Night 9 was another girls night with Emily, Becky, Victoria, Allison, and Jessica all spending the night in the Shelter.

It started off like a pretty normal night, and we even put the rest of the sides up on the shelter.

Everyone went to sleep, and it was Jake, Caleb, and I in the guard shelter.

12:45 everyone was down and out for the night.

1:09:00 am arrived and we heard what sounded like a few creaks from the trailer roof.

1:09:05 (5 seconds later) Massive downpour arrived out of nowhere.  On the roof of the trailer it sounded almost painfully loud.

Needless to say, the people in the top 2 bunks of the shelter got very wet.  Very wet.

That’s the way things go when you are in a temporary shelter.  Try to imagine being a haitian as a tropical storm approaches.

Today I’m not even sure who is in the shelter with me…I just got back from work at 2am, and have to leave again at 7am. I hope I’m in the right tarp shelter!!!

It looks like Matt, Joel, and Jake might be my three companions, but I’m not sure. Last night Aleasha and Becky stayed with me on guard duty. This time I actually knew when they came in.

Today was a challenging day from an inspirational, I’m challenging you to grow in your faith kind of way…I hope to tell you all more about it when I can collect my thoughts. Also I hope that i don wake up with ants crawling all over me, because all the bunks were taken, I ended up on the ground…

Because We want Gods will here on earth, just like it is in Heaven. Shelter 127

Update…I was way off on who was in the Shelter. Austin, Jake H, and Matt were all present. Also…there were ants, but no ant bites.

What a day…it has been exhausting, stressful, and filled to the brim. Today we moved the shelter from The Alley to the Defiance County Fairgrounds. It was quite an experience, and one that I am glad is over. I hate being rushed, but I seems like I have had very little time over the last few days. This weekend isn’t going to be an better…Friday could be an 18 hour day, Saturday could be almost as busy, and more energetic for sure. I think I get a chance to breath again on Sunday.

That is one thing that I love about Haiti…they are not rushed from place to place…they don’t have 1000 things to do. They are focused on staying alive. They focus on taking care of their families, and they don’t forget to spend time with their families. When I am in the U.S. It seems that my plate is always full of stuff that has to get done.

Are my priorities straight? Am I asking myself what is important? Am I acting on those things? I hope that by making time in my schedule to care for people I may never meet, that God is being honored. I hope that God sees my priorities and knows that I am trying my hardest to be about his kingdoms business. I pray that others would see that as well.

Great job together tonight team. We are loving our neighbor as ourselves. Let’s take it a step further.

Goodnight from Shelter 127

The theme for today was prayer…Joel set up an optional prayer meeting for us today, and it was a stretching experience. 1 hour of praying…with 45 minutes of individual silent prayer followed by 15 minutes of praying together.

It was a good thing at a good time. It is easy to get distracted by ourselves when this project is going on, and in order for this to be sucessful we have to remember that God is in control.

I look forward to my next opportunity for prayer with the team. I have an insanely busy weekend ahead of me, and some very special people that I have to disappoint soon. So if you could throw up a prayer or two on my behalf I would be appreciative. In fact while you are praying here are a few hints we would love to have you join us in prayer for.

1. Safety
2. Perseverance
3. Team unity
4. An understanding of the need in Haiti.
5. An understanding of Gods will.

Thanks friends…

Joel, Jake, and Josh signing out.

Jake, Matt, and I stayed tonight. (I’m actually journaling this a day late). It seemed to be an uneventful night again, other than the rolling of 3 1s with the dice. You see, we roll dice every night to see which bunk we sleep in. The higher bunks are less desirable because of difficulty to get into them, but they have better sleeping mats. The lower bunks are easier to get into, but have lame mats.

So today we were rolling dice (aka casting lots) and we all three rolled a 1. Which of course means roll off. I ended up winning the bottom bunk again with a 2.

Which brings me to a little bit of reminiscing. I love this simple tradition, because we did it last year, and it brings me back to that time. I felt like the team from last year developed a real connection that I have missed over the winter. I can’t wait for that to develop again.

When you serve others with other people something special can happen…if you just keep yourself out of the way long enough.

Thank you God for this team…they rock.