A Glimpse of Haiti

I have landed back in the Bahamas, and hit the ground running. Back for two days, I already feel as though it has been a week. Life here, as always, is a delicate balance of being busy about the work of the Lord and allowing Him to work in His timing. There hasn't been too much time to reflect about Haiti.

The flight from Nassau to Jacmel was about two hours long, ending in a beautiful runway approach over the ocean. The airport was very small, with a broken down, breezy bunker building occupied by the Canadian army. We were quickly ushered through a short immigration process and then out of the building. Pastor Chet put us right to work, dividing us up into teams to head to work projects that had been established the week before. I was on the team that headed to our house first to unload luggage.

We rode in the back of a truck through the streets of Jacmel, a wonderful introduction to the country. The sights, smells, and sounds all reminded me of Sentani, Indonesia, except of course that the native language is Creole. Much of the poverty was clearly pre-earthquake but occasional structural damage could be seen and there were small tent communities everywhere. Our house was bright pink with a carefully fenced and gated yard. It was four bedroom three bath and extremely nice, considering our original plan was to sleep in a tent community.

After unloading, my team walked a half mile or so through the neighborhood to our first project: house building. Apparenlty contractors hired men to work for food in building these houses and we were volunteering to help. They were small, cement buildings densely surrounded by banana trees and small lean to shelters. Our task was to sift the rocky sand in order to produce finer sand that could be used to make cememnt and mortar. So that's what we did for the next four hours. It was tough work, not entirely unlike archaeology dry sifting, except that there were no tripods or user friendly shortcuts. Everything was standing and it was hard on the lower back. But we worked hard alongside the locals, and a few men from Colorado who had come down for a couple of weeks.

The rest of the week I was on a different work site everyday. They included: VBS downtown, orphanage, digging trenches on the mountain, and demoloshing a damaged three story church building. We worked everyday for six to eight hours and then returned for dinner to the house. After dinner we had class for about an hour and then time for fellowship and homework, but by then we were all wiped.

Most of the week I had no more responsibility than to work alongside the students. It was simple: we were there to serve the Haitian people through love and labor. We had few translators, but most Haitians loved our efforts of broken vocabulary and hand gestures. The kids, of course, just wanted love, attention, and time. My hardest days were spent with the kids all day. I felt so unqualified to give them anything that they needed. Teaching games without using words was humbling in itself, and the smallest amount of laughter worked wonders.

What blessed me the most was watching and hearing about the relief work coming in. Hundreds of aid groups are working in Haiti now, but aid is going to more than just earthquake victims. Needs in Haiti that have existed for years, are now being addressed as the country is slowly being rebuilt. It is huge to imagine that this is just one way the Lord is using this earthquake for His glory and to further His kingdom.

Our trip is over, but Pastor Chet is the coordinator for the rest of the Calvary teams that will be going to Haiti. He was able to properly observe the needs and make connections with the right people in Jacmel, and now Calvary Chapel has plans to be a part of the long term rebuilding process. Their first team (besides us from Patmos) arrived the day that we were leaving and we were able to pass on information and resources for them, to make their trip more effective and less stressful.

I am truly blessed to have been a part of this short trip. Just working alongside these people and playing with their children was a blessing, not to mention how privileged I was to watch the students on our team as they grew in amazing ways. God really impacted their lives through this trip and the fruit is becoming evident. For many students it was their first mission trip anywhere.

Thank you to all of you for your prayers and support! I will try to get pictures up soon.