Haiti June 2017 Day 5 by Jonah Vander Kooi

Psalm 103:8 — “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.”

The last day. Full of mixed emotions, we had morning devotions facing the ocean. After eating we packed our lunches and boarded the bus to head to the kids. Everyone was looking forward to seeing the kids again, but we also knew we had to say goodbye at the end of the day.

The kids were eating breakfast when we arrived so we had a little time to slap on some sunscreen and drop our bags off. Slowly, a couple kids turned into many as they ran down the hill from eating. They jumped into open arms, onto shoulders, and in laps.

During the morning, there was a group of about 20 men that were rounded up to take care of the problem in the well. We worked on taking a 700 pound pipe out of the well. It was in the way of the pump so we could not get the pump all the way to the bottom of the well. Using pipe wrenches, thick wire, ratchet straps and many hands we hoisted the pipe up foot by foot. After getting about 20 feet of pipe in the air we would cut through the pipe to keep it from bending and to lighten the load. Cutting through the pipe meant hitting water that was still in the pipe. Anyone within a 10 foot radius was drenched from head to toe.

After a couple hours of yelling and counting to three in Creole we finally brought all 230 feet of the heavy pipe above ground. You didn’t have to see it to know that we had finished that part of the project. Yelling, dancing, and clapping could have been heard or seen from anywhere. We then lowered the pump back in and sealed the top, and turned it on with satisfaction.


The rest of the day consisted of playing games and engaging with the kids, enjoying every last moment. Some kids would want to play soccer, others would rather run around with your phone all day. Everywhere you looked you could see God’s love. His love was ever present throughout the whole trip. Love was the theme this week for our team, and it was hard to lose sight of God’s love when you are with these kids.

Goodbyes came faster than anyone would have liked. We took a picture of everyone there and the hugs and tears began. Kids worked their way around to everyone to say goodbye and you could tell they did not want us to go. As we boarded the bus the kids would knock on the windows and wave one last time.

Leaving here is very hard, but when we do we know and trust that every one of these 63 kids is in the hand of God.