Haiti Update

Greetings from Haiti!
It has been an awesome, amazing, and exhausting day! 
We enjoyed a great morning at the beach with the children from the orphanage.  They loved playing and splashing in the water with us.  They especially loved Zachary, Lukis, Hannah, and Abby!  It was so fun to see the smiles!  We then fed them lunch on the beach and they had quite the appetites! 

This afternoon we had our first experience at VBS - teaching at the church near our guest house.  It was a great afternoon - Jane estimated 100 children along with many other family members!  Kim, Sally, and Abby led them in singing - we presented many songs and they sang for us as well.  Our Bible story was "Daniel in the Lions Den" and we spoke to the children about the importance of prayer.  We also did crafts, played games, and fed them peanut butter sandwiches and juice.  They really enjoyed getting their picture taken by Patti, Sue, and Hannah --- they printed the pictures ---- and attached them to a frame to take home.  Haitian children do not often have the opportunity to see themselves in pictures - so they loved it!  And so did the moms :) 

We ended the day in Bible study and prayer - reflecting on our theme "we are here to love."  "We love....because He first loved us."  We are so thankful for the opportunities this trip has given .
We love and miss you and hold you close in prayer -
the Haiti IOWAY team

An Update from the West Coast!

Hello everyone! We have some free time now, so I (this is Spencer Owen) am writing a little update about the happenings here in LA. We thank you for your continued prayers for our group and for the people we serve here in LA. I know it's been a while, so we have to get caught up a little bit.... Hope you enjoy! 

Let's start all the way back with last Saturday (almost a week ago already! I guess they say time flies when your having fun! And boy, are we having some fun Serving God!) Saturday was our day we went to Skid Row in downtown LA, so we were forced to take the Freeway (known as the Interstate in Iowa!) You can say that's an experience in itself, but we arrived safely and we didn't get lost! We arrived in the parking lot of a place called Union Mission. This is the place where Kimberly and Gerald Fortier do their "Urban Street Church" on Skid Row. We helped them set up and prepare for their service. It's pretty cool to see a parking lot with nothing in it transform into an area with numerous canopies with tables for food, clothes, and health supplies, along with an area where people give their testimony and Pastor gives his sermon, along with an area for people to sit. It took quite a while, but by 11:15-11:30 the service started for 40 people or so that are Skid Row residents. 

Skid Row is an interesting place, and if you've ever been on this trip you'll probably agree. When you're driving to the area known as Skid Row, there are people on the streets everywhere! It's just almost incomprehensible. There are so many people in poverty. But to get through Skid Row you have to drive through the "Diamond District" and the "Flower District" -- areas where there are numerous jewelry stores and numerous flower stores. They are two of the richest and fanciest areas of LA, and they are situated right next to the poorest part of LA. There is seriously just a block difference between the two. 

During the service our 9 IOWAY members introduced ourselves and sang a song. They seemed to appreciate us being there and were thankful for us bringing all the items. We also listened to a man give his testimony to the crowd. Doris wrote his story and it was put on the blog yesterday.  Hope you had a chance to read it.

That was just one testimony. Everyone on Skid Row has a story. Why are they homeless? Drugs? Alcohol? Family issues? Fired? Laid off? and on and on and on. It seems like their biggest question is WHY? "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" This is reassurance to us, and to the homeless that God has a plan for us. He knows  and we have to Trust him. 

Saturday evening was pretty relaxing. We went out to eat and just enjoyed each other's fellowship, recognizing how nice we have it back at home. 

Sunday morning we woke up and went to church. We split up as one group went to Hope and one group went to Christ. We drove directly to Santa Monica where we enjoyed a nice relaxing day doing some souvenir shopping and doing some things on the pier. It was really sunny, not too hot, just sunny. But imagine that...sunny in California..but guess who forgot to pack sunscreen...Yup. Sunday night I was hurting and I was really red. I can still feel it today and it's Thursday afternoon. We went out to eat as a 'family' Sunday night and came back for evening devotion.

We headed to bed early Sunday night as we knew we had an early morning ahead of us. We were all going to be early to our churches for VBS just to finalize the plans, check over things, etc. My group left for Hope and the other group headed to Christ. We welcomed new kids and returning kids. Some of them had smiles on their faces recognizing a few of us from last year. It's amazing how they remember us year after year. We had a good turnout at all of our churches on Monday morning. 

Monday afternoon most of us took a nap when we returned to the hotel so we could get 'recharged' for our night VBS at two different churches. We left for Faith and St. Phillip's in the late afternoon. We had a great turnout at both of our churches. We did crafts with them, taught them the lesson, and learned songs. 

Our theme for VBS this year is "Set Sail With Jesus" with a sailboat theme. The theme at Hope is "Investigation Destination - Searching for clues for the King of Kings."  The lessons for the week and the theme words are as follows:

Monday - "Come" Fishers of Men

Tuesday - "Go" Jonah and the Fish

Wednesday - "Trust" Jesus Walking on Water

Thursday - "Serve" Paul serving God

Friday - "Celebrate" Paul's experience of being shipwrecked on an island

At Hope the their lessons are:

Monday - The Birth of Jesus and the Wise Men

Tuesday - Jesus feeds the 5,000 

Wednesday - Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem  

Thursday - The King dies and lives again

Friday - He Lives and will Come again

Throughout this week we have seen many old friends and have gained many new friends at the various churches. There is nothing quite like a bunch of kids jumping all over you (no matter how crazy it sounds), but we all enjoy it and they enjoy us too. We've had a lot of fun and it's sad it's ending tomorrow, but it's awesome to know that even if we never meet again we will see each other in heaven. These kids believe in Jesus and they know where they are going when they die on this earth. I will miss all of them, but knowing that I will someday see them again, maybe not on this earth, but in heaven is exciting. 

  

Thank you again for keeping us in your prayers at home and in your congregation. We certainly can feel the presence of God here in LA! Please continue to pray for safe travels and for the children and people that have been blessed by our work this week!

Have a great evening everyone! 

Spencer 

Decorating, Canvassing, & Making Crafts Part of VBS Preparations

By Jena Nahnsen, Immanuel, Schleswig July 14, 2013

We’ve been busy at work preparing for VBS at our four churches. Our days have been filled with decorating, canvassing  and making crafts. VBS starts Monday and ends Friday.

        

On Saturday we had our eyes opened to a side people don’t usually associate with California. We spent our day serving the homeless people living on Skid Row.  Skid Row is an area where 7-8 thousand people are homeless. Just imagine yourself living on the street with little food, no bed, and all your possessions fitting into a bag. It’s hard to wrap our brains around that. At Skid Row, we worked with Kimberley and Gerald from New Salvation Ministry, four different church groups, and some other volunteers. We handed out health kits, clothing, toys, and a meal. The meal consisted of two pieces of chicken, banana, beans, roll, piece of bread, and cupcake. Serving was very humbling and made us realize how blessed we really are.

Then, after sitting down to a meal with all the volunteers we headed back to the hotel. We had a little break to reflect, go swimming, or do whatever we wanted before we went out to eat at Panera Bread. In our devotions, we talked about what Skid Row meant to us that day. Some said it was humbling and others said they realized we don’t need all the new, name-brand things.

Now, we do have time for fun too. On Sunday, we split into groups and half of us went to worship at Christ Lutheran Church while the other half went to Hope Lutheran Church.. After that we hopped into the vehicles and drove to Santa Monica Pier for some shopping! There were painters, performers, and lots of people. On the beach there was a memorial set up for fallen soldiers who served in Iraq. It’s definitely a change going from Skid Row the day before to Santa Monica Pier.

Our team has fun working together. We are so excited for VBS to start and to continue to see what God has planned for us.