RIP Kenton

Kenton was a guy with a big heart. He will be missed greatly by everyone, but at least we know that we will see him again someday in heaven. He was someone that probably had one of the biggest hearts I know. Back in september when I did a presentation on Haiti in front of my history class and at the end Mr.K asked me if I could figure out if we could sponsor a child in Haiti, and right then and there Kenton stood up and handed me money for it, which led others to give towards the cause. Then a few weeks later when Mr.K asked me if I could start to organize a mission trip to Mission of Hope Haiti for March Break, Kenton was one of the first ones to sign up for it. Almost every day after that he asked me if I needed any help with organizing or finding flights etc. Once our mission team got to Haiti, I really saw the kids just drawn to him, and he was so good with them. I could see that he loved being there and he had a real heart for the people. He told me that he wanted to be an intern at Mission of Hope in the future. I really saw God working through him while we were there. Shortly after coming back he asked me for all the information that I had used to organize that trip, because he told me that he really wanted to lead a mission trip with his church there for this March Break. 

He will be missed so much by all of us, and especially among those of us that had the amazing experience of going to Haiti together, that trip drew us all really close to one another and formed a bond between all of us. Please keep all of his friends and family in your prayers

Rest in Peace Kenton Van Pelt

-Teagan

24 things I love about summer (By Teagan)

1. The heat
2. Getting a tan
3. Being able to wear shorts and tank tops
4. Eating ice cream
5. Being outside
6. Sunshine
7. Birds singing
8. Sunsets
9. Going swimming
10. The smell of fresh cut grass
11. Hanging out with friends
12. It being light out until 10 pm
13. Campfires
14. Camping
15. Wearing flip flops
16. Soccer
17. Barbecues
18. Blasting music while sitting outside in the sun
19. Going fishing
20. Kneeboarding, Waterskiing, and Tubing
21. Dandelions
22. Summer Thunderstorms
23. Going to cottages
24. Flowers

Truth is, I love summer :)

Stop & Think Haiti Trip! (by Teagan)

So having lived in Haiti for 3 years, and then moving away, I finally got to go back! I was on a team with 13 other awesome people from my school. When i lived there before, I was always used to the Haitian side of things. Teams came and went and that was normal. There were some really good teams, and some kind of annoying teams. Thats just the way it was. I was used to all the preparation that it took at the mission so everyone was ready and able for the new teams to come down. The Guesthouse had to be clean, there had to be new food and pop brought in, the trucks and buses needed to be booked, the translators had to be called. all of this was normal for me. so for me to actually go back to Mission of Hope ON a team, and see the other side of things, was a whole new experience. it was cool to actually go through that journey with everyone, to actually see what it was like to be a part of all those people that go down to Haiti.

The trip was so much fun, and it was so good to see everyone again! I had a really good time and I hope the rest of my team did too! I hope that they can now see what I saw, and I hope they learned something from the people of Haiti. It was a really good trip, and I'm glad I got to be a part of it!

To see our daily adventures in Haiti check out our team blog http://hdch-haiti-mission.blogspot.com/

almost there. (by Teagan)

5 days. 5 days until I am on a plane. On a plane to the place that captured my heart. The place where I grew up. The place where I realized what life is really about. The place where I could be who I wanted to. The place where I found out that things are not always what they seem to be. The place where I realized that you have to trust God with everything. The place I found out that having nothing usually means having everything. The place that was my home. And now I'm going back. This time though, I'm taking others. It's my hope that they will see what I saw. That they will have life changing experiences. That they won't walk away unchanged.

When we moved back to Canada, I didn't want to. But now.. I have to admit, I am somewhat glad I left Haiti. It still crushes me every day that I can't be there. But I am glad I left for this reason alone. If I hadn't have left Haiti, I would never be where I am now. These guys on my team would never get to go to Haiti, they wouldn't get to go on this crazy awesome experience. God knows what he's doing. We just have to learn to trust Him more.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding

Proverbs 3:5

So here we are (the picture is missing
one student, and one chaperone)

Fun Times at School (by Grayden)

Hey everybody,


This is my first year my school and it is very......different, but awesome. We do some really fun things like today we went skating, but the ice rinks were closed so we got to play in a huge fun barn instead. On a regular school day we get to play sports for 2 periods but if you don't want to do that, you can do another program that does almost everything else but sports. I also like to play on the school teams. Right now we have a basketball tournament coming up soon. We also have a lot of things after school that the older students (grade 6, 7, and 8) get to run. Soon we are having a variety show and dessert night.
We also do a lot more but don't have the time to talk about all of it


Grayden

Less than one month!!! (by Teagan)

Less than one month till im back in Haiti! Check out what our team has been up to at hdch-haiti-mission.blogspot.com. We will be having two people from the team post every week before we leave, and then we will have people posting every day while in Haiti. I am so excited to go, and can't believe that we planned this trip in only 6 months! I can't believe that I will be there in less than a month! I can't wait to show all my new friends from school my world in Haiti,and introduce them to all my friends there and hope that they see why I love it there.

There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium, and hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen...... (By Teagan)

Lets see... what have I been up to lately? This might give you an idea...

Exams. Oh the joy of exams. This week I have done my Math, English, and Science exams. Tomorrow I have history. After that I will be done! very excited. Studying for a whole week is not alot of fun. Except for the fact that i only have school for half the day :) Anyways back to studying history. peace!

2 years ago. Today. (by Teagan)

This day 2 years ago was the scariest day of my life. On January 12, 2010 around 5 pm, Haiti was shaken with a devastating 7.0 earthquake. This is my story.

I was in my room on my computer, lying on my stomach on my bed, talking to someone on msn. All of a sudden I hear a noise that sounds kind of a dump truck coming up the hill, but it just kept getting louder and louder. Then the room starts to sway, the calender on my wall started swinging. I thought that maybe someone was picking up the house with dump trucks or something and moving it. I got up and ran out of my room, in the hallway the concrete walls were moving all over the place, I remember seeing the painting on the wall fall down. I ran outside and down the steps so fast that my mom thought i was on the porch when it started. Running down steps that are moving like in a fun house is not easy, or fun. By the time I got out of the yard and past the gate, it had stopped.

Then the first aftershock came, it wasn't as bad as the earthquake, but still pretty darn scary. I remember seeing the big metal gate shaking, like it was a piece of paper blowing in the wind. I looked out at Port-au-Prince and all I could see was a huge dust cloud over the whole city. I looked around to the smaller areas and saw more dust clouds everywhere. Our house was still standing though. My parents then both had to go down to the hospital, so I was put in charge of our dog, and semi in charge of my siblings. We moved over to a big empty field-ish area, and thats where we ate dinner, with the mission team of 53 people that were there as well.

I had to go back into my house to get my computer so I could email people back in Canada telling them that me and my family were all okay. Someone from the team came with me because we didn't know if the house was okay. I went into my house and everything was on the floor. My room had shifted a foot, my sisters dressers were pushed over on the ground, everything in the bathrooms and kitchen was on the floor. I quickly grabbed my computer and got out of there. I started by emailing my close friends and family telling them pretty much "we are all fine, my Mom and Dad have gone to help in the clinic.", then i went on my parents email and replied to every single email that came in "This is Teagan, Dr. Cheryl and Mr. Laurens' daughter, we are all fine, my parents are helping in the clinic." During that whole time there were aftershocks going on, and I remember looking at the light pole to see if it was moving just to make sure that I was not imagining it. That night we slept in tents because no one wanted to go inside, and we weren't sure if the buildings were safe.

So began the days of waking up to aftershocks at 6 am, or having one in the middle of doing math homework; sleeping with my bedroom door, and the front door open; dreaming that the ground was shaking when it really wasn't; hearing helicopters and planes flying over every 5 minutes; seeing the devastation all around me; seeing the church grow insanely; seeing people cling to God because He was all they had left. Please pray for everyone who went through things 20 times as worse as I did, please pray for those who lost family members and friends, please pray for those people who still dream about the ground underneath their feet moving. Please remember January 12, 2010.

The earth may fall apart.

The mountains may fall into the middle of the sea. 

But we will not be afraid.

The waters of the sea may roar and foam. 

The mountains may shake when the waters rise.

But we will not be afraid.

-Psalm 46:2-3

March Break (By Teagan)

In september I did a presentation about Haiti to my History class. At the end of that presentation my teacher asked me if I could look into sponsoring a child at the Mission of Hope school. He also asked me if I could try to start to organize a mission trip down to Haiti for March Break. So I jumped at the opportunity. I worked with 2 of my friends to set up the sponsorship, and we raised $150 in the first two weeks, we chose to sponsor a girl who was the same age as us, but a grade younger.

After that I worked with another 2 of my friends (one the same as who I worked with for the sponsorship) and we started to plan the mission trip. Our History teacher set it all up with the school board, and he got all the flights and stuff. Then he had to pick the team. Our history class got first dibs, there were 10 people who applied from that class (me included), there were 8 girls, and 2 guys. After that we had to open up the trip to the other people in our grade. There were only 3 spots left. I think my teacher got about 10 applications for those 3 spots, and out of those spots he picked 2 girls and 1 guy. So now the team was picked, 10 girls, and 3 boys ( ...yeah we kinda out number them). Me and my two friends who were helping me organize this, set up meetings for us to give everyone the information on Haiti, and on the Mission of Hope.

After those meetings our history teacher asked us to organize an orientation retreat. Now if anyone has been to a retreat, you know that is is pretty organized, and there are activities, and meals planned for the whole 2 days. Most retreats I've been on there were about 200 kids, and about 50 staff members, and usually it was at a camp. Now imagine that on a much smaller scale of 13 kids, at my house, and 3 people to organize. So we planned this retreat like there was no tomorrow! Everyone arrived at 2:00 on the Monday afternoon, and they were planned to leave at 8:00 the next night. So this was gonna be a looong two days, if everything didn't go as planned. We had planned to have some games, introduction to Haiti, some worship, some creole lessons, some devotions, some group discussions, some rules, and even waking everyone up with a blow horn (which actually worked out quite nicely).

So everyone came to my house on january 2nd. I wasn't exactly sure how the retreat was going to turn out, but we had planned as best we could. And in the end it was AMAZING! Everything turned out perfect, and even better than I had hoped it would! We all grew close enough to share deep testimonies, and enough to make fools of ourselves while trying to learn creole. And lets just say that overall we had a really good time!

I am getting so excited to go to Haiti in March, and so is everyone else on the team, which makes me really happy.