Haiti has been a wonderful and unexpected joy. I honestly did not think this month/country would resonate with me as much as it has. Haiti is beautiful. Haitians are incredibly friendly and hospitable. God’s fingerprint is all over the ministry I’m serving at this month: Mission of Hope (MOH). This Christ-centered organization has multiple locations around the country and is spreading Jesus’ name through various ways. In the Titanyen location, the orphanage on campus houses 61 children. Although the building’s capacity is 120, MOH believes in quality over quantity and chooses to take in less kids to provide them the best care. What really stood out to me was the fact that when the male orphans turn 13 and the female orphans turn 18, they move to a transition house, where they are taught life and trade skills to empower them and prepare them to take care of themselves and live independently.
There is also a clinic on campus, which is open to the public and costs patients about one US dollar. What shocked me was that the prosthetics lab in the clinic offers free lower limb prosthetics for Haitians! We were told that many Haitians that have missing limbs are outcasts in society, so the free prosthetic is a way to allow them to enter back in. Also, the clinic is completely staffed and run by Haitians, which I think is amazing and really empowering for them. Mission of Hope also does mobile clinics that visit the nearby villages directly, to do health check-ups and in-home health services. Just in the past few years, hundreds of Haitians have come to Christ through the usage of these services. How cool is that! A few girls on my team and in the other team with us have medical backgrounds/experiences and actually had the opportunity to join in on a mobile clinic village trip.
Mission of Hope is impacting the country, as well as the Kingdom. Through the various Mission of Hope schools scattered in Haiti, children are being taught a Christ-centered curriculum and provided with a nutritious meal every day. In fact, MOH feeds over 90,000 children throughout Haiti daily! We got to tour their gigantic warehouse, where the food is stored, as well as boxes and boxes of TOMS shoes that are handed out to Haitians in need. I’m personally a huge fan of TOMS and their mission: for every pair of shoes bought, they will give a pair away to someone in need. I was really excited to see such an enormous amount of boxes on the warehouse shelves.
Next, we visited another Mission of Hope campus, which has a home for the elderly. It was so sweet shaking hands and sharing smiles with the 16 elderly men and women living there. In Haiti, the elderly are usually cast aside and forgotten so MOH created a Christ-centered home for them. I got to play a game of Dominoes with an old Haitian man and it was the BEST.
On Sunday morning, my team and I walked into the church on Mission of Hope’s campus that is open to the community. Kids from the orphanage sat all around us, asking to take pictures with our phones and speaking a few English words that they knew. As the service began and I recognized the worship song playing, Holy Spirit goosebumps arose on my arms. Hearing my English blend with the Haitian Creole language surrounding me was beautiful! Our voices became one, singing praises to the One God.
I’m so excited to be partnering with Mission of Hope this month and learning about their ministry. The Lord is so evidently here in Haiti, changing people’s hearts one at a time. This is a country full of hope, love, and eager ears ready to hear the gospel.
