After much prayer and preparation, in the spring of 2013 a team was formed to return to Haiti to continue our partnership with Mission:Haiti and Faith Lutheran Church in Haiti. This team consisted of, Craig-our team leader, Senior Pastor Dan- conducting a seminar for pastors at the seminary in Haiti, Herb- an expert in concrete, to conduct a seminar on concrete and to learn about how they do things and what can be done to help. We also has Paul- assisted the team in the planning and surveying of building the girls orphanage and improvements on the boys. Ann and Janice lead a women's bible study, an out reach that brought many women to Christ and allowed a deeper knowledge of Scripture through study and individual prayer for each woman that requested it. Candice and I hosted vacation bible school. Candice is a teacher at our school that sponsors the children in the orpahanage.She is crucial to the organization of this upcoming school year and plans for how the school can help.I will get into more detail with that later in this post. Ron is an optometrist, he hosted an eye glasses clinic and handed out hundreds of free eye glasses for those in need. God put together a very diverse team that carefully took on this great mission.
Here are my notes that I took daily as I tried to take in the somewhat overwhelming task at hand. I felt we were pretty prepared. However, we did have to do a lot of re-evaluating to meet the needs for each day. We literally had to take it one day at a time, just as Jesus tells us to do anyway.
September 7th. Nine sleepy team members gathered at 4:30 a.m. to begin our long day of travel to Haiti. I sat down next to a boy to be maybe 9 years old. His mother sat in a seat several rows up. He seemed particularly excited to get going. I asked if he spoke English. He said he did a little but mostly Creole. He anxiously observed all the activity going on the ground that prepares a plane for flight. We both were delighted at take off. I like that part too. Once the seat belt sign was off his mother moved him to a seat closer to her. But, I enjoyed conversation with him while I had it. Then I moved into his window seat! Traveling went well, planes ran on time. I noticed as we flew over the ocean to Haiti that I am less nervous flying over water than driving over it. Not sure why, I will explore that another time. I began reading a book by Don Miller. He was writing about stories and how our stories play out in life. Not as one big story but many stories that encounter people that play a part in our stories. I was excited to start this story of my life. What did God have planned? How could he use me? I have been to Haiti before. There are many things I knew to expect. I knew some of the culture, poverty, and limited resources. I knew Voodoo was a strong presence but had not learned a whole lot about it. I prayed we would be prepared to serve in missions that were not on our agenda, to move with the Holy Spirit. I was super nervous however I knew this was no time to be shy.
I was and still have really thankful for such a supportive husband, children, family, and friends that helped out while I was gone. I felt surrounded by prayer that was promised to us by numerous people, our church and small groups. Aaron did a great job holding down the fort and the task of caring for me when I got home.
Once we arrived at the airport we gathered our bags, making sure all bags were accounted for. We were greeted by familiar faces. Helen and John run Mission:Haiti and met us in Florida. In Port Au prince (the capitol) Lophane and Noel greeted us with joy. They are our security. Lophane was crucial in many ways to the success of our team. Enoch was again with us as a translator and brother in Christ. Sophanie was a pleasant surprise to have a female translator. Someone us gals could relate to and become friends and sisters in Christ. We allowed them to get us loaded. Quite a task for 21 bags!! The drive was about 4 hours. We stopped at a super market similar to our HEB. We needed bottled water for the drive. Everything we came in contact with required bottled water. More on that later. There are not really any rules on driving. They knew what they were doing but it was quite frightening for me. Roadways needed improvement, crowds of people selling and begging lined the streets. Women carrying goods on there heads in bowls with no hands. Bathrooms were not as clean as we would prefer but we had plenty of Clorox wipes on hand and I brought my own toilet paper. The guest house was great. Very American and Haitian.
Dinner was ready for us as soon as we arrived. We decided to eat and then unload. The meal was Turkey, Rice and beans, the famous creole sauce, sliced avocado, tomatoes, soup, plantains, and juice.
Devotions were lead by Craig. It was taken out of Micah. It challenged us to look for chances to give hope and mercy.
I will conclude this entry with my quite eventful first shower.. I was cold water, which I expected from last time and was very welcomed because of a very hot and humid day. I took off my glasses and my hair clip and set them on the side of the shower edge. I lathered up with shampoo and soap. I looked down to see what I thought was my hair clip that had maybe fallen in the shower. Only I vaguely saw 2( I cant see anything but blurry images without my glasses). I quickly put on my glasses to see 2 huge bugs that appeared to be roaches! The size we see in Texas!. I panicked yet new I needed to be a grown up about this because I didn't want to further embarrass myself. I quickly and fearfully attempted to rinse off as much as I could and got out as fast as possible. I was still mostly wet as I dressed and ran out of the bathroom. Once I was in our shared girls room I lost it. I do not do bugs especially roaches. While I tried to calm down, Helen recruited John to take care of the situation. Lets just say, I wore my glasses in every shower after that. Since the water is cold they didn't fog up.
Praise God for BIG and small surprises. He definitely has a sense of humor!!!
Stay tuned for more entries to come. I am dividing them up in days.
As always in the name of Jesus Christ,
Amy
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