Coming Home

Well, we just woke up on our last day of this trip and we are tired and ready to take what we learned here and bring it back home. We are leaving at 8:00 a.m. today and will be getting back to the Church at 4:30 p.m. Thanks again for all your support and prayers for our team. I'm excited for you to see and hear what all we experienced on this trip. See you soon!

Fun Day

We just got back from a long day of playing hard at Noah's Ark Water Park. The students had a great time and I think we all are pretty beat after a full week of fun and hard work. We are now relaxing at our hotel and will be spending the rest of our night hanging out and getting some good rest in preparation for a full day of travel tomorrow. This is our last night in Wisconsin and I must say that it has been a great trip and there have been memories made and changed hearts, as a result of this experience. How cool is it to see God truly working in the lives of our youth and how he uses us to partner with him in his great mission of reconciliation to the world. It has been such an honor to lead these students this week and to see the change and growth in them. They are amazing and I can't wait for them to go back home and tell about all the stories and people they have met. I am overwhelmed with joy and thank God for such a blessing of this team of 36 that humbled themselves for a week to make an eternal difference in others lives. Thanks for your prayer and support! See you tomorrow!

Day 5

This week has finally come to a close as we have said our goodbyes to the YouthWorks staff and the other students and volunteers we have gotten to know during our time here. We have cleaned the whole building, packed up our stuff, and now we are preparing to leave Green Bay. Our next journey will be going to Noah's Ark Water Park in the Wisconsin Dells. We will be splashing around and cooling down, after such a hot and busy week. The students really deserve to have some fun after all the hard work they have put in. This is a great way to end such an amazing trip.

Day 4

It has been a great week and we officially ended our time at our service sites. This week has really flown by and it seems like we just started serving here yesterday. It is great to see the students wishing that we could stay a few extra days to serve at the sites. I've asked the students many times how they have seen God at work that day. I have heard so many cool stories about how students have seen God at work in not only their lives, but also in the lives of the people they have been serving. Today, we got the privilege of having a community cookout where we were able to invite many people from our work sites to come join us for some food and fellowship. There were two homeless men that came to the cookout and the students were talking to them and were able to find out about their lives. The two men had been struggling with their faith for quite some time and had been through some pretty rough situations, and we had a group of 7 students gather around them and pray for them. It was truly an incredible thing to witness our students reaching out and loving people in such a huge way. They have really come outside their comfort zones and have done such a great job loving the loveless. All of you parents should be VERY VERY proud of your students. It has been such a blessing to see the change and the hearts of these students. It has inspired me to love better. God has done an amazing work with us and my prayer is that we can take this back to our homes. Please continue to pray that we would finish up this trip strong, even to the end. Your prayers have been felt. Thanks!

Day 3

Happy 4th of July everyone! This week has really flown by so far and it has been truly amazing today to see the transformation that is happening within our group. It seems like every single day our serving groups keep getting closer and closer. There are so many cool stories and discussions that have been going on today. One of the students in my group had a real encouraging story with an elderly lady at a nursing home and she told him to make the most of his life and to not waste it. She encouraged him to keep serving people. He was really touched by what the lady said and made him see the difference that is made by serving other people. I can not brag enough about the students and their heart to impact this community as well as each other. There have been some great times as well as some hard times during our time here, but we are growing and experiencing all of this together. It is so cool to see this gospel community come to life. We were able to celebrate Independence Day by putting on a parade for many residents in a nursing home. It was great to see the smiles on their faces as we spent time with them on this holiday. We are now getting ready to eat dinner and will be going out later to see the fireworks. I hope you all are enjoying your Independence Day and continue to pray for our team. We have accomplished so many great things and God is really at work in this trip. Please pray that God would show up in a big way and continue to break our hearts and transform us. Our desire is to take this change back home and to love and serve our own community. Thanks for the prayers! We definitely feel them!

Day 2

It has been another exciting day here in Green Bay. We all went to the same work sites we were at yesterday and had a great time reconnecting with the people we met the day before. The students really hit the ground running today and there was great excitement when we left for our work sites. It was so cool to see them really connecting with people and getting outside of their comfort zones. I have been really impressed with the service and love that we are giving to this community. It has been a long day, but we are still going strong. We got to enjoy some time at the Packers Hall of Fame today for some fun and to get a little taste of Green Bay pride. Now, we are having a little bit of down time before we come together for our nightly Club. Please continue praying for focus for our group and for the people and stories that we have heard and come into contact with. There are so many different ways that we have seen God at work today, and it is so cool to know that we serve such a great God. I'm so proud of our team and pray that we continue strong throughout the rest of this week. Thanks!

Day 1 Continued

We all went to Bay Beach amusement park after dinner to enjoy some fun together after a hard day of work. The rest of our night included Club time as we really saw what it looked like to love others knowing that we ourselves are loved so much. We had a great discussion with our church group about how we saw God today. Many of the students gave examples about hearing people's stories and just being able to be an encouragement to those that are not loved by many. It was so cool to see our students really getting it. I would ask that you all would pray for us as we are coming up to the half way point of our trip in the next two days and that our focus would remain intact and we would stick to our mission. The students have been great and are really starting to see people the way God sees them. What a cool thing this would be to take this concept back home and apply it to everyone in all realms of our lives. Thank you for your prayers!

Day 1 in Green Bay

It has been a crazy, jam packed day so far in Green Bay. We woke up did some devotions and were sent off to our various work sites. We split up into seven serving groups along with two other churches that are also serving in our area. We each set out to our work sight for the day. The different groups went out to places such as food pantries, thrift stores, nursing homes, women and children shelters, and a boys and girls club. It is so exciting to see our students engage well with the people of Green Bay and to really step outside their comfort zone. This has been a great start to the week and I'm excited for what's to come. We are just about to eat dinner and then we are heading off to Bay Beach for some fun. I will post some more pictures later tonight, but here are some pictures from my serving groups time spent at Odd Fellows Nursing Home. Enjoy!

Travel Day pictures

Here are some pictures that were taken during our road trip to Green Bay. 

Green Bay Travel Day

Well, we are all settled into Green Bay. We arrived around 7 p.m. and are now getting ready for club to worship together and to connect with the other churches here. Tomorrow we will be put into serving groups and will get ready for a full day of serving the community Green Bay. Thanks for your support!
-Matt

Day 6 - Final Construction Day

Today was our final day of construction. We had a long ways to go and without the option of staying longer we had to make sure everything was standing solid before we left.

Our day started early like each day with some really big pancakes to get us started. Then off to the ranch. It takes approximately 30 minutes to get to the ranch from the guesthouse. The trip is probably only 10 miles or less but there is only a couple miles of paved road so we have to move pretty slow.

Once at the ranch we had a lot of help from 5 Haitians so we were able to move pretty fast. Although the language barrier was a slight issue the construction pros on our trip did a great job keeping them on track and showing them the ropes.

We worked all day and left the ranch a little after 6:00 in great shape. It was a little sad leaving the ranch for the last time but it was nice leaving the barn and the Haitians at a point where they can continue the work.

See the pictures below of our last day in Les Cayes. Tomorrow morning we will be making the trek back to Port Au Prince and then back to Fort Wayne on Saturday!

Day 5 - Construction Part Three

Another beautiful day in Haiti, it started out with another good breakfast and then off to the construction site. Today we finished putting the rafters up and made a lot of headway. We also got the full tour of the Loving Shepherd ranch, it was very neat to see some of the different things they are doing and Shane explained some of the different ideas they have for the future at the ranch.

Tonight we came back around 5:30 for dinner so that we could eat dinner and go to a bible study at one of the missionary's home. It was fun doing a bible study with people from all over the world who have come to Haiti to share the message of Christ.

Finally, we returned to the guest house where we were staying and decided it was time to take a short trek to a favorite tarantula hunting site (yes were actually looking for big hair spiders). We actually found five of them in a short time, not something you get to do everyday in Indiana.

See a few of our pictures from the day below.

Day 4 - Construction Cont.

The day started off with a early breakfast of hot dogs and mango! What is better than hot dogs before 7 am?

The push barn that is PULLING people together is taking shape. We worked all day on the barn, a few of the Haitians were working along side us.

In the evening we had a visit from a local vendor who sells excellent coffee, coconut & cashews and then a great dinner, I think it was a type of beef (if it wasn't we didn't want to know).

Day 3 - Construction Begins

Today we were on the Loving Shepherd ranch working on the pull barn which is where we will be for the remaining part of our stay.

The pull barn is going to be used for storage, but more important occupation training and classrooms. The barn is 120 ft long and 32 ft wide. Although we are here to work on a barn our mission is to build relationships and work along-side the Haitians!

The day got off to a bit of a slow start while the guys who actually know what they are doing (not me) tried to figure out a game plan for the day.  We have two very experienced contractors and a very smart structural engineer that has it all figured out. Once we got started things started to take shape. See the pictures of our project for the day below.

We appreciate your thoughts and prayers as we try to tackle this project!