"Lucky to be in Haiti"

As our team hesitantly strolled in the doorway of a four wall concert brick church, church members were on their feet singing and clapping. We don’t know the song or the words but we happily clap along. They all seem to clap at a different tempo but in rhythm.

Ephesians 4:4-6
There is one body and one Spirit just as you were called to one hope when you were called- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

The church, filled with Haitians on one side and our American team on the other. A torn blue tarp lines the center aisle. We sat in our comfy chairs church, members collected from their homes, as they sat on old rackety wooden benches. We were covered with the shade of the blue tarp as they sat in the sun.

Colossians 3:12
Therefore, as God chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Colossians 3:14
And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

The Haitian preacher begins by saying “We are lucky to be in Haiti”. Are you crazy? Maybe the heat got to him. This place is awful, they are not lucky. It’s hot and no escape from the heat, trash is every were, it smells bad; they have little water, little food, little money, no jobs. How can they be lucky? We’re lucky; we can leave and go back to Disney World with our AC, trash pickup on Tuesday, Target and comfy beds.

He continues that they are lucky to be free, free to go to church, free to own bibles and read them as they wish, free to worship under the sun, free to sing about how great our God is. Free, they are free and lucky to be free, but lucky to be in Haiti? I don’t know about that.

Colossians 3:15-17
Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father.

All week long I looked for the “luck” of being in Haiti, and all week long I looked for an escape. Escape from the smell, escape from the sounds, escape from the people, the heat, the congestion, the dust and dirt, trash, filth. All week I looked for where this fit in my life. What lesson was I to learn from this? For 2 weeks after our return from Haiti I continued to wonder where all of this fit in. Should I buy things; clothes, food, gifts? Should I even waste the 3 or 4 dollars to buy a birthday card, only to be added as trash? Should I replace the sunglasses I gave away in Haiti or should I just deal with it? What was frugal? What was necessary?

As all these thoughts ran through my head I found myself thinking, “Man, they’re lucky, they don’t have to worry about this kind of stuff”, and at that moment I finally got it. They were lucky to be in Haiti, lucky that they don’t feel the need to keep up with the Jones’ because there were no Jones’. Lucky their world didn’t revolve around making a dollar only to buy more stuff, a bigger house, a better car, the finest this and that, jealousy, envy, greed and discontentment. To accomplish what? To fill our pride and feed our egos? Did having stuff make us lucky?

Isaiah 64:5-6
You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

Isaiah 63:9
In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angle of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days.

When you are at the bottom the only place to look is up. You’re humble, thankful and more importantly you realize you can’t do it yourself. You realize you need something bigger than you. You rely on grace, hope, and faith which makes you closer to God. God alone makes you full, content and happy.

Job 8:5-7
But if you will look to God and plead with the Almighty, if you are pure and upright, even now he will rouse himself on your behalf and restore you to your rightful place. Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be.

Titus 2:11-14
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. While we wait for the blessed hope- the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

I Timothy 1:15-16
Here is a truth worthy saying that deserves full acceptance:
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners- of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.

Arrival Day

After waiting in the Myrtle Beach airport for 4 or 5 hours and 4 or 5 hours of sleep in a Florida hotel I was more than ready to get to where we were going, feet on the ground and still. But there was no way I was ready for what I found in Haiti.

Romans 15:5-6
May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Over the past few years one of the things God has taught me was to take a deep breath and enjoy the moment. Take it all in because you may not have the chance to do it again. I had no expectations going in, had no background knowledge of Haiti. As I seat in the front set of an over packed van, I looked around at my surroundings and took it ALL in, every bit. I didn’t want to miss a thing. I didn’t even take out my camera.

The most ghetto of ghettos. Trash, piles of trash lined the roads, in the medians, trash everywhere, like it was a trash landmine. So many people and vehicles they were on top of each other, literally, horns blaring, people yelling. Trucks and busses over flowing with people, evidently they don’t have seat belt laws. Rubble of buildings collapsed on top of themselves from the quake. Tarp tents that look like a sea of stick tents. So much STUFF it was over whelming. Incredibly hot, like l can’t even describe.

Job 5:7-8
Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward but if it were I, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him.

It seemed we had been driving through Par De Prince for an hour but in Haiti time goes by a lot slower than in America. It must have only been 15 minutes or so and I was looking for the exit sign, an escape away from the crowds of people, the filth, the hurt, the heart ache, from it all. There was nowhere to run. I was stuck. Sandwiched in the front seat of a stuffed van, I was stuck. So many sites and memories, just in the drive to St. Marc, over flowing in my head, there is no way to take it all in. For 3 hrs I looked out at Haiti and the Haitian people.

1 John 3:17
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother is in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

On the way to St Marc, in a small town, a sweet mama with a young baby burned a scar on my heart. As we stop in the mist of traffic for only a brief moment, a mama with a little baby girl on her hip comes close to the van window. I don’t even think she said anything to me, and if she did I wouldn’t have known what she was saying, but her eyes spoke more than her words ever could. I didn’t know what to do. My heart broke for her. I would be there one week and she would be there her whole life. I had an escape she had Haiti. I reached out my hand and handed her my half drunken water bottle. It was like someone grabbed my arm and pushed it out the window. I didn’t know what else to do. Again her eyes spoke indescribable words to me. It broke my heart. I looked around for a place to run and hid, to escape from it all but there wasn’t one. I could only sit there and cry. After we arrived at the hotel, too nice for us to be staying in, Victoria tells me she saw the whole thing. The sweet mama took the bottle I had given her and put it right to the baby’s mouth.

1 John 3:18-20
Dear Children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we set our hearts at rest in his presence, whenever our heart condemns us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

I wish I could describe the feelings but there are just too many. I feel like a snow globe sprinkled with emotional confetti, over turned, shook, turned back up and asked “How do you like that”. I’ll let you know when the confetti settles. Rocked my world? Totally!

(Photos above were taken by members of our team.)