Haiti

Family Picture Time: Me, Shawn, Angela, and the little boy we all sponsor, Lecomte.

So I have now been back in the country for about a month and am ready to go back to Haiti. This was probably the best trip to Haiti so far. We had a group of about 30 eye team members and worked very well together. We had a grand total of 107 eye surgeries and saw over 700 people in the eye clinic. Several people were able to get fake eyes including one of the missionaries on one of the other teams.

One of the Haitians who had cataract surgery had the translators teach him how to say I can see in English for after his surgery. The next day he and his wife came in and when the patch was taken off he said he could see. It was wonderful to be able to see how happy and grateful he was to be able to see, something that is necessary for survival in Haiti.

Since coming back from Haiti I have talked with several mission organizations about the possibility of going down with them after I graduate. It is funny how God has put all of these people in my life that are passionate about missions and serving God's people.

The next trip will be to in Peru in June. I will be going down with the group that I went with last year. We will be doing Vacation Bible Schools, Family Activities, teaching English, giving out eyeglasses, and doing a medical clinic. Please pray for this trip. I am taking a Spanish class at the community college here in Waco so I am hoping to know enough by the time of the trip to be able to hold a conversation. Please consider supporting me in this trip through prayer and money. I am still about $1000 short. Thank you for all of you prayers and support thus far. Thank you for allowing me to fulfill my calling in life right now.

www.nwhcm.org

www.rapidcitybmx.info/images/Iteam/

Family
Dad is enjoying his job. Working nights has been a little rough for him but he has the weekends off to spend with Mom. She has gone into Grammy mode already and is busy sewing and buying for Adora. Chelsea and Darren went out and bought material for the sheets and Mom is making them.
As for me in Waco I have adopted a kitten not really by choice. Jake or Habicat, when he is being cute, was found on the road by the Habitat for Humanity office this summer and no one wanted to take him home. He was only about 4 weeks old so I could not bring him to the pound. My roommate agreed it would be ok to keep him. He is now almost 5 months old and weighs 4.5 pounds. Not real big yet. He is a great cat but he has a serious biting issue. My arms are scarred. People think I am a “cutter.” My roommate and I are discussing the option of getting another cat to keep him company and maybe keep him from biting us. Next week we are going to start play dates with Lizzie. Lizzie is also a stray who is a little younger than Jakey.


School is going. I will graduate from social work on May 12, 2007. I am currently doing an internship at MCYC which is an agency that has many different programs to work with at risk youth. I am hoping to get a job probably here in Waco in May and finish seminary up in the next year. I only have four of those classes left.


Missions
In June I had the opportunity to go to Peru with a church here in Waco. We were there for a week working with about 6 churches in Chincha, Peru. We taught English in the school sponsored by the main church. I helped with the medical clinic and learned how to reconstitute medicine. We also did Vacation Bible Studies and evening family activities. It was a very busy week but it was really wonderful to be able to work with the churches down there. We went as a group to help the churches not as the Americans who know and have everything. Here is a picture of the crazy kids at one of the Vacation Bible Schools. It was amazing how many children came out when a camera was around! I am in the back row to the right. If you are interested in seeing more pictures from this trip go to http://www.encountermissions.net/index.html. I am hoping to be able to go back this summer again for at least a week.


In August I was able to go to Jamaica for a week. A friend from high school, Courtney, has been going down since high school and loves it down there. I had gone down there with her for spring break last year but it was just us. This year I was able to go down with a group from Lee’s Summit. We hauled thousands or at least it felt like thousands of pounds of marl, what they mix with concrete. We built a house. Play with lots of kids and built a lot of relationships with people. My favorite part about this trip was being able to talk and build relationships with the people and have meaningful conversations with people while still accomplishing a lot. It was a very physically challenging trip but had amazing rewards. And I did get to lay out on the beach for a few days afterwards.



My friend/travel partner Shawn and I enjoying our time at Margaritaville in Montego Bay.










The trips of the past year have been wonderful. God continues to show me how amazing it is to serve Him. I have been able to build some incredible relationships with the people I have served and traveled with. In January, I will be going to Haiti again to go serve with an Eye Team. I will be leaving on January 4th and coming back January 13th. Please pray for this trip. It will be the first year that we will have a separate eye clinic. The next trip after that will be back to Peru. I am going to be taking Spanish classes in the spring and I will be able to practice my Spanish in Peru. I am also going to be able to learn this machine to be used to hand out eye glasses while in Peru.
I feel that God is calling me overseas after I graduate completely. I am praying about where that would be. I have talked to several people in Jamaica and in Africa. Please continue to pray for guidance for me in this. Also pray in supporting me in these trips. Haiti will be around $1300. The money is due for this by December 1st. If you want this to be tax deductible you can make the check out to Northwest Haiti Christian Mission. Peru will also cost around $1300. The money for this trip is due by March 1st. Checks can be made out to First United Methodist Church-Waco. Thank you all so much for all of your prayer and support. It means the world to me.

Adora Star and her favorite aunt!
October 27, 2006, 6lbs 13 oz. 19inches

Thanks for all of your support. Love,

Hannah Casillo

2nd posting in less than 2 weeks!

So week number two of class has started. I am starting to feel the overwhelmed feeling but really that is my own fault by not doing any homework this weekend. I did spend a grand total of 45 minutes at the library and studied for maybe a total of 20 of those minutes. I am still not really hating school just not doing it. This afternoon I will be meeting with my supervisor for my internship to further discuss exactly what I will do and figure out what I want to do for my research. I was suppose to think about it and I have and have no clue what I want to do. I will be posting pictures in the next couple of days and definitely by the end of the week. I promise!

First day of School

Remember back in elementary school when you were so excited for the first day of school that you could not sleep the night before. I am trying to be like that again. One of the things I was reminded of in Jamaica was how thankful I should be to be able to go to school! So right now I am very grateful to be sitting in class currently. Don't worry though i have not made a complete transformation. I did not do my homework for today. Behind on the first day of class sets me up for a wonderful semester. I may try to figure out how to post pictures from Jamaica here in the next couple of days. It was the best trip I have been on and am more than willing to have God call me to go be a missionary in Jamaica.