Help Heal Haiti 2.0

Prayers for the Help Heal Haiti Team 2.0!!!

We are packed and ready to go!!!  Many, many, many hands have been involved in this trip.  Trips were paid for with yard sales, lemonade stands, gifts and donations.  Project costs far exceeded the goal of $8000.  However with all these hands, God's hand has seemed the most prominent. 

Our 188 boxes of supplies arrived despite many road blocks.  All 30 suitcases are packed to the brim.  Our own personal bags, small I hope, are ready by our beds.  This journey has only just begun.  I know each and every member of this team will be changed and ready to serve in a way they have never felt called before.  If you aren't changed, I pray your heart will be truly broken and your love for the Haitian people extends beyond our abilities.  I can only tell you that this team has been perfectly designed.  You were placed on this team with a specific purpose and you are about to find that purpose out!!! 

I am truly humbled at the love and talent of this team and consider it an honor to assist in leading this trip.  I will see you in the morning ready to join the beautiful feet that will set out for Haiti to serve.  We know Acts 20: 35 by heart, "It is more blesed to give than to receive" but it will take on a whole new meaning after this trip. 

I hope you can listen to and read the words to this song and prepare for the trip!!  I love each of you dearly!

Your sister,
Mitzi

When You are Not Enough
(click here to listen)

When you are not enough
I see the pleasures of this world

When you are not enough
My hope is lost

When you are not enough
Joy cannot be found

When you are not enough

Please Lord
Break my heart

When you are not enough
I carry all my guilt and shame

When you are not enough
I cannot pay

When you are not enough
I’d like to think I’ve learned by now

When you are not enough

Please Lord
Break my heart
Please Lord
Change my heart

When you are not enough
We trade your beauty for a lie

When you are not enough
Nothing satisfies

When you are not enough
Your joy is always out of reach

When you are not enough

Please Lord
Break my heart
Please Lord
Change my heart

Grant us Mercy Grant us Grace
Grant us Wisdom Grant us Faith

Grant us Mercy Grant us Grace
Grant us Wisdom Grant us Faith

Grant us Mercy Grant us Grace
Grant us Wisdom Grant us Faith

Grant us Mercy Grant us Grace
Grant us Wisdom Grant us Faith

Grant us Mercy Grant us Grace
Grant us Wisdom Grant us Faith

Please Lord Break my Heart
Please Lord Change my Heart

Words and Music by Thad Cockrell and Matt Stevens

Looking back to look ahead...from Emory

         As we were flying into Haiti on June 25, I knew that from the time we stepped off the airplane to the time we stepped back on, I would be changed by what I saw, touched and heard over the five days. Having the opportunity to travel and serve with a truly flexible, giving, courageous and selfless team was an incredible blessing. God orchestrated every detail of our trip and it was clearly evident that we were in Haiti for a specific purpose. It was humbling and fulfilling to bathe children with hygiene supplies donated by our kids from Joyner and the members of HBBC, and to place school items into their hands to support their education. I will never forget the faces of the children after they put on their new clothes, socks and shoes for the first time. With huge smiles across their faces, they couldn’t have been happier to receive all the gifts! It was incredible! To see naked children longing to be loved and held was heart breaking, and it was a reminder that there are still great needs to be met. Among the five orphanages we visited, the first one had the greatest needs. From clothes, shoes, food, mattresses, and an upcoming school/bedroom for the children, I hope we can serve and support this orphanage in the future!

As I look back on how my heart was changed for the beautiful people of Haiti, I look ahead to the opportunities that Joyner students and HBBC can have to build our relationship with the Haitians. I strongly desire to return to Haiti and work with Convoy of Hope as they feed people and rebuild communities across the country. I look forward to seeing the precious children at the orphanages again, but also to share pictures and stories with my students, family, and church about how I was changed by the Haitians.

Reflecting On Our Trip to Haiti...From Jen

    When our team met at the airport to head to Haiti early Saturday morning, we carried with us many bags. Some bags we could check, while others we shouldered on our backs. Bags of supplies and personal items, bags of hope and inspiration, bags of fear, and bags full of motivation to help others and work together for a greater good.  There was an air of excitement and apprehension that surrounded us. 
         We came from different places, we were different ages, we had different ideas and different beliefs, and we probably all had a different picture in our minds of what laid ahead of us. Perhaps this is why our trip was so successful.  It was the perfect combination of unique individuals united for a common purpose. Not only did we help make a difference in the lives of the children we met, but we all learned things about ourselves and people we might not ever have had the chance to meet. 
    Upon returning to Raleigh, I realize that while I left most of the bags that I brought with me behind, I came back with others.  I now carry memories of amazing, determined, compassionate, brave people working to help those in need.  A bag of sights and sounds of children singing, dancing, jumping rope, kicking soccer balls, and washing and playing in the water.  And yet another bag is filled with visions of crowded streets, the smell of exhaust from vehicles that passed on the left and right, honking as they avoided the people buying and selling goods at the market. The bumpy tap-tap rides and unpaved streets, crumbled buildings, trash and goats, and a mass grave filled with 250,000 human being who lost their lives in the earthquake. Perhaps the heaviest bag I brought back with me from Haiti is the one that holds the need to continue with this project, the motivation to do more, and the drive to return to Haiti and check up on Emmanuel and the other children who blessed our lives. 
   To my Haiti Team Members...Thank you.  You are an incredible group of people who have touched my heart, renewed my faith, and helped to make me a better person.  For anyone who is thinking about going to Haiti or supporting Convoy of Hope in another way...Do it. I can say from experience you will certainly get back more than you give.

From A Pardo

As I reflect on my experiences in Haiti, I think of all of the emotions that I went through while I was there.  In the beginning, I had fear of the images I was going to see and my reactions to them.  In conversations with my team members I realized that I had to put that fear behind me.  All I could think is that I was not there for me. I was there for the children, and what they wanted to see was a smile on my face.

With any place where you spend a prolonged period of time, I had the opportunity to feel sad, happy, tired, and energized. I also laughed, cried, sang, socialized, and sat alone.
All in all, I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to have been on this trip.

On the airplane ride home, I remember feeling sad that it was over.  I know now, that I have to put that sadness behind me.  I realize that, once again, we did not take this trip for us.  We took it for our kids, and I am now exited about what has begun, rather than what has ended.

Love Always,
Ms. Pardo