2014 Haiti Mission Trip

Check out my school mission trip to Haiti's blog for this year: http://hdchhaitimission.blogspot.com/

2013 Haiti Trip

So I'm going back to Haiti on March Break with another team from my school!

Check out our team Inspired to Change and check in there for what's going on with us in the month leading up to our trip, and while we are there as well.

http://hdch.haiti.missiontrip.blogspot.ca

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.

Merry Christmas!

Just a little note to say Merry Christmas to everyone and God Bless! Hope you're having a great Christmas :)

School Activities(by Grayden)

Hey everybody,


New schools are sometimes bad but my school is the best. The people are nice, we have great programs and we get to do really fun things in school. We just recently went skating. Other things we got to do are scuba dive in a pool, learn and play lacrosse and go swimming. My favourite so far has been skating. School sports are always fun too. Today I tried out for the badminton team. So far I have tried out for the soccer team, the volleyball team, the bowling team and the badminton team. My school is great.


Grayden  

Vow of Silence (by Teagan)

Tomorrow at my school we are doing this thing called the Vow of Silence. It is the same as Free the Children's Vow of Silence, but we are just raising money for something different. Basically all you do is not talk, text, email, facebook, or twitter for 24 hours. The Vow of Silence is to "raise awareness for children who are subjected to exploitation, poverty, and the denial of their basic rights". My school is raising money and awareness for child-soldiers in Uganda who were kidnapped from their villages and forced to kill. We are raising money so we can send one former girl-soldier to school so she can attempt to get back into a normal way of life. If you are interested in doing the Vow of Silence or finding out more information go to Free the Children's website: http://www.freethechildren.com/vowofsilence/. So tomorrow i will not be talking, texting, emailing, facebooking, or tweeting. Here's to being SILENT.

Lyrics Part 2 (By Teagan)

A while back I did a post on lyrics and how alot of the time we just listen to songs but we don't really think about what they mean. So here are some songs that have spoken to me lately.

We are children of the Light
Royal rulers of the day
Saints, no prisoners of the night
Trust and love will lead the way
We are free
~Children of The Light~ by Lecrae

It started out as a feeling
Which then grew into a hope
Which then turned into a quiet thought
Which then turned into a quiet word
And the that word grew louder and louder,
until it was a battle cry:
I'll come back when you call me,
No need to say goodbye
~The Call~ by Regina Specktor

He got the power man
You ain't never seen it like this
His words make the world exist
He can turn your situation round
~Power~ by Flame

I dare you to move,
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
~Dare You to Move~ by Switchfoot

My God,
You are good,
You are great,
You are love,
And I am loved
~I Am~ by The City Harmonic

Whenever you need me,
I'll be there right by you
Whenever you call me,
I'm there when you call
Whenever you're falling,
I'm there when you fall
Wherever your going,
I'll be right there showing
~Whenever~ by The Black Eyed Peas

You are my strong tower
Shelter over me
Beautiful and Mighty
Everlasting King
You are my strong tower
Fortress when I'm weak
Your name is true and holy
And Your face is all I seek
~Strong Tower~ by Kutless

Career Day (By Teagan)

On Wednesday we had "Take Your Kid to Work Day". Most schools do it in Grade 9, but my school does it with our Grade 10 Careers classes. I went with my friend and her mom to a hospital. It was really weird to see a Canadian Hospital when I have been used to Haiti clinics. Hospitals here are so big, clean, and tidy. When I was there they took us on a tour of the hospital, and then we shadowed my friend's mom in the OR. I saw a Gall Bladder being removed, I saw cataract surgery, and I saw a C-section. I also learned how to suture on a teddy bear, and we removed a balloon from a box the same way they remove a Gall Bladder. We had to wear scrubs and hairnets, and when we were doing the fake surgery we had to wear the surgical outfit too. It was really cool to go to a hospital and see all the different jobs, because when I'm older i want to be some kind of medical person, but I'm not sure what kind yet.

Me, dressed up in scrubs and all that fun stuff

The Teddy Bear I stitched up

Being Bored (By Teagan)

Hi! I'm in english class. I finished my essay on the weekend so I have no work to do right now! Fun stuff... actually its pretty boring. There are still 15 minutes left in the class so that is why I'm writing this blog post. I really have no idea what this is about or why I am writing it besides the fact that I am bored. Boredom is a funny thing. It happens when you have nothing to do so you end up being random and usually you find something to do while you are bored, then usually you find something real you need to do, but you don't because you are too busy doing what you started when you were first bored. If that makes sense. So anyways class is over in 5 minutes so I'm going to have to say goodbye! And thanks for reading my random post about boredom!

mwen sonje ou (By Teagan)

The list goes on and on....

Jesus Got Us Fallin' In Love

Check out what our church did, it is really really cool and not really what a "typical" church would do, so please watch this link and share it with as many people as you can. (and make sure you put the closed captions on [cc on the menu] because the lyrics are the best part!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctmtHvclfaM&feature=colike

Fifteen (By Teagan)

There is a Taylor Swift song that I really like called Fifteen. I think it is kinda relevant to my life, because although I am in the beginning of grade 10, I am 15 and starting high school for the very first time. I really like how in this song it really reminds you that in life you will do bigger things than than being "friends" with the popular girls at school or dating the "guy on the football team" and when I'm feeling like I don't really know what is going on or when I'm not really certain about the future all I have to remember is that God has a plan for me, and even though it might not be clear right now, I will do great things.

You take a deep breath and you walk through the doors

It's the morning of your very first day

You say "Hi" to your friends you ain't seen in a while

Try and stay out of everybody's way

It's your freshman year and you're gonna be here

For the next four years in this town

Hoping one of those senior boys will wink at you and say

"You know I haven't seen you around, before"

'cause when you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you

You're gonna believe them

And when you're fifteen

Feeling like there nothing to figure out

Well count to ten, take it in

This is life before you know who you're gonna be

Fifteen

You sit in class next to a redhead named Abigail

And soon enough you're best friends

Laughing at the other girls who think they're so cool

We'll be out of here as soon as we can

And then you're on your very first date and he's got a car

And you're feeling like flying

And you're momma's waiting up and you think hes the one

And you're dancing round your room when the night ends

When the night ends

'cause when you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you

You're gonna believe them

When you're fifteen and your first kiss

Makes your head spin round but

In your life you'll do things greater than dating the boy of the football team

But I didn't know it at fifteen

When all you wanted was to be wanted

Wish you could go back and tell yourself what you know now

Back then I swore I was gonna marry him someday

But I realized some bigger dreams of mine

'cause when you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you

You're gonna believe them

And when you're fifteen, don't forget to look before you fall

I've found that time can heal most anything

And you just might find who you're supposed to be

I didn't know who I was supposed to be at fifteen

Fifteen -Taylor Swift