Stories from Haiti
10.13.2017 – As we were doing village outreach ministry in a village called Labodree, we met a woman who was cooking plantains and onions on a stove outside her home. As we asked her questions in order to get to know her, she began to share her story, weeping. She came from a family that was emotionally abusive and had no care for her or her heart. Doctors had told her all her life that she would never be able to have kids, yet she wasn’t mourning these things. She was crying tears of joy and gratitude. The Lord blessed her with a perfectly healthy, three year old son, the evidence of God’s goodness and kindness. Now she has the ability to move into one of the beautiful block homes that Mission of Hope is building. It was incredible to meet this woman who had such strong faith in the Lord and His goodness, and who was seeing the reward for her faith.
10.16.2017 – On Monday we did more house visits in Titayen, Haiti. The first place we stopped at had two blue tarp homes and an unfinished block home. Blue tarp homes were set up by Samaritan’s Purse after the earthquake of 2010, and were only supposed to be temporary living situations for families. However, many people never received, or weren’t able to build, better houses so the tarps became their homes for over 7 years. The one room structures get so hot during the day that many people have gone blind or developed severe vision damage. The woman we met had been living in one next to her parent’s. The woman had three children, and her mom had had 8 children. The tragedies that they began to share with us were heart breaking. The woman’s husband had been killed two years ago, leaving her with no way to finish the block home, which would have allowed them to trade the tarps for a real house. The mother had lost 6 of her children, leaving the woman with only one sister. But I wish I could show you the smiles on their faces and the joy with which they greeted us. They told us that church was their favorite place to be, that there was no place where they would rather be. The mother prayed with us and there was no doubt that she truly believed in the power of God.
10.17.2017 – Tuesday, we had another day of outreach. The first house we visited was lived in by a woman and her husband. We started talking to the woman and found out that her husband was deaf and paralyzed, lying in the back room of the house. The second we walked into the dark room he asked in a scratchy voice if we could pray for him. We learned that this man had become a christian in the midst of his illness and believed that God had great things in store for him.
10.17.2017 – The afternoon after we met with the paralyzed man, we were led by a pastor in the community to an orphanage on top of a hill. 17 shy and timid children walked out of a small house, one by one, and said “Bonjou.” They all sat on benches together across the room from us, very quietly. Then in unison, the children stood and all 17 kiddos sang “A Whole New World” in Creol for me and my team. Every person on my team had a permanent smile from that moment on. We slowly got each kid to laugh, smile, and tell us their name. My good friend Jetu taught me how to say things like house, clouds, and pink in Creol. There was one very smiley boy there in a wheelchair. We were told he had HIV and was nearly paralyzed. He held my hand for an hour. Here comes the best part. When it was time for us to leave, the pastor told us that the children wanted to pray over us. Nothing compares to what my heart felt in this moment. To see kids, who slept on concrete and didn’t have parents, praying… I mean really praying… over me. I’ve never been more overcome by so many different emotions of joy, love, awe, and thankfulness.
Each of these faces has a story and a name and a personality. They have a purpose and a hope.
What is so evident to me is that people are people. They get bored sometimes, they go through friend drama and breakups, they get ready for bed at night. The same God has placed His image, likeness, and fingerprint on us and we are united by one purpose: to be fishers of men and followers of Christ.
It makes me so excited to meet new people, hear their story, and share mine. And the best part is that this is true all over the world. In Haiti, in America, and every other country in the world.
Go meet someone new today.
