Update #1!

Hi All,

My name is Kate and I am Foster Miller's sister. I am going to be blogging the email updates he's going to be sending home weekly (Lord willing) for those of you who weren't able to get on the email list. The internet is not the best over there so it is easier to ask people to check a blog than to try to add them to the already large mailing list. Here's the email Foster sent this weekend... Enjoy!

Bonjou from Haiti,

We arrived safely in Port Au Prince on Tuesday. For such a short trip I cannot beleive how many trials we faced. The airlines charged for our bags in Denver as well as in Florida, something that my travel agent failed to tell me even though I asked several times if we would have to pay for our baggage at all! We made it thourgh though and God was so faithful they let us carry on several of the bags, and then they gate checked them for free. We got out of the airport and went straight to the orphanage we are all staying in, yes thats right we are all staying together, no splitting the team! That very same evening we went to our first ministry time at the clinic next to the police station right across the road from the president's palace. I heard a pastor explaining his experience coming to P A P and as he said that as he was leaving the airport an american soldier said get ready to see devastation of a biblical porportion, and that is no exageration. All of the pictures and news footage that I saw did not prepare me or do justice for all that I have seen here. We spent a few hours our first night worshipping with the people, the team danced with them, held their children and did their best to listen to their stories.

For the first week of ministry we did split into two groups daily and went out to help and stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Haiti. Josh and Abbi spent the first week going out to an orphanage and helping finish tear down their school building so that they can rebuild. Lisa told a story the second day of working about digging and finding several items that suggest there was no schedule for demolition but it then became real to her that this was a building people were using when the earthquake hit. They dug and they found a school book and a journal then they came upon a bible and one of the Haitian workers picked it up, dusted it off and then placed it in his pocket and gave the pocket a few taps as if to show that it was special to him and it would not go unread.

The rest of the team went with Katey and I to Citi Soleil which is a giant tent city in an area that took some of the hardest hits from the earthquake. We did a lot of work in this city. The first day of full ministry we were told there would be some children so bring crafts, we brought one art for the nations bag, and a soccer ball for I would say at least 300 children, and got multiplied crayons and paper like bread and fish. It was a great time and we continued to build relationship with the children there for the entire week. Also in Citi Soleil we built the famous hoop tents that have been made available for displaced families to live in and they are to last the people 2 years at least. They are fairly easy to build and our team has gotten very good at it, but first you drive the four foot blunt stick into the ground to support the tent, that part is very taxing and the sun here is brutal. It is all worth it though because four families have homes now that did not last week.

We have spent time with other tent communities and done some feeding ministry, there is a tent city down the street that sometimes we are able to just run things down to as well. The leader of YWAM Port Au Prince is an incredible man of God and it is an honor to be a part of the ministry that they are doing here . As far as the spiritual climate here we are seeing hope creep up through the cracks of despair, people are in the streets selling things, and starting to get back to life. I have not seen any signs of voodoo, none of us have had any bad dreams, and the unity God has given us we are keeping it! Next week we are doing some door to door ministry in small groups with translators with the people living on the lawn of the presidential palace.

Please pray for continued unity, that we would continue to make God our foundation everyday, and for healing from sunburns! Also that we would have incredible conversations with the people next week.


Much love


Foster and the Haiti Team

Thanks so much for reading this and for praying for the team of leaders and students and the people of Haiti.

Love,
Kate