After getting minimal sleep, walking to the bus station at 5 am with the squad, riding in buses for 12+ hours, getting stuck at the DR border for over an hour where they demanded us pay them money in order to leave because we overstayed our visas, making a stressful call to AIMs emergency line, dipping into emergency cash, and getting dropped off at a closed bus station in the dark to be picked up by a school bus, I can officially say that I made it to Haiti and it’s good to be back!
I am so excited to start month 2 and as of today, I have a better understanding of who we are partnering with for the next 3 weeks. My team and I are serving with Mission of Hope (MOH) Haiti here in Titanyen. This organization was established in 1998 and has continued to change lives every single day. What they are doing is absolutely phenomenal and I am so blessed to be working alongside them. To start off by explaining more of what they do, here’s their vision statement:
As as organization following Jesus Christ, Mission of Hope exists to bring life transformation to every man, woman, and child in Haiti.
What does life transformation look like, you ask? Well, MOH has been prayed for for many years and the Lord has opened up doors and provided for them in miraculous ways. They have many sponsors, all of which have provided financial, physical, and spiritual needs. MOH main campus consists of a large dorm that hosts 300 people at a time, an orphanage that holds up to 60 children at a time, a transition home for orphans to reintegrate into society where they learn technical skills to hold a job and sustain life, a clinic that is fully Haitian-run and open to the public, a prosthetic lab that builds lower extremity limbs to those in the community who are rejected and shunned for their outward appearance, a dental and eye clinic, a new technical school for children who graduate high school and desire further education, a church, a large warehouse full of food and supplies for the different villages MOH provides for, and an upcoming sports complex that will hopefully be built soon. As you can tell, this place is doing amazing things and this is just one of their branches.
Not only are their campuses providing life transformation, but MOH does so much within the local community to reach the unreached. They have now entered and shared the Good News of the Gospel with 12 villages and by the year 2020, have a goal to reach over a million Haitians. MOH also brings in medical professionals to run mobile clinics every week and aid those unable to seek help themselves. They also have a system called MOPs (Medical Outreach Program) which is similar to Home Healthcare where they are able to provide more long-term care for patients in each village. At one of their other campuses, they provide monthly meetings where hundreds of pastors from the States and all over Haiti come to gather and learn from one other. Another fun fact is that they have been a part of building hundreds of homes for families impacted by the earthquake who were still living under tarps years after the event. Again, they could not have done any of this without God’s mighty hands providing for their needs and making incredible connections happen. To God be the glory!
One of my favorite tid-bits I learned today was that MOH does not exist to bring in North Americans to fix Haiti. They are all about empowering Haitians to lift up their fellow brothers and sisters and in doing so, have seen lives drastically change. They are an example to be followed and again, I’m so blessed and thankful to be learning from them this month.
I highly encourage all of you to check out their website at mohhaiti.org to see, hear, and read more about how the Lord is moving in Haiti.
That’s the latest, folks. Until next time 🙂
~A
