Hope for Haiti — Two Years Later

Yesterday, if you somehow missed it, was the two-year anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti. In the morning I was with two women whose hearts have been captured by Haiti’s story. Our younger daughter, 18, went to Haiti over Christmas break and sent a letter to her supporters yesterday. It really swept me up into the people, the country, the struggles, the hope. I know some of you have been to this beleaguered, beloved country. I haven’t yet. Mary Elizabeth’s description will touch something in your heart either way. With her permission, I share it with you.

Many of you have asked about my mission trip, and I’ve told you that I’ve been trying to type out an email but I don’t even know where to begin. For a few weeks after, I couldn’t even think about my trip without breaking down. Haiti has made a huuuuge impact on my life and it’s just so so hard to try to relay what happened in Haiti when I know that honestly, one just needs to experience it themselves to understand how much it truly changed my heart. That being said, I still love sharing about my experience and growth. I can see this email being pretty long, but please don’t feel like you need to read it all or at all! I’ll just do a quick (but not so quick) recap of the days!

Saturday

We arrived in Port Au Prince and drove about 30 minutes to Titanyen, where Mission of Hope is located. When driving through PAP, we saw the epitome of the destruction from the earthquake. Some people had even taken their Samaritan’s Purse tarps and used them as a floor, blanket and rain cover.

Sunday

We toured the Mission of Hope (MOH) main campus which holds guest housing, staff housing, fields and courts, cafeterias, an orphanage, a medical clinic, a prosthetics lab, a school, 3 Cords, and tons of roaming goats. We ended up at the church which is also on campus and were able to worship with the Haitians. I have to say, my first Creole service was extremely enlightening. I have never seen anyone worship so beautifully.. When I think back on this service, I think of this pregnant woman in the front row wearing a pink dress, lying prostrate on the floor, crying. It was a perfect image of what surrendering our all to Christ looks like. We sang in English while they sang in Creole (broken French) and there was no way you couldn’t feel God’s presence. After church, we visited the other 2 MOH campuses. MOH500 is the campus where they are building 500 homes, mostly for victims of the earthquake. On this campus, they’ll also have a school, soccer field, church, and clean water wells. The other campus will be another orphanage, school (k-12 and 3 trade schools), and what I think is the coolest part, an old folks home. Older people tend to be more neglected, so MOH is trying to care for them. That night we went and ate at Gwo Papa Poul, also known as Big Daddy Chicken.. awesome name, right? After this, we went back and star-gazed on the roof which ended up being an every night occurrence because it was soo clear and just an amazing view outside. I definitely miss this. (If you want to see a visual of these campuses/what MOH is doing, here’s a 3 minute video that’s pretty cool! http://vimeo.com/30163926)

Monday

First, we went to the market and pretty much that was the most stressful/hilarious situation of my life. You wouldn’t believe how many people touched my skin or yelled, “moun blan!!” (white people!!) as we walked passed, which of course would gather a crowd. Never felt so much like a celebrity in my life.. I’ve also never had the urge to become a vegetarian until I saw the meat market….. After lunch, we went to the village in Messi and had 2 different things to do there. Our first thing was evangelizing. We would kinda start out asking how their day is or something but I’ll never forget what Patrick, our translator, said this day. He said, “I’m not translating this- get to the point.” At first we thought it was a little harsh, but I realized how right he was. We often try to beat around the bush, but we just need to get to the point. We’re running out of time to share the gospel, and we need to take every opportunity we have. Many people would say they’re a Christian, but then tell us they didn’t know who Jesus is. It was so crazy to me. Patrick told us that about 80% of Haiti is Christian and about 55% is Voodoo- They overlap. For example, when God can’t heal an injury, they’ll go to a witch doctor.The other thing we did in the village was shine shoes, which, by the way, never ask me to shine your shoes because I will ruin them. Apparently, I’m better at talking than shining. I got to know the guys who regularly walk around this village shining shoes and they have this misconception that all white people can rap. Apparently, they thought I was supposed to be just as talented as Lecrae, which was one the guys’ favorites. Yeah, umm I proved them wrong.. That night, Jay and Diana Cherry (Americans) told us their story that would take a whole other hour to type out, but I’d love to share it with you at some point!

Tuesday

Tuesday we started off by visiting a ministry that’s on campus called 3 Cords. Some of you may have seen me wearing different braided headbands- this is 3 Cords. It started off after the earthquake thanks to Diana Cherry. She worked as a translator for the relief workers who worked in the prosthetics lab. She was able to talk to Haitians every day and came to the quick realization that these amputees thought they may as well be dead. With a missing body part, they’d never find work and they’d be a disgrace to their families. This is when Diana employed a few Haitian women and had someone teach them to sew and found fabric donators. These few women grew into 12 women over the years and they work Monday-Friday making headbands, bags, pouches, and hair clips. Diana is currently working on getting to the point of selling them in stores and making a website. I’ll keep you updated on that but for now, you can check out their blog http://www.3cordshaiti.blogspot.com/.

We also went to MOH500 and painted some of the homes that they are building there. By the way, painting cement is extremely difficult so if you’re ever thinking of building your house with cement, think again. People who had already moved into their houses would come in and try to help us to “repay” us for helping build and paint. Nothing is free in Haiti. This reminded me of Ephesians 2:8-9 that says, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one can boast.” We cannot try to repay God for the salvation He has blessed us with. This was gifted to us, as these houses were gifted to them. One man came in and just said, “I love you” over and over and over again. It was really cool that of all the English words you could learn, these were the 3 he had bothered to learn. After all this, we came back to the campus and built a rock wall. Shoe shining isn’t really my forte, and apparently rock wall building isn’t either. The Haitian workers ended up taking ours down and rebuilding it… At least I know what not to count on for a career, right?

Wednesday

On Wednesday, we started out by visiting orphanages and acting out the Christmas story. Let me just say that all those years of holding my hands in the air, wearing a sheet over my body and a gold piece of fabric around my head payed off. Yes, once again, I was the angel. I encourage you to look at how awkward all those pictures turned out.. Then, we went to the beach which was beautiful. We sat looking out on the water, but surrounding the water were mountains beyond mountains (see what I did there?) and it was just a permanent Kodak moment. We came back in the late afternoon and played with the children at the orphanage. One of the kids I took a particular liking to there was named Pierre. His legs were completely limp from malnutrition so the Mission got him a wheelchair. He had just been brought to MOH a few days before we arrived. I’ll tell you a tidbit of his story, which was completely heart-breaking. About a month ago, Pierre watched his sister, who was probably under the age of 10, get shot in their village. Pierre is only 3 or 4 and saw everything. You could tell he was still confused and shocked at the catastrophe. His mother looked for a place to take care of him because she wanted him to be safe, which is where MOH came in. He’s eating more and his body is getting a lot healthier now which is great!

Thursday

Thursday morning I was able to go down to the on-campus market and see a friend I had met on church at Sunday and had tried to see a few times throughout the week. Her name is Sarah and she is about 10 years old. 2 years ago, she lived in the village with her family and after the earthquake, her aunt and uncle took her to MOH to work with them. Her family did agree to it, because they knew that this would bring in income for their family. Sarah goes to visit her family occasionally, and this is the reason she was soo excited about Christmas. Sarah makes money by making Haiti bracelets. Just like all the other kids, when she saw us, she came running and wanted to play or dance or sing or give us corn rows (not a good look for me). When I think about her, I always smile because I know she’s so thankful for what she has and she’s just such a great sport. After I said my goodbyes to Sarah, I left for the airport- my last ride in the canter.

Returning was way harder than going there. I’ve told some of you this, but sitting in the Miami airport was not the most fun I’ve ever had in my life. I would sit there and watch people doing seemingly pointless things and just wonder how materialism consumed our lives; more importantly, how I’ve allowed it to consume my life. It was hard for me to watch this, especially as my flight kept delaying which had already made me a little emotional mess..

ANYWAY, that’s pretty much the story. Except not all of it. I could literally go on for hours.

Nan Bondye,

In Him,

Mary Elizabeth 2 Corinthians 4:16-17 http://www.mohhaiti.org/