Camp 09!

Hi everyone!

We are excited to let you know that planning has started for Camp in a Box 09. The dates are June 25-July 6. For more information please email damedee@gmail.com.

Thanks -
Lucas

loving and missing

what i love about being home:

soft toilet paper
clothes clean and fresh out of the dryer
apples, pears, strayberries, peaches
a cool breeze

what i miss about haiti:

keso
love-mita
pharra
renise
dieunit
adeline
chabine
katiana
chedline
isguerda
cherline
erta
cherley
mikerline
ruth
ranald
cendy
oline
kenny
franky
walgens
clairmond
daphne
phan phan
the hojaras


alicia simmons

my favorite parts of the trip

meeting the kids lucas and i sponsor. keso. love-mita. lucas and i didnt think that being a sponsor would be such a big deal to these kids. Love-mita freaked out and ran and told all the other girls in the cabin in like 2 seconds. Keso was reminding the other boys all week of the fact. lucas and i decided to increase our sponsorship amount for them.

jumping up and down till it hurt with keso during worship. the smile on the kid's face: priceless. and when the music slowed down... he didnt. awesome.

speaking creole. it means the world to them. it opens a door. i remember meeting pharra. i said "bon jou" and so did she. but when i followed that with "M' conta fe conesance ou" (i am pleased to meet you) she smiled and our eyes connected. she is such a beautiful girl and has such an incredible story.

trying all the haitian food! sometimes i didnt know what kind of meat i was eating!! scary! one day after lunch... people were rushing outside. i did too to see what the comotion was. two goats in the bed of a truck. lunch tomorrow!! wow.

also the hardest part... hearing some stories from the kids themselves (through an i of how they got off of the street. about 7 or 8 of the girls in my cabin told us their stories through an inturpretor. hunger to the point of tears. being scared for their lives. voodoo. begging in the streets of port-au-price. being called names and cussed at. oragnge hair from malnutrition. being mistreated. BUT GOD... sent susette mannaserro out to talk with them. Jesus hand pick each of these girls out of their horrific lives into a new life with Him. one girl said she wanted to help girls get off the street too one day. renise. i love that girl.

the talent show. im telling you this is the most awesome talent show EVER. the first 3 acts were verse recitings. um the crowd was on thier feet and on the benches yelling and cheering. the thrid one had to be the loudest. it was for david. all by himself reciting a simple two line verse. i decided then and there is was the best talent show ever and wondered if the kids would keep up the excitement all the way through. they did. it was amazing. the finale was a fashion show by 6 of the girls in my cabin. steller. the al had the walk. and pharra had the perfect runway face. katiana followed with the her biggest brighest smile. you should have been there.

alicia simmons

funny things about haiti

A new car costs less than a used one

I think if you have one cell phone you have more money, but if you have 2 or 3 you are either poor or just careful with money.  You might use one for text messaging, one for calling people in Haiti and one for calling other countries.  Rich people can just get one to use for everything

People look at you funny until you start speaking Creole to them.  Sometimes they look at you even more funny, but most of the time smile.

The line to get into the airport felt like there was going to be a riot at anytime (ok maybe it wasn’t that bad)

The last hotel we stayed at had a no smoking sign.  The room came with two ashtrays. 

Bottles of Acid are the equivalent of Clorox

Haitian culture dictates that if you have two of something the other one is excess and therefore can be taken without asking.  I never actually experienced this, but this was what I was told.  When you get there and realize how little people have, you are ready to give it up anyways.

Lucas Simmons

fini for this time

Friday-the end

What?  Today is our last full day with the kids Haiti is a different place than what you hear about in American media.  We tend to forget, I think, that Haitians are people and instead focus on all the safety concerns.  These children in are glowing with God’s glory and are such happy kids.  I love them and I hope I don’t get all worked up about coming back again.  I am definitely being changed by being here.  Today we piled into three trucks and a bus.  Alicia & I were in the bus and I can only describe this adventure as a constant game of chicken.  The best part was the gas tank for the bus was sitting right next to the driver.  We are on our way to Kaliko now, a beach resort in Haiti where we will play with the kids in the pool. 

 

That place was amazing and most of them loved the pool.  It had air conditioning too so we were actually cold.  We had a great time of worship and prayer that night and got to really encourage each other.  The next morning we returned and finished our time of worship and prayer together.  How awesome.  Then we all went to the pool again.  Then, it was time to leave and we had a teary goodbye.  I don’t think any of us can believe that week is over and I know my heart is still there.  Seeing the kids leave knowing they are still there – it is so hard for me to imagine now that I am back in California.  After we left Kaliko, the bus we were on broke down 3 times.  Good thing we had some handy guys around.  After a 4 hour journey, we arrived at the Hotel Montana, which is a nice hotel in Port-Au-Prince.  We shared a meal, debriefed and went to sleep.  This morning we got up and the hotel had no clue they were supposed to take us to the airport (not a surprising thing in Haiti) but eventually we got a bus.  As soon as we sat down in the terminal, they started boarding the plane.

 

More pictures coming soon…

 

Lucas Simmons

 

pa gen internet

i think that's how you say we had no internet in creole.  That was what happened yesterday and why I didn't update.  This week has been a blur sort of, so I am trying to remember things as best I can.  yesterday, our medical guy, Kurt, gave the kids some basic medical training which they really enjoyed.  We had worship after that and then Alicia showed the kids the dance she made up (which they loved!).  You would think in a normal camp day you would have worship first, but we have to plan our worship times around when we have electricity.  That's not always easy because it doesn't seem to always have the same schedule.  Group dicussions followed.  Then we had these big air filled bumper things that we put on and had relay races.  After that it was just a normal day of soccer and crafts and playing around followed by an amazing time of worship at night.  After the "official" time of worship was finished we played worship from a CD and most people danced around and worshipped.  Oh yeah and we got to see what's for lunch today, goat.  They bought them on the street.  The goat slaughter also woke me up this morning.
 
Today we had a time of worship, but in Creole.  This normally makes me cry, I was on the verge of crying... it's just so beautiful.  It was only drums and singing.  No guitars!  Tonight we are having a talent show.  Tomorrow we head to the beach and then we are almost done.  I don't know about everyone else, but I certainly don't want to come back to America :)

This whole electricity thing is limiting the amount of time I can respond to e-mails, sorry.
More photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucastheexperience/sets/72157605133107968/

i will try to update you all again, but keep us in your prayers for the last couple of days that God would touch their hearts and that we would just be a blessing to them

update, but no pictures

No pictures tonight, I am working on a slideshow of the kids for tonight's gathering.  Maybe in the morning, when we get electricity. 

"If God created all this and it's this beautiful, then how beautiful is God." - Patrick one of the kids from the orphanage

Today we started out eating breakfast with our teams and then went to chapel and had bible study afterwards.  The kids love soccer and pretty much any other game on the soccer field.  We continue to meet and connect with more people that are here at the facility.  Today we talked with Pierre who is one of the owners of this place (or that's what we got from talking with him.  I also talked to a man named Joseph who asked me to call his fiance in California when I get home and let her know he is ok.  Then, it was back to the soccer court again.  The kids are so great and the people are so friendly.  I just enjoy saying bonjour or bonswa to everyone passing by...

Anyways it's almost time to eat...

Lucas