2 Haiti 4 Him

The Heckman family serving the Lord in Haiti at Emmaus Biblical Seminary

Thursday, June 23, 2016

White Clay Creek Team!

The second team to come this summer was from White Clay Creek Presbyterian Church in Delaware, and they're some of Ethan's and my closest friends!!!  

So during the evenings we led worship, then had someone (whether it was staff, and former student or a team member) share their testimony!

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we did work projects with the team around campus!

We had two groups, one working with Dad (we mixed cement, shoveled stones, dug ditches, built forms, moved pavers, etc...), and group two painted the men's dorm with Rick (the Folkeringas arrived a couple weeks ago, and it has been both helpful and fun to have them around, even if it is just for a short time!)!




One of the most fun parts was mealtimes with the team! As some of you may know, this week was our Masters program for the students, so the team got to eat with EBS alumni and staff!

Like the first time White Clay came in 2014, we again set off a balloon!

The Ayars family left mid-week during the teams stay here. We were sad to see them leave for the summer (we miss you guys so much!), but we're so happy you get to catch up with good friends in the States!

One night, after dinner, we made s'mores around a bonfire which was a blast!

Saturday we did a medical clinic in a zone called Lory with Prudence!

Half the team played with the kids...


Some worked in the pharmacy...

And others worked with me! We weighed people (as I am doing in this picture), we took temperatures, blood pressure and wrote all of their information down on a slip for the doctor. 
At one point while dropping off patients at the doctor's office, Prudence said "Haylie, grab someone to bathe this child. He's dying of fever and needs to get cool NOW." I frantically grabbed someone and scooped his little scorching hot body in my arms as we ran to the well. I found a kind gentleman to pump the well for Katie and me as we poured water over him. Once I felt his skin was cool I picked him up and we soothingly talked to him as we walked to the pharmacy. I stayed with him until he had taken a dose of Tylenol and then went back to work. Emergency over. It really hit us hard at how privileged we are. I mean, when you have a fever or pain, you go to the medicine cabinet and problem solved. These people have to rely on Jesus and Jesus alone to cure them or death is certain. How beautiful a concept though. So much faith is required to live here. What if that little boy's family wasn't saved? Then they would have had no hope for him. I wonder if we were their answer to prayer... If they prayed for a miracle for their son and God put us there at the right time. 

There were several others who walked around to different people and evangelized. The point of this clinic was to not only bring physical healing to these people, but spiritual healing first. Prudence and Pradel are doing such amazing work in Lory and we are so grateful to have been a small part of it!

Riding in the back of the truck is always a favorite part of being in Haiti!

Meghan came to Haiti two years ago with the first team and met our good friend Noel. They were reunited during her trip back with the team this year! How special!

The team had a blast on Dad's mini bike this week!

We went to church at Prudence and Pradel's church in Lory on Sunday...

And to the pool afterwards!

We had a great time and great food too!

 We took them one evening to the boat ramp near our house...

It was beautiful as always!


On Monday, the day before they left, we drove up to Chou Chou Bay in Port Margot, and on the way there we picked up Anna Thede! I always love when my friends can meet my other friends!


Leme had lots of fun at the beach with us too as you can see :)

Though the ride was bumpy, I really enjoyed it. I had some good conversations with great people.

On their last night we talked about our highs and lows of the trip, we prayed over Noel, then we watched a movie together!


What a great week. Thank you guys for blessing us with your presence at the seminary, all your hard work, enduring the sweat and heat and bringing us joy. We already miss you!


Wednesday, June 8, 2016

The Start of Team Season

 So, as you can tell by the title, this week was the start of team season here at Emmaus! Our first team of the summer was the group from Calvary United Methodist Church (they came last year if you remember...)! 

OUR SOLAR PANELS CAME!!!

Thanks to the hard work of Matt McCormick, Kevin and Benjamin from Tech Center, my Dad and Mom, Matt Ayars, and the team, all the solar panels are up and running efficiently! 

This team was a blast, and I know we were all blessed by their presence here at the seminary.

They even made it to Sofie's birthday party! She just turned 5! (Can you believe that?? I mean. when we first moved here she was barely two years old!)

I think the best part of the trip was church at Fev. They were celebrating their one-year anniversary as a church, and I have never been to a more beautiful service. I sang with my Haitian brothers and sisters in Creole until I had no voice left, we danced and Hallelujah-ed, we swayed and prayed together, it was beautiful.

Walnique (the pastor of the church in Fev) asked my Mom and me to sing a song in English (the whole service was about worshiping God together). I always enjoy singing with her. The best part was that all of our EBS students were singing along with us (they remembered the song from chapel)! It was incredibly encouraging to hear all of their voices with ours.


At one point in the service a lady stood up and said she wanted to be a Christian. I loved watching our students surround her at different times and pray with her. 

After that lovely couple of hours, we took the team out for lunch and the pool!

It was truly a great week and a brilliant start to this team season! We love you guys from Calvary UMC in Illinois and can't wait for you to come back next year :)  (And this time, hopefully a pothole in the runway won't delay your return home... although we enjoyed the extra day with you all!)