A Fulfilling Ending

Just in case you did not know, we are all good. We are all completely safe at Haiti ARISE.

It has come to my attention that some of you reading this don't know much about me, and I have been requested to give myself a bit of an introduction. If your observant you may have noticed that my name is Ayva, and if your extremely observant you will have noticed that I have the same last name as one of the pastors of the NWMC.

I'm currently 16 and if you see me in real life you'll probably notice my shortness. I live in a house in the country with seven other people and to strangers I come off really quiet.

Today we did a ton more stuff. All the guys went off to work at the chilren's village, and the woman went to finish of the ladies conference.

For the first part of the day we had a session, and a part of that which was unique to today was the prayer time that happened. Immediately after Cathy finished speaking about annointing, women formed two lines on either side of the church. When you got to the end of the line you would be annointed with oil and prayed for. It was a really powerful moment and the whole area was filled with singing and the sound of prayers.

Through the ladies conference a lot of us have learned a lot about praying. For example, we have learned to forget some of the rigid structures and repetitiveness we tend to adapt when praying but rather to trust that God understands.

After the session was over, everyone (all the ladies) headed to the beach. It was around a twenty minute walk to get there, and on that walk we saw part of the community of Grand Goave. We saw the homes that people live in, which are very small and sometimes look like they're made of scrap material. We saw children, most of them dirty and skinny. You have probably heard a story like this before and can easily picture a poor comunity filled with people that you vaguely want to help, but I can assure you the picture in your head feels much different than reality. The community I walked though was not part of an entirely different world or quite completely out of reach, as sometimes we would like to imagine. What stands out to me is the normalicy of it all. The Haitian woman walked through it all just like any of us would get up and walk down the street at home.

At the beach we all gathered under a huge mango tree and basically had a party. It was fun and I got to swim in the ocean.

Thanks for all your prayers and support.