For much of the past 3 years, I’ve been a short-term missionary. It’s changed my life as well as the lives of my teammates and many of the people we’ve come in contact with over the years.
Although I believe in short term trips and what they have to offer people, I’ve at times shared the opinions most people have about their lack of effectiveness.
However, this past month in Haiti I’ve been privileged to serve with Mission of Hope (MOH), an organization that utilizes short-term teams in the most effective way I’ve ever seen.
MOH is located in Titanyen, a small town north of Port Au Prince. They offer food, housing, education, medical aid, and spiritual training to thousands and thousands of people every day.
The greatest part of Mission of Hope, and the reason why they are so effective, is they seek to truly empower the people of Haiti to take ownership of their lives and country. They are challenged to be the change Haiti needs.
The majority of MOH staff are Haitian. They employ Haitian teachers to teach in their schools, Haitian doctors to work in their clinics, Haitian Christians to lead the churches, and Haitian women to be house moms for the children in the orphanage. They feed 91,000 people a day and a portion of that food has been purchased from Haitian farmers.
MOH hosts hundreds of mission teams and thousands of people a year. Some teams will work on the property doing manual labor projects. A few of our projects this month were painting the children’s rooms at the orphanage, cutting grass with machetes, picking up garbage, pouring concrete for the floor of the elderly home, and putting the tin roof on a trade school.
Teams also travel to communities to build relationships with the people. Each village has a Village Champion. Village Champions are Haitians from the community who know the needs of the community and can help MOH teams have the greatest impact. This can mean teams visit homes, share the gospel, pray for people, visit clinics, deliver goats, play with children, plant trees, etc.
Village Champions make sure people aren’t becoming dependent on MOH or the North American mission teams. They are the liaison between MOH and their people. They’re incredible at what they do and it’s evident they care deeply for their communities.
When we left MOH yesterday, I knew they’d be just fine with or without us. Although teams help them accomplish their vision, they don’t depend on them. It was a blessing to be so helpful to an organization without feeling like our departure set them back.
If you’d like to check out more about Mission of Hope, sponsor a child, or buy from Market of Hope, click the link!
