Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Part 3: Announcement Time

I have been waiting all day to be able to write this blog and I am so thankful that we got power before supper today. For those of you who are reading this blog for the first time, go back two blog post and start there and then make your way to this one. Please bare with me as it may seem lengthy but just stick with me to the end :)

Back in September Chris and I came to Haiti to look for a house to live in and during our time here God gave me a vision and I shared with those of you who support and follow us. I would like to share that vision again before I get on with what I am wanting to announce.


I see a village, I see kids running, skipping, jumping. I see a beautiful green

soccer field, a cemented basketball court. I see a garden - a big garden, with lots

of fruits and vegetables. I watch as the adults work hard keeping the fresh food

alive that is providing for them and their children. I see smiles as the children get

ready to leave for school. It's an exciting time as for many this is the first time

they will go to school. They are so proud of their new uniforms and backpacks.
They are going to learn and they are so ready for it!

Yes, I see a home for them. They will have a bed, they will be fed, they will get to

finish school and yes, they will be able to keep their dreams alive.

They will know how worthy they are, how much God loves them and how He has

a plan for each and everyone of them.

I wish I had the right words at this moment after sharing this vision but I honestly feel like I am about to announce to the world that I pregnant and I am not sure which way to go about it. So I'll just say it. The Orlesky's are opening a Children's Home!!! This will be run through the organization we are missionaries through, Boaz Ministries. We are so excited, nervous, and expectant of what the Lord has planned for us and those precious children that will be put into our care. At this moment I am screaming in my head cause I am so full of emotions.

I really want to share more details, but I think I need to stop and add just one more blog post tomorrow with where and when we will be opening it, our plans, and how you can get involved.

Pray for us, pray for those children who will come into our care, pray for the adults who will become apart of our team and pray and seek if God has a plan for you to be involved.




 
 
 
 
 
 




 
 

Monday, June 9, 2014

The Now

As sit here to start writing about our present life in Haiti, I can't help but chuckle. Why? At this moment I am sitting at my kitchen table with our very noisy generator turned on because we haven't had power in almost 23 hours. Is that a complaint? No, it's just our life in Haiti. And when our power does come, if you want to see kids scream like its Christmas just come on by for a visit. It's really quite amusing. Maybe one day I'll be able to catch it on video just so you can hear the pure joy and excitement of such a simple thing like getting power.

This morning we got running water and as soon as it comes on, one by one we each take a turn to go and enjoy a shower. Even though we don't have running water on a regular basis it doesn't mean we don't get to wash ourselves, it just means that our baths include a lot of lugging water back and forth from our water jugs to the bathroom. Honestly, I sometimes wonder what it will be like to go back to Canada and have running water all day. Will I forget and just assume I have to wash my clothes by hand? Now that I started talking about washing clothes. Let me tell you, I purposely DO NOT wash my clothes while our cook and assistant is here. In no way do I wash my clothes like a Haitian. They scrub those clothes and get them cleaner than a washing machine. Me, I am lucky if I can make them smell decent. I apologize for anyone that visits me and may think I stink, but you just get to the point where it doesn't really matter cause all you do all day is sweat anyway. Is that a complaint? No, it's just our life in Haiti and well everyone sweats.

Now talking about sweating brings me to our next topic about our life here. Transportation. I really have no words to express it. I'm just happy that I can get to where I need to go and make it back safe. We currently have no vehicle except our moto but we haven't mastered putting 5 people on it yet. You may think that might sound crazy, but come to Haiti and you won't think it's so crazy anymore. So our other form of transportation is called a Tap-tap. It's kind of like a bus/taxi service but about 17 people maybe more or less depending on the day, pile into a back of a truck and we get to where we need to go. It gets very hot and you sweat a lot. If you're going to Port-Au-Prince you can take a big school bus but again they put as many people as possible on it and off you go. The other I thought I might actually pass out from sweating so much. So after this summer we are going to start looking into getting a truck. It will much more convenient and then we can do family activities, like going to the grocery together.

Food. What do we eat you might ask? Well we live in Haiti and before we moved here Chris and I both decided that we wanted our kids to experience as much as a Haitian life as possible so we agreed we would hire a cook and eat Haitian food. We were a little worried about the kids, but again you want to see a child scream like it's Christmas. Come watch the expression Katya gives when rice and beans are put on the table. They have adjusted so well to eating their food and we love it. Plus it's super cheap to feed our family. It cost us $100 a week to feed us 3 meals a day for 5 days. The weekends we use to go the grocery store and buy Canadian type food but I was spending the same amount we spend for 5 for just 2 days and that wasn't sitting well with us. And well we have so many "restaurants" down the road for us that we decided on weekends we eat from there. So we can feed our family of 5 lunch for under $5 and still have leftovers. Saves us money and I get of cooking everyday, sounds good to me. Chris is always the one to get the food and he has built so many great relationships by going out and doing this.

Just 10 minutes ago our Pastor next door was sticking his head over our wired fence calling for him so he can give him some home-made honey and freshly picked cherries. Our other neighbor has been such a blessing to us, in whatever way he can help, you can count him in. And I'm sure everytime Chris goes to get drinking water someone picks him up on their moto and drives him home for free.

We also have build great relationships in a community called Grand Savann. This is where we spend our Saturday mornings with about 75-90 kids. They literally cram into a one bedroom home and learn God's truth then they have some play time and we enjoy some lunch together. Recently we announced that we are starting a feeding program for these children to make sure they are getting meals every Saturday. If you want to learn more about it send one of us a message we would love to share with you more.

This is also where I am going to end. Here was a glimpse of our right now and tomorrow I am impatiently waiting to tell you about our future. We are so excited for what's God being doing in our lives. Even the kids are excited and in the words of Katya "I.JUST.CAN'T.WAIT."



Sunday, June 8, 2014

To Where It All Began

I have decided that I am going to write a 3 post blog about our life in Haiti and where it is headed, but there are many people out there supporting us in so many different ways I thought it would be nice to go back in time and share how we ended up here. So let's go back in time.

Our story doesn't necessarily start in the summer of 2011 but it's the year where change started happening. Chris my husband went on his first mission trip to Mozambique and he came home and you could tell his outlook on life had changed and God was working on his heart. He started talking about moving to Africa and us being missionaries and I just kept looking at him like he was crazy and jokingly playing along with him and say "Yes, let's just sell everything we have and move." See at this time in my life I was planning for bigger things in my life. Our 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house was no longer big enough or new enough for me and I wanted more. So I started bringing Chris to house showings, talking to builders about getting a new house build for us and Chris being the kind man he is played along with me. I was consistent on wanting a new house, he wanted older and smaller if we did move. As months went on I started feel overwhelmed with life and it was time to simplify. I read a book called "7" by Jen Hatmaker and that was the start of how my outlook on life changed. As I read and decided to do my own 7 journey, things that use to matter no longer had value to me.

During this time I was also preparing for my first mission trip to Haiti. Now to be perfectly honest I was only going to say that I went on a missions trip, got to love on some children, and it have no affect on my life. But before this trip it was required that we volunteered locally. I was not thrilled about this idea but Chris was already volunteering with Boaz Ministries and I was already making desserts for their meals so I would just go with my dessert and be gone. Nothing in me wanted to do this, so as I drove that first day to their outreach site, I just remembering sitting in the car and asking God why he was making me do this. Well I left that day changed.

Fast forward a few months and I get notice that my trip to Haiti is cancelled. I am completely devastated. This was the second trip that I couldn't go on, maybe I just wasn't meant to go. Now fast forward a few more days and I am going on another missions trip to HAITI! How the trip and team coming together in a matter of weeks before leaving is a story on it's own, but God had big plans our team.

It's about landing time in Haiti and all I see are tents, and I decide right there that I made a big mistake by coming and I want to just stay on the plane and go right back home. I got off the plane, spent a life changing week and feeling God's presence in my life stronger than I ever had. It was clear at the end of the week that my family would be moving to Haiti. I didn't think it would be 11 months after going for the first time, but when it's God's timing you just go.

I wish I could tell you the whole story but I have so much more to share. So here was a glimpse of how we ended up in Haiti. Tomorrow I'll share with you about our life in Haiti so far, so stick around and enjoy.