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1st photo is one of the crafts that every one was able to do with the kids at Onaville for Christian Bible School (CBS). We did visors that are God/ Easter themed.

2nd photo is of what many of us enjoy doing afterwards. Card games! 

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The group had an amazing day today!

We went to the Tent City near City Soleil and loved on some kids (more like they loved on us). We were amazed at how generous the kids were with us.

After leaving the city we visited the Women's Hospital and Outside the Bowl, and while the women gave new mothers care packages for their new born babies, the men finished benches and picnic tables for the hospital.

We finished our day off by returning to New Life and packaging meals to be distributed on Thursday.  Each bag contains 2 coffee can portions of rice, a large scoop of beans, sardines in a tomato sauce, and oil.  We made over 150 bags, and each bag will feed a family for about 2-2.5 weeks.  Everyone was feeling the love today.

Since it's so hot everyone is tired, so we just took the rest of the day to debrief, talk, and relax.  We will try to blog more, but we only really have the chance to blog at night.

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First full day here, and it was nothing but amazing…

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First full day here, and it was nothing but amazing…

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Link to River Glen Haiti 2014 Trip

http://www.tumblr.com/blog/riverglen-haiti-2014

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Final Thoughts

The evenings were quite busy in the final days and with over 50 people in the guesthouse, internet was spotty.  So I'm taking some time to share some final thoughts while sitting at home in my kitchen.

What an amazing week watching God work in our hearts and before our eyes.  God fed 1,000 families using our labor, love and prayers.  We assisted the launching of a new church in a neighborhood with only one other church.  God connected us with "the least of these" and we were able to love God by pouring our love on them.  Skin color became transparent.  Our eyes opened and our hearts softened while seeing with our own eyes what desperation and often, hopelessness can produce in others.

We know, love and are empowered by the "hope of the world"  and every person needs (deserves) to hear that God loves them and has already taken action to restore them spiritually.

A team member pointed out that she dislikes when people use the phrase, "I'm starving!"  I can see why.  I've seen "starving."  I know "starving."  And most people who use this phrase in the US are not it.

But we also saw a people that were joyful, hard-working and often, optimistic despite horrible conditions.  We left some memories, a beautiful church building, donations and 1.000 bags of food behind.  While bagging food, I was given the opportunity to pray over 30 or 40 bags individually.  Here's what I prayed....  "God, I pray that you use this food to help the family that receives this avoid starvation and malnutrition.  I pray that you fortify this food so that it produces results way beyond any expectation or imagination.  I pray that it lasts longer than anyone expects.  I pray that it provides more nourishment than anyone thinks possible.  I pray that it restores the family physically.  And I pray that as a result, You will be glorified.  I pray that people will recognize that this gift, this miracle, is from You, hearts will be turned to You as a result and that people will be restored to You spiritually through the power of the work of Jesus.  In your wonderful Name I pray.  Amen."

Bonne Annee (bone a knee) is Happy New Year in Creole.  I pray that 2014 will be a wonderful year for our team, the Haitian people we met, the Mission Discovery Team and those reading this blog.  May 2014 be a year that all of us with resources that are beyond the wildest imaginations of  the common people of Haiti live generous lives.  May we be willing to sacrificially share our wealth and our time to love God by loving "the least of these."  

We won't ever forget Haiti.  As a team, we have connected deeply with each other and we have also connected with the people of Haiti.  We can love more in Haiti.  But we can also love "the least of these" closer to home.  We've been blessed beyond the wildest imaginations of many people near us.  Waukesha County is one of the wealthiest counties in the nation.  I pray that in 2014, you'll see a change in my life and in others as we strive together to "bring it home" and love "the least of these" in North Prairie, Mukwonago, Waukesha, Milwaukee and beyond.

Bonne Annee,

Steve Vock

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As the sun sets the team sits down to enjoy the nightly Fútbol practice of the older boys from New Life Children's Home. These boys have been invited to play in a big tournament but had no uniforms. Thanks to our Mission Discovery group leader Jeff, his family and many generous neighbors... these boys received gently used SC Waukesha soccer shirts (home and away), shorts, socks, shin guards, goalie gloves and warm-ups. They were thrilled to have their first real uniforms and there were hugs all around.

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Shelly leads... Aaron testifies... Nick shakes it... at Children's Bible School in Cite’ Soleil. Afterward food distribution off the back of our bus begins.

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Shelly leads the way at Cite’ Soleil.

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More preparation of food bags under the mango tree as we wrangled sneaky chickens trying to eat fallen rice. The bus was loaded and we arrived at Cite’ Soleil in the afternoon to an excited crowd of children.

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The men.

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Putting together 500 more bags of rice and beans for the tent city at Cite' Soleil in the afternoon.

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hannah squared

Today we packed bags of rice and beans all morning. And then in the afternoon we went to city soleil to host a vbs and hand out food. Everyone lived in homemade tents. And there was hundreds of kids waiting and smiling for us. The culture was eye opening and so different. A few of us went in a building and prayed over people. Especially expecting mothers and mothers. It was super powerful and humbling 

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The scene outside the police compound before distributing Rice and Beans to hungry families.

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Feeding the Hungry at the Onaville police station. Merci RiverGlen!

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To the least of these...

What a day!  We fed the hungry today.  250 families in Onaville have food for several weeks now.

Here's a shoutout to Riverglen for providing the funds to make it possible.

I was incredibly privileged to collect the tickets from the family representative.  I was able to greet each person, try to assure them that they were actually going to be able to trade a ticket for food and watch our team interact with them as they handed them their food and shared a quick "hello" or blessing in Creole.

It was awesome, humbling and a million other feelings at once.  My prayers before meals are going to include more sincere thankfulness from now on.  We were able to experience firsthand what real need is and the blessing of being born in America is more real each day we are here.

Tomorrow....  We are going to the tent city tomorrow.  This should make the tin and wood sheds people live in in Oneville look like mansions.

And a note for the parents.  Our team is led by experienced missionaries.  Today's feeding was performed in the fenced in police yard while being supervised the Commadant and his deputies.  It was safe even though the crowd was a little crazy outside the fence.

Steve Vock 

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Children's Bible School at Onaville Church.