STACEY GAGNE –  Two weeks from today the journey begins in our trip to Jacmel.   How did we get here so fast?

Thanks to Facebook, I’ve been able to correspond with the teammates that I’ll be traveling with.  Some of the 9 of us are seasoned travelers to Haiti and some of us are first timers.   It’s going to be beautiful to see how God uses our different strengths, giftings and experience as we serve there.  I’m sure you will get to hear from some of them as we share our stories with the WJTL audience.

Each of us are packing bags with essentials like towels, formula, diapers, clothes, toys… you name it… to bring and bless people with.  I have one giant duffle bag ready to go and need to do some shopping for filling a second bag.   I am so excited to get there, meet some beautiful people and share my experiences with you!

I’ll be flying out of the area on Friday October 21st and traveling from Miami to Port Au Prince on Saturday the 22nd and will be there until the 29th.

I would appreciate your pray for these final 2 weeks of preparation!

Stacey Gagne

Packing my bags and preparing my heart!

STACEY GAGNE –

Yesterday I was sitting in the Passport Health Office realizing it had been almost exactly a year (off by one day) that I was there!  Some of you may remember my trip to Ethiopia with Compassion International last October.   It was my very first missions trip on my very first passport and really was life changing.   Yesterday  it was time to update some immunizations for another adventure!

I’m excited to tell you that I am preparing to travel this October to Jacmel, Haiti!  I will be traveling with a team going to work with Joy in Hope, a ministry whose vision is to:

“support, encourage and build Haitian families in order to provide them with the spiritual, educational cultural and physical foundation needed to impact their community, their nation and the world for Christ.   Joy In Hope accomplishes its mission through three branches of ministry: children’s homes, churches and schools and numerous outreach efforts such as educational programs, evangelism, feeding and nutritional programs and medical clinics. Each of these avenues allows Joy In Hope to provide a Christ-centered model for serving in the local community.”  

Our team of 9 from several different states will be joining together to bless this community that is still recovering from the earthquake.   It’s also a special trip for me because I’ll be traveling with some friends I have made through volunteering at Creation Festival as well as making some new ones.  Also,  my friends Gwenn and Nick and their family are on staff with Joy in Hope and live in Jacmel.  The leader of our trip is Denise, Gwenn’s mom.   I expect that it will be a special trip in many ways and I’m thrilled to introduce the WJTL audience to my friends at Joy in Hope.

Some things we’ll be doing there as a team may include home construction,  distribution of diapers,  formula and other supplies,  working on the land where the Children’s Home is to be built and just generally being an encouragement to the community there in whatever ways we can as we share the Love of Jesus.

I am excited to have the opportunity to serve on this team and share my experiences with the WJTL listening audience.   Tune in during the week of October 24th as I report to you live from Jacmel, Haiti!  .   Thanks for keeping our team in your prayers.

Preparing for the Adventure!

Stacey

Lisa Landis takes the Kids Cookie Break on a field trip through Hope International’s Pathways Out Of Poverty.

LISA LANDIS- In 2007 Hurricane Felix unleashed its power on the village of Boom Sirpi.  The village is located along the Mosquito Coast (or Miskito Coast), Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua.  Friends in Action Executive Director Tim Johnston and I visited with one of the village judges who was living in the village at the time of the storm.  He talks about the storms impact and the hope that FIA is bringing to the people, who are still rebuilding after the 2007 storm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyVO2mTsNZY

lisa@wjtl.com

LISA LANDIS- It’s been two weeks since my return home from an amazing trip with Friends In Action International (FIA) to Nicaragua.  FIA is located in Middletown, PA. FIA is a team of people with diverse gifts and abilities who serve indigenous people groups and missionaries in remote parts of the world with humanitarian aid & relief projects while establishing the church.

Here is an example of how FIA is working in a remote part of the world.  This video features several highlights from my visit to the small island Rama Cay, a half-hour boat ride from Bluefields, Nicaragua, on the Caribbean coastline.  Approximately 883 people live on this tiny isalnd, which is the size of two city blocks.  The island is overcrowded and FIA is helping to establish a village on the nearby mainland so there will be an environmentally stable and self-supporting community as the community continues to grow.

FIA is looking for people to come along side them as volunteers, work teams, and financial supporters so they can continue to bring the hope of Jesus Christ to the Rama people.  Visit FIAintl.org for information on how you can help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY1h6_JuCDk

LISA LANDIS-I’m slowly easing back into the work week after an exciting time with Friends in Action Intl. reporting live from their work projects in Nicaragua.

We had some free time in Bluefields before we flew to Managua on Saturday.  Here are a few of the pictures from our time in Bluefields.  These are some of the places the Bluefields work teams get to experience, including trips to the market, the boat docks, & the town:

And here are some of the sites from our visit Sunday to Masaya, Nicaragua including “the lookout” over Lake Masaya:

Listeners can join Friends in Action work teams going to Nicaragua to build homes in May and June. Those interested can get more information or an application by calling the office at (717) 546-0208 or emailing FIA-USA@FIAintl.org.

lisa@wjtl.com

Here’s a quick look at what it takes to build a cement block house in Boom Sirpi. FIA supplies the materials & teams visit to help, but for the most part the people build their own house. It takes 800 blocks to build a house. The kitchen is located next to the block house and that is constructed of wood. The block is one large room.

LISA LANDIS- After our visit to the Rama Island we got back in the boat and traveled not far across the bay to the Rama Mainland.  This is where FIA is working to build a village for the Rama people.  A man named William is letting Friends in Action use some of his land to construct houses, teach the people agriculture, and generate wind power.  This is where Karlita Bravo and her little brother and mom and dad live.  They are the national missionaries with Central American missions who are partnering with the work of Friends in Action.

Here are some pictures from our Friday visit.  The couple pictured is William and his cousin, the boats are their fishing boats and the cabin is one of the new cabins FIA is building to house works teams.  The other house is the Bravo house and the base where Tim and other workers stay.  I had a sweet siesta on their hammock.  Nothing like being lulled to sleep by the sounds of the jungle.  The church is also pictured below.  The shot across the water is looking at the Rama Island from the Mainland.

As you see we left to go back to Bluefields as the sun was going down.  Next I will post videos of our Friday visit.  I hope to post those as we wait in the airport Monday.

Adios!

lisa@wjtl.com

LISA LANDIS-Greetings from Bluefields, Nicaragua.  Yesterday morning we left the hotel and walked to a house along the water where the family owns many boats and rents them to groups like Friends in Action.  Here are pictures of our journey waiting for the boat, traveling across the Bay in the boat, followed by a visit to the Rama village which is the size of just two city blocks.  In a future blog I will post pictures of our journey across the water to the mainland where Friends in Action is building houses, construction cabins for work teams, experimenting with wind power, and much more to creative a sustainable village.  Here are some of the sights that we witnessed yesterday of the Rama village.  There is a great need here and FIA is doing amazing things to bring hope to the future of the Rama people of Nicaragua.

I have many more pictures to share, but that’s all the time I have for now.  We are getting ready to leave the hotel today (Saturday).  Our flight to Managua leaves at 4pm.

lisa@wjtl.com

FIAintl.org

LISA LANDIS-

Here are some pictures from Thursday when we traveled with Friends in Action Intl. from Puerto Cabezas down to Managua then over to Bluefields.

The Hotel sign is where we are staying and the street scene is the street outside our hotel.

Yesterday (Friday) we traveled by boat to the Rama village and then the mainland where FIA is building them a village.  I will post another blogs with those pictures.

lisa@wjtl.com