Hello dear friends! I have been too busy to write about the wonderful ladies on my team but I would like to ask you one favor. My friend Ramces, I wrote about him earlier, is being attacked. He is in Haiti with a wife and young son. They are wonderful people who can lead Haiti to God and help in so many ways. They have already helped a lot at the Son of God Orphanage and will continue to do more. Sadly I cannot give you many details about how or who is attacking him and his family but I can ask you to pray with all your hearts for their safety. Satan knows how much this man has done, and will do, for the kingdom of God and he wants to hurt him. Please pray for him, his wife Cindy, and his little boy, who is sick right now, Zac.
Thank you SO much for your prayers! They are really needed!
Love,
Madison

Laughlin family update :)

Hello all of my wonderful friends!!  I wanted to give you an update on what God has been doing in our family lately.
Trevor has a job and plans to go to Haiti in November to see one of his very close friends get married :) Its going to be awesome!! Trevor is thinking about staying in Haiti a little bit after the wedding, but who knows?
Carolyn is still the same awesome mommy as she always is. She plans on going to Haiti in December with Marin, one of our friends from church Niki, Niki's mom; who is like a Dr. so that is going to be awesome,  Niki's aunt, and myself.

I went to Dallas for a week, after I came home from Haiti, with my bible quiz team. Then I went on a road trip with my dad for two weeks. Then I came home and got a job so I could help pay for my many planned trips to Haiti. I started my 11^th grade in school, man that is so strange to write! Now I’m going to school, working, and doing bible quiz. Like I said before the Laughlin girls and 3 of our lady friends plan on going to Haiti in December. Sometime around December 28^th and January 8^th. We will send out letters with more information on that when we learn some things ourselves! J

Because we have been all over this summer on trips and now going to school and working our thank you letter has taken WAY longer than we wanted it to but it is coming!! Hopefully you already know how thankful I’m, but it has some nice stories and pictures for you. Thanks for being patience! J  
Once again I would like to say THANK YOU!! You have given me the greatest gift any human has ever given me and I will always be grateful for that!
Please pray for the team that just went down to Haiti to try and convince the people who run the orphanage to let the orphans go so they can be taken care of better. This is a really BIG deal and it needs as much prayer as we can give cubed!! Please pray for Gods will to shine through in everything that happens.
Bondey beni ou! (God bless you)
Madison

Shawn

Shawn

Shawn saving the babies.

Princess Samanda and Shawn.

Princess Samanda, Shawn, and Christline.

Nickelson and Shawn.

Shawn and Christline.

Shawn was the biggest blessing to me in Haiti. He was like a father to me, always caring for me, making sure I was ok, protecting me, praising me for my hard works, always giving me fatherly love! He was totally awesome :) Like I said, when I was talking about Reza, the younger men protected me but couldn’t always comfort me. Shawn protected me and comforted me more than anyone there, even my mom. :) I had met Shawn once before our first team meeting and it went like this... I was going to the break room, at the church, and he stopped me as I was walking through the door, that your not supposed to go through unless you have certain permission. I was like woops! I know I'm allowed to go in but you don’t know that :) He did not know who I was so I just left. But you should have seen the way he looked at me! It was like he thought I was a crazy person or something :) very funny! So when we had our first team meeting I knew who he was because I had met him and my mom told me what a great worker he is a few times. He, however, thought it was the first time we met :) (which is funny to me, he forgot about the crazy person who tried to break in to the baby room) I was excited that someone I knew and had respect for was going on our trip, I wasn’t too sure how those 970 boys would be like. :) So now we are in Haiti. Its our first debrief and I, of course, am the first of our team to cry. :) I started crying about what was going on and expressing how disturbed I was, im sure i talked for a long time, but Shawn grabbed my hand to comfort me. Trevor was there and put his hand on my shoulder to comfort me as well. It made me feel much better to know that I had someone who could care and comfort me in Haiti, because I was sure uncomforted by the injustice. On Saturday Shawn was sitting next to me in the courtyard of the orphanage. He was holding Christline and I think like 2 other kids. I was freaked out because on Friday when we went to the orphanage there was another team and Megan's crew was there so there were enough people to have 1-3 kids a person. I had 1 little girl on Friday so on Saturday when I had 2 babies in my lap and 3 other little kids pulling on me I was wondering were everyone was and why they were not down helping with the kids. (I have to admit that I hate that attitude that I had, but it was truly what i was thinking.) I asked Shawn a couple of times, "where is everyone!?" He calmed me down every time but I somehow managed to freak out again and again. Little did I know that most of my team was at the Clinic. One person in particular, Ben, was there and he was talking to Arianna. He was listing to her story of how she had been sexually assaulted at age 14 and he shared the gospel with her. SHE EXCEPPTED!!!!!!! Im so happy that I have a new sister in Christ! At the time, sadly, I didn’t know what was going on, I was being selfish and whining about having to hold babies! I don't know if you remember wayyy back when we said what we were looking forward to when we go to Haiti, but the #2 thing I was looking forward to was holding babies! It was a twisted thing, and I let satin take something that I longed for so much and make it a thing I wanted to run away from! (he is so mean!) Then on Saturday I noticed, Samanda, the girl who had a hole in her foot and ants going in and out of it. I was of course distrot about what I saw happing to her and told Shawn. From then on he took care of her with a broken heart. On Sunday, when we were at the orphanage, he ran over to her to hug her and protect her. At one point in time he bent down and scraped the ants off her leg. When he looked up I was looking at him, be cause I noticed what he was doing and started watching him. He gave me this look and I don’t even know the words to describe it! But it just put the point across that he just wanted to die from the guilt, i would say, that was just rushing through his mind. I felt the same way and we were just filled with so much emotion we were clenching our fists and crying at the same time. I tried very hard not to cry in front of the kids at the orphanage, because they looked up to me and I didn’t want them to loose their joyful hearts. But I could not hold my tears in! I went up stairs with the girls and I held Arianna, Kedlene, and Bettina and while they were coloring I quietly cried to Jesus with all the pain I had for Samanda. On Sunday night Shawn was putting the finishing touches on the piñata. I noticed that he was all alone and asked if he needed help. I helped him and then Ben came. It was really fun working with those guys! They are both such wonderful men of God! On Monday Shawn helped give the kids, at Megan's school, flip flops representing the feet fitted with the gospel of peace. At one point in time there were about 45 kids getting flip flops. Shawn and Stephanie were very overwhelmed. We did not notice that there was a problem until it was too late. Then when we were at Megan's house Shawn was eating a sweet n salty. Little Michaelle was hanging around and Shawn gave her some of the pack. He said that she only liked the raisins and m&m's :) He helped me take a picture of Trevor, mom, Michaelle, and myself on the roof of Megan's house. Which was really a great thing! Now Zazou, Obed's friends cousin who is 4ish years old, came. This was the night we thought she was Ramces friend's daughter :) I was playing with Zazou. Shawn just sat and watched us he was blown away by how I acted. (He said that to me.) Then at the debrief Shawn said in front of the team, "Madison I cant believe your heart. How you love these kids! Your heart is so pure and beautiful! I was most definitely not doing the wonderful things you are doing now when I was your age."  Then he praised my mom for the way she raised me. The whole team joined in at the end praising Trevor and us. It was a very special moment to me. Not in a boastful way, but in a, "wow people actually think what I do is good. People are paying attention to how I act? Im super loved!!!" (those were my thoughts.) On Tuesday night we brought the piñata!! We gave all the kids little party hats and played games. Then Shawn explained to all of the kids what his son, Brooks, did. Brooks sacrifices his birthday gifts, every year, and asks his friends to give him money to help orphans all over the world instead. Last year he paid for them to go to grass! (which is a realllllllly big deal!) He got them a chicken dinner with fruit! The kids hardly get to eat meat so its very nice to have chicken and they just love fruit! This year he bought candy, for a piñata, and all sorts of games and party things. On top of buying them another chicken dinner with fruit. Shawn went up there to explain it and said Brooks' name and all the kids started shouting!! “Brooks!!” They remembered him from the last gift he gave them. (look at this video of them saying thank you Brooks.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aWwM1Y-abk Anyways it made Shawn full of joy that the kids remembered Brooks and that his son was doing such a noble thing at such a young age. It was a wonderful moment for everyone!



Shawn telling the kids about their party.

He brought some band-aids, to put on Princess Samanda's hole in her foot.  We both knew it wasn’t going to fix anything but we hoped it would keep the ants out for a little while and maybe she could have a moment free of pain. I would not have had the absolutely wonderful trip that I had had it not been for a lot of things, but Shawn was a big part of those things! Im very thankful for him and all that he did for me. I stop by to see him every weekend at church to give him a hug. It's wonderful to get to know him, his wonderful kids! Maybe soon I will get to know more about his wife. But his whole family is just splendid! I know Shawn has to work very hard all the time. If you wouldn’t mind saying a quick prayer to thank God for the wonderful gift Shawn is, and maybe that he will have a good day at work. Thanks!
Love,
Madison!
P.S. the girls are coming next! :)  


Reza

Reza

Reza playing patty cake with Mickelson :)

Reza showing a father's love to some girls who really needed it.



Jezula, Adam, Reza, James and some wonderful boys.



Reza and a little boy holding the pictures of what makes them happy.

This is the most adorable picture on the face of the planet! Reza and, his sponsor child, James

Reza was our pastor on the trip. He had to do a funeral so he did not leave on Thursday with us. He came to our house, in Haiti. on Saturday. Reza did a CSU coaching thing like 8 years ago and met Adam, the nfl football player. They formed a relationship and thanks to Reza, Adam, is the wonderful Christian man that he is today! (Adam said that, I didn’t just make that up.) Reza had to make A LOT of decisions, that concerned the well being of the kids and our team, at the drop of a hat. He did not always make the right choice, but at the time it was best. He was always worried about our safety and the kids. I'm thankful for all of the decisions that he made! Im blown away at how easily he could form a speech. I guess its just the way he talks, but we would see that talking to the kids would be a really good idea and without any notice he would give a speech that was just AWESOME! He did that all the time! When we were at church they said, "hay come on up here and tell us about your team." He went up there and did a wonderful job. He did things like that all the time. It was really wonderful! He was another guy who always made sure i was ok. Because of his age it was easier for him to comfort me whereas the other boys who are like 20  couldn’t give me that kind of attention.  He helped Ramces and Bernard to better share the gospel, which was awesome! He gave me the opportunity to go and see Megan, her house, Michaelle, and grassier! Which I'm very thankful for! Tuesday, when we were doing the birthday party for all the kids, we had a piñata. And we planed to hang it on the clothes line that was hanging across the entire courtyard. But when we hung it on the line it fell to the ground..... Reza, bravely, picked it up and let two very strong men swing a stick at him... while they were BLINDFOLDED! He is a brave and strong leader. Or he is just really stupid :) (but we all know what he did was brave and a wonderful thing!) On Tuesday night, while we were having a team meeting, Reza was afraid that Races, who never showed up at the time he told us he would, wouldn’t show up on time :) so he told us that if the line to get into the airport was really long we could pay the guys who carry baggage to carry our baggage and they could get us into the airport faster. Now good o'l Reza felt that it might not be the best thing to bribe our way to the front of the line. So to solve everyone's problems I gave my little kid idea :) "You know when you go to Disney and they let you get those things called fast passes? Well we could think of it like when we hire someone to carry our luggage we get a bonus free pass at the same time!" Everyone loved the analogy and it eased Reza's mind. :) We ended up not using out fast passes, even though Ramces and the bus showed up very late! Now Reza is Arabic. So when all the people kept calling us "blan's" (white) we asked Reza when the last time he was called white :) and he agreed that he was not used to it :) It was pretty fun. Thanks to God he did not have very much problems at the airport, like he has in the past... silly airport people! He got along with the kids really well! I mean how many 30 year old men do you see playing patty cake? :)  He went in August and when we went, James his sponsor friend, remembered him! That was really special :) Reza is still nice to me and I get to see him often :) Please pray for him because he is CRAZY busy! He does 970, he is starting a new church, he has a family, and somehow he's still totally awesome! I cant believe he took off a week to come to Haiti, to love on the kids, and to protect us! He is a totally awesome person! Im very thankful to God for the blessing we have in Reza!
Thanks so much for your prayers, support, and interest!
Love,
Madison

P.S. we get to talk about Shawn next! :) then the girls :)

Mack

Mack

Mack and Evenson. The best of buddies! :)

Mack playing "spedy hands" with Arianna. :)

 

Mack, Evenson, and lil momma :) aka Jessica (i believe. we just called her lil momma.)

  I don’t even know how to start. Mack is a, joyful, wonderful man of God, and just an all around awesome person to spend time with! He was a really big blessing for the kids. He knew how to play with the kids, always coming up with a game right when it was needed. I had not met Mack before we went to Haiti. I had seen him before but never actually spoke to him :) Because of the people I saw him with I thought he was a completely different person then he really is! So I was reminded of how different the real Mack is, rather than the one in my head, throughout the entire week. That was fun for both of us! Though, im sure he thought i was a crazy person. On Friday night all the kids came out to see us, I unfortunately was in my "just hanging around the house in my clean clothes" and didn’t want to get them dirty. (Stupidest thing ever!) But Mack was smart and went down to play with the kids. All of the kids loved him! On Saturday I was realllllllllllllly hot! I had 3 babies who were literally thrown on me, by the older girls who take care of them. And on top of that I had several other little kids pulling on me. I could not breath. Thankfully God gave me Mack :) Mack just magically came over and helped me by taking one of the babies, her name was my love. He held her and took care of her for a really long time. Mack was my life saver! On Monday, at Megan's school, Mack and Ben handed out the crowns, representing the helmet of salvation, to all the kids.  He also walked with me to Megan's house. It was nice to have a guy with me, most of the other guys were at the back. He always made me feel protected and happy :) He was a really good friend! When we were praying for Megan and her mission, Michaelle; Megan's Haitian daughter, knocked over a pot with a plant in it. :) I was trying not to make a seen. I was going to pick it up after we finished praying. But Mack turned around and quickly picked it up for me :) Michaelle, who had just recently been given some silly putty and had no idea what it was, kept putting it next to our ears because the air bubbles made some noise. And while we were praying she had it up next to Mack's ear :) I told her to stop so we could focus on praying and she, of course, did not :) But Mack handled it all really well. On Tuesday we told the kids about David and Goliath. Then we had a birthday party, thanks to Brooks Fisher, and had a piñata! So we decided to tie that into our bible story :) Mack was David..... and Adam was Goliath. It actually worked out really well :)  

Goliath did not win because God was not with him. Thankfully he didn’t hit poor Reza who took one for the team when our plans changed!   

                                    
David, however, had God on his side and WON!!! :) Yay candy for everyone!!! Poor Reza :) look how scared he is. I video taped the "attack" after the candy was released.... Im pretty sure that was bad... Its bad here so just imagine how bad it is there! But they all loved it :) and it was a good opportunity to talk about God. Mack is awesome! Please thank him for all the wonderful things he did for the kids down in Haiti and encourage him to continue with the wonderful plan God has for him. You can also pray for him to sell more houses :) He is a up and coming realtor and could always use some more customers. Who couldn’t ? :)
Thanks!
Lots of LOVE!!
Madison
P.S. Im so sorry it took so long for me to post! It has been a busy, yet absolutely awesome, summer! Im settled in back home now and Ill be talking about Haiti as much as I can! :) Why would anyone want to stop talking about such a wonderful place :) Next Ill talk about Reza, Shawn, and then the girls! :)