Haiti June 1, 2012

Report by Hilary Moore

I’m now a senior at JSU, and this is my fourth foreign mission trip with Rocky, but it’s also one that almost didn’t happen. My Dad, very much like other parents, was worried about me living in Haiti for a couple weeks. Luckily for me someone dropped out about a month before and Miss Eaves called me let me know she could hold the ticket till the next day. I prayed that night if it was God’s will for me to come that He would change my Dad’s heart. It was a 10-minute conversation that resulted in me coming. It has truly been a blessing to be a part of this team. What I’ve learned today has come from my mom. Whenever I go on trips she writes devotions for me and prays over me through her writings. I don’t know if she knows how much that really means to me, because it’s like she is here encouraging me every step of the way. Today’s devotions focused on Romans 1:20, which talks about how man can see God’s power through everything He has made. Her prayer for me was to look at God’s creation around me and be humbled by His power, but at the same time have peace knowing that Jehovah is the God I serve and the God who loves me. I love how the spirit worked through my Mom to pray that for me today, because today we took a 2-hour hike up a mountain to share with a village and of course we had to hike back down. As I was hiking up what seemed like an endless stair-master I was reminded of my Mom and what she wanted me to learn today. Well, there was plenty of glorious creation to see today. We were surrounded by mountains that reminded me of the mountains in Hawaii, then they sloped back down into valleys with people working on the mountain side. The further up we got into the mountains the terrain looked more like farmland sections of grass with livestock roaming around, then trees and houses. For a minute I felt like I was back home when I was as a little girl in Alabama when my brothers, sisters and I would hike up our Papa’s hill with the goats around us and the herd dogs leading the way. I was surrounded by God’s creation, His creativity, and His display of power. How can I not be humbled that a God that created all that loves me? God displayed His power to me today and reminded me how blessed I am to be able to have such a personal relationship with Him.

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Report by Ryan Burns

To be in Haiti at this time is a blessing beyond what words can express, yet I am excited to share a tidbit of what God has taught me today. This morning our team went on a 2-hour hike to reach a village named Jerusalem II that happens to be on the other side of a mountain. Upon arriving in Jerusalem II, our team was blessed with the opportunity to serve in singing praise songs and teaching the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being cast into the fiery furnace in Daniel 3. Unexpectedly, I was given the opportunity to teach this story both in the village of Jerusalem II and another close-by village named Jerusalem II-1/2. In both of these times of teaching it was necessary that I have an interpreter, for the Haitian people do not clearly understand English. What God taught me was the magnitude of His sovereignty in the world. Being amidst a place devastated by evil and yet serving with and ministering to my Haitian brothers and sisters in Christ is a humbling experience. The thought that I am teaching them about faith in God and perseverance is actually somewhat the opposite of what it should be. These people live such simple and humble lives in the mountains of Haiti, yet they are filled with a joy that surpasses all understanding. I feel as though my teaching today was nothing compared to how much they imparted to me by their joy and response to the Word of God. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to serve them, yet the service of humility and love they showed me is incomparable. God works in His children’s lives all over the world, and His grace is sufficient for those in the mountains in Haiti and for a young white guy from Niceville, Florida.