What You Choose to Remember: Haiti Mission Trip, Final Chapter

Something I have learned from previous mission trips to different places around the world is that you can't hold on to them or re-create them.  The trick is in how to remember them and let them change your life.

I will not forget the extreme poverty I saw in Haiti.  I will not forget the stark contrast of tents and stick huts with the backdrop of the beautiful Caribbean. I will not forget the throngs of people constantly moving but seemingly going nowhere.  I will not forget seeing people in every little tributary washing clothes.  I will not forget, as much as I would like to, the very large woman bathing in one of those said tributaries without a care about traffic moving right past her.  I will not forget the stomach-twisting 3 1/2-hour drive from Port au Prince to Jacmel and back through the mountains and the traffic.  I will not forget the heat that made it hard to sleep at night.

As a task-oriented person, I will not forget the progress we made on the new House of Abraham.  Soon, it will be a new home for the 13 children and those who care for them.  One day, it will serve as the team house for visiting mission teams.  I hope to stay in the house that I helped build in the months to come.

Mission trips aren't just about seeing needs and accomplishing tasks, though.  As a matter of fact, they are not even mostly about that.  They are about relationships.  Relationships with other team members.  Relationships with ministry partners like Fenel and Mimi Bruna in Jacmel, Haiti.  Relationships with the native workers at the job site.  Relationships with children and teachers at schools and discipleship meetings.  Most importantly, relationships with 13 beautiful little Haitian children who will capture your hearts and allow you to see beyond the poverty and hopelessness in Haiti to find hope in Jesus Christ and the generation that He is preparing to change Haiti. 

These are the things I choose to remember.  I remember Haiti as a beautiful place.  I remember it as a hopeful place.  Writing about our trip over the last week or so has helped cement these thoughts of Haiti.  I don't seek to hold on to the trip itself, but I do choose to learn from it and allow it to change my life here, to allow relationships like the one with my new discipleship partner to be my priority.  To pursue Great Commission living with greater intensity.

I have created a slideshow with the song that captured me most in my individual times with the Lord during our trip, "You're Beautiful," by Phil Wickham, as the soundtrack.  To watch the video without having been to Haiti, you might get the impression that Haiti is a tropical paradise, full of fun and adventure.  It is.  It's all in what you choose to remember. 

Thanks for reading.  Read about the individual days of our journey by clicking the links below:

Days 1 & 2
Day 3
Day 4
Days 5 & 6
Day 7
Day 8

4theVoiceless,
Al