Reflections about Haiti

Haiti was so awesome!  The soccer balls were a huge hit at the youth camp.  The first day I was only going to bring one ball, but they were such a hit that we had to retrieve the others, too.  The youth and pastors also enjoyed learning how to use the wordless book.

One of the people I will remember the most is Pastor Lucian.  He was asked to bless the food. So he did.  He stood by the food that was being prepared and literally blessed it.  Not a "Thanks, Jesus for the food," but a real blessing.  I can never forget that moment.

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One of the most significant lessons God taught me happened when I met Evans.  In the orphanage we went to visit, I met a man named Evans.  He is not an orphan, but it is the only place he has to go since his accident.

Evans chair

 Evans either lays on his bed or sits in his wheelchair under the shade tree at the orphanage.  He can move his arms now, but he doesn't seem to have a reason or purpose at all.  He sits and listens to his radio.  No one can hire a person in a wheelchair.  How is he supposed to get to work, and how is he going to get around at work?

As a “handicapped” person I do still have limitations, but I can do so much more then Evans does.  This made me so thankful for the ability to walk even if it hurts some times.  It made me thankful for all the freedom my crutches give me.

If there was one person with whom I could share the freedom of wheelchair racing and the feeling of going at 26.1 mph (my fastest speed), it would be Evans.

Jenny taught me as much Creole as I could handle!

This is a video my dad put together after the trip.

Here we are again--

Yes, it has been a long time since Aerelle updated her blog.  Some of this is my fault, her mom and editor.  She started high school in August and took a trip to Haiti in October.  Her first race since July was in November.  With the spring, she is ready to rev things up again, and after watching the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, she is sufficiently inspired to get to to the hard work of training.  She has some exciting events coming up--I'll let her tell you about those, but first, a couple of blogs she wrote in the fall that I didn't get around to editing.  Here they are. . . 

Many of you know that my dad has gone to Haiti on numerous occasions.  This year dad asked me to join him.  I have not been on the foreign mission field in over 5 years.  I have been to Brazil (when I was 2 years old) and later to the Dominican Republic three times (between ages 6 ½ and 9 ½).  Now I excitedly look forward to stepping into a new country.  We plan to look at clean water wells and help with a youth camp.  Also we are going to visit an orphanage.  Our main goal is to do whatever the Haitian leadership asks us to.  What I am looking forward to the most is the youth camp.

God laid on my heart to bring in soccer balls for the churches there.  I told my Nana about this and she mentioned that there are soccer balls in the colors of wordless book.  I loved that idea.  When I was sharing that idea with some friends they said they would make some wordless books.  Now we are taking ten soccer balls and twenty Wordless books.  This is so cool because we can train the youth to use this tool with the books, and then they can use the ball.

The wordless book is a tool to tell others about salvation.  As the name suggests the book has no words; it only has colors.  This may seem odd, but this is part of what draws people, and illiterate people can share this story.  The five colors have meanings and Bible verses that go with them:

Gold-- (Heaven) We all want to go to this place with no pain or tears.
Black--(Sin/Darkness) Because of the darkness in our hearts, we cannot enter Heaven. 
Red--(Blood) Jesus gave his own life, and rose again for us so we can be free of darkness
White--(Clean/Light) Jesus' blood made us clean so we can go to Heaven and has set us free from darkness
Green--(Life) If you accept Jesus as your Savior and proclaim Him as Lord of your life, He makes you a new person with a new life.  After you decide to follow Jesus, you need to grow and learn more about Him.

Aerelle was in Haiti October 29-November 5.