Week 7 – Longbeach, New Beginnings, Alpha Gamma – Pastor Clement & Sister Mona

On November 3, 2015 by Bethany

Week 7, we were back at it.

We had three returning teams coming back to serve, and this year they got to serve together, on one trip.

Alpha Gamma Delta from Alabama

New Beginnings from Oklahoma

FBC Longbeach from Mississippi

This week was cram-packed full of goodness and ministry. We partnered throughout the week with Ash Ca, a disabled home for children, Good Shepherd Orphanage and Pastor Clement and his community in Bertin.

The teams served in so many ways, here’s a short list to start:

They coordinated and led kids ministry in Bertin, putting on a daily VBS for the 150+ children
They partnered with the church leadership team to serve by going door-to-door and planting trees in the community while sharing the Gospel.
They served at the local maternity ward and hospital ministry – praying with the mothers, buying much needed medications for those in the hospital and bringing care-packages for newborns and new moms.
They put on a program, did some painting and renovation at Ash Ca, a ministry for children with special needs .
They helped the kids at GSO with the feeding program everyday and they served with gladness.
They led sports ministry with the kids at GSO and the community children in the area everyday.
They put on a pizza party for the staff and children of GSO and joined in their worship every night.
Plus so much more!

I’m sure I’m even missing some things! Like I said, it was a packed week. It was an incredible week.

A ministry snapshot: Hospital Ministry

New Beginnings Community Church has been partnering with Good Shepherd Orphanage and Ash Ca Ministry for 3 years. One of the special ministries that they participate and help with is serving at the maternity ward and hospital. This ministry is the passion of Sister Mona, our host, and she leads our team as they go and serve. Our teams bring down items to pack into care packages for new moms. Things like onesies, bottles, pacifiers, receiving blankets and more. Then Sister Mona uses donated funds to buy formula and medicines in Haiti.

The participating team is small, only 5-6 of our participants go with Sister Mona to the hospital. They go from bed to bed, speaking with the women and being an encouragement. Sometimes this means sitting and talking, sometimes this means simply praying with the women and then giving them space. This summer, our team even got to give small massages to the women, if they desired it.

This ministry requires great intuition and gentleness. While many women welcome the chance to have prayers spoken over them and their children, some desire privacy and our team respects that fully. Just like a hospital where you live, not every woman is there for a peaceful delivery, some are coming for emergency surgery, some are recuperating from traumatic and chaotic birth stories and some are watching over their sick children as they heal. We are simply there to be a comfort, when family and friends may not be able to be.

The beauty of this ministry lies within it’s delicateness. Those first few days as a new parent can be overwhelming, in the best way and in a very raw way. We get the chance to step into those delicate first days, full of emotion and exhaustion and we simply get to be Christ to the women we meet. For most of the women of faith, just like it was for me and Eric after Edison was born, a prayer said over their child is like a gift.

Can you be in prayer for the women, children and doctors involved?

Would you like to give financially to help this ministry? Let me know and I can give you details on how to donate.

I’m so thankful for the week we were able to spend with these three, marvelous teams. I can’t explain to you the flexibility, passion and kindness they serve with, it is to be rivaled. As God brought 30+ people from all over America and Haiti together for a week of Kingdom building, we watched as He used that time to build bonds within our team that will last a life-time.

Aside from the ministry happening during the week with the teams, we had two awesome new people serving with us for the week.

Our friend Kyle was able to be on staff with us, while his home church, FBC Longbeach came down to serve. I’d heard so many things from Eric after last summer about how great this “kyle-guy from mississippi” was. I remember at one point telling Eric, “I get it, he’s great!” Now after getting to know Kyle and spending some time getting to know him this summer, I get it, he’s great!

Kyle led his church on a mission trip to Haiti in the summer of 2014. Now, 5 trips later, his church is burning with a passion for Haiti and their partnership with Bertin. After serving on staff with us this past summer, Kyle moved to Costa Rica to homeschool Nathan and Laura Norman kids, who are one of PPM’s AWESOME full-time missionary couples and some of our dear friends!

To top it off, after spending the week serving with Kyle and his church family, New Beginnings, who had no relationship with Kyle or the church in Mississippi previous of the trip, decided to go to Costa Rica next summer, to serve together as Kyle transitions into his position there.

God is just amazing at fitting people together for His glory!

Want to follow along with Kyle, check out his blog here.

Want to follow along with the Normans? check out their blog here.

Also, we had a lovely girl named Rachel who joined with us to be Edison’s nanny for the next two weeks. Rachel and I didn’t even really know each other before she came down to Haiti to serve. We had met on her first ever PPM trip in March of 2015, but it was a brief visit, amidst the chaos of a medical clinic at that!

Eric and I were looking for someone to help out during these two weeks and it was getting down to the wire for us to make a decision… out of the blue, Rachel messages me and asks if she can stay an extra few weeks in Haiti helping us out with childcare. Talk about a God-moment!

Thank you so much Rachel for helping us out, serving with our teams and loving Edison. We are so thankful for you!

And that brings our week #7 to a close. Whew, what an awesome week of ministry, relationships and Jesus. <3