Merry Christmas everyone!
In the past few days I decided to do something a little different, something I've not done before, or at least to this extent. I decided to check out 4 different Christmas Eve services at some area churches. Here is a brief snapshot as to what I've been up to since last Thursday;
Thu Dec 22 - Christ Community Church (St Charles Twp) 7PM service
Fri Dec 23 - Parkview Christian Church (Orland Park) 7PM service
Sat Dec 24 - Willow Creek Church (South Barrington) 12:30PM service
Sat Dec 24 - Community Christian Church (Naperville) 11:00PM candle-lit service
Believe me, it was fun. May even plan to do this again next year.
I spent most of today in downtown Chicago serving a meal to about 50 homeless men at a shelter. This was a Christmas gift to them, a nice warm ham meal. It's especially rewarding to do this on a holiday. I served them turkey back on Thanksgiving Day and it was just as rewarding.
As always, do good and choose kindness
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Haiti Revisited
I've returned from spending 4 days down in Haiti spending quality time with orphaned children. I traveled through the Global Orphan Project, a Kansas City area-based missions organization. We arrived in Port Au Prince last Thursday evening and still noticed some earthquake-caused rubble in the vicinity, as not much has been done to clear it since my last visit to Haiti in March of 2010. It has improved somewhat.
After spending the night in a Port Au Prince hotel, we set out for Gonieve, a community in northern Haiti about 3 hours north of PAP. Passing numerous tent cities, we joined the current of cars, motorbikes, tap-taps, (cabs, some of them really tricked out by their owners) and 18-wheelers clogging up the streets of PAP. The drive there was uneventful, with an early afternoon arrival in Gonieve. First order of business was sorting donations. Then shoved off for Desire, a childrens' village about 30 minutes drive away, nestled at the foot of the mountains. It's home to 63 orphans. Crafts were brought out and distributed, a soccer game was going on too, and the kids received affection from us 13 blancs (white folks).
We spent Friday night in a Gonieve hotel, a nice place, with electricity to boot. On Saturday morning we return to Desire to love on the kids once again. A boy about 6-7 years old slept in my lap the whole time, over 2 hours! Sidewalk chalk and bubbles were unveiled and were huge hits with the orphans. I'm now realizing our departure is looming near, and about 11:45AM, it happens. The kids did not want us to go. Hopefully they'll have fond memories of our visit with them.
After a brief stop at the hotel, our next destination of St. Ilus was calling. This facility is home to 19 boys. Like in Desire, soccer balls and crafts were brought out. Frisbees and kickballs made an appearance too, along with an UNO card game. They already knew how to play, believe me they did. They cleaned the clocks of the blancs.
After St Ilus, we then headed over to the Philadelphia church youth club. It turned out to be controlled chaos, bedlam, and any other adjectives you can think of. The place was packed! The kids here were loved on also, no matter how many of them there were. Just past 5PM we headed back to the hotel for dinner and evening devotional.
On Sunday we attended the worship service at the Philadelphia church in Gonieve. Aw man, what an experience! It was quite a sight to see the Haitian Christians worshipping the God who created it all. Their faith is all they have, and their faith has persevered and pulled them through. The worship raged on for about 40 minutes, and the pastor came to the pulpit and preached a great message to his flock.
Our departure from Gonieve was about 2:30, and after some heartfelt goodbyes, we began the 3 hour trek back to PAP, arriving just after dark. It's now that the ministry portion of the trip is over, and the process is now just getting back home. Our devotional this evening included some songs of worship, trip experiences from team members, and numerous emotions were present. It was a great way to cap off our adventure in Haiti.
After spending the night in a Port Au Prince hotel, we set out for Gonieve, a community in northern Haiti about 3 hours north of PAP. Passing numerous tent cities, we joined the current of cars, motorbikes, tap-taps, (cabs, some of them really tricked out by their owners) and 18-wheelers clogging up the streets of PAP. The drive there was uneventful, with an early afternoon arrival in Gonieve. First order of business was sorting donations. Then shoved off for Desire, a childrens' village about 30 minutes drive away, nestled at the foot of the mountains. It's home to 63 orphans. Crafts were brought out and distributed, a soccer game was going on too, and the kids received affection from us 13 blancs (white folks).
We spent Friday night in a Gonieve hotel, a nice place, with electricity to boot. On Saturday morning we return to Desire to love on the kids once again. A boy about 6-7 years old slept in my lap the whole time, over 2 hours! Sidewalk chalk and bubbles were unveiled and were huge hits with the orphans. I'm now realizing our departure is looming near, and about 11:45AM, it happens. The kids did not want us to go. Hopefully they'll have fond memories of our visit with them.
After a brief stop at the hotel, our next destination of St. Ilus was calling. This facility is home to 19 boys. Like in Desire, soccer balls and crafts were brought out. Frisbees and kickballs made an appearance too, along with an UNO card game. They already knew how to play, believe me they did. They cleaned the clocks of the blancs.
After St Ilus, we then headed over to the Philadelphia church youth club. It turned out to be controlled chaos, bedlam, and any other adjectives you can think of. The place was packed! The kids here were loved on also, no matter how many of them there were. Just past 5PM we headed back to the hotel for dinner and evening devotional.
On Sunday we attended the worship service at the Philadelphia church in Gonieve. Aw man, what an experience! It was quite a sight to see the Haitian Christians worshipping the God who created it all. Their faith is all they have, and their faith has persevered and pulled them through. The worship raged on for about 40 minutes, and the pastor came to the pulpit and preached a great message to his flock.
Our departure from Gonieve was about 2:30, and after some heartfelt goodbyes, we began the 3 hour trek back to PAP, arriving just after dark. It's now that the ministry portion of the trip is over, and the process is now just getting back home. Our devotional this evening included some songs of worship, trip experiences from team members, and numerous emotions were present. It was a great way to cap off our adventure in Haiti.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Items for Haiti
I just returned from a successful mission to Target to pick up some final items for the orphans in Haiti. I'll depart this Thursday and return next Monday night, just a short jaunt, but meaningful. The need in Haiti is still very great. Many folks are still living in tents, even now, almost 2 years after the January 2010 earthquake shook the already-wounded country to it's very core. I'll visit 3-4 orphanages in and around Port Au Prince. I just picked up some balls that glow in the dark, along with some frisbees and Play Doh.
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