Scott Hartzell's trip to Haiti

I am having a great time in Haiti. I played with children a lot and they loved being picked up and held. They were always happy to see us. We delivered water two days and they came running after the truck when they saw us. They never wanted us to leave, but always had huge smiles on their faces. We are taking an orphanage group of children to the ocean tomorrow. They have never seen or swam in the ocean before and we are all excited and looking forward to a wonderful day together. We'll let you know tomorrow how it all goes.
Scott H.

Team Photos

Our amazing team at Cite Soleil 17.  A great day of water truck deliveries!

                                    A few of the beautiful children we met delivering water!

The children were so proud to show us their room at Juno's orphanage.  They broke out in a dance party.

Nick at the water truck. Smiling bucket after bucket!

Water Truck Day!

Today our journey took us into the poorest city in Haiti, city soleil. As we arrived to each of the three water stops we were greeted by smiling children waving, and yelling "hey you," words we soon learned were their adorable and trying to get our attention and basically saying hi. As we got off our truck the children swarmed to us wanting to be picked up and loved.  We spent many hours holding them giving each of them a little piece of ourselves and it felt amazing!  We brought a jump rope and the children laughed and played sometimes trying to jump ten at a time (it never worked but they did not care and neither did we).  As the water truck turned on to fill the many buckets that were lined up a greater appreciation for the simple things we have (like clean water) came over the team. These Haitians needed this water for their families, what we were providing was their bathing water, drinking water, and the water the cooked their meals with.

The city itself was hard to take, the devastation was heartbreaking. The streets were covered in trash and yet the children played in it many with no shoes. They walked around many with little or no clothing and happy for what little they did have. The houses that the people their live in we're not houses at all. They were broken piles of rubble with tarps and randomness holding them together. Will I ever complain again about trivial things like my house being to small or my furniture not being new enough?  I pray that I never forget how lucky I am and just how much I have. I will be leaving a piece of my heart in Haiti

Dawn

First Day Out And Already Learning About Prayer

Our team finally met for the first time today! God took charge pretty much immediately with my trip by letting me practice trusting in Him. For the first--and hopefully only--time in my life I went to the wrong airport. I found this out when American Airlines' staff thought I was crazy and told me LGA meant La Guardia and not JFK. I had to speed my way across Queens! Thankfully La Guardia and JFK are closer than I thought and God proved that he had control over traffic too. And probably put the thought in my head that I should leave even earlier than my normally paranoid punctual self would have left. Surprisingly I didn't even panic--just prayed and appreciated His sense of humor.

But everyone arrived safely in Miami and the sky was wonderfully blue when we stepped foot in Haiti. It was definitely the opposite of a New York winter. We saw our tap tap (painted cage truck?) for the first time and it was really cute, with "Healing Haiti" painted on the side to show us it was our very own truck.

The guesthouse is beautiful, with colorful walls and these sink-inable sofas. And dinner was amazing for our bunch of weary souls! We ended the day with Word of the Day which is when we think of one word to summarize our feelings and thoughts for the one day. Mine was Trust.

So good night from Haiti! I hope we learn more from God every minute here.

Gillian W

A Fall to Remember

Welcome to our team blog!!

  Fall is my favorite season of the year, the beauty of the trees, the crispness of the air and the anticipation of the Holiday season to come.  It is with much anticipation that I await my return to Haiti with another amazing team!!   In less than 2 weeks, our team will be embarking on a journey to remember.

My co-lead is my amazing daughter Kristina DeMuth who has led many trips as well as served as a long term missionary in Haiti for a year.  Two of my three sons will be joining us for their first trip to Haiti, Scott and Nick.  We have several Healing Haiti alumni joining us including Kathy Hartzell,  Scott Hartzell and Nash Anderson from Minnesota  California alumni include Anrea Rupp and Sonia Gomez.  New Healing Haiti team members include Lily Lauzon from California, representing the Big Apple is Gillian Wong and from the great state of Michigan is Dawn Cook.

Please pray for us as we prepare our hearts and minds for this amazing journey and follow us as we follow in the hands and feet of Jesus and allow our hearts to be broken wide open in serving the beautiful people of Haiti.