I'mm back! Thanks to Jesus for being my redeemer and my life! Here is what has been going on! During the week that no one was here, we had an staff volleyball tournament, more Bible studies, we went to Port au Paix to relax, we went to Anse a Foleur to visit Twin Basins and the House of Spirits, we had many movie days, we made cakes, did street ministry and had an intern obstacle course!
Here is a bit more detail about those! So the last time I talked, we were having staff bible studies. They were really great and they really help refocus the staff outward to the streets of Haiti! We needed that! After our days of bible studies, we had relax days/bonding days! On thursday (the 14th) we had the staff volleyball tournament! I was on the yellow team our of four other teams (red, green, gray). It was much fun! Unfortunately, my team did not win, but it was fun to watch and enjoy the game!
On that friday, the interns and some staff went to Port au Paix to do pretty much exactly the same thing we did last time! Another much needed relax day. Not much else happened on that day. The next day however, was quite tremendous. The staff went to Anse a Foleur and we visited the new sites.
The first site was called Twin Basins and is very sacred to the voodoo people. This is where they come to cleanse themselves (and when I say cleanse, I mean deep cleansing)! They strip completely from their clothes and climb down into a fifteen foot hole that has very clean spring water in it. They begin to scrub themselves deeply and then a child (the local children are in charge of the place) takes a bottle of red soda, to symbolize blood. He drinks some of the soda and then pours it over the person who is cleansing themselves!! They then leave the clothes on the ground that they arrived in and put on clean garments to symbolize the washing. They also believe a very large spirit snake lives in the cave. They say it has two heads and is rainbow colored. How odd.
The second site that we went to is a place called the House of Spirits. In essence, this place is a very large cave with caves the branch off of the main one. The Haitians believe that a different spirit lives in each one of the caves the branches off the main one. Our staff went into this cave, ducking under bats and making our way across very wobbly rocks to the center of the main room where we had a Bible verse sharing time. All the Bible verses that we shared consisted of spiritual warfare ideas and the best ways of defeating the enemy. We prayed loud in this place and enjoyed the company of our Jesus in the midst of this spiritual battle! Praise Jesus for what he is doing here in Haiti.
Following Saturday the 16th, we relaxed for a majority of the week and continued to minister to the local people! On the Wednesday before the groups arrived, that would be the 20th, we had an intern obstacle course competition. This is an annual event and the winners, the fastest boy and girl, were treated to a lobster dinner in Port au Paix. This obstacle course took place around the entire mission and consisted of an egg on a spoon, tabasco applesauce, balance obstacles, wheelchairs in gravel, shooting soccer goals, and an assortment of other fine activities! Needless to say, I got the fastest time by about a minute! I got to go to Port au Paix and have non-battered fried lobster with potato salad, rice, and friend plantanes! It was soo good! Definitely worth that tabasco applesauce! :)
On thursday, the groups arrived and ALL of the interns were happy. We were starting to get bored during the week and a half of no one being here! :) I am partnered with Brittney, one of the other interns, and we have the coolest group! They are so fun! We already have done a street VBS, which was so amazing to me to be able to give food to many of the children that I have built a relationship with! We have gone to Anse A Foleur, and done all the activities except for the temple, twin basins, and house of spirits! Today is Sunday, a relax day. It is the last Sunday with all of the interns here because next Saturday, about half of the interns leave. The entire family will begin to vanish and the dynamics will be changing! I can't believe that I have already been for about 6 weeks.
Continue to keep us in your prayers! Pray that our ministry would be effective! Pray that the hearts of those who we will come in contact with will be prepared for us! Pray for all those who are over seas doing missions in the name of our Lord! Pray for health! Pray for strength! Thanks for all of your support!
Nathan
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Fish and Birds!!
Wow! So it has been a while since my last post. I have been tremendously busy and the internet hasn't been working very well recently. I hope everyone is doing well and that the Lord is blessing you like He is me. Let's see, the last time a blogged was right after one of the groups left and us interns had 3 days of relaxing time, so I'll start there!
On that Friday, the interns and some of the staff went to Port au Paix to get some ice cream, but unfortunately when we got to the store, they had none! While leaving the ice cream store and driving down the street a little bit, we found an ice cream street vender who had cherry ice cream! It was the most glorious thing I've ever had since I've been here! :) We also were able to go to a store and get some snacks! The next day we went to Le Baie just for some fun. We went to the beach, took a ride in a boat, swam, had fried Bonita (a type of fish), the Bonita was 100 pounds! It was hugggee!!! :)
Then on Sunday the next group arrived. We gave the group tours of the facility, showing them the new filtration systems, the miriam center, the new aquaponics facility, the gran moun, the new chapel and all sorts of fun things! I was in charge of the miscellaneous group again! I was able to to lead the group to L'Anse A Foleur again, Tortuga again, House of Hope, on campus ministry, neighbor hood ministry, and an assortment of other fun things. We even hiked to the waterfall. God used this group to minister to people and it was so wonderful to have them. Nothing crazy exiting happened this week. It felt pretty average, but average here is like being at camp for a week and having that crazy high for the Lord! :)
Some really great things that have happend this week are: the chapel that is now on the roof of the facility finally got a roof put on it instead of tarps! That is a blessing! Aquaponics got the concrete poured so now the progress there will be tremendous. We had our first deaf church held this past week. I've learned more Creole and got closer to the Lord! Life is great here! the group left on Sunday and this week we have Barb and Jim, two people here to help rejuvinate spirits through Bible studies, devotions, leadership training, etc. I'm a little skeptical, but I know God will use this time to renew a right spirit within me. Us interns will get to do ministry and personal interest ministry at the end of the week! I'm excited!
Now for those of you who don't know what Aquaponics is ( I don't think I have talked about it yet), it is taking aquaculture, which is farming of fish, and hydroponics, which is growing plants from water, and completely intertwining the two systems. The fish (Tilapia) will be grown in tanks and there fish poop will be harvested and will be broken down by bacteria from ammonia to nitrite to nitrate. When the break down reaches nitrate the water is very nutritious and the plants (any kind of plants i.e. tomatoes, carrots, vegetables, etc. etc.) take the nutrition out of the water, in essence, it cleans it, and then it gets pumped back to the fish! I'm super excited because there will be many vegetables and fish that we will be able to eat once it is done! This will be a breakthrough for mission fields everywhere!
Oh, we have also discovered a new spiritual spot in L'Anse A Foleur called the House of Spirits. Basically it is 3 or more big caves that each contain different spirits that the people go to and worship. They look like Indiana Jones style! They have vines and big bats in them as well. We are planning on having a Bible study there and doing some ministry! I'm really excited!
Continue to keep all of us in your prayers! I have been here for a month now! That is unbelievable! This time here will go by really fast! Pray for health. I haven't gotten sick yet, but some of the other interns have! Pray that God may continue to grow and stretch me, that he may allow me to push every corner and boundary of my comfort zone! Thank you all!
P.S. - this morning when I went on the roof to do some morning worship by myself and do a quick morning Bible reading, a bird kept swooping down every 3 minutes or so and running into my head. I guess it was mad or something I was on the roof! haha I still spent time with the Lord, despite the distraction! :)
On that Friday, the interns and some of the staff went to Port au Paix to get some ice cream, but unfortunately when we got to the store, they had none! While leaving the ice cream store and driving down the street a little bit, we found an ice cream street vender who had cherry ice cream! It was the most glorious thing I've ever had since I've been here! :) We also were able to go to a store and get some snacks! The next day we went to Le Baie just for some fun. We went to the beach, took a ride in a boat, swam, had fried Bonita (a type of fish), the Bonita was 100 pounds! It was hugggee!!! :)
Then on Sunday the next group arrived. We gave the group tours of the facility, showing them the new filtration systems, the miriam center, the new aquaponics facility, the gran moun, the new chapel and all sorts of fun things! I was in charge of the miscellaneous group again! I was able to to lead the group to L'Anse A Foleur again, Tortuga again, House of Hope, on campus ministry, neighbor hood ministry, and an assortment of other fun things. We even hiked to the waterfall. God used this group to minister to people and it was so wonderful to have them. Nothing crazy exiting happened this week. It felt pretty average, but average here is like being at camp for a week and having that crazy high for the Lord! :)
Some really great things that have happend this week are: the chapel that is now on the roof of the facility finally got a roof put on it instead of tarps! That is a blessing! Aquaponics got the concrete poured so now the progress there will be tremendous. We had our first deaf church held this past week. I've learned more Creole and got closer to the Lord! Life is great here! the group left on Sunday and this week we have Barb and Jim, two people here to help rejuvinate spirits through Bible studies, devotions, leadership training, etc. I'm a little skeptical, but I know God will use this time to renew a right spirit within me. Us interns will get to do ministry and personal interest ministry at the end of the week! I'm excited!
Now for those of you who don't know what Aquaponics is ( I don't think I have talked about it yet), it is taking aquaculture, which is farming of fish, and hydroponics, which is growing plants from water, and completely intertwining the two systems. The fish (Tilapia) will be grown in tanks and there fish poop will be harvested and will be broken down by bacteria from ammonia to nitrite to nitrate. When the break down reaches nitrate the water is very nutritious and the plants (any kind of plants i.e. tomatoes, carrots, vegetables, etc. etc.) take the nutrition out of the water, in essence, it cleans it, and then it gets pumped back to the fish! I'm super excited because there will be many vegetables and fish that we will be able to eat once it is done! This will be a breakthrough for mission fields everywhere!
Oh, we have also discovered a new spiritual spot in L'Anse A Foleur called the House of Spirits. Basically it is 3 or more big caves that each contain different spirits that the people go to and worship. They look like Indiana Jones style! They have vines and big bats in them as well. We are planning on having a Bible study there and doing some ministry! I'm really excited!
Continue to keep all of us in your prayers! I have been here for a month now! That is unbelievable! This time here will go by really fast! Pray for health. I haven't gotten sick yet, but some of the other interns have! Pray that God may continue to grow and stretch me, that he may allow me to push every corner and boundary of my comfort zone! Thank you all!
P.S. - this morning when I went on the roof to do some morning worship by myself and do a quick morning Bible reading, a bird kept swooping down every 3 minutes or so and running into my head. I guess it was mad or something I was on the roof! haha I still spent time with the Lord, despite the distraction! :)
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Busy, Busy, Bu...relax!
Hello everyone! I hope you all are doing well! It has been one week since I last posted because I have been so busy and the internet has been...well...interesting! God has really used me alot this past week and I have gotten to see much more of Haiti than I have before!
Let's start from last friday! Well, my group was going to another campus of Northwest in a city called Beauchamp which is located about 3 hours west of the base mission! It is in the desert! the moment we got past the river in Port de Paix, there was cacti everywhere, dust flying everywhere, and alot of heat!! It was so cool to see a whole other part to Haiti besides the tropical scenery! :) We got to beauchamp and stayed overnight there (the nights were cold there and the starts were incredible). The next day we went to Salines Mayette (an orphanage of Northwest) and played with the children all day before enduring the 3 hour bus ride back to the St. Louis du Nord campus! :) Such a beautiful trip! God made Haiti so diverse!
Then over these past couple days, we had church, relaxed, went to Anse a Foleur on monday and got to go into the voodoo temple again! It seriously feels like an indiana jones movie when I walk in and there are candles everywhere with people chanting! It is so sad to see these lost people! Keep them all in your prayers! Our God has the power to free anyone! :) Then we went to Tortuga on Tuesday, had an amazing time playing soccer and hanging out with the children in the ocean! I want to spend a couple nights there (i'll probably get to do that).
Yesterday, we went to Le Beaie. We went and saw stuff there, went to the beach, had sloppy joes, played on a jungle gym with some children and just had an amazing time at this beach cove campus! :) It's beautiful there!
We now get to relax for 3 days because all of our teams left last night. We got to sleep in until 8 today! that was amazing and we get to relax mostly all day and prepare for the next groups coming in. Tomorrow we might go to Port de Paix for the day and get some ice cream! I'm really excited to have a break and to see how God is going to prepare me for this next group that I will be assigned to!
Another great thing that my fellow intern (Davis) and I did when we were in Beauchamp was take a translator, security guard, and ourselves and go talk to the Bocou or, if you would like to call it in English, the voodoo witchdoctor! We asked him if he would like to talk to us and if we could talk to him and he said no problem! We asked about what he believes and what he does and he says that he thinks Jesus is "bigger than bigger" but that he prays to Jesus in order to call an evil spirit to come help give him knowledge about how to heal people! He thinks he is going to heaven because he helps the Lord heal the sick and cast our demons. It's so sad! He says the spirit enters his mind while simultaneously he talks with the spirit as I would be talking with Davis who was right next to me (scary). He uses the spirit to help make him money. He said, "I want to change and believe in Jesus, but He doesn't always answer, so I use the spirit, whom he called mouve, to help me provide for my family." Davis responded, "it's a faith thing, you have to trust that God will provide (and He does). We talked to him for 50 minutes, and even shared what we believe, so when we go back to beauchamp, we are going to talk to him again and build that relationship.
That's what I have been up to, hopefully, I can blog again soon! Keep me in your prayers. I will probably be blogging twice a week now! Have a wonderful time! Again prayer is powerful! God bless you!
I love you all
Nathan
Let's start from last friday! Well, my group was going to another campus of Northwest in a city called Beauchamp which is located about 3 hours west of the base mission! It is in the desert! the moment we got past the river in Port de Paix, there was cacti everywhere, dust flying everywhere, and alot of heat!! It was so cool to see a whole other part to Haiti besides the tropical scenery! :) We got to beauchamp and stayed overnight there (the nights were cold there and the starts were incredible). The next day we went to Salines Mayette (an orphanage of Northwest) and played with the children all day before enduring the 3 hour bus ride back to the St. Louis du Nord campus! :) Such a beautiful trip! God made Haiti so diverse!
Then over these past couple days, we had church, relaxed, went to Anse a Foleur on monday and got to go into the voodoo temple again! It seriously feels like an indiana jones movie when I walk in and there are candles everywhere with people chanting! It is so sad to see these lost people! Keep them all in your prayers! Our God has the power to free anyone! :) Then we went to Tortuga on Tuesday, had an amazing time playing soccer and hanging out with the children in the ocean! I want to spend a couple nights there (i'll probably get to do that).
Yesterday, we went to Le Beaie. We went and saw stuff there, went to the beach, had sloppy joes, played on a jungle gym with some children and just had an amazing time at this beach cove campus! :) It's beautiful there!
We now get to relax for 3 days because all of our teams left last night. We got to sleep in until 8 today! that was amazing and we get to relax mostly all day and prepare for the next groups coming in. Tomorrow we might go to Port de Paix for the day and get some ice cream! I'm really excited to have a break and to see how God is going to prepare me for this next group that I will be assigned to!
Another great thing that my fellow intern (Davis) and I did when we were in Beauchamp was take a translator, security guard, and ourselves and go talk to the Bocou or, if you would like to call it in English, the voodoo witchdoctor! We asked him if he would like to talk to us and if we could talk to him and he said no problem! We asked about what he believes and what he does and he says that he thinks Jesus is "bigger than bigger" but that he prays to Jesus in order to call an evil spirit to come help give him knowledge about how to heal people! He thinks he is going to heaven because he helps the Lord heal the sick and cast our demons. It's so sad! He says the spirit enters his mind while simultaneously he talks with the spirit as I would be talking with Davis who was right next to me (scary). He uses the spirit to help make him money. He said, "I want to change and believe in Jesus, but He doesn't always answer, so I use the spirit, whom he called mouve, to help me provide for my family." Davis responded, "it's a faith thing, you have to trust that God will provide (and He does). We talked to him for 50 minutes, and even shared what we believe, so when we go back to beauchamp, we are going to talk to him again and build that relationship.
That's what I have been up to, hopefully, I can blog again soon! Keep me in your prayers. I will probably be blogging twice a week now! Have a wonderful time! Again prayer is powerful! God bless you!
I love you all
Nathan
Thursday, June 23, 2011
FINALLY
Hello everyone! No, I"m still alive, don't worry! This week has been so hectic! I've had so much to do and the internet has not been working very well! Just to let everyone know, I'm not sick, I'm very healthy, I'm enjoying my time here and I'm rekindling relationships with some of the Haitians!
I'm learning the language so quickly! Creole is the easiest language to learn ever. The reason is because you don't have to conjugate the verbs! All you have to do is describe the verb with a pronoun and a past, present, or future word. Basically, when you have all of your vocab memorized, you can learn Creole! It is soo easy! I can speak to the children pretty easily, but it is still hard to understand them because they speak so fast!
Now about them cats!! I told you there are demon cats on the campus. Well, Melonnie informed the four of us male interns to dispose of Lucifer (the main black, demon cat) and any other cats that we might find that are not the cat owner's favorite ones. So, over the past 5 days or so since my last post, we caught 3 cats, inlcuding Lucifer, and gave them away to the Haitians (cat is a Haitian delicacy). :)
We had church on Sunday, which was amazing! We sent the first groups back home on tuesday night and received the new groups tuesday night as well! Yesterday, my fellow interns and I that are assigned to my team did alot of work around that campus, went to the local jail (where a man accepted Christ), went to the brothel, and did a prayer walk! It was a fun day! Then today, while doing hut to huts (which is street evangelism house to house) we had many good conversations with children and adults about Jezi (Jesus). It was amazing. Plus we went to the House of Hope which is a place for severely malnourished children! We played games with them and sang with them and learned the language even more! :)
Let's see! Oh my goodness! Another HUGE blessing! So one of the groups that arrived here on tuesday night had a very familiar name! The name was CCV. That just so happens to be the church that I attend in San Dimas, California! They were shocked when they found out I went there and they all introduced themselves! I think this was God's way of helping me get to know so people at the church! It is amazing and they are all very nice!
The Lord is blessing me constantly! With worship every morning and night (that I lead), intern Bible studies, staff bible studies, video sermons, evangelism, leadership positions, etc! This is so fun! I love it here! It has already almost been a week and a half! I will update soon hopefully!
Bondye beni ou
Nathan
I'm learning the language so quickly! Creole is the easiest language to learn ever. The reason is because you don't have to conjugate the verbs! All you have to do is describe the verb with a pronoun and a past, present, or future word. Basically, when you have all of your vocab memorized, you can learn Creole! It is soo easy! I can speak to the children pretty easily, but it is still hard to understand them because they speak so fast!
Now about them cats!! I told you there are demon cats on the campus. Well, Melonnie informed the four of us male interns to dispose of Lucifer (the main black, demon cat) and any other cats that we might find that are not the cat owner's favorite ones. So, over the past 5 days or so since my last post, we caught 3 cats, inlcuding Lucifer, and gave them away to the Haitians (cat is a Haitian delicacy). :)
We had church on Sunday, which was amazing! We sent the first groups back home on tuesday night and received the new groups tuesday night as well! Yesterday, my fellow interns and I that are assigned to my team did alot of work around that campus, went to the local jail (where a man accepted Christ), went to the brothel, and did a prayer walk! It was a fun day! Then today, while doing hut to huts (which is street evangelism house to house) we had many good conversations with children and adults about Jezi (Jesus). It was amazing. Plus we went to the House of Hope which is a place for severely malnourished children! We played games with them and sang with them and learned the language even more! :)
Let's see! Oh my goodness! Another HUGE blessing! So one of the groups that arrived here on tuesday night had a very familiar name! The name was CCV. That just so happens to be the church that I attend in San Dimas, California! They were shocked when they found out I went there and they all introduced themselves! I think this was God's way of helping me get to know so people at the church! It is amazing and they are all very nice!
The Lord is blessing me constantly! With worship every morning and night (that I lead), intern Bible studies, staff bible studies, video sermons, evangelism, leadership positions, etc! This is so fun! I love it here! It has already almost been a week and a half! I will update soon hopefully!
Bondye beni ou
Nathan
Friday, June 17, 2011
Zombies and Demon Cats
Well hello there family and friends! Just wanted to fill you in on some stuff that I have been up to. Well, since I last posted on Wednesday, let me fill you on what I have done recently. I have had my briefing and training for my internship and let me tell you, I'm really excited to see what God is going to do this summer!! My luggage arrived, which is a plus, because now I actually have clothes! :)
Yesterday, I helped around the campus (it was a campus day) and played with the Special Ed children. They are so joyful, it is amazing! I'm so touched by them! We also did some VBS for the neighborhood children and I got to see some of the Haitian people I made friends with last year! For all of you who went with me last year, the kids are asking for you. Eddy says Hi Becca! Michelle says Hi to Lance and Steve. They want you to come back and play with them! These children are adorable and such a blessing despite the fact that they ask for dlo (water) and say that they are grangou (hungry) and ask for cookies all the time. My Creole is getting better and I've only been here 4 days!
Another thing I found out that there are actual zombies here! Kind of Scary. The demons that possess this country really are at work. The witch doctors enchant dead bodies and can control them while they are dead. This is a scary thought. I also went to L'Anse A Foleur today, which is the voodoo capital and we got into a conversation with a child who was saying to pray to Satan instead of our Jesus the King! You can pray that the spiritual warfare in this city will be lessoned so that the lost can be found! Thank You Jesus for already having the victory!!
Another crazy thing is what is happening to some of the interns. They are getting the Haitian Sensation (diarreha and vomiting). Pray that I can stay healthy as I am sharing a room with these young men! Last night, one of the interns, named Hickory, got up to get some water and 15 minutes later I was informed by one of the other interns that he had blacked out twice. Us guys got up at the early time of 1:40 in the morning and went to see if we could help. While standing in the concrete hallway, the cats that live on campus started to moan! Goodness gracious those cats are scary because they try to bite you and I swear they could kill you if they ganged up! They look like a hoard of little demons!
I'm having a blast here in Haiti. I'm excited I get to be here for two months! I am starting to get tired, but it's worth it!
Bondye beni ou (God Bless You)
Nathan
Yesterday, I helped around the campus (it was a campus day) and played with the Special Ed children. They are so joyful, it is amazing! I'm so touched by them! We also did some VBS for the neighborhood children and I got to see some of the Haitian people I made friends with last year! For all of you who went with me last year, the kids are asking for you. Eddy says Hi Becca! Michelle says Hi to Lance and Steve. They want you to come back and play with them! These children are adorable and such a blessing despite the fact that they ask for dlo (water) and say that they are grangou (hungry) and ask for cookies all the time. My Creole is getting better and I've only been here 4 days!
Another thing I found out that there are actual zombies here! Kind of Scary. The demons that possess this country really are at work. The witch doctors enchant dead bodies and can control them while they are dead. This is a scary thought. I also went to L'Anse A Foleur today, which is the voodoo capital and we got into a conversation with a child who was saying to pray to Satan instead of our Jesus the King! You can pray that the spiritual warfare in this city will be lessoned so that the lost can be found! Thank You Jesus for already having the victory!!
Another crazy thing is what is happening to some of the interns. They are getting the Haitian Sensation (diarreha and vomiting). Pray that I can stay healthy as I am sharing a room with these young men! Last night, one of the interns, named Hickory, got up to get some water and 15 minutes later I was informed by one of the other interns that he had blacked out twice. Us guys got up at the early time of 1:40 in the morning and went to see if we could help. While standing in the concrete hallway, the cats that live on campus started to moan! Goodness gracious those cats are scary because they try to bite you and I swear they could kill you if they ganged up! They look like a hoard of little demons!
I'm having a blast here in Haiti. I'm excited I get to be here for two months! I am starting to get tired, but it's worth it!
Bondye beni ou (God Bless You)
Nathan
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Well, I made it!
Wow! I have had a crazy past couple of days. For all of you who may be wondering, I did make it to Haiti and am officially an intern at Northwest. I cannot believe that it has been exactly a year since I have been here.
I guess I'll start with traveling. I left San Diego with no problem and flew to LAX where I immediately jumped on an overnight flight to Miami. I had no problems so far. The flight went really well. I had a great conversation with a guy next to me and got some well deserved sleep. After a short 4 and a half hours, I made it to Miami.
Everything was going swimmingly. Everyone boarded the plane that was flying to Port au Prince, Haiti with no trouble. The plane was being pushed out of the terminal and just before the pilot was about to start moving out to the runway, the plane stops for about 5 minutes. The plane then parked at the terminal and we were informed that we would be on our way shortly ("Okay, sounds reasonable, I can wait"...or so I thought).
I woke up an hour and a half later and the plane was just sitting there and after about a minute of being awake, the pilot informed the passengers that we needed to get off the plane. My guitar and checked bags were on the plane and I had no way of getting them off. I didn't even know how I was going to get to Haiti. American Airlines finally found another plane that would be able to fly the now disgruntled passengers to Port au Prince and we were informed that our luggage would be transferred.
We waited another hour and a half before we could board the next plane and finally, 5 hours later than when I was supposed to be in Haiti, I arrived (5 hours isn't bad at all in comparison to last year :) ). I was picked up and taken to the small domestic terminal so that I could fly to Port au Paix, in the Northern part of the island, only to find out that I didn't have a flight reservation. So I had to wait in this small airport until one of the translators from the mission that I was with could call one of the people from the mission to set up a reservation for me to fly. Needless to say, 4 hours later and I was the plane, but unfortunately I had to leave my to checked bags behind. My two bags should be arriving today, hopefully (you can pray that they do).
Jack, one of the translators I met last year, picked me up at the "airport" and took me out to the "bus" that I thought I was going to take to St. Louis du Nord (where the mission is). The "bus" was actually a quad, a four wheeler, an off road vehicle, you know, those really really fast things. Yay me! I had to sit on the back, hold my guitar, my backpack, and pillow while traveling at high speeds on probably the bumpiest, dusty, rock-covered road I've ever been on! I was most worried that my pillow case was going to fly off!
A half hour later, I was back! I had returned to the place I had left a year ago, only this time my face had more dirt caked on it that a gopher. Time flew by fast and I'm mostly settled in. I'm just waiting on my luggage to arrive and then I will actually have clean clothes and shampoo. :) Thank God for his faithfulness to get me here and get me here safely.
Keep me in your prayers,
Grace and Peace
Nathan
I guess I'll start with traveling. I left San Diego with no problem and flew to LAX where I immediately jumped on an overnight flight to Miami. I had no problems so far. The flight went really well. I had a great conversation with a guy next to me and got some well deserved sleep. After a short 4 and a half hours, I made it to Miami.
Everything was going swimmingly. Everyone boarded the plane that was flying to Port au Prince, Haiti with no trouble. The plane was being pushed out of the terminal and just before the pilot was about to start moving out to the runway, the plane stops for about 5 minutes. The plane then parked at the terminal and we were informed that we would be on our way shortly ("Okay, sounds reasonable, I can wait"...or so I thought).
I woke up an hour and a half later and the plane was just sitting there and after about a minute of being awake, the pilot informed the passengers that we needed to get off the plane. My guitar and checked bags were on the plane and I had no way of getting them off. I didn't even know how I was going to get to Haiti. American Airlines finally found another plane that would be able to fly the now disgruntled passengers to Port au Prince and we were informed that our luggage would be transferred.
We waited another hour and a half before we could board the next plane and finally, 5 hours later than when I was supposed to be in Haiti, I arrived (5 hours isn't bad at all in comparison to last year :) ). I was picked up and taken to the small domestic terminal so that I could fly to Port au Paix, in the Northern part of the island, only to find out that I didn't have a flight reservation. So I had to wait in this small airport until one of the translators from the mission that I was with could call one of the people from the mission to set up a reservation for me to fly. Needless to say, 4 hours later and I was the plane, but unfortunately I had to leave my to checked bags behind. My two bags should be arriving today, hopefully (you can pray that they do).
Jack, one of the translators I met last year, picked me up at the "airport" and took me out to the "bus" that I thought I was going to take to St. Louis du Nord (where the mission is). The "bus" was actually a quad, a four wheeler, an off road vehicle, you know, those really really fast things. Yay me! I had to sit on the back, hold my guitar, my backpack, and pillow while traveling at high speeds on probably the bumpiest, dusty, rock-covered road I've ever been on! I was most worried that my pillow case was going to fly off!
A half hour later, I was back! I had returned to the place I had left a year ago, only this time my face had more dirt caked on it that a gopher. Time flew by fast and I'm mostly settled in. I'm just waiting on my luggage to arrive and then I will actually have clean clothes and shampoo. :) Thank God for his faithfulness to get me here and get me here safely.
Keep me in your prayers,
Grace and Peace
Nathan
Sunday, June 12, 2011
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