It’s our first Saturday here at Canaan. I’m sitting in a small garden next to our house wearing an oversized tank top and Nike shorts J (this is the only place we are allowed to wear this outfit). In moments like this I wish I majored in journalism because my description simply can’t do this place justice. This is the first afternoon I’ve had the chance to be still (but no worries- I just finished cleaning the room, re-making my bed, and rigging up a contraption to fix my sagging mosquito net). It’s hard to believe it’s only noon… We woke up at 5 am to start a five-mile hike up the mountain to a cold-water spring. We were told that some of the older Canaan kids would take us up there, so naturally we figured this was going to be just an easy walk up one of the hills. Hilarious. We were so wrong.

The hike entailed 2 hours up a very steep path with portions of the path being only 6 inches wide (covered in moss) and with one wrong step you would be, in the words of my new 12-year-old friend Wesh, “dead meat”. So at many points, Jessica and I would hum the Rocky theme song and just move as quick as we could to keep up with Canaan kids and avoid the men walking along the path carrying bushels of bananas and machetes. However, WE MADE IT (with, might I add, the beginning stages of a Chaco tan)! The spring was beyond refreshing. We all took our turns jumping in as the Canaan kids laughed at how uncoordinated we looked. We laughed and enjoyed the freezing/clear/fresh water, just in time to load back up and head back down the mountain. We spent the walk with two of the Canaan boys (West-12 yrs and Joelle- 14 yrs) and played the “if you could have any super power, what would it be” game and then finally made it back to a filling brunch of peanut butter pancakes.

So now I sit here in a garden, looking at the ocean, and listening to a woman sing the most beautiful song as she washes her clothes by the well. I just finished reading Oswald Chamber’s “My Utmost for His Highest” and it focuses on Hebrews 13: 6 which says, “So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’” It’s easy to say those words as I sit here in this breath-taking setting. It’s easy to believe that after a day spent with these Haitian orphans who literally exude the joy of Christ.

But it was hard to believe yesterday morning when we went to the hospital to check on two-year-old Louie (we had taken him there on Thursday night to see the Dr. on Friday morning). Louie didn’t make it through the night; his father said he died soon after we had left the hospital that evening. I’ve sat here for a long few minutes trying to figure out what to say next. I don’t know what to say. I keep seeing the look on the father’s face when we saw him Friday morning. It’s not easy to say Hebrews 13:6 when a father asks why his son died. There are so many emotions and questions that I can’t quite peg down. However, I believe the truth of Hebrews 13:6, regardless of my sadness and anger. I am going to cling to this scripture and I have been praying that the Lord will strengthen my faith. Even though I don't at all understand what happened, I know that Christ will be glorified. Jess and I ask that you continue to pray for Louie’s father. Please pray that he will be comforted and come to know the only true Healer.

We feel your prayers daily. Thank you.

-Morg

Fon Baptiste

Wow, it's day three and what an incredible day it has been. Little did we know what we had ahead of us as we sat and ate our new favorite breakfast food, baked oatmeal, this morning. Today we headed up to the mountains to the town of Fon Baptiste. Chelsea, Morgan, myself and Bobi packed up the car with everything we needed to screen the children of the town for malnutrition. We were so excited to take part in what we have been anticipating for months. The most hilarious part of the day was the drive there and back. Not having driven 30 seconds out of Canaan, the bed of the truck accumulated about 12 extra Haitians wanting a ride up the mountain. Apparently word had spread that we were going and they didn't hesitate to pass up such a valued lift. So hundreds of pounds heavier, our beast of a truck left for our two hour trek up the mountain. The ride was extremely bumpy, but the view was beautiful. We were surrounded by green mountains with the occasional peek at the ocean down below. As we drove higher and higher, the air became cool and crisp, a much appreciated blessing from the Lord. Once we arrived, there was about 40 kids with their mother's waiting for us to begin the clinic. It is amazing how quickly word spread's in Haiti. My cell phone/internet/ TV trained mind cannot comprehend how anything ever gets communicated, but somehow...it just does. It got a little chaotic as more and more people hung around to see what these "blan" (white) folks were here for. We began to screen child after child, weighing them and measuring their height to determine if they were malnourished. Last night Bobi said that she would be surprised if we found 10 children, today we found about 20. The mothers were given instructions that we would return on Monday to begin treating the kids. Because this town is so far away, there is the possibility that these families could move onto Canaan's property for the duration of the program (usually around 8 weeks).

By the time we returned to Canaan, we had another adventure awaiting us. One of the children that we came across in Fon Baptiste was extremely sick and needed more help than just medika mumba (explanation to come..). He was about two years old with constant diarrhea, malnourished, severely dehydrated and could barely keep his head up. After Elsie (Canaan's nurse) got a look at him, she decided he definitely needed an IV. So being the eager beaver nurses that Morgan and I are, we hopped on this opportunity. Because this child was severely dehydrated we knew that this was going to be a difficult stick and that God was going to have to intervene in a huge way. And He did. Morgan inserted the IV with ease and it was flowing perfectly. We both left and just looked at each other with disbelief as the reality sunk in of what just happened. I get the feeling that this type of situation is going to continue to happen this summer. It has been very clear over these past 3 days that we are small beings, very small beings, incapable of doing anything without our heavenly father. We ask for your continued prayer, but specifically for this two-year-old little boy. Please pray that we will know how to best treat him, that he will quickly rehydrate, and that his condition will not worsen.

Well, signing off....the bells a ringin' for dinner time. We send our love, thank you for your prayers, we feel them every day.

-Jess

Well, we made it! Jessica and I are very excited to finally be here at Canaan. The day started early (we met up with Chelsea Rushing, a recent grad from Samford, who will be staying in Haiti till the middle of July) and we have already found ourselves in situations where the only thing to do is laugh and have also experienced a few t.i.h. situations. Before we left, we were told that some moments in Haiti can only be described by saying t.i.h. which stands for "this is haiti"... I didn't fully understand what that meant until we had been through immigration and baggage claim at the haitian international airport. After an early flight out of Birmingham, a five hour layover in the Miami airport (where Jessica was SURE she saw multiple celebs), and a quick flight to Port-au-Prince on a huge airplane, we landed!

We made it through immigration and began the search for our bags. I immediately began to pray that we would be able to spot Jessica's red, pink, and green polka-dotted cheerleading bows tied to our luggage, and we did! Praise Him, first mission- accomplished. Now for the second tast- find Bobi (our Canaan contact). We held onto our luggage tightly as we squeezed through the sea of people to get outside near the street. We were immediately bombarded by many haitians who wanted to help carry our luggage, but we kept moving through and found Bobi. She greeted us with a huge smile and hug and told us just to hold tight and wait for the other group of 21 people that would be joining us in Canaan for this first week. Our luggage and the luggage from the group was piled high into the back of a cattle truck and then everyone else also hopped into the back of the truck (yes, 24 peoples' luggage and 24 people in the back of a cattle truck) to begin the hour long drive to Canaan. The ride was tight :) but so incredible to see Port-au-Prince and the country side as we left the city. It began to rain (it's rainy season-so it will be raining at least once a day) but as we continued to drive, it let up a bit just enough to see the most breath-taking rainbow. It reminded me so much of the Lord and His faithfulness.

Once we arrived to Canaan and everyone climbed out of the truck, we all congregated in the cafeteria for our first haitian meal. It put Qdoba and Chipotle to shame. We got to know the group of 21, they are from a church in Illinois and are here to do VBS for the school in Canaan. After dinner we headed to our new home and began to unpack. We laughed so hard as we tried to figure out where to put what, while wearing our head lamps. I'm not sure why we wore the headlamps, but we did, and we thought we were pretty funny. We all took our turns taking a cool shower, bug-sprayed ourselves one last time, turned our fans on, and crawled under our mosquito nets, just in time before the routine power-down at 10 pm (the generator turns of every night around this time). Chelsea said a prayer thanking the Lord for such an exciting, but safe day and for our time here at Canaan. With our ear plugs in (the dogs bark all night)- our first day in Haiti was complete.

-Morg