Late Edition - Birthday in Constanza

Sorry this is a bit overdue, but I wanted to put up a blog entry about my 1st birthday in Constanza!

Me and the Rowley's at Socrates Steak House

A few days before the birthday, the Rowley's took me out to eat at a steak house that we had been talking about going to for months. Thanks to a nice birthday donation from my parent's we were all able to enjoy a GREAT steak and a fun night.

On my actual birthday, I went over to the Rowley's for a great dinner and a birthday cake! I was not really expecting any of that so it was a great bonus. It has been a huge blessing to live down the street from them and be able to pop in and out for meals and just to hang out.

Me, Isaiah, and Gabe with my awesome birthday cake

Probably the best part of the birthday was the unexpected and really thoughtful gifts from Gabe and Isaiah! Gabe looked all over Constanza for a certain Dominican Baseball team lanyard, and we're gonna continue looking for it and trying to find one! Isaiah sewed together an awesome pillowthat said "From your buddy Isaiah," which was complete with drawings and filled in with markers.

I couldn't have asked for a better 1st birthday in Constanza!

Me and Isaiah and my new pillow

Past few days in Haiti

Me, Grant and Pierre up on top of the church

Things have been a whirlwind over the last couple days, but I'll do my best to try to capture everything that has happened. Grant and Pierre Garcon and his crew (about 10-12 people including mostly family/tv crews) got here from Port au Prince on Wednesday morning. They were pretty tired so the first day was pretty low key for a bit after they got here. I loved just spending time with them, the group was filled with fun and interesting people that we really got to know well over the few days they were here.

Me and RJ went to go meet them at the airport on Wednesday morning in the truck and we turned right back around and got in a different truck to come back.....only to find out that that truck was staying at the airport to pick up a different group! So we hopped on some motorcycle taxi's (right down my alley..) and took off for the mission and quickly passed their huge truck on the terrible haitian roads. We stopped at a random grocery type store on the way back to get something to drink and we found about 8 Dr. Peppers! It was a great surprise and Grant said he had never seen DP's there before so we were pretty happy (ok mostly me...). We took a nice tour of the mission that afternoon and you could tell that they were really there for the right reasons and not at all for publicity.

Yup

Thursday was a real busy day. It started with me and Grant heading off to the soccer field to start spreading word about the sports camp we were going to be doing that afternoon. We met and watched the professional soccer team practice for a bit and then just rode around town for a bit which I loved. We then went back and grabbed Pierre and a few people from his crew to go meet the team before they were done practicing. Pierre was all about driving the Gator and it was fun (and a little scary at times..) riding through the streets of Haiti in the back. After we met the team (again) we took the Gator and the other vehicle down to the beach where the market is. It was crazy and packed, but they said it was nothing compared to Wednesdays when it is Market Day and there are people EVERYWHERE. We also visited a local bakery where it looked like something out of the 17th century..very interesting. We then went back to the mission and grabbed everything/everyone and went out to the field!

Riding around town in the Gator

The kids were so excited and Pierre had a ton of energy and passion to help the kids. We played soccer, tug of war and threw the football around. It was incredible to see how unbelievable of an athlete Pierre was, just in everything he did it was very evident that he was an NFL receiver. Later in the day, we visited the kids at the school and they handed out tons of colts pictures, pennants and school supplies. Very cool to watch him interact with the kids, one of the things I didn't realize before the trip was that he is completely fluent in Creole. His mother really only speaks Creole so in the house that is what they speak. He has done so much for Haiti and especially for Northwest Haiti Christian Mission, and what probably meant the most to me about him coming was that this trip was planned BEFORE the earthquake. Some people will pessimistically think that he is just doing it for attention or to promote himself but there has never been a doubt in my mind the entire week that he is here for the right reasons.

Pierre and Enol speaking to the professional soccer team

Even through all of the circus events from the past couple days, it has been great to spend time with Grant. We have had some really good conversations and it has been good to be here this week so that he can just get away from all of the craziness and stress from this week and just relax a little bit. We dropped the group off at the airport on friday morning and went to another site on the beach. We had a great relaxing day, but also had our fair share of crazy adventures trying to walk back from the beach to the ministry site! Let's just say a combination of waking up at 4am, no water, no breakfast, and walking back for over an hour in the hot 3pm Haitian sun was not a very well thought out plan...It is something I am glad to have survived but wouldn't wish it on anyone!

It is hard to capture all the amazing things that happened this week. There were too many conversations, little things and blessings to really put into a simple blog entry. I just wanted to thank everyone for their prayers and know that God is working in big ways in Haiti. It is hard to see so many people with such little hope/opportunity, but I had to keep telling myself that God is in control of each individual life in Haiti...even if we can't understand that right now. Thank you for all the encouragement and prayer, I need it!

(These are pictures from Grant, I'll try to upload mine on facebook when I am back in the DR)

In Haiti!

I wanted to send out a quick message to let everyone know that after 2 long days of travel I am here in Haiti! Grant is actually in Port au Prince (picking up Pierre Garcon..) so I spend the afternoon with his roommate who picked me up from the airport. His roommate RJ has been incredible and really made things more comfortable for me even though I came here knowing nobody and no Creole.

It was an interesting trip to get here, including just about every method of travel you can think of! I took my motorcycle on Sunday afternoon to Jarabacoa where I spent the night with Brian Veen. He graciously drove me to Santiago in his car where I jumped on Caribe Tours (big charter bus) to take all the way to Cap Haitien. In Cap Haitien I was met by Tom Froese and spent the night with him and his family. I had gotten to know him and his 2 adopted sons on various trips to Constanza and really enjoyed spending more time with them. What a blessing that I had them helping me because I really don't know how I could have done it based on the bus schedules.

After spending the night, they drove me to the airport and we waited together for a bit until their flight for Port au Prince left about an hour and a half before mine. I was pretty nervous, not knowing any Creole and being in a crazy, hot, little airport "terminal." My flight was scheduled for 12:30 and at 12:20 my airline came out and started announcing things and everybody got up and went to the door. This seemed like the right thing to do.....until I had gotten out to the plane and I asked someone (just to make sure....) that it was going to Port de Paix and they quickly told me no no no Port au Prince! So after that close call I went back to the waiting room and waited for about 20 minutes. After that I was feeling very uncomfortable with my situation, so I prayed that God would just help me get to Port de Paix and just lead me on the right plane and help things to run smoothly. As I lifted my head from the prayer a man was standing there and introduced himself in English! He was a pastor in Port de Paix through Baptist International Missions and he had lived in Haiti for over 20 years. Needless to say I stuck by his side all the way until we got off the plane. I don't think I have ever had a prayer answered so quickly, but I sure was grateful.

After a long, bumpy ride in the back of a pick-up truck (tap tap/taxi) I was finally in St. Louis. I then got a tour of the site and went out with RJ and some team members to deliver food to a few houses in the community. It is very different here and the poverty is intense. I think it will be something I will be processing more after I leave. I am trying hard not to compare the DR and Haiti, but it is really hard not to. I am very excited to see Grant in the morning, but the place could be a circus with Pierre Garcon here (as well as CBS, NFL network and possibly ESPN).

It was a long journey to get here, but God has already taught me a ton and I can't wait to see what he reveals to me throughout my time here. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, I will try to get another update or 2 on here during my trip. God is good.

Kyle

Trip to Haiti

Me and Grant (on the right) in South Africa. Unfortunately, Kuenzle will

not be joining us in Haiti, but he definitely has earned a picture on the blog!

This next week I have the opportunity to travel to Haiti to visit a good friend and fellow missionary there, Grant Roszkowiak. We played football together at Wheaton for 4 years, in addition to being in the same small group. I am so excited to get over there and see what his life is like right now and how God is using him.

Please pray for me:

-Safe travel and a sense of peace and protection as I'll be travelling through a country where I don't know one bit of the language.

-That I am an encouragement to Grant while I am in Haiti, as well as the other nationals and missionaries there.

-Safe travel again.........

And I really really will try to be better about updating this blog. I have some good entries in my head, and some good pictures to put up but just need to do it. Thank you for all your prayers and encouraging letters and emails, it really means a lot and is a huge support to me while I am in the DR.

My New Apartment

So a lot of people have been asking me what my apartment looks like...so I took a few pictures and here they are! Once (if..) I get internet in my apartment I will be offering skype tours as well! Here are pictures of my bedroom, living room, kitchen, view from the roof, etc.

Lots of Soccer...and "super bowl party"

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the first group this year was a soccer group from St. Mary's College in California. The group comes every year with different people but Randy, the leader, is always here. All the kids know him and are always asking when his team is coming back.

A little pre-tournament ceremony. Randy is the 2nd one in from

the left sitting down.

It is pretty incredible to see the amount of interest they generate through their clinics and games. The kids play soccer almost every day now. I also picked up some tricks and games to use in my gym class.

Very fun to see these guys in Constanza

The group was a big encouragement to me, as it was fun to hang out with some people (almost...) my own age. I realize that this group isn't a typical group, but I am very excited to get going with more groups in the next few weeks.

A few of the kids from my favorite house in Jarabacoa,

and Starling in front who used to live there but is now

in Constanza.

Keeping tabs on whats going on in the sports world has become much less of a priority to me this second time around (except for the bulls obviously..), but I still thought it would be weird if I didn't watch the super bowl. I invited Jhoan (helps at the care center) and the Rowley's 2 youngest boys Gabe and Isaiah. We had a good time and had some Chicken, some refrescos and played some games as well. The actual game was pretty good, but I think it was fun just to have some people over to the apartment for the first time!

Playing some card games during halftime

Back to Soccer, while the group from California was here. We had a big tournament on our new soccer field behind the care center. Teams from Jarabacoa travelled up here and it was a blast. It was awesome to see some of my little Jarabacoa friends in my town.

This picture is from a game I went to in Jarabacoa,

but I think its cool and my family has been sponsoring

this kid for a long time now.

Sorry...Community Visits

First off, I am sorry for the lack of blog updates since I have been back in the DR the 2nd time around, I am going to try to do better and feel that it is likely I will now that I have better access to internet. After a great time being home for Christmas, the transition has been very smooth in 2010. I feel that I had a good base to build on with relationships when I returned home and they have definitely strengthened since coming back.

At Palmas in the afternoon. It started small but soon there

were people everywhere!

One thing I have really enjoyed this year has been going with the teachers or Alfredo into the community to visit families of children in the Care Center. I actually had no idea that they did this on fridays until about a month ago when I mentioned to Alfredo that I was interested in going into the community and building relationships with the families. I am usually pretty drained by thursday from the week, but these are always refreshing for my friday off.

One of the houses in Palmas

I don't like to take pictures while I'm on these visits so I don't really have any to post, although I do have some that were taken when a team was here from our visit to "carrera de las palmas." This was my first introduction to this community, Alfredo and I went in the morning to ask if it was ok if we brought a team to meet the people there and then we stayed and talked for a while and I really grew to like this community. The trip that afternoon was amazing. Even though I had only been there once before (that same day in the morning...) they treated me like we had been friends for years. I randomly asked the seemingly leader of the community if he wanted to get everyone together and pray and he jumped all over the idea and before I knew it the whole community was out with our team and we had a great time of prayer with these people. This was my first trip so I didn't really think it was a rare thing but Alfredo pulled me aside later and told me how amazing it was and that he had never seen that happen with such a large group. It was a very cool day, and Alfredo and I are going back there this afternoon to keep the relationship going.

A picture taken during the group prayer.

Most of the community right before we left.