Due to limited internet access this past week, we were unable to give you “real time” updates from the Hyaets mission.  However, we still want you to know our story.  Listen in below as some of our students and adults share from their experience…

From Olivia Branch on 8/6/09
Today we took the kids on a field trip to the gym. There we played lots of fun games and crafts. The home made ice cream was the best part! I enjoyed spending more time getting to know the kids. Later we went on a “walk about” advertising the VBS at Hyaets and handed out popsicles to the neighborhood.  I had a lot of fun living for God this week at Hyaets and I will definitely come back again next year!

From Catherine McMullan
Working with Hyaets has really opened my eyes to a very different lifestyle.  Not only does the Hyaets team care for others but, they also open their homes to those in their community that have needs they can’t meet, to come in and find a safe place to retreat to.  This week I was working with Greg and Helms and helped them in their ministry for the children of the community.  Each day we made lunches, fed the kids, played with them, and then went on a field trip.  At first, I had a hard time being strict with the kids but, I soon found out that the only way to really get your message through to them is to use a stricter tone that tells them that you are the boss.  All of the kids are very loving, but you can still tell that there are some troubles at home.    On Tuesday, after a community dinner, I was walking a couple of kids home with Carrie Johns, Olivia Branch, Emily Branch, Kate Withers, Valerie Lott, and Molly Carr. Carrie and I were giving them piggyback rides, while everyone else was walking beside us.  When we got to the house of the boy I was carrying, I bent down so he could go home.  That boy wouldn’t get off my back and I couldn’t quite understand why.  When we finally got him off my back he refused to go up to the house.  He just stood there holding on to Valerie, resisting with every thing he had.  One of the men sitting on the stoop of the house said to Valerie “Just let go of him and let him fall into the dirt, he’ll be fine.”  Valerie wouldn’t let go, but after that statement the little boy stopped resisting and let go of Valerie.    At that moment it seemed to become very clear why he wouldn’t let go. To me it seemed that that one little boy wanted to stay just a little bit longer away from everything at home.  He wanted to be somewhere where he doesn’t ever have to doubt the fact that he is loved, where we can give him a meal when he needs one and can meet his needs. This one little boy wanted to be in a place where there is a light that is different, a place where that light isn’t just a different color, it’s God. I have seen God work in many ways this week.  In the friends we have made, and every song our hearts sing.  I love being here helping Greg and Helms, and I am so looking forward to helping them again.

From Cole Withers
This week was my first time at Hyaets, and it was AMAZING! My job for the week was to help out and an elderly lady named Rosetta. The way we helped was we worked on her house because many people had broken into it. It was in VERY bad shape, it had two holes in the floor, one in the kitchen and one in the living room. Our mission for the week was to break down the kitchen then put it back together. That included getting out all the cabinets, taking out two walls and the floor. My favorite part was getting to destroy the wall with a hammer, but even more spending time eating on the porch with Mrs. Rosetta.

From Susan Prather, Minister to Youth and Children at Mt. Hermon Baptist Church
Thanks Huguenot Road for allowing my group from Mount Hermon Baptist Church to come on mission with you to Hyaets Community. I’ve known Helms and Greg for a number of years while they lived in Richmond, Va and went to school. Helms Jarrell was also the youth minister at our church for 3 years.

This has been an amazing week of living and working in a very unique community. Our church worked with Cole and Emily on the Rosetta house, we took out cabinets, removed walls, took out a kitchen floor and cleaned the attic. The best part of each day was sitting on Ms. Rosetta’s porch and eating lunch with our team and Ms. Rosetta and her family.  They shared so much about their lives and how our work was such a blessing to their lives.

 Friday when we were preparing to leave we were loved on by Ms. Rosetta and she told us that when her house was back in good condition she was going to prepare a room for us so we could come to visit often. Isn’t it amazing in one little week that our lives could be so affected and changed.  Our lives have been!!!

Our prayer is that someone will follow us and join Christ in his work in the life and home of Ms. Rosetta and family. 

From Emily Branch
The week has been very tiring but enjoyable. There was one day when Valarie, Carrie and I were dropping the children off at their homes. As we were dropping of one of the little girls she ran to her cat. She picked it up by its hind legs and said, “You wanna pet my cat, its name is Tink.”  We were laughing so hard after she went inside with Tink about how it was probably in a coma by now.  But although there are funny stories there are sad stories too. Our group was told that one of the boys was punished by his guardian by his fist. It made me realize that we are so fortunate to have positive discipline. This trip has opened my eyes to some of the sad and funny circumstances of the Hyaets community.

From Carrie Johns
When I was a little kid, all I wanted to do was go on missions for church. I had watched my older brother go on mission trips, we talked about missionaries in Sunday school, and talking to my friends about Jesus as a “missionary in my own neighborhood”, as my Sunday school teachers put it seemed virtually impossible. Then last year, I went to Hyaets for the first time, and experienced a real mission trip. I learned a lot from the trip that year, but somehow I didn’t understand the burning feeling that I felt when I was deciding whether or not to go to Hyaets even though I would be going to the beach the very next week with my family. I thought I just didn’t want to miss out on a mission trip because it was my dream come to life, but as the week went on, I began to comprehend the feelings burning inside me. We had devotions every night, and one night we talked about one of the beatitudes in Matthew 5. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” I had blown that off as just another kind thing that Jesus said in the Bible when I first read that, but when we talked about, I learned a new understanding of that. As Christians, we strive to be holy like God, and to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth. In the neighborhood in which the Hyaets community lives, basically everyone is poor, and half the families can barely pay rent, but as we walked from door to door picking up kids and handing out flyers, there would be people on their front porch or walking. We would be friendly and wave hello, and more than likely, that hello would begin a small conversation. The people here are so neighborly, and grateful, that here is the kingdom of heaven. We give what we can give here, like Jesus did, and nothing less, and it is here that we are closer to God, amongst these people. I suddenly understood that burning devotion that I had felt to come back. I wanted to be in the kingdom of heaven. I’m ever so thankful that I came back to be with the children, no matter how they drive me nuts, and to be so much closer to our heavenly Father.

Please pray as a team of 11 head to Charlotte on Sunday, Aug. 2.  They will spend the week in a variety of mission and ministry activity.  Check back for regular updates from the team.