Story #8

The Guys

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I just wanted to tell you about all of the team and what roles they played, from my point of view.

Adam

Adam and Jameson. This was taken on Friday, right after he had handed out his player card to all the kids.

Look at all that sweat! :) This is Adam and Wendy (Yes, Wendy  is a boy) This was taken on Friday while we were watching the other team from California perform a skit.

Adam on the way to the orphanage.

I really love this picture! Its just so full of, joy, love, happiness, and beauty! This was taken on Tuesday during the party. :)


Adam was such a wonderful man of God. I personally thought that out of all the people on our team he was the one who spent the most time reading his bible and studying what he read. Adam was very energetic with the kids and very concerned about their well being. We did not spend very much time together but he was definitely buddies with all the guys.  I'm very thankful to him for helping my mom when she needed someone. Now I guess I should tell you that Adam is the starting linebacker for the Tampa bay buccaneers. Poor guy did not know anyone on the team except Reza, and Reza was not at there until Saturday.  The first time we had to cross “the bridge”, which is supper scary, everyone was freaked out. The thing that comforted me was Adam. I told myself, “if Adam cam make it across the bridge and not break it then it wont break for me.” Even then I was still scared, but thanks to Adam it did not bother me too much :)  Like I mentioned earlier God took the heat away from me after I asked him to and somehow Adam found out. So one night Adam said to me, “Man you need to pray for me cuz I’m always on fuegeo.” I laughed and kept saying fuegeo. He said, “Man I live in Florida, I have to keep my Spanish up.” Gosh it was supper funny! I prayed for him but he felt no relief from the hot sun.

Ben

This is Wendy, the boy who with Adam on Friday.

Ben and Battina, She is such a cuttie!!

                                                            
Ben was my airport buddy, he was my protector, and my comforter. When we were at the airport in Denver I told Ben that I was his airport buddy and he was like cool. Then he said, “I need a Kleenex.” And I was like, “ I have some.” As I was digging through my “mommy bag” he said, “ You’re an awesome airport buddy.” So we started off the week well. :) Then when we were in Dallas he helped me get some food, since my breakfast was horrible and my lunch fell on the ground. When we were in Fort Lauderdale, Shawn, Brenda, Mack, my mom, Ben, and myself went to Taco bell. (not the best meal but we were starving!) While we were there Brenda, who works at the Harmony preschool, was talking about her job. Something came up that made me say I went there and Ben looked at me like super shocked and said, “How old are you?!?!?” Haha. Of course I told him that I am 15 and he was just super freaked out. It was hilarious! Then while we were flying to Haiti I was shaking my legs    and hands it looked psycho! I was just super excited and my nerves were going crazy! He leaned over and asked my mom, who was sitting next to me, if I was ok. Haha his airport buddy is a psycho! Then when we landed in Haiti I asked him, “What does your personal bubble look like?” He was confused at the question so I told him, “As soon as we get out of the airport I’m going to hold on to you.” Then we got to “customs” Ben’s green card was rejected because he filed his out with a pink colored ink pen. So as he was filling out a new one I had to go to the mean man that just rejected him and state my case. Finally everything worked out but it was not very pleasant. Then all the guys loaded up the luggage on to 6 carts. After all the carts were loaded we went out to “the runway of death” I was told it would be a lot worse then it was but it was still scary. So, as we left I put my hand on top of Ben’s hand, which was pushing the cart, and as we went down further I put my hand around his arm and then, when it got super intense, I squeezed his arm so much, I cant believe I didn’t hurt him! Once I was squeezing him so tightly that he knew I was scared and tried to calm me down, even though he was confused too. I found out latter that my nails where pushing into his skin. Sorry Ben…  Then when we got into the Bus he tried to comfort me by telling me that the hardest thing for him to handle when he is in other countries is the traffic and how crazy the traffic is. How nice of him? :) Then on Friday, when we were at the orphanage for the first time. He saw me talking to a translator named Daniel. When Daniel left for a moment Ben came over to ask me if I was comfortable talking to him. I was caught off guard because I hadn’t thought of the translators hitting on me. But I was very thankful for his watchful eye. Then on Saturday morning Daniel made me very uncomfortable with some of the things he said. So when he left I told Ben that I was not comfortable and he helped explain that to some of the other guys. In fact Ben talked to Daniel on Saturday and I think that he told him not to return. I’m not sure I did not see Daniel until Tuesday and when I saw him he saw me and then like ran away. So I’m not sure if he told him to leave me alone but I am sure that he helped me a lot! On Sunday morning Ben was hot and needed a fan so I gave him my fan that sprays water. Haha he used that all the time! I asked him on Wednesday if he was planning on giving it back. He didn’t really answer but I just told him to keep it.  During our debrief on Sunday I cried a lot!, and as I cried I rubbed my tears away but I forgot that I had just put  mosquito repellent on a few minis earlier. So when I finished crying  I said, “I’m sorry but I have mosquito repellent in my eyes.” So I left the debrief but I couldn’t see so Ben and my mom lead me to the kitchen and then Ben took me out to the mini balcony and poured the water from his water bottle in my eyes. He was having a hard time keeping my eyes open so he said, “just look at the water. I promises I wont pour it, but just look at it.” Then  I told him to go for it and he totally drenched me! But he cleaned my eyes out. :) It was very nice. Then on Monday night, we were making a piñata. Ben was telling me a story about a famous Pr., and as he told me about this pastor this thing climbed onto the roof and I was like, “What is that?” He kept talking and then it started getting closer to us. So I said again, “What is that?” Again he did nothing but continued telling his story. So I taped his arm and said, “No really, what is that?” He looked at it and said, “Oh it’s a lizard!” I’m perfectly ok with lizard’s, in fact I really like them! But I tell you man it looked like a mouse skeleton crawling around on the roof. That’s kinda creepy!!! Then on Wednesday we went to the airport. I was so not scared! I did not even care if Ben was near me! While we were loading on the plane he grabbed my backpack and I turned around and just stared at him and he said, “I’m preparing you. Incase someone tries to rob you. I was like, “I’m prepared to kick you.” Gosh it was fun.  He was just a wonderful, helpful, protective guy, and I’m glad he was on my team and my airport buddy. 

 Josh

The girl in the pink is wearing Josh's shades.

Josh and Obed :)

He was on team B with me. The day I took the camera was the day when we were with the girls. He was awesome with the boys too, but I dont have any pictures of him with the boys yet.



Now Josh and Ben are roommates (in America) and very close friends. Though I did not spend very much time with Josh he was very much an AWESOME blessing to me! Josh spent a lot of time with Adam. He was wonderful with the kids at the orphanage! I cried a lot at the debrief on Sunday. Josh was there with his on my shoulder even before my mom. That was really comforting. On Monday, when we were at Megan’s house, Reza and a few other people went to get cold sodas. For some reason I was not in the kitchen when the cold (I emphasize that because nothing was cold) drinks. So when I was in the kitchen Shawn noticed that I did not have a drink. Immediately Josh gave me “half” of his drink. I emphasized half because he gave me way more than half his drink. How awesome is that? He is too nice to me. J   On Tuesday I had a hard time with the germs, which I had not had all week long. After I held all the kids I ran home and scrubbed myself clean. I was literally in the shower before anyone else was even at the house. I was really having a hard time. After I had cleaned myself I went outside, I was scared even to touch the things in the house. I recognized it as an attack from satin and I felt that God wanted me to have Josh pray for me. So I went up and asked Josh to pray for me. He said of course, pulled up a chair next to mine and just comforted me.  I was about to cry so I couldn’t hardly say anything. He recognized my need to vent and asked me what was wrong. After I cried for a few minutes Josh put his hands on me and prayed for me. That made me feel so much better. Then while we were walking back to the orphanage he said to me, “Thank you for your heart.” I smiled, said thank you and then told him how appreciative I was for all the protection and comfort he has given me. That was the greatest moment we had together. I mean, we fought off the devil, I would say that’s a pretty big moment.

Al of these guys, were, are, and always will be wonderful men of God. I hope you can understand what a blessing these men were to me, and if you wanted to, you could thank God for my protector’s and my comforters.