Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Callie Archer 7-19-16

Callie Archer-

Johnny’s Testimony
Johnny is one of our translators.  He gave me his testimony this morning at breakfast.  He shared that both his parents were voodoo priests.  When he was young he followed voodoo too but a missionary shared the Gospel with Johnny but he was unsure.  He went to church one time and heard about Jesus and wanted to follow that God.  He became a Christian and his life turned around.  He was doing bad things but after becoming a Christian he became a “good man.”  His mother saw the change in him and when he shared the Gospel with her, she gave up voodoo and started to follow Jesus.  His father practiced voodoo for some time after but recently after seeing Johnny’s changed life, he too became a Christian.  That is a powerful story of how Jesus changed not only Johnny but his whole family. 

Vacation Bible School
VBS is the same every morning, the kids come and we greet them with lots of cheering and a huge tunnel. We sing and dance and listen to a bible story, and then they break up into grades and do rotations through sports, education, bible questions, and the cafeteria. Yesterday, the Haitian teacher in education taught the children about cleanliness and today taught them about the importance of trees. I thought this was an interesting topic and I was very curious if the tree population in Haiti was a problem… to be continued with that answer.

Strategic Village Time
Many church groups here are fairly large, one had sixty people, so they clumped some of the smaller groups together, like DCC(12), Elmbrook(2), A&M(2), and Kathy who came to MOH after doing research on the internet and wanted to be a part of a week here. The two gals from A&M bought a water filter and a pair of goats to give to families during SVT. It was great that they let us be a part of giving the filter and the goats away.
Water Filter
The water filter attaches to a bucket and cleans the water. If the family cleans the filter once a week, they can clean 150 gallons of water a day and the filter is good for 10 years. WOW! That’s a lot of water. What is great is, that in the villages in Haiti, everyone is very close. We will walk into a house and ask them if the children standing around us are their kids and they always say no, it is almost always neighbor kids. It is good to know that they will use the water filter with those around them as well. The family was very grateful and the mom and dad were both Christians. We talked about how just like the filter, Christ makes us new and pure.




Emmitt and Britania (Bri) #Bremmitt
Just like the goats, the people we gave them to did not know the Lord. They said they attended the Catholic church, but in Haiti, Catholicism is not the same as in the states. History shows us that the French and the slaves that first came to Haiti, combined Catholicism and voodoo, so today Haitians still believe that you can practice both. It was discouraging when we asked if we could share what we believe with them and they said no, but when we prayed for them, Darin snuck the gospel into his prayer, classic pastor.




Translators
Our translators obviously have grown up in Haiti, so lots of what I have learned about the culture, the norms, and Mission of Hope, has been through conversation with them on the long bus rides.   
For Funnzies
1.     We have all pooped..HORRAY! However for some, it has been in the form of diarrhea. But like the Word says, “this too shall pass.”
2.     People from Texas are rude and did not know Wisconsin was in the U.S….did you even take geography?
3.     People from Oklahoma love Wisconsin,
Them: “when was the last time you saw rain?” “you are very peppy for a northerner.”
Me: “ummm, you’re from Oklahoma.”
Foo Blah: is Creole for crazy white (person)  I was called that by one of our translators.  

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