Nou Renmen Ou

Since the last blog, two teams have left and re-entered the states, bringing back some great stories from Les Cayes as well as having accomplished some pretty significant work at Bighouse Orphanage. Our November construction team and our youth team from December got to experience Haiti in some of her cooler months...and by that, I mean they didn't need 3 fans pointed on them while they slept at night. And with passports being denied, supply bags ending up in california, and a couple of truck-break-downs on the dirt roads of the southern coast...I dare say we wrapped up 2009 like champs:)

I received an email from Pastor Jean (at Bighouse) a couple of days ago, and he says that the children say to tell the teams, the congregations, and the sponsors that they love them, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Our Youth mission team just returned back to the states on the 1st from their week long trip to Cayes. We are so proud of all of those who were able to go and all those who made it possible for the trip to take place. Since the Bighouse kids were out of school for the holiday week, the youth were able to put on a mini-VBS, a 1-day soccer camp, and help in the beginning construction of a playgroudn area! They report that the latrines and showers (which our November team began) have been finished, and a dining pavilion complete with tables has been built to give the kids a place to eat and keep them away from the cooking fire! I will be taking a follow-up trip in the next week to check on everything, and Hu Debo will be leading a team down in February to conduct a mobile medical clinic.

As we've emerged into the first of a new year, my mind is blown as I think about the journey that we have been on over the past few months. We have heard team's reports of the orange-haired, lethargic, and malnourished children from Haiti; and we have heard team's reports about the phenomenal energy boost due to consistent meals. We have heard stories of the affection-deprived kids who love to play with the American's hair, and we have heard stories of the painful shots that kill the worms. Suffering and beauty walk as hand in hand as compassion and risk, as love and sacrifice. And we have found them all in this place. Thank God He has so creatively and mysterioulsy rumbled His inviting whisper our way, daring us to come along, and promising that our lives will refuse to stay the same once we've encountered this side of the Kingdom. It has been an exciting, inspiring, and unpredictable jounrey; and the flooring news is that we've only just begun.

Again and always, thank you for your interest in these stories. If you ever have any questions or would just like to talk more about the movement we're a part of, I'd love to chat:) Happy New Year!

Nou Renmen Ou,

Britney

britneywinn@gmail.com

Les Cayes bound!

Bags packed, it's 12:35am. About to go for a couple of hours of sleep. 3:45 alarm, 5am airport arrival, 6:15 departure for the day-long-trek to the coast. Shreveport, Dallas, Miami, Port au Prince, 5 hour drive to Cayes!

Team prep and meetings all week and then the team arrives on Friday! Please pray for all the traveling and the meetings! More to come. Much more to come:)

-Britney

Hey Sponsors!!!

Hey friends!

If you are a sponsor or an FUMC congregation member visiting this site for the first time after getting your November update or reading the weekly newsletter, welcome! Love for you to keep up with us through this, and would LOVE your feedback/questions/comments.

The newest update on finances for the November trip is that, as of yesterday, we are $1,700 away from having all of the money that we need to actually be onsite for those five days of construction at Bighouse Orphanage in two weeks. We started off needed roughly $9-10,000 and the provision has been as random and last minute as it has been perfect. Very grateful.

I'll get into Port au Prince on Monday, Nov 16th, and the team will fly in that next Friday. We'll travel the 5 hour drive through the mountains to Les Cayes that night, and we'll begin the morning-to-night construction the next day and on into the next four days. We'll make the entire trek back home the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Please keep our team in your prayers! We'll be posting pictures, videos, and updates throughout their time in Haiti.

Sponsors, since the mail service is so unpredictable and sketchy in Haiti, we're taking any letters that you've written your kids down with us to have them translated and delivered while we're there. :) Remember that your generous donations are best received by the 10th of every month, unless we've set it up that you've paid for several months/the whole year. Also, I've had a few questions about whether or not it's ok to send gifts, so to clear that up: 1. we're trying to stay away from sending individual gifts as to keep away from any unnecessary fighting or animosity among the kids if they're receiving great gifts or no gifts at all, 2. there's not a whole lot of space for them to sleep, much less storage for gifts and things. We're first working towards helping to get them healthy and sustained, and maybe in the near future we can work on better facilities :)

Until then, your letters and provision of money for food and medicine are the best way you can give. However, if you as sponsors would like to give extra towards something that can benefit the entire orphanage (like a piece of playground "equipment") then give me feedback and let me know, and we'll start that conversation!

Well, I just love you people. Again, keep up with us, and if you'd like to see any of the videos from past trips, you can visit www.youtube.com/haitimission2009 to see those!

assured of His goodness,

excited about what's stirring,

Britney

We plan. We paint. We go to Haiti.

I haven't gotten off the floor in four weeks, it feels like. That's a lie. I apologize for lying. But cranking out paintings has been almost all of life for the last little bit. Many orders are coming in and many are left to do in my attempt to get the last $3,000 raised for our trip to Les Cayes. I leave with two others in 13 days to go down and do preparations and have meetings before the team gets down there on November 20th.

Our sponsor payments are due on the tenth of this month:) And a letter will go out soon to all the sponsors letting them know about this blog so that they can keep up with everything that's going on.

The youth had their first meeting last week for their trip in December, and everything seems to be coming together pretty smoothly on that end.

Praying for details to get worked out on site. Praying for money to pour in before we leave. Praying for Mrs. Virginia, our guesthouse contact, who had back surgery last month and is still recovering. And praying for wise and creative inspiration on how to reimagine life that invites the Kingdom to break through in Shreveport, in Cayes, and at Bighouse.

Keep up with us!

New Friends and Art

Couple things:

Check it out. A week ago I needed $8,000 to buy plane tickets for our November Team. I only had $500. Within 5 days, enough cashmoney came in for me to buy every last plane ticket. What. Now we are only $4,000 from having what we need to go down in three weeks. I've started painting and selling paintings for the profit to go towards our efforts in Haiti. Here are a couple. Interested? I paint commissioned pieces and would love to hook you up! britneywinn@gmail.com

Also, last night we had the most random/amazing surprise of getting to hang out with the 4 roadies for the deep south region of Invisible Children on their way through this part of their tour! They were incredible, and they've got something huge and moving that you need to look into if you haven't heard. Good things are happening, and I am thankful to be in such inspiring company all over the world. Go here: www.invisiblechildren.com ...you've gotta know.

love love.

So this is blogging...

Hey friends:) Seems that there needs to be some way to keep everybody who is catching this vision of a different world with us (specifically in this little corner of Haiti) connected. So, alas, I'm starting a blog.

Quick background...last spring, FUMC Shreveport made a trip to Les Cayes, Haiti and saw the massive destruction that the 3 hurricanes of '08 had caused to the already fragile and broken country. We fell in love with 76 kids at a little place called Bighouse Orphanage, and knew that we couldn't and wouldn't be the same, and that we would surely be back.

A college/young adult group went down in July for 16 days and evaluated the needs for food and medicine, as the conditions we found these survival-mode-kids in were far less from humane. Since then, we have partnered each orphan with 76 gracious donors from the States, fixed the contaminated well on site at Bighouse, had everyone tested for HIV (all negative!), set up a 3-meal-a-day-system for the site, as well as arranged for a nurse to visit weekly and a doctor to visit monthly.

I began working for FUMC in August as their Haiti Liaison. I took a trip down by myself to Les Cayes in September to do some follow-up work, team-prep, and a food drop. And I will be leading my first team of ten down November 20th-25th for a construction project to build latrines at Bighouse.

If you see someone who has a second to listen today...tell them what you know of the Lord. Tell them that you know He is good. And that He loves justice. And that He hears the voice of the weak and those without supper. Tell them that you've heard or seen Him do miracles. Tell them that He's in the business of providing. That He loves on us with a love that is fierce, specific, wild, and sufficient. Tell that that this love is what ties us all together to know that we can only do this if we're doing it alongside one another. Tell them that the scriptures are as alive as Jesus himself.

Tell them you know this because you're seeing lives change in Haiti. And in the States. Tell them $35 a month is feeding and enhancing the lives and energy of 76 orphans. And that they are different because of you. And that you are different because of them. And that we are all grateful to be in the growth that feels, that looks a lot like the Kingdom.

Tell them that we can do a lot together, and surely we are. And ask them to pray for all of us, for the humility to remain in the awe of the God whose grace winds through it all, for the ability to continue to be amazed by change and hope, for the reality that we may never...ever...be less than appalled by poverty, hunger, war, and inequality no matter how many times we go or how many pictures we see. Ask them to pray for wisdom and creativity. Ask them to pray that we each come to many points in the day where we're coming back to a conversation with the One who knows us best, and nurturing that like our lives depend on it. As they do.

And tell them thank you.

Keep up with our adventures on here! Thanks for reading:)