Dear friends and family,

Let me start off by saying how amazing the Lord is. I am sitting on the roof of our housing area surrounded by field of crops and further off in the distance a mountain range; beauty at its finest, and on top of that, a sky filled with stars. Not only does the Lord make things beautiful for our eyes to see but for our ears to hear. Its pitch black andI can hear the children laugh as they plays games in a small village 200 yds away and I hear the church congregation led by the choir singing their hearts out to the Lord in an evening worship service. The last way the Lord displays beauty is through actions. We walked in to church and I could tell immediately that the congregation was there to worship the Lord. 

When we arrived in the Port-au-Prince airport yesterday we proceeded through customs and arrived at the daunting task of claiming all 19 suitcases full of the supplies we brought down from the States with us. Luckily the men jumped right to the baggage claim and pulled off (thankfully) all of the luggage. Then as we were ushered out of the tiny customs building by Pastor Pierres men and Pastor Pierre himself we stepped out into the streets of PAP (Port au Prince). Once boarded on the van and our luggage on the "bird cage" (a bed of a truck which is fenced in) we took off for the town of La Croix. We drove through the impoverish city, littered with trash, people bustling about,  and all of the cars and trucks trying to get from here to there without turn signals and the use of horns as a replacement

Upon arrival in La Croix our van was surrounded by the children and young adults. I was out of the van for just a matter of seconds before two young men came over and started a conversation with me and my mother. We soon found out how curious they were as to who we were, where we lived, if we had any siblings and more. I could tell how shocked they were to see a woman with pale skin and obnoxious red hair.  Pierre then ushered us in to the "four seasons" (which really isn't what your think it is; the building where the missionaries and some other people stay) and got us settled. Dinner was served and after a long day of travel, we settled down for the night knowing an amazing day would be ahead of us.

I woke us this morning to the sounds of roosters crowing. After breakfast, we made our way to church. We hadn't even stepped out of the four seasons before we heard the people singing. Church was filled to the brim and what a wonderful service it was. After our lunch we unpacked the suitcases with the supplies and I ventured outside to get my hair braided by a young girl. Later in the afternoon, some of our group ventured to the clinic to cut down a piece of bamboo that would hold up an antennae. I was then approached by a man who I heard speaking Spanish to a friend. I was amazed because French Creole was the native language. After striking up a conversation with him in Spanish I soon learned he learned this "foreign" language in the Dominican.

I may have only been here for 24 hours but I have defiantly encountered how amazing the lord is through the beauty of the land, the peaceful sounds, and the splendor of the people around us.