Country: Haiti
When: February 8th– March 4th
Language: Haitian Creole, French
Currency: Haitian Gourdes
Population: Over 9 million people
Religion: Roughly 80% of Haitians are Roman Catholic and less than 1 in 5 are Protestant. Roughly 95 percent of Haitians (regardless of religious affiliation) hold at least some Voodoo beliefs or superstitions.
Ministry Host: Mission of Hope (MOH)
Website: MOHHAITI.org
Ministry Location: Titanyen (Less than nothing), Haiti
Living Situation: It’s all squad month, which means all 41 of us are together at Mission of Hope. We live on a large compound that has dorm style rooms, which include bunk beds and bathrooms. The Haitian women have taught us how to do our laundry by hand (if there isn’t a squeaky type noise, you don’t have it down). The food is very American especially for breakfast and lunch; you’ll never lack cereal or peanut butter here. Dinners are awesome and we eat more Haitian type food J
MOH Vision: “As an organization following Jesus Christ, MOH exists to bring life transformation to every man, woman and child in Haiti. We desire to serve the nation of Haiti, and see lives changed.”
MOH Mission: “Our mission is to fulfill our Vision in every endeavor we undertake by successfully executing on our five core Resolutions” (relational proclamation, evangelistic saturation, indigenous mobilization, holistic transformation and excellent implantation).
MOH Ministries: MOH has an orphanage, many schools throughout the country (the kids are fed there too), medical clinics and a prosthetics lab. MOH partner with villages and help train pastors, village champions and farmers. They also help build homes, plant trees, donate goats, etc. It’s an incredible organization that emphasizes sustainability (they don’t just give hand-outs; they focus on equipping the local people and buy what they can within Haiti). MOH is also expanding its ministry by building a technical school and an assistant living home. Many short term mission teams from the States come and help build homes, evangelize and run VBS camps in the partnering villages.
My Ministry: My squad’s mission for the month is to bless MOH by doing things that need to get done around their compound. We’ve painted orphan’s bedrooms, classrooms, offices, bathrooms, kitchens, etc. We’ve also been able to help lay a concrete floor for the kitchen/cafeteria for the assistant living home, install a tin roof on the new technical school, cut grass with machetes and help with miscellaneous tasks at the staff’s homes. Another ministry we’ve been able to help out with is Strategic Village Time (SVT), which means we go out to the villages and talk with the locals. We gather basic information about them (health, water source, schooling, living conditions, etc.) and share the gospel with.
Adventure Days: Every week we get an adventure day, which means we have the opportunity to go off campus and explore Haiti! We’ve gone to Alachute De Saut-D’Eau waterfall, hiked up a mountain for a great view of the ocean and spent a day at the beach. The drive to the waterfall was through the mountains on a gravel road-the views were gorgeous and the dust was plenty. The day at the beach was both active and relaxing (there were trampolines, paddle boards, kayaks and volleyball).
Favorite Memories: Learning how to play the guitar, shadowing at the prosthetics lab, squad worship nights, sunrise workouts and getting to know some of my squadmates on a deeper level.
