Day 7 | Madison Oney

Today was a very busy day! Morning devotions with the Haitians was the first thing on our agenda for today which was good as always. We sang amazing grace in creole and English like the other day and that was cool! The house dedication was a very sweet experience. You could really tell how thankful they were. I mean they were at a loss for words. My dad spoke and I gave the gifts which had quilts that my grandmother helped make and some toys for the kids and a few bibles. After that, those of us that have already been sponsoring or decided to take one on for the first time got to meet our kids today. Mine that I used to support moved or something, so they gave me another little girl and I got to meet her today. My gosh was she the sweetest little thing ever! Her name is Daylendie and she is four years old. She lives fairly close to the compound, so I really lucked out with getting the chance to meet her. She was so friendly! She didn’t talk much but she wasn’t bashful at all. She gave me a great big hug as soon as I got to her and she held my hand all the way down to the playground. Her dad wanted to leave really early which kinda irritated me, but oh well I guess. She gave me a kiss when she left too! After that, the group that went to the market got back and we all just kinda hung out. A bunch of us had a “jam session” with Robertson, Jude, and one of the interpreters from the child sponsorship office. The interpreter had such clear English that she didn’t even have an accent! She sounded American! And boy could that girl sing.. it was just a really cool afternoon. We had lunch at mountain maid, and then we didn’t my favorite thing, BARTERING! I’m not afraid to tell people “no,” so I got some pretty good deals today! I hope my Stout family is ready for their gifts! It’s days like today that make me not want to come home. When I wasn’t feeling well, oh yes, I was dying to be home, but when we have fellowship like we did today, you just don’t ever want it to end. I mean, just sitting around singing praises to God with people that live in a completely different country and speak a different language than you is something you just don’t get to do every day. I’ve made some lifelong friendships. Although we may never see each other ever again, we’ll remember these people for the rest of our lives. Trips like these are always worth any cost. Please pray for safe travels for those coming to Haiti tomorrow and those of us coming home. I’m excited to see everyone, but I hate to leave this place and these people. I will be back. I might even make it my home someday, who knows. It’s life-changing. Whether you spend an hour here or ten years, I promise you will not return the same.

Day 6 | Madison Oney

Six souls came to Christ today! that should say it all about what kind of day it was. Just had to say goodbye to Johnny so my mind is in a sad spot right now. I was in the church group today and did VBS. I didn’t do much other than that. I played with Linda quite a bit today. she is rotten to the core! We have the house dedication tomorrow and everything so it’s going to be a sad day. I wish i could say more, but my mind is just really in the gutter from saying goodbye to Johnny. We have really done some amazing work here. I hadn’t really thought of it until after bible study this evening. Please continue to pray for those who are feeling sick. I’m still not feeling the greatest. Sad to see everything coming to an end.

Day 5 | Madison Oney

Today wasn’t very eventful for me. I was starting to get sick last night, and didn’t sleep at all, so i felt ten times worse this morning, so with that being said, I stayed back at the compound all day today to get some rest. I think i was awake for a total of a half an hour this morning/afternoon. I had body aches and my skin was hurting like i was trying to get a fever, and every time i make a rapid movement, i get light-headed, so keep me in your prayers that i get back to 100% for tomorrow for our last day of work. I get the chance to do VBS again tomorrow, so that’s exciting. if i’m not feeling any better, maybe i’ll see if johnny can take me back to the compound after VBS. Seven got saved today, so that is definitely something to be rejoicing about! I led bible study this evening too. I spoke about humility, and how the point of these trips is not so much about getting the work done, but changing one’s heart and to humble. That’s about all i have since i didn’t get to do much today. Continue to pray for those that are feeling sick because there’s a bunch of us. Definitely missing home right now, but thoroughly enjoying the trip.

Day 4 | Madison Oney

Another early morning today. Church was at 6:30 and went until about 9. We were all struggling to stay awake because one: we are exhausted and two: we couldn’t understand a word they were saying. We did have an interpreter though, but still. After church, most of us came back and crashed for a little bit before Johnny came to take us on the annual hike. I was under the assumption that we were taking the same trail we went on as two years ago: the “sissy trail,” but that was shown to be untrue. My mom turned back as soon as we started down. Bill told Johnny not to take us down that was because it was too dangerous, but we went anyway. I stayed right behind Johnny in the line so i got the best end of the deal. any time i went to fall or slide, (which was too many times to count) he would put his foot under mine to stop it or catch me. Heath and i were the first to make it to the bottom and we watched as the rest braved the rest of the way down. we literally slid the last 60 yards down because there was no way that one could have stable footing. We went up the waterfalls with ease (compared to two years ago) because my dad was the oldest person there, and we were all athletic, so it wasn’t really a problem. We went through three and stopped at the fourth like two years ago then took a different path back up the hill. I was in better shape than i thought, but it was still exhausting. I got my summer conditioning in for softball in one day! I am covered in cuts; they're literally everywhere. Poor miranda’s legs look like she had a bad acupuncture session from gnat bites, but we still had fun! After dinner, we had church out in the amphitheater by the playground, and Bill asked me to share about how Haiti changed my heart. I thought it went pretty well. I’m sure Eric has plenty video of it. I go to the house tomorrow and i haven’t been feeling well, so please pray that i get back to normal in the morning so that i can help all that i can. I get to do one more day of VBS Tuesday, so that’s exciting! Continue to pray for our safety and for BHM. I’m really starting to miss home. it’ll be a bittersweet leaving on thurday.

Day 3 | Madison Oney

I really wish that I could wake up as easy at 5:45 for something else as I do here. I don’t even hit my snooze. As soon as I hear it go off, I’m awake. I was the early crew this morning. We were outside waiting on the dump truck at 6:45. The truck didn’t show up until about 7:30, but we got to talk to everyone for a while so that was good. We got to endure the death trap of a ride to the worksite. It took an hour and a half, but it wasn’t near as bad as the group yesterday. We got taken right up to the church and didn’t have to walk any. I was scared for my life multiple times on the ride there. The roads are nonexistent going to the church. Many times I thought to myself, “There’s no way we’re making it down here,” but sure enough, we went down. Chase, my dad, randy, and mickey got the nice ride down in the side by sides which was rather comical when they passed us. They made it to the church long before the rest of us did, so a lot had already gotten started once we arrived. There wasn’t much for us younger guys to do so we decided to interact with the kids. I grabbed my book and an interpreter and read The Giving Tree to them and I think they really liked it! I had several kids around me. After that, we all got some soccer balls, Frisbees, and bubbles and they were in Heaven. Two little girls that were with Miranda and I loved the bubbles and were much better at it than we were! Their names were Linda and Debra, and they stayed with me the rest of the day. Linda would sit up on my lap, and she would sing, and she’d say “Bubbles!” and “Pop!” It was so sweet! Once we were finally asked to work, the kids followed us and did exactly what we did. Soon after, it was time for VBS! We were only supposed to have 100 kids but a few more sneaked in. I think I heard 103 were there. My job was to help Vicki with the crafts, and my that was something! There were three groups each having about thirty kids in it besides my dad’s.. I think he rigged his bracelets because his group had like 40! And they all tried to pile in the first two rows of chairs and had Vicki and I pinned up against the chalk board! Johnny was our interpreter so we had a good time. I think they really enjoyed the crafts. I didn’t hear of any salvations, but they had an open alter and an invitation. Everyone crashed as soon as we sat down when we got back to the compound. We had my favorite cake for desert after dinner: red velvet with chocolate icing. I still have more to say but I already have a novel so I’m going to cut it short. Continue to pray for our safety! I love and miss everyone! Hearts are being changed every day.

Day 2 | Madison Oney

I got hit with breakfast duty right off the bat which wasn’t fun. Bill told me i had to be out of the room and functional at 5:45.. I made it though. i was out before everyone. i knew it would take me a little longer to get woke up than them. I made like four dozen eggs and got raw egg all over everything i was wearing. Morning devotions with the haitians was good this morning. they were very responsive which i liked. after devotions, we loaded onto our dump truck and were spoiled with our short ride to our worksite. We were introduced to the family that we were building the house for. Their house had burnt down about three months ago and no one knew why. They have three kids, one of which was a newborn when all that happened. We soon began moving the huge pile of cinder blocks which seemed to be never ending. I did that for a while, but my main job was sifting sad, and i swear if i don’t have a six pack of abs and no love handles tomorrow, i’m gonna be very unhappy. Miranda and i sifted the entire pile with our translator Robertson. he is a character now. he loves to have his picture taken! we learned a lot from him and he really knows the Bible! he amazed me with the way he just blurted out these verses and could tell you the book and chapter that they were in. turns out he taught himself english with his brother right after the earthquake so that he could be more help with the americans coming over to help. one of the kids in the family was a little boy whose name was wesley. he was so sweet! i got out my phone to take some pictures and turned the front facing camera around and he thought that was so cool! we took some cute pictures! it broke my heart when he asked for water and we had to tell him no.. earlier today, i was telling marinada how much i wanted a piece of pizza. well, i have come to the conclusion that mary lou can read minds because she was carrying out two pans of pizza when we got back to the compound! my family has VBS tomorrow which is going to be interesting and hectic. but im excited to play with all the kids! thats my favorite. im with the early group tomorrow so im anxious to get to bed. I'm going to be very sore in the morning thats for sure. my hands are still shaking from carrying all the blocks today. I'm very homesick. i miss my boyfriend and the stout family very much, but I'm thoroughly enjoying time here already. each day has been a great day. Johnny stopped by too! i thought for sure we wouldn't get to see him because he was at the beach, but he came by and he's gonna be here a few days!it made my week! but continue to be in prayer for our safety and that kids will come to know Christ through VBS this week.

Day 1 | Madison Oney

It feels so good to be back! Gosh I’ve missed this place! This morning started off a little rough.. My family, like two years ago, went down a few days early and had a mini vacation prior to the trip. Well, where we were staying with my grandparents is only about ten to fifteen minutes away from MFI, and we had to be there at six this morning. I set an alarm for 4:30 thinking that was plenty of time for me to get ready (straighten my hair, put a little make up on, typical girl morning drill) but boy was I wrong.. half way into my hair, my grandmother starts hollerin’ through the house “Madison! You only have so and so minutes left to get ready!” And I swear every minute that went by, she was telling me how many minutes I had left. Needless to say, I didn’t get to finish my hair, didn’t get to put any make up on, or eat breakfast. The flight was good. It made me a little sick, but that was expected. I thought everything went very smoothly at the airport besides having to wait forever for our bags. Saw a Haitian midget today too.. that was different. I was surprised that there wasn’t any red caps like last time; none that I saw anyway. We didn’t have to ride on a tiny bus up the mountain either! That was a pleasant surprise. Still was hot, but it wasn’t as bad as it would have been on the one we took last time. It took forever to get up the mountain, I’d say two hours. All 11 miles of it. But I expected that as well. When we got to the compound, it was nice to see a familiar face (mary lou) in the kitchen cooking dinner. Seeing the playground flooded my mind with memories of the last trip and just made me that much more excited to see what this week has in store for us! I’ve been trying to hold my eyes open all evening, so I’m going right to bed after this. Two Benadryl and music I’m praying will drown out the boy’s snoring. It warmed my heart to see the kids smiling on the playground that is still in good shape! I’m anxious to see how VBS is going to go. Keep us in your prayers this week! I can’t wait to see what God has in store for this week!

Day 14 | Madison

Today was absolutely amazing! Playing with the kids this morning was so much fun; they’re such beautiful children. I really enjoyed when we all made a circle and prayed after devotions. That was touching. Taking pictures with Johnny was fun. I’m really going to miss him a lot. He was a joy to have around. I’ll definitely have to come back down and see him. Phillip, one of the stone workers, brought his son with him today, and I kid you not, he was the prettiest kid I had seen all week. I never got to see him smile though which was sad. His name was Phillipson. That was so clever to me. Monica said that was really common for men to add “son” to the end of their names for their son. He had the biggest eyes I have ever seen. He was a beautiful little boy. Our lunch was delicious! I wish we could have eaten at Mountain Maid more often! I wish I could have gotten to meet my child that I sponsored, but it was fun to watch everyone bond with theirs. Trey said that he was going to go look for mine and Mark’s kids around dinner time, so hopefully they find them. I loved the bartering! I thought it was so much fun! I got pretty good at it. I didn’t buy anything half price or more. I was a little disappointed that all the stuff was the same in every store; I expected more of a variety. I could have bought a lot more stuff, but I was kind of on a budget. I’m really excited to come back next year and see everyone again! I can’t wait to tell everyone at home about how incredible God truly is! I’m a little embarrassed that it took me this long to figure it out. I am blessed beyond belief, and I just want to take everyone home with me so that they can get away from this place. Seeing some of these kids breaks my heart when I wonder what kind of life they have at home. I see adoption of a Haitian baby in my future. Please pray for us as we travel back home tomorrow. I am so excited to see everyone. I’ve really missed them. It will feel good to be home. Love and miss you all! Just one more day!

Day 13 | Madison

I have quite a few different emotions towards today. We went to the market, which I did not like. When we went down these set of steps, this man was telling me that he loved me, and he was blowing kisses at me and motioning for me to come over to him. I was really scared. I was so scared to the point that I was fighting back tears. Once we started back toward the truck that took us up there, my group wanted to go back to the same place and get some mangos, but I wasn’t about to go back down there. Thankfully, on our way back down the road, the second group was coming back up, so I stayed with them. When I told Bill about him, he and Johnny knew exactly who I was talking about. Turns out, this guy followed a group of girls that were in the group last week. Since Johnny had knew him, he shielding the girls in his group from him, but I don’t guess our interpreter knew he was there. Johnny told me that this man had a emblem of some sort of demon on his shirt, and he cut his arms and was not a safe man, so I’m not the only one he did that stuff to. I enjoyed the ride up the mountain, but not the trip to the market. Getting back to the ark was the best part of the day. Kids swarmed the whole entire area! It was so humbling! We had to teach some of the children how to use the slides and the cargo nets because they had never seen something like that before! I teeter-tottered with Shon-Shon for about 20 minutes. He is so sweet. Chase, Johnny, Travis, Emerson, and I were all talking to this young Haitian boy who was nineteen. Chase actually made really good friends with the boy, but the funny part of the story was that he thought Emerson was 25, Travis was 24, Chase was 22, and I was 20! He was so shocked at our ages! That just goes to show the size difference between the two areas! He only weighed 105 pounds! That really made me feel fat! But just seeing the eyes of all the kids playing on the playground melted my heart. I was thinking about how excited I was to meet my little girl that I decided to sponsor, and as soon as that thought crossed my mind, Trey came up to me and told me that my child was one of the two kids that they couldn’t find. I was heartbroken, and I wanted to cry, but I wasn’t surprised because she had no brothers or sisters, and her father abounded them, so it was just her and her mother. He told me he still wanted me to come and experience meeting them, but I’m not sure I can do it. It is going to be kind of a sad day tomorrow as we all back up to get ready to go back home, but the anticipation of getting to see everyone will override the sadness, I think. Please continue to pray for us as we put the finishing touches on the ark and educate the kids how to play! It’s going to be a blast! I love and miss everyone, and I’ll see you soon!

Day 12 | Madison

I am so glad that today was so cool! The weather was perfect! It was an all around great day. At first, I was digging holes, like usual, then I moved over to mixing, making, and carrying concrete, and I finished the day easy with painting the rainbow onto the ark. The ark looks beautiful! It’s really coming together. The rainbow on the front of it really puts the icing on the cake! The only sad part of the day was Johnny telling me that he didn’t like me. When I asked him why, he told me that he didn’t know. I told him that I didn’t like him either, so he said that he didn’t care, but I know he’s just kidding, or at least I hope he is. A Haitian girl went down a few of the slides today which was very exciting. I can’t wait until it’s all done, and we can teach all the kids how to play on it! We’re going to the market tomorrow, which will be interesting. I’m really excited to go bartering on Wednesday. That’s going to be really fun! Last night was hysterical! Emerson, Chase, and Mark were all going crazy for some reason. I think Mary Lou put something in that baked spaghetti because they were being ridiculous, but any who, they had just finished bathroom duty, and I won’t even tell you how that went; I’ll let you figure it out yourself. They came back into our room thing and were talking into the fan so it would sound like a robot voice. They were hee-hawing. They thought that was the funniest thing they had ever heard. While they were focused on Emerson making a Chewbacca noise into the fan, Bill had snuck outside and poured a cup of water into the fan soaking the boys. I was crying I was laughing so hard, and my dad got it all on video! It was a good night, and I’ll leave it at that. Hope everyone back home is doing alright. I miss everyone, and I can’t wait to come home!

Day 11 | Madison

Well, today was very, very, very tiring. Church was… different. I wasn’t quite sure how to handle it. It was really hard to stay focused because we obviously didn’t have a clue what anyone was saying. The preacher spoke one line in English, and one group of girls that were singing sang, “Heart of Worship” which was beautiful! There was a prayer that I kid you not, lasted fifteen minutes at least. I was sure when we were praying or when we weren’t because no one had said amen yet, so it was a little difficult to stay awake during that. Then came the hike… oh dear the waterfall hike. That was something else. I have never been so exhausted in my life. I was one of the ones that went all the way to the one Johnny showed us a picture of at the very beginning of the hike. Me, Allie, Tiara, my dad, Chase, Holden, Brent, Johnny, Don, and Nate were the only ones who went that far, and believe me, it was something. I fell completely in the water before we even made it anywhere. Now we know that Madison should not try and jump across the creek bed. I had just finished putting mine and Allie’s phones inside my bag, which of course, got submerged under the water. I very quickly got out of the freezing cold, disgusting water and got our phones. They were fine, thank God. If Nate, Don, and Johnny hadn’t been there to basically carry me across most of the rocks. They helped all of us get back down the waterfalls which most of us probably would have died trying to get back down by ourselves. I’m surprised I’m still breathing right now. I have never been so exhausted in my life, even in all the sports I’ve played; nothing has worn me out like that hike did. Johnny kept telling me, “Ahhh, you can do it, I know you can.” I kept saying, “Well, at this point, it’s whether I want to or not.” He just laughed. When we got all the way to the way to the top, Nate, Don, and Johnny all jumped in and got underneath the waterfall. We took tons of pictures. It was really an adventure. I saw more dead spiders than I really wanted to see, and they just happened to be tarantulas. I screamed a couple times which worried some of the others because they probably thought someone was hurt. I was hurt, just really scared. I could definitely live without seeing another one of those. I won’t ever go on another hike like that again, that’s for sure. I was fun, but way too tiring. I cannot wait to go to sleep tonight. I wish I could have a day of rest before we got back to work, but there is A LOT to be done still, and I can’t wait until it’s all finished!

Day 10 | Madison

Today was very eventful! I got pretty spoiled and got to paint all day, which was very nice. I enjoyed having that break from the back-breaking labor. It wasn’t really back-breaking, but it was hard, definitely not girl work, but hey, I made it through to the next day. Shawn Hunter witnessed to a Haitian which was incredible! His son was the first Haitian to go down the slide. He was a little sweetheart. He didn’t know any English, but that didn’t really surprise me because he was only eight years old. I took a few pictures with him; he liked to look at them after they were taken. Before lunch, while we were painting, I made friends with a young Haitian man. I don’t recall his name, but it was definitely foreign and really long, but I remember it started with an L. I told him I was impressed with his English. Then he told me he didn’t speak it very well, but I told him that he was doing a much better job than I would ever do if I lived here and spoke this language. When I asked him how old he was, he was very hesitant to answer, he thought for a while then said, “I know it’s a 1 first and then a 9.” I immediately responded with nineteen, and he said, “I think so. Is that all?” So I told him yes. I told him how old I was, which he wasn’t sure how old sixteen was supposed to be, so I simplified it down to telling him that I was three years younger than he was. He was still in school; tenth grade. He wasn’t sure what sports were until I gave him a few examples. He played basketball and of course, soccer. He was very kind to ask me questions about myself and the things that I enjoyed. He asked me if I thanked God everyday for my parents and my siblings. He was just a very sweet guy. I was a little upset with myself because I didn’t get a picture with him. I got to take my first warm shower today! It was half cold, half warm. I used the cold at first because I was still hot from working, then I did the cup shower once I couldn’t stand the cold anymore. I am very excited to see the way they have church in the morning, but I am not too thrilled to wake up before 6:00. I haven’t decided if I am going to go on the waterfall hike tomorrow or not. I know I will end up going, but I’m still being very indecisive. Homesickness is starting to set in. I miss my boyfriend A LOT. It really sucks not being able to talk to him. Everyone is starting to get into the grove of things, but I’m anxious to get home; A few more days! I’ll be sad to leave, but happy to get back home!

Day 9 | Madison

Well, one day is down! I am so tired in so many different places. My feet feel as if they can’t sustain a single pound. I can’t grip anything from all the holes I attempted to dig today. I will sleep good tonight for sure. I was very surprised at how well I slept last night! I didn’t hear a single snore the whole night! My “two Benadryl and music” method worked pretty well, I guess! I’ll probably do the same thing tonight. I’m not taking any chances on losing sleep. It seems like we got a lot of work done today. So much stuff is going up like the slides and some of the teeter totters. There is still tons and tons of work left to do, but I know we’ll accomplish all of our tasks and more. We all worked so fast and hard, so there is no way and project will go unfinished. Bible study was very interesting this morning. I sat beside a Haitian He knew English very well. Chase asked him how he was, and he responded, “Good.” It really shocked me. When Mark was speaking, he didn’t wait for the translator to repeat the phase in his language. He even looked at my Bible and read along with us. Bill was right, they really do love to sing. I can be walking to the bathroom and pass a Haitian, and they will be either humming or singing something. They are very interesting people to watch. They never stop until their job is finished. I have a new appreciation for the tools we have back in the U.S. They do EVERYTHING by hand. It’s incredible. I can’t wait to get back into the groove tomorrow!

Day 8 | Madison

Our trip from Daytona to Fort Pierce was great! We only drove about two hours while everyone else drove 14 and a half! The plane ride was fine. I was pretty nervous during take off. I was shaking pretty bad. I almost cried saying goodbye to my boyfriend, but I got over it pretty fast. I was really surprised at the amount of people that were on the plane to come to Haiti! When we landed, I felt really unwelcome. I really felt like they didn’t want me there. I’ve never felt more out of place when we were driving through town and everyone was staring at us. The trip all the way up here was only 11 miles, and it took us roughly an hour! I feel like I’m in a movie; like this stuff isn’t real, but it is most definitely real! The rubble and amount of garbage is unreal! The amount of work that needs done is more than you can even imagine. I’m very exited to meet everyone. I am also very interested in sponsoring a child. I would love to help the children get the education that they truly deserve. It’s going to be a very interesting week, but I’m anxious to see what God has in store for us!