A Week with Samaritan's Feet

This past week sure flew by! There was a youth group here with Samaritan's Feet composed of kids from Charlotte, a mom and daughter from Indiana, and two sisters from Argentina. I got to see Josh Marshman, who my mom and I were able to serve alongside last August with the YBM group. It was good to catch up with him and serve alongside him again. He lives right around the corner in Matthews, NC!

If you've never heard of Samaritan's Feet...read more here: http://www.samaritansfeet.org/our-story/mannys-story/

We picked the team up at the airport and everything went smoothly...until customs. The team brought in 1,000 pairs of shoes and customs wanted to charge more "tax" than the market value of the shoes...quite a bit more. That was a good hour-long process! They finally settled on a "tax" price and off we went!

By the time we got out of the airport and onto the canter, it was about 2:30 so we stopped at Pizza Amour for lunch. After lunch we sorted all of the shoes out at the OK and marked the bags to help organize the process of shoe distributions. We got back for dinner at the Visa Lodge around 6:30 or so. Each night, we would meet for dinner in the *air conditioned* dining room [ahhhh]. I ate everything from garlic butter shrimp, to chicken kabobs, to exotic pineapple chicken. The food was delicious!  

We did our usual Sunday routine, making PB & J sandwiches and heading out to Chambon for church. It is so much fun to go each week, strengthing relationships, and having more of the kids recognize me! I truly cherish our time spent out there week after week! After church the girls immediately wanted to braid my hair! We headed down to the river and played for a good bit.

Monday through Wednesday was filled with foot washings at a church in Petionville, in the village of Corail (after VBS), and on Santo 13 (close to where I stayed last summer - Santo 11).
I'm including some pictures from the church in Petionville. It's a little "eye-opening" and humbling. It's crazy to think that a group of 150-200 people meet here each week to worship, while we are worried about having the latest and greatest buildings/structures with constant upgrades for our churches back home. That's a whole different soapbox to save for another day though! :) I just ask you to pray for this congregation of believers...this group who can't meet when it rains...this group who sits through the unbearable heat every week...this group whose faith is stronger than I can imagine...

In addition to the foot washings, we did some shopping on the street by the UN, went to the park and played soccer/basketball/volleyball. My favorite part of going to the park was our 6 on 6 game of volleyball (USA vs. Haiti)! It was so much fun! It's been almost a year since I've played. I enjoyed it so very much!! The Haitians won the first set, we won the second set, and then the third set was pretty close, but we won 15-11!

I was definitely the "old lady" of the week...the teens would stay up swimming/playing cards until 11 or so each night...meanwhile I was asleep by 9:30/10 each night. I tried to "hang" and just couldn't do it. 

Some of my favorite parts of this week...

• A girl from the VBS at Corail came up to me and asked where Abigail was. I was so confused. I told her I didn't know Abigail. She proceeded to ask and say "Baby Abigail" over and over. It took me quite awhile to catch on and finally I realized she was asking about Abbi (one of the Burton girls from last summer!). I asked if she recognized/remembered me and she said, "Yes, where is baby Abigail?" She remembered me from VBS last summer and made the connection that I was with Abbi when we came. I said, "Do you mean Abbi and Rachel and the baby?" Her eyes lit up and her smile took over her face. I explained that they were back in the states in Texas. We were able to sit and chat and reconnect for a bit. It was so very sweet! I am absolutely blown away by her memory!
• One of the sisters from Argentina (Eunice) spoke English and the other only spoke Spanish (Ruth). Monday we had translators with us, but Ruth still struggled because they didn't know Spanish. Eunice and Josh were translators for her within our group, but she couldn't really communicate with any of the children. Tuesday, the four translators brought a 5th translator with them, Marc. He spoke English, Creole, and Spanish! Ruth was so excited and able to communicate with the children while she washed feet. Throughout the day as we went to different places, Ruth and Marc were able to converse and she found out that he hadn't been to church in over a year. Through their conversations, he told Ruth that after spending time with her and this group, seeing the good that they were doing and the ways they were serving, he was going to go back to church. How exciting. I love the way God works! Marc just thought he was going to work for the day...little did he know the experiences he would be a part of and the connection he would make with Ruth from Argentina! Please keep him in your prayers!

We dropped everyone off at the airport yesterday and made it inside after quite the arrival experience. We said goodbye at immigration/security and ran errands all afternoon (well, as quickly as you can "run" errands in PAP traffic!).

We are prepping today for the next team that arrives tomorrow...BRADFORD! Woo hoo! Please keep my Bradford friends in your prayers as they prepare to leave early in the morning. Pray for their hearts and minds to be prepared. This island filled with highs and lows, beauty and despair, grit and grace tends to rock your world and turn it upside down! Pray for their families and friends they are leaving behind for the week and for those supporting them back home. I can't wait to meet them at the airport tomorrow around noon!