So if you read my last blog, you saw that I was just getting settled into our ministry in Titanyen, Haiti at Mission of Hope where I would spend most of my time either using my physical therapy skills for the medical outreach program or building relationships with the locals in nearby villages. The day after I posted that blog, we had a curveball thrown at us. Welcome to the World Race.
We were told we would be moving from Titanyen to Fermathe (up in the mountains) to a ministry that was just adopted into the Mission of Hope organization. The ministry is called Baptist Haiti Mission, which is a ministry that has been around for ~70 years with the original founders, Wallace and Eleanor, still living on the campus today. Due to their age, they sought out Mission of Hope to continue the work they’ve been doing for the last 70 years underneath Mission of Hope’s wing. So we were asked to be a “guinea pig” team for Baptist Haiti Mission to make sure they are equipped to handle North American teams like the rest of the Mission of Hope campuses do and in turn we would help to do a facelift on the campus and help prepare the spaces to be more livable and usable by future missionary teams.
This felt like a great responsibility and honor that they trusted us enough to lay this important groundwork. My squadmate Sarah put it this way: “We’re doing kingdom work by laying the foundation for future kingdom to build upon.”
This meant a new lodging situation, new staff to be surrounded by, and new ministry. We were thrown off but no one felt defeated. We were able to quickly realize that God had different plans for us this month and He was going to place us where we were needed most within this country. So we packed up our bags, and piled in a canter (a truck with a big covered bed with benches in the back) and enjoyed a breezy and bumpy two hou ride up into the Haitain mountains we saw from the shores of Titanyen.
We’ve now spent a week up here in the beautiful Haitian mountains and here’s what life has looked like:
- Hot showers taken military style to conserve water: on to rinse, off to lather
- Cooler weather which means sleeping with three blankets to keep warm at night a.k.a. the best sleeping conditions in my opinion
- A community room with COUCHES in our “inn” (if you know anything about the race, you know how rare it is to have couches to lounge on)
- Ministry that for me has looked like cleaning out a medical depot (storage room) that supplies the hospital here on campus, getting rid of expired supplies (four truck beds full of these so far and counting) and organizing the supplies that are still good in order to make room for newer supplies to be added
- Being greeted by Haitians within 30 seconds of stepping outside of our door since the campus is open to the public 8am-5pm Monday-Friday because there is a playground and “zoo” on campus (the zoo has goats, birds, a crocodile, rabbits, peacocks, and ducks)
- Morning devotionals in creole in an outside amphitheater with the Haitian mountains as picturesque as a computer screensaver as our backdrop
- Lots of nights spent playing Bananagrams and Spicy Uno with my teammates
- Authentic Haitian meals cooked by local Haitian women
- Coffee at every meal and the best bread I’ve had in my entire life at most every meal
- Squadmates getting sick with flu-like symptoms and/or what the locals call the “Haitian Sensation” (google this is you want details on what this entails)
- Thunderstorms that bring hail and heavy rain that drown out your own thoughts when it pounds on our tin roof
- Limited wifi access which pushes us deeper into our community and limit distractions from home or social media
- Traditional Haitian church on Sunday where everyone is dressed in their Sunday best and the sanctuary is stuffed with hearts that are hungry to worship God for two hours straight
We have one week left in this country before we head to South Africa and I plan to soak up every landscape view, every hot shower, every piece of buttered bread, every genuine smile or “bon jou” from the Haitians that roam the campus, and every interaction or ministry assignment the Lord ordained for me to participate in to show his light and spread his love.
