I’ve been absolutely captivated by Haiti. I came into this trip knowing I can be a poor traveler; being away from familiar things and people tends to make me withdraw. But, thanks in no small part to the prayer of so many people I have loved my first week here. I’m reading a great book, A Million Miles in A Thousand Years by Donald Miller, about looking at our lives as stories. I will probably bring this book up again and again but one of the key elements of good stories are memorable moments. He puts it this way,
“I like those scenes in the Bible where God stops people and asks them to built alters. You’d think he was making them do that for himself, but I don’t think God really gets much from looking at a pile of rocks. Instead, I think God wanted his people to build altars for their sake, something that would help them remember, something they could look back on and remember the time they were rescued, or were given grace.”
I’d quote the rest but it wouldn’t mean as much out of context. Basically he says you have to put effort into the things that become good memories, that make good story and we still need help remembering them afterwards so we make alters. Those are the moments I will try and capture for both you and me in this blog; the things I need to remember that will make this trip worthwhile.
It will be hard to cover the whole first week but if you’ll bare with me this time I’ll try to update more often in the future.
I know I’ve brought it up a few times but Haiti has been impoverished for hundreds of years and it’s left the country devastated. I read two things recently that helped to make sense of it all. The first was that after Haiti gained its independence the newly freed population dedicated their nation to Satan. The second thing I read, in a totally unrelated article, was that Satan cannot create. He can only work with what has already been created. Those two statements explain so much of what I’ve seen in Haiti. Hundreds of years ago this country was dedicated to a power that can create nothing but can only abuse, drain, and waste resources and that is exactly what you see. There is no abundance, no surplus, no excess anything. There are hundreds of thousands of buildings started but never finished all over the cities and the country. There’s no clean water, there’s no affordable food, there’s no fresh air. This was really sobering for a minute but it only makes all the more evident to me that the only thing that’s going to change Haiti is God and those putting hands and feet on his love. Not only is God the creator but he sustains everything. If he can make the world out of nothing than he can certainly being new life to a desolate place. What Haiti needs is not a bunch of white people trying to make Haitians Christians. It needs Christians that so firmly believe that God loves people that they find ways to start new growth. Kerry said it perfectly, “I don’t do what I do to make people Christians. I do what I do because I am a Christian.” The prophets in the Bible wrote some beautiful poetry but I don’t think they only meant figurative streams of water and new living trees and abundant food. I think we’re to be a part of making those things physical realities, that love looks like a feeding program and putting kids in school and teaching them what it means to save money and that drinking bad water gives you cholera.
On our first Sunday here we went to the fishing village to meet the people Kerry works with and pray with them. We all got to practice some Creole and they got to practice their English. After the official “meeting” we were mingling, (trying to) talk to people and taking it all in. One of the newer women in the work program was there with her one month old daughter, Lyshmy (leesh-mee). I asked if I could hold her and I rocked her to sleep for a few minutes. When her mother came back she brought one of the fisherman with her who spoke some English and he asked if I would like to keep the baby. Having recently come from America where we jokingly offer our kids up when we’re having a long day I politely smiled, said no, and gave her back as we were heading out. It was only when my roommate brought up the story later that I realized how serious the mother had been. She was really asking me if I could keep her baby. I can’t say if it’s because she though I could provide more for her baby girl because I was American or if she wasn’t ready to be a mom at 17 or any of the other reasons that might have been going through her head but it broke my heart in so many ways. First because I could keep that baby more physically comfortable on a single mom’s salary in the states but I couldn’t imagine just walking away with someone else’s child. Second, because she offered her up so easily. And third because it seems that the hardest but the best thing to do is to teach this little mother how to be a good mother, how to work hard and trust people and feed kids and then they’ll both be better off. But she’s got to be willing.
The school was a sea of dust and disorganization when we showed up last Monday. After a few days or sorting, dusting, taping, sweeping, killing spiders, and trying to wrap our heads around organizing a school it’s starting to look great. Each teacher has her own classroom and we are so blessed to have lots of supplies. These classrooms will be filled with many adventures, especially because a lot of the elementary age kids speak little to no English. But we’ll make it work.
There have been lots of fun moments in between. Riding on the roof of the bus, getting popsicles in the market in St Marc, having my hair braided by the teenage girls who visit the mission (pictures to come), using a broom and doormats to sweep water off our balcony as the pouring rain threatened to flood our rooms, going to an outdoor revival meeting one night, sleeping on the roof, swimming in the Caribbean at sunset, listening to Joy and Kerry’s stories.
I could fill up twice this much space with stories but I’ll finish with a verse I read last night: “The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing…. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God…He will come and save you.’” - Isaiah 35:1-2
It will be hard to cover the whole first week but if you’ll bare with me this time I’ll try to update more often in the future.
I know I’ve brought it up a few times but Haiti has been impoverished for hundreds of years and it’s left the country devastated. I read two things recently that helped to make sense of it all. The first was that after Haiti gained its independence the newly freed population dedicated their nation to Satan. The second thing I read, in a totally unrelated article, was that Satan cannot create. He can only work with what has already been created. Those two statements explain so much of what I’ve seen in Haiti. Hundreds of years ago this country was dedicated to a power that can create nothing but can only abuse, drain, and waste resources and that is exactly what you see. There is no abundance, no surplus, no excess anything. There are hundreds of thousands of buildings started but never finished all over the cities and the country. There’s no clean water, there’s no affordable food, there’s no fresh air. This was really sobering for a minute but it only makes all the more evident to me that the only thing that’s going to change Haiti is God and those putting hands and feet on his love. Not only is God the creator but he sustains everything. If he can make the world out of nothing than he can certainly being new life to a desolate place. What Haiti needs is not a bunch of white people trying to make Haitians Christians. It needs Christians that so firmly believe that God loves people that they find ways to start new growth. Kerry said it perfectly, “I don’t do what I do to make people Christians. I do what I do because I am a Christian.” The prophets in the Bible wrote some beautiful poetry but I don’t think they only meant figurative streams of water and new living trees and abundant food. I think we’re to be a part of making those things physical realities, that love looks like a feeding program and putting kids in school and teaching them what it means to save money and that drinking bad water gives you cholera.
On our first Sunday here we went to the fishing village to meet the people Kerry works with and pray with them. We all got to practice some Creole and they got to practice their English. After the official “meeting” we were mingling, (trying to) talk to people and taking it all in. One of the newer women in the work program was there with her one month old daughter, Lyshmy (leesh-mee). I asked if I could hold her and I rocked her to sleep for a few minutes. When her mother came back she brought one of the fisherman with her who spoke some English and he asked if I would like to keep the baby. Having recently come from America where we jokingly offer our kids up when we’re having a long day I politely smiled, said no, and gave her back as we were heading out. It was only when my roommate brought up the story later that I realized how serious the mother had been. She was really asking me if I could keep her baby. I can’t say if it’s because she though I could provide more for her baby girl because I was American or if she wasn’t ready to be a mom at 17 or any of the other reasons that might have been going through her head but it broke my heart in so many ways. First because I could keep that baby more physically comfortable on a single mom’s salary in the states but I couldn’t imagine just walking away with someone else’s child. Second, because she offered her up so easily. And third because it seems that the hardest but the best thing to do is to teach this little mother how to be a good mother, how to work hard and trust people and feed kids and then they’ll both be better off. But she’s got to be willing.
The school was a sea of dust and disorganization when we showed up last Monday. After a few days or sorting, dusting, taping, sweeping, killing spiders, and trying to wrap our heads around organizing a school it’s starting to look great. Each teacher has her own classroom and we are so blessed to have lots of supplies. These classrooms will be filled with many adventures, especially because a lot of the elementary age kids speak little to no English. But we’ll make it work.
There have been lots of fun moments in between. Riding on the roof of the bus, getting popsicles in the market in St Marc, having my hair braided by the teenage girls who visit the mission (pictures to come), using a broom and doormats to sweep water off our balcony as the pouring rain threatened to flood our rooms, going to an outdoor revival meeting one night, sleeping on the roof, swimming in the Caribbean at sunset, listening to Joy and Kerry’s stories.
I could fill up twice this much space with stories but I’ll finish with a verse I read last night: “The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing…. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God…He will come and save you.’” - Isaiah 35:1-2
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