In our time in Haiti we had the opportunity to partner with the organization called Supply and Multiply. Here we were able to serve in so many ways we worked with the elderly, widowed, mentally and physically impaired as well as the children within the community. We also had the opportunity to grow in prayer walking and evangelism as well as being able to serve the community with physical labor. I broke each of our ministry sites up by section to try and best explain the work we did.
Matthew 25 Homes
During our ministry time, we had the opportunity to love on the elderly homes. This was truthfully was my favorite place we did ministry. There were to homes in which the organization, supply and multiply had for their elderly. One was called Matthew 25 mango which was dedicated to the women and the other was known as Matthew 25 fishing was dedicated to the men. The reason I love working with the elderly is because of the joy in which they find in the simplest of things. Every time I spoke at the Matthew 25 homes sharing the word of God the women would shout AMEN to every point that was made. Some would stay in their room when we came over but would come out when we turned on worship. As for the men’s Matthew 25 home they they radiate just a joy like no other. Every time we make mini crafts typically instruments with them and they love using them to make music. Every time we return they are holding the craft we previously created. The projects we make with them are made from resources we can find, for example, rocks in a play-doh containers. Despite the simplicity of what we do with the elderly, they still appreciate the time we spend with them. Seeing their faces light up and enjoy singing songs with us is refreshing to my soul.
VBS
When applying for world race I was most excited to work with children. Though with my time here I’ve realized my heart is not in children’s ministry. I love working with kids but I realize now that I loved being able to serve my church community and our church had a lot of volunteer opportunities with children. But being exposed to other opportunities to serve I learned my heart is in working with older age groups. But I have been able to grow so much and I am so thankful for this amazing opportunity. At training camp I confessed to my team that I struggled being confident in my relationship with the Lord and asked them to come alongside me in that. My team has challenged me in growing in leadership by encouraging me to lead the bible stories. The kids we worked with ranged from having physical/mental impairments and being homeless to being financially stable. Every single child deserves to know the love of God so working with kids from various backgrounds taught our team patience, stretching ourselves not to come in with our western American eyes and to come in and truly grow in meeting these individuals in their culture.
Street Evangelism/ Prayer Walking
Several times our team had the opportunity to pray over the community whether it be over the people we passed or just prayers lifted up to the Lord. Every time we would ask others if we could pray for them they would stop everything they were doing in order to meet our needs and make sure we were comfortable by grabbing chairs. Most of the struggles in which these individuals are going through were struggles most of us never had to deal with, struggles with not being able to eat in several days, not being able to afford doctor visits or shelter, burdens in which break me heart. Despite these burdens, we continued to see how the community chooses to lean on God and prayers. Our team also had the opportunity to walk to several of our ministry sites. To use our time intentionally, we sometimes would pray over the community as we passed. There is peace in knowing that we may not know the names of the individuals we passed, but God knew them before they were even born, can tell you the number of hairs on their head and is holding them all in his sovereign hands.
Physical Labor
During our time in Haiti, we were able to help with a home build as well as helping around with our ministry home. We helped the ministry carry rocks from the beach in order to lay on the ground, paint chairs, as well as planting roughly around 150 plantain trees. During our time helping with these activities I learned a lot about how many hands make the work load light. My favorited labor activity we had the opportunity of being apart of was the home build. I especially loved this after our ministry host Miss Christian shared her heart behind the project. She shared with us how when she came across the home there was an infant alone inside and the roof was crumbling in. The parents did not leave the child out of neglect but simply because they needed to work in order to provide for the baby. So they decided we should tear down the home and rebuild a new sturdier home in which the family can live in. All the materials needed were all created, made and accessible in Haiti so when we purchased them he helped the local community’s businesses. When we helped them with the home build we were not taking jobs from the Haitians for they worked alongside us but rather we sped up the process of how long they would take to build this home in order to get the family in as soon as possible and the builders could get paid sooner and move onto their next project.
Building and Establishing Relationships
This was probably one of the hardest but most impactful ways of ministry for me. This was northing planned or organized like the other ways of ministry but rather something that just occurred over time. During our time in Haiti I was able to get to know our ministry hosts, drivers, translators, community kids and my own team really well. I got to hear about some of the struggle and triumphs that were going on in their life and how God is working in their lives. Let me just say these people have powerful testimonies and struggles we cannot even comprehend yet the joy the had only could come from the Lord. Leaving some of these people behind as we traveled to the Dominican Republic broke my heart. But I know that the relationships that were build were not left behind. Because of these people I have truly been shaped into a stronger woman of God and I hope that if it is in the Lord’s plan I will be able to see them all again soon.
