Blog from Haiti Reach Mission Trip: July 31st-August 6th, 2011

  Sometimes we see miracles in the small things in life. We stretch our faith and see a move of God in something that many others would not see as the same. We look at this or that situation and say “That was a miracle” when someone with a different perspective might simply think it was a coincidence and not a miracle.

  During our third trip to Haiti this year (on the island of Hispaniola), we saw something that we on the team were all in agreement had to simply be God intervening to have mercy on people. So many Haitians and other missionaries felt the same, and I guess you would have to have been there to really get the same perspective. The fact is that despite all the news reports hyping Tropical Storm Emily ready to pound Port-Au-Prince Haiti with 12-20 inches of rain. Threats of massive landslides, death filled flooding, and desperate worries of more Cholera and Typhoid outbreaks....Emily just never happened in Port-Au-Prince. If you saw video to the contrary stating to be from P-A-P, then it was very much dramatized.

 On our way to the new retreat property, we were called back early from about 50 miles away to the Chadasha mission house by national missionary Greg Roberts. He asked us to come back to base because of the potential threat of flooding (if it rained); and as seen in this picture from the balcony, the storm is literally just miles away over the mountains. The wall of rain can be seen off in the distance.



This wall of rain stayed there all day and night as the storm stalled and churned, never reaching the mission house which is just before the capitol city. It got windy, but then after sitting there all day, all of the sudden the storm seemed to fire itself up, and head off around the mountains out into the sea without ever hitting P-A-P! What's crazy is the government had already shut all stores and offices down in anticipation of the storm. No one could figure out what happened. Not even the Meteorologists! People kept saying “Where is the storm?” Even though there was no natural explanation for "why?", we experienced it firsthand, and could see the pure mercy of God in play.

That miracle reminds me of why we serve in this country. The vision in Haiti is so large and full of potential, that we at Foothills Community Church have chosen to take a long term approach with our Reach mission there. We don't want to be in and out in a year, or just build a building with no relationships in the community. We want to form friendships, and really know the people in Haiti that we are working with, and allow God to use them and us to have a long term impact in communities and especially in the lives of orphaned children. This includes children's homes, orphanages, planting churches, pastoral training centers, agricultural projects, pure water, medical treatment, a retreat center, and education.
 

The Roberts Family

 One of the organizations we are working with is called “Chadasha.” The idea or meaning for this word in Hebrew is “new” or “fresh” or "renewed." This ministry is dedicated to bringing renewed life, hope, and a new song to the Haitian people. Greg and Michelle Roberts are the lead missionaries in Haiti along with their three children Dustin, Ashton, and little Isaac. There are also several other staff members including Jon Fitz, who facilitates mission teams, and Sarah Sealine, who works with the Children's Home and orphanages.

We had the opportunity this trip to serve purchasing and building bunk beds from raw materials for the orphanage of 72 children. Pretty much what it sounds like...2x2's, 2x4's and 2x6's, plywood, screws, etc. We went to the main supply store in P-A-P called “MSC”, which is a place very similar to a smaller scale Home Depot. Yup, even in this third world country there is such a place! It took forever to get so much wood, but we started off with getting enough to build 10 bunk beds for a total of 20 beds and donated enough money for 40 beds total.

This was a much larger and harder job than I personally anticipated, and we worked very hard one day in the heat from morning til about supper time just measuring and cutting wood for the bed frames and posts. It was about 100 degrees out in the blazing Caribbean sun. Hard sweaty work, but for a great cause. I kept picturing the little children who would eventually be laying their heads down in these bunks for their first night of sleep off the floor.

Don Dickerson worked tirelessly on these beds pretty much the whole week. We all worked hard on them, but Don truly gave it extra effort; sometimes working before and after all the rest of us had run out of gas! He is truly like the Energizer Bunny in those commercials! One morning he was out at around 6am sanding away on the bed frames, and one night around 8pm! He got so much done through the week that it was amazing to me. God used him greatly!

As we finished the prep work for building the beds, we loaded them into the truck and headed to the orphanage. The truck was crammed full of beds...even on top...but we still managed to fit a bunch of us in there including Greg's son Dustin riding on top of the beds! The weight actually made the "Chadasha Grill" (our term for the flatbed) ride much better. Man it was like a Cadillac...without air conditioning...or seat belts :)

This orphanage was not all that far from the mission house. For those of you keeping up with our trip blogs, this new orphanage building is now filled with about 72 children they learned of that were living in the dirt in a "tent orphanage" back in May. Additionally, two of the babies were rescued from the tent orphanage and are doing incredibly well living at the Chadasha Children's Home in Pignae. In May, when we went to check them out, we found the babies laying there in an open army type tent on a carpet in the mud. They were malnourished and sick with flies all over them. The great news is that they are at the Children's Home doing well! Praise God! Here is a video of Kyle Stephens with one of the little boys we have been calling "Bubba." It's amazing what a little love and care can do to save a child's life!

  While we were building and sanding beds at this new orphanage, we encountered some resistance from a very upset Haitian lady who runs the orphanage. Without going into detail, suffice it to say that she was thankful for the beds, but upset about some other things in her life that were getting exposed. We ended up leaving about half the beds there, and loaded up the rest to take back to the mission house to do some finish sanding. God is at work there and I encourage you to pray for this orphanage and the children living there. They are certainly in a much better living environment now with ample sustenance; but such a large orphanage needs good management, much food and water, and the kids all need strong leaders and care-givers to do daily training and provide Godly influence.

One fact lost on so many people when they think about Haiti, is that it is on an incredibly beautiful island in the Caribbean called "Hispaniola." In the past, Haiti was considered the jewel, the best, most beautiful and prosperous place in the Caribbean. We always take a few hours on one day (usually our last day) and run up to the beach where I took this picture to give the team a break from the heat and swim in the sea. There are still some beautiful areas within 50 miles of P-A-P, and there is still hope for a return to such previous blessing. This experience always gives team members a better perspective on this country. Although the earthquake last year brought much debris and destruction to Port-Au-Prince, all it takes is a ride about 50 miles away toward the sea to find the beauty that is spoken of as "in the past." It is still there, but it is just marred by the struggle to survive. Even in such beauty, there are still many who have no roof over their heads, little pure water, and very little food.

It has been well over a year since the massive quake, yet still hundreds of thousands are living in the tent cities in and around the capitol city if Port-Au-Prince. On the right is a pic I shot just last week of a large tent city still filled with thousands of people struggling to make it. These types of tent cities are still a prominent part of the landscape throughout Port-Au-Prince and the areas for miles outside of the city.
 
On a positive note, one thing I did notice this trip is that there are less tent cities, and that they are smaller. Some of the same tent cities we served in and saw on the February trip, are half the size now. This is a great sign! We are so honored to be a small part of a ministry that rescues orphan children and helps them to overcome such a life of poverty.

Part of our team was Dr Steve Brown and nurse Tracy Lasalle. They served doing a lot of medical type stuff this trip. They both served at the medical clinic in Pignae which Chadasha and the Baptist church in Pignae work together to keep running. This place is nice, and if you drive up to it, you realize it is clean and well supplied, and must be a good place to get help. They also served at one of the local hospitals. The three main hospitals were on strike, and Dr Steve felt the Lord leading him to serve in one of them. He even slept there and served for 3 days. He encountered so many things including several people passing away in the ER; but he told me treating people for Typhoid was one of the things that kept coming up. I know this was one of the most incredible and tough trips that Steve has ever been on. He blessed so many Haitian people with his heart and skills to serve them.

God also used Tracy so much with the children. She is in the pic to the right. Her gifts and training were a great asset. At the Children's Home, many of the kids were very sick with some sort of virus that had spread, and Tracy helped them as best she could with the medicine available. We prayed over several of the kids, and asked God to heal them completely. Tracy was so busy on our last day at the home! She was the only one that day with the proper medical training to treat the children.

One of our goals this trip was to provide fluoride treatments, toothbrushes, and tooth paste for all the kids in several orphanages and the Children's Home in Pignae. I loved this part of serving. Laura Lytle and my wife Sarah facilitated much of it, and it was hilarious at times. If you wanna give kids an opportunity to "ham it up"...let em brush their teeth in front of each other.

We were able to accomplish this at two orphanages and even at the Children's Home. It was awesome, and although some of the kids had never done such a thing, they caught on quickly. Even the older ones and many of the young adults working in the orphanages joined in and got the treatments.

Along with the dental care, we were able to do Christ focused coloring activities with the children, and work with them drawing and coloring on "Jezi Renmen Mwen" popsicle stick figures which means "Jesus loves me" in Creole. The basic gospel of God's love has no boundaries and is easy to say and show in practically any language.

A big hit this trip was the in-destructible soccer balls that we brought called "One World Futbols" Don had heard about them and was willing to donate some for the trip, so I called the company and got the skinny on the balls. Turns out they are incredible and a huge deal for the Haitian children. They are a new invention. So new in fact,  that they are not found in Haiti very often.

You see soccer is the main sport, but in the orphanages there is generally only rough/rocky ground to play on. I have seen $30 soccer balls destroyed and deflated in 2 hours simply from kids playing soccer there. I was looking for a better way...really from a stewardship standpoint, and also because of the fact that it is disappointing for the children to get a great gift in the soccer ball, only to find that it gets holes in it after a few hours. I believe God led us to these balls.

 We gave them out at each orphanage, and I was able to use the ball as an example. You would have to see it, but what makes these balls special is that they can be smashed, even run over by a truck, and still re-inflate themselves. The Haitian kids were astonished when we would smash the balls, illustrating life without Christ and emptiness, and as the ball would re-inflate I would talk about how God fills our lives with love and a hope that never dies. We had such a good time with this...asking the strongest kid to come and try and deflate the ball. No matter who or how hard they tried, the ball would always re-inflate! What a great illustration of Christ in our lives. We went back to one of the orphanages a few days later and the balls were still inflated and looking great!

The most important thing we do on these trips is love on children who have no parents to love and care for them. They crave a gentle hug, time sitting in some safe arms, or maybe even a little time kicking an in-destructable ball around (or even a deflated one!) They simply eat up learning about "Jezi" (Jesus) and hearing that He loves them. Can you ever hear that someone loves you too much?

Several of the children are now in the process of being adopted to families through Chadasha, and with mission teams coming in regularly, there is great hope that many more will find loving parents as the months roll on.

I am so encouraged by the loving care that the children are being given, and the opportunity for Foothills Community Church to help in many areas.

 So maybe you feel that you are interested in heading back with us on the next trip? You might ask "Are there any negative aspects of the trip?" NONE! Just kidding. Well, for some this trip may have been a bit uncomfortable. If I take my "I love Haiti" blinders off, then maybe I could come up with a few negatives...It was certainly hot and dusty most of the time with no rain to make things damp and cool. We were sweating all night long, every night but one. Winter trips have less heat.

Bill and Sarah in the "Chadasha Grill"

Just when I thought I had ridden on the longest pothole-filled dirt road in the area, then our driver Jon Fitz headed down an even longer more bumpy one. When you are bouncing around in the back of a flatbed truck this can be an issue for some :) I loved it. So did my wife Sarah.

Wake up time is 5am just because that is when the cows, roosters, and sun decide to get up. That is about 2 hours early for my blood! Several of our team members get up this early at home for some reason...I don't get it.

That's about it. And I was stretching. Seriously. The accommodations at the mission house are way better than adequate. It's no luxury vacation resort, but it is truly a nice place to be with wonderful staff and great little beds to sleep on. There are 3 team sleeping rooms that each have multiple fans and there are real bathrooms! No air conditioning or hot water, but the water is pure, and you can drink it and take cold showers in it all you like.

Heck...They even have ice cold pure cane sugar 20oz. Cokes and Sprites (in the bottle) for $1.00. Mmmm, I miss em' already! Let me tell ya, that tastes mighty good after a day out in the heat. What more could you ask for?

We had some beautiful worship gathering times together with our team and a bunch of other folks we met at the mission house including the Roberts family. We joined a group of interns that really love to worship, and ended up just being one big team for the week. We served together, played, sang, and prayed together. It was a wonderful group, and I believe God used us all to share the love of Christ with a bunch of people in various ways.

So I am very much looking forward to the next journey in Haiti. We are definitely considering a trip in February of 2012. Please consider whether or not Haiti may also be a place God is calling you to go and be used by Him to serve. Ready to hop on the plane and go? Me too!

There are many scriptures that speak to why we do what we do. Two that come to mind are Acts 1:8 which tells us - "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere--in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

A second scripture is James 1:27 which encourages us that "Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you."

Foreign missions may not be what God is asking of you. But He is definitely asking us each to go and do. He calls us all to love one another and to express that love in action. Through Foothills Community Church, there are many ways to find where it is God is calling you to serve in addition to our local church. The various initiatives of Project Reach are a great place to start locally, nationally, regionally, and internationally.

For more information visit: http://www.foothillscc.org/projectreach/