Hello fam! For those of you who may not know me, I am Amy, Lauren's sister. I recently spent 9 days at an orphanage in Haiti and Taylor asked me to share! First, a little background...
The Hands
& Feet Project was founded in 2004 by the Christian music group Audio
Adrenaline. They focus on providing long term, family style care for orphaned
and abandoned children in Haiti, through their two locations in Jacmel &
Grand Goave. I just returned to the states after spending time at the orphanage in
Jacmel, and it was amazing. A friend from my hometown, Dorie, is currently interning at
the orphanage, so we enjoyed coming alongside of her to work and to love on the
kids! The Jacmel location currently houses 68 kids, ranging from 9months to 15
years. The heart of the missionaries, Stephen & Carrie, as well as the
other Haitian staff, is to create family units inside the orphanage; therefore,
each “house” has a full-time house mom & nanny who cook and care for the
kids in their house. One of the most awe-inspiring moments of the trip was
being a part of “family time” before the kids went to school. Each morning the
house moms lead devotions and pray over each child, so precious!
Our first
full day in Jacmel, we combined with other orphanages in the area and hosted a
field day for the kids, complete with numerous games, crafts, and even Haitian
hot dogs! The next day, (Sunday) we attended church with the kids, and although
95% of the 3 ½ hour service was in Creole, I so enjoyed worshipping &
experiencing God the Haitian way!
During the
week while the kids were in school, we completely gutted, cleaned and repainted
the old kitchen (never have I seen so many roaches, tarantulas, and mice in my
life!) and turned it into an activity room for the kids! My friend Kellie and I
also spent the week doing health assessments & deworming (yes, deworming)
each child.
When the
kids weren’t in school or in “lessons” (tutoring for all the kids in the
orphanage for at least an hour each day) we enjoyed playing soccer, playing
with bubbles and chalk, singing songs, racing, chasing tarantulas, and so many other
fun kid activities! Each Thursday night is worship night and Friday night is
movie night. Before, the kids would watch American movies with no sound, but
our group was able to bring a sound system, complete with karaoke! Friday
night, before watching a movie, we had a karaoke/dance party and we all had a
blast! We finished the night with a High
School Musical viewing, the kids were in heaven!
I feel as
though the words above are an inadequate expression of those 9 days in Haiti. There
were countless God moments, stories that completely steal your heart, kids that
make you think about life in a way you never thought possible, and most of all,
kids who welcome you with open arms and love you with all of their hearts! I
wanted to give an overview of the Hands & Feet Project and our stay there;
but, for many of you reading this, I can’t wait to sit with you and tell you
specifics! Thank you for your prayers and support, I can’t wait to go back!
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| the orphanage! |
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| field day! |
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| sweet Loveda |
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| worship night! |
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| D'Jolande, my sponsor child |
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| showing off our muscles... |
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| racing! |
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| most common reaction to the deworming meds... |
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| these little boys love spiderman! |
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| praying with her girls before school |
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| serious Wadley |
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| walking the kids to school |
Audio
Adrenaline came to HAF and shot this music video, released last Tuesday, and
the kids are stars! The two main characters are Gerlande & Junior,
enjoy!
(Hi! It's Taylor! I still can't figure out how to fix my video feed so I think this is the link to the video. Try clicking HERE and you can see the you tube version!)
(Taylor again: On the video's note, expect the blog to look different soon. Im going to go back to the very basic version and see if I can't rebuild and try to delete out whatever bug I have! Hopefully we'll be back to a cute looking blog soon!
PS. a HUGE THANK YOU to Sweet Amy for sharing with us! Oh, I just love this wonderful woman so much!)
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