Long time, no see! This month was spent at Mission of Hope: Haiti in Source Matelas (pronounced Soos-mot-luh), Haiti. Internet here is not scarce, but it’s not free, which is why I have not had internet all month. Five dollars an hour is a little steep for my missionary budget. This month has been an incredible growing experience. I love Haiti, but it has been spiritually challenging. If I’m being completely honest with you, I’ve only been in my bible a handful of times. Last month it was difficult to get my time in with God each day, but that was because we were busy all of the time….this month, we have a lot more free time than I’m used to, and I haven’t been using it wisely. Prioritizing and fighting for my time with God each day is something I am still working on and growing in.
This month was incredible in many ways. Not only is Haiti, as a country, just beautiful, but the people are beautiful. The culture has it’s quirks, but it is awesome nonetheless, and the food is pretty darn great. My growth this month has been exponential. There are some parts of my past that I planned on leaving in the past. But God convicted my heart to bring that shame to light so I could receive healing from it, and what an amazing experience that was! Eventually I will post my story here, but I have some things to do first.
When it comes to what we did this month….it definitely wasn’t what I expected to be doing. The first week we were introduced to Village Time and Strategic Village Time. Regular Village Time is all about going to the different villages in this part of Haiti and getting to know the people there in the culture. It’s all about making relationships. Strategic Village Time is still about building relationships, but it is also about gathering information about the different families in the villages that will help MoH: Haiti serve the people better. MoH has an awesome system set up here that really empowers the locals to step into leadership in their own communities and take responsibility for the needs of their people through their local churches. We aren’t allowed to give the locals anything at all in order to prevent an expectation from building that foreign missionaries are the ones who will take care of them. Instead they employ Village Champions, who are Haitian leaders in each of the villages, who are in charge of distributing gifts and different items to the villagers and they direct the local people to their local, Haitian-run churches. This is such a wonderful and practical model that is allowing Haitians to really take back their country and provide for themselves and their communities instead of relying on relief from foreign missionaries.
We’ve been to several different villages during our stay: Leveque, Source Matelas, Turpin, Titanyen, Mineowtri, and Simonette. Out of all of these villages, I’d have to say that Turpin and Titanyen are my most favorite villages. In Leveque, there is a playground that we were bussed to about three times and there we simply played with the local children. In Source Matelas, we first went to paint houses for two local families as part of MoH’s “Blue to Block” program. Believe it or not, there are still hundreds, if not thousands, of Haittians still living in the blue Samaritan’s Purse tents that they received as temporary housing (max 2 years) after the earthquake five years ago. MoH desires to get all of the Haitians out of these blue tents and into a permanent cinder block home.
In Simonette, we were able to do village time, strategic village time, as well as running a Kid’s Club in the elementary school, which is tons of fun. There, I met a little boy named Michael who looked like he had an awful disease in his hands and feet. Oozing blisters littered his fingers, ankles, and toes, and it looked very painful. My heart hurt for him. He was the only child there who hadn’t been touched at all and I felt great compassion. But I didn’t want to touch him. I was afraid whatever he had was contagious to me, but then I saw my friend Kerry with a boy who had some kind of measles or pox. I asked her if she was vaccinated, but all she said was, “That doesn’t matter to me.” I felt great conviction in that moment and I was reminded of how Jesus touched the leper without fear of contracting disease. So I turned back to Michael and I took his little hand in mine and any fear left my heart in that moment. We sat like that for a moment, then Britt and I prayed for him. Then he just wandered off, chewing on the blisters on his fingers. We came back two days later and I sought him out, and I couldn’t contain my excitement when I saw him. His feet were no longer blistered and oozing! He had a smile on his face and his feet were scarred, but he had been healed of his ailment. How amazing is that?
In Titanyen, we did strategic village time for the entire day. There is something different about this village. It is very large and the people are just different. It’s on a bit of a mountain. The kids are some of the most loving kids I’ve met so far. My favorite moment in Titanyen involved walking up to an overlook with two girls and one of the girls’ baby brothers in tow and we just sang “Bless the Lord O’ My Soul” over and over. It was a very precious moment that I will not forget. Going back down to the bus, an older boy came up to me and attempted to pry the little girl’s hand out of mine, whining “Mon blanc, mon blanc!” (It sounds like “Ma blah, ma blah.” My adopted name for the month has been “Blah” and “Hey You!”
Mineowtri was probably the toughest ministry day that I’ve had all month. Not only was I physically and spiritually drained as well as burnt out on the strategic village time, but it was one of the last days of ministry and I was finding it particularly difficult to stay present. While there, we met a family who has a 14 year old daughter named Yvna. Yvna lives in a padlocked cement room built onto the outside of the house. While we sat in their yard talking to her parents, Yvna would approach the barred window on the door, yell, jump up and down, then retreat back into the room where we could not see her. Attempts to engage her by waving to her or calling out “Bonjou!” were met with a smile, but no response. Her parents found it amusing that we were attempting to engage her. Apparently, her family believes that Yvna is sick or demon-possessed, but she is actually non-verbal autistic. It was heartbreaking to see this girl, a human-being, locked up like an animal. Her parents told us they had to lock her up because she had bitten some people in the village. I attempted to prepare myself for all that I would see on the Race, and I knew that I would see a lot of hard things, but I never would have been able to prepare myself for that.
We put on a 3 day VBS for the orphans at the MoH orphanage. It was pretty tough, but fruitful! I was assigned to the older kids (ages 14-20). These kids normally do not have the missionaries spending time with them at all. They are completely immersed in Haitian culture and are among each other and other Haitians the majority of the time, with little interaction with foreigners other than the MoH staff and interns. They had some pretty tough walls, which was completely understandable, yet discouraging. By the third day of working with these kids, though, I was super bummed out that we couldn’t do it longer. It was amazing to really see them open up to us and allow us into their lives.
Please keep Yvna and her family in your prayers, as well as the kids and staff at MoH. Writing this from Costa Rica, so expect another blog VERY soon!
