. The plane ride tomorrow may bring about some discomfort.  Being in the hot sun all day left a few of us dehydrated. One team member visited the “Clinic in a Box” where they were provided with some AC and extra fluids. Not to worry though, they will be back to 100% before you know it.

Overall Feelings about Haiti:

    Haiti never ceases to amaze me with its scenery. Whether it is the mountains surrounding us or the ocean on the other side, everywhere you look is filled with jaw dropping beauty. The vibrant colors intricately painted on shacks selling goods gave us a little insight to their culture as we drove past in our school bus. Not going to lie, I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to walk around in the “Outdoor Walmarts” as the interns called them. The culture in Haiti was quite different. It was easy for the Haitian people to welcome Americans into their homes, but they were very hesitant to trust us. Most of the time they would be reluctant to answer questions and barely made eye contact with any of us. White people or “blah” don’t have the best reputation down in Haiti. We even got asked why so many Americans go to other countries to help out when nothing really changes.  After being asked that yesterday we all felt even more guilty about enjoying a day on the beach. Going back to America after being with people who have a lot less than us is difficult. Most missionaries want to discuss their feelings of guilt with those around them but it’s hard for other people to understand exactly how bad it is until they have experienced it first-hand. Taking a day off to enjoy the wonders of Haiti, gives us time to unpack the experiences from the trip in community before a long day of airports and culture shock. We depart from Mission of Hope at 7:00 am and can’t wait to share more about our experiences with family and friends. We are so blessed to have a community to support our journey and the work we have done. See y’all soon!

A Smaller Outdoor Walmart

Day 5: 7-21-16

Darrin Vant Hoff-

Last Work Day

Today was our last service day.  We participated in Mission of Hope’s Farm to Table Project. We split the day into two sections.  In the morning we did the educational part and in the afternoon we participated in the service part. 

Morning Trip

This morning we went to Turpin which is about 1 hour into the mountains from Mission of Hope’s Main Campus.  We road a “Canter” to our destination today.  It is a vehicle with wooden benches for seats.  It is a bumpy ride and it is also on gravel roads.  When we arrived in Turpin, we met the pastor of the church MOH works with there.  He was very appreciative that we were helping his village.  They prayed for us and asked God to bless us.  We then went to tour the “gardens” they have which we would call small fields.  We saw the crops they are growing and how they grow them.  We learned that they have 3 growing seasons here and that they let “gardens” rest a year after with no crops planted in them so the soil can recover.  The farmer in one garden shared some Kinips with us from one of his trees.  It is a Haitian fruit that can best be described of as tasting like grapes and look like a grape without the peal.  They have a large pit that you suck on to get the grape like substance eaten.  They are delicious!  Our team had them yesterday and when we had the chance to have them again we jumped at it.  The farmers also shared with us they grow multiple crops in the same field as some are fruit bearing and others or vine or in ground vegetables.  After meeting the locals and touring the fields it was time to go back to MOH for lunch. 

Trip Back

On our trip back we stopped at the Turpin Market because our intern wanted to get some Avocados.  In the Haitian markets you negotiate your price so one of our translators, George, went and got our inter Maddy avocados for the best price possible.  We then were back on the road home.  The road to and from Turpin is very dusty and we were all covered in dust by the time we got back to MOH.  We could have been in an Orbits commercial we were so dirty. 

Lunch Time

Almost every day we have had some Haitian cuisine and today at lunch was no exception.  Today we had some seafood rice which was very good.  They also had a non-seafood option for those who do not eat seafood.  It was very delicious but this week has been very carb heavy.  We asked our intern if living in Haiti has caused her to lose weight but she said that every meal is so carb heavy that she actually has gained weight here.  We had a short break and then we were off to pack the food that our Rooted funds helped pay to purchase from the Haitian farmers. 

Food Packing

We arrived at the MOH warehouse and went to the food packing station set up there.  We were trained on how to pack the meals of beans and rice and then we were off to pack meals.  We had to wear gloves and hairnets for food safety.  We had an assembly line where one person would get the bags opened up then hand them off to the filling station where another person would fill the back with a measurement of rice.  Then they would hand it off to the sealer.  After that the bag was half full and be handed off to the next person who would hold it and another person would add beans to the bag.  After that it would get handed off to the next sealer and then to the person stacking the bags.  We had fun packing bags and listening to music that our Intern Maddy played for us on her portable speaker.  Even our translators and Village Champion helped us pack food.  It was a blast.  We may have even been a little goofy too.  After our time of packing meals was up we had packed 672 bags of food.  Each bag can feed up to 12 kids.  We packed enough food to feed 8,064 meals for kids, that is AWESOME!  Your generous giving had made a real difference to over 8000 people.  Thank you so much for letting us be a part of this project. 

Debrief Time

After dinner tonight they brought all the groups together for a debrief time where we all get to share about our week.  We had 175 people all together.  We had two of our team members share about how they saw God move this week.  It was really awesome to hear our students not only share in our group but with others as well. 

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the beach day.  MOH takes all teams to a resort in Haiti to show us what Haiti could be.  From what we are told this resort is owned by Americans and feels like a resort that a person would experience a place like Cozumel or even Florida. We had the chance to invite our Village Champion and our translators to join us for a small extra fee.  We decided as a team (the other groups on our team included) to help pay for them to go with us because we appreciated all the hard work they did with us this week and we have become friends with them this week.

Random

It has been great getting to know Tracy and her daughter Emma from Elmbrook Church better.  Tracy was on the vision trip I was on when I was in Haiti in October of last year.  It is really encouraging to see Emma Tracy’s daughter who is an incoming freshman own her faith and be excited to go on trips to share the Gospel in strange places.  My prayer is that Door Creek Church is becoming a place where we have middle and high school students who are passionately following Jesus and that they are desiring to share the Gospel in not only Jerusalem (their world) but also to Samaria (The US) and the Ends of the earth (Foreign Countries). 

This week has had its challenges but even with the cold water showers, ceiling fans that sound like 9 rats in a box (Callie’s description), and stomach issues, it has been a week that I think we will all fondly remember for a very long time.  I also believe that we all saw God work in awesome ways this week through us.  I can’t wait to come back and see God work in and through the next group from Door Creek Church.

Thank you so much for supporting us in prayer and also your generous gifts that have allowed us to join others sharing the Gospel in Haiti.  We still have a couple of students who have not been fully funded for this trip and if you would like to join the work we have been doing here in Haiti you can give your gifts at:  https://doorcreekchurch.ccbchurch.com/form_response.php?id=412

Here are some more pictures from this week:  

Wherever we go we are finding the goats and wanting to be with them.  Be ready parents to get a pet goat.  

This is a market in Turpin.

 Here are some pictures from our meal packing today at MOH

Amos, our Village Champion striking a pose for the camera.

This is what the finished 672 bags of food packs look like.

Johnny our translator goofing around

This picture is Tessa approved.

Some pictures from yesterday at the last day of VBS.

This is a view from the back of the canter truck as we are going to Turpin.  We are in close quarters.

We are part way up the mountain looking back at the Bay of Haiti.

 The corn crop from this year.  The raining season was very wet in the beginning and very dry for the last part so crops are not growing as best as they could.  They asked us to pray for God to bring in a good harvest.