Adam and Ann Uhler and two of their children, Lane and Elise, came recently to spend a week with us! We spent part of a day in Port-au-Prince while picking them up, several days at the beach, experiencing Haitian church, meeting their sponsored children, one hiking day and also some touring around Cayes to show them the area and where we shop. Adam & Ann also got to participate in one of our Bible studies. Elise even got to go to school with Grace one day!

It was so nice to have time to show them what we experience daily, to see first hand both the challenges and blessings there are serving here in Haiti. Some of our experiences that week are interspersed between the photos to break them up a bit!

We had several new and surprising things happen to us while the Uhlers were here! One afternoon we were hanging out at the beach at Port Salut together. As is typical on a weekday, we had almost the entire beach to ourselves and so all the salespeople had us to themselves, too! There is no snoozing on the beach, at least not very long, with the vendors constantly approaching…

Later when the girls were in the water and we adults were resting in chairs watching them, suddenly we noticed there was a long line of people coming onto the beach a long ways down. They just kept coming and coming, at least a hundred of them! They were dressed in a certain uniform like they belonged to a club or organization. And now they were coming our way! Did they walk behind us and leave us alone like most people would probably do? No. They stopped in front of us and started surrounding us. About a hundred young people staring at us! Some took pictures and even a few video cameras were panning over us! We decided to wave and smile… Now, I know Adam and Ann look like models and they probably thought they were famous or something, but we have never been considered a tourist stop before!

We also had many different visitors at our door during their visit. One of them was a Haitian lady selling peanuts. Ann wanted to try and see if she could hold the basket of peanuts on her head. It is harder to do it than it looks!

We had opportunity to tour around Cayes and see some Haitian houses and how they live. We enjoyed climbing up a hill to reach one of the houses to get a quick tour inside, visit, give pillow cases dresses, rice, and pork cans. They were so excited for all of them!

Another surprising experience was awaiting us when we hiked to a natural spring. It was truly eye opening to get there by car to the area where we wanted to hike. We hit market day in Ducis, a town we had to drive through, and we couldn’t get through for quite a while! They really didn’t want cars coming through their market! We handed out gospel tracts from our window and they were more receptive to that…

When we arrived at our parking spot, several Haitian guides went along to show us where the trail was and get to the spring. The hiking was spectacular; walking along the river between mountains, interesting smells of burning charcoal, and unique sounds of birds and goats. When we arrived at the spring, the water was different hues of blue and very clear. It was icy cold, but it was refreshing to swim in after our hot, sweaty hike.

On the way back, we asked one of the Haitians if he could show us where to stop and share the gospel and deliver some rice. Eventually they pointed to a house close to the trail. We followed them and suddenly realized that the flag in the middle of the yard represented voodoo! The people of the house welcomed us, but we turned to Adam and Ann and asked them to really pray! We were friendly and proceeded to ask spiritual questions. The old lady said clearly who she served as her master…she admitted her god was Satan and that she was a slave to him. She was a witch doctor and that is how she made her living. We proceeded to share the gospel and God’s Word. Hopefully, seeds were planted and the ground shaken by God’s power to free her from her sin and slavery to Satan. God covered all of us underneath the shadow of His wings, and He protected us from any spiritual darkness. What a God we serve! It is only through Him that we can stand against the spiritual darkness in high places.