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

Haiti Mission Trip, Day 3: Build Us Back With Precious Stones

It is through tears that I write today as I listen to Know Hope Collective's "Build Us Back" and think back to where I was just a week ago -- halfway up a mountain in Jacmel, Haiti, looking down at one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen.  In the photo above, you can see the wall of the new House of Abraham from the bottom of the very steep driveway.  Reaching the top and looking out from what will soon (by faith) be the completed house, you see this:

Mountains to the left and the green waters of the Caribbean to the right.  Photos don't even begin to do it justice.  It was here that we would labor for the next few days.

Let me back up a little and take you on an adventure that we experienced just to get to the work site.  As if the 45-minute drive through Jacmel traffic and up the mountain on the thin ledge of the back of a truck weren't adventure enough, there was the crossing of the river.  You couldn't see the edges of the road, and the water came up to about a foot below the bottom of the window.  Take a look at this video, featuring the raging river and co-starring the back of Pat "Mr. Benatar" Goodwin's head:

We found a crew of Haitian workers already hard at work and were assigned our task, mixing concrete and pouring the foundation of the second level of the house.  This is the house at the beginning of Wednesday morning:

Concrete didn't come from a mixing truck or even a mixer.  It came from mixing gravel, sand (which had to be sifted), bagged cement, and water.   This was hard work!

 (Dwayne and Fenel mixing concrete, with Gabe providing expert supervision, while the Haitian crew is able to concentrate on laying block for the outer walls)

 (Mark and Pat providing the expertise in pouring and floating concrete while the rest of us did the grunt work of bringing them concrete in buckets and -- thanks to a little ingenuity in ramp-building -- wheelbarrows)

(Pouring concrete to frame the front door and windows.  All carried in buckets down a steep hill and handed up to the workers pouring it.  We were definitely glad to call it a day after this!)

Playtime with Sidewalk Chalk

After a quick trip to the ocean to cool off and partially clean up, we returned to the House of Abraham, and the kids were ready to play!  We brought out the sidewalk chalk, and they quickly turned the driveway into an art gallery.

(Gabe enjoying a foot massage, compliments of Richardson)

Precious Stones

This was the day when our team really began to click as we worked together, made sure we were all getting plenty to drink and breaks as we needed them, and played together.  In the process we began to learn one another's stories.  Though I won't share them here, let me just say that God is still very much doing the work that He had planned even before the fall: redeeming broken man back to Himself.

I admired the native stone foundation of the new HoA all week.

Each of these stones individually is just a broken piece of rock.  Fit together, however, they add stunning beauty to an already-picturesque landscape.  I couldn't help but think about how Jesus is building his Kingdom in the same way, broken pieces joined together by His blood into a beautiful tapestry of the redeemed.

Consider the lyrics of "Build Us Back":

We’ve been crumbled, we’ve been crushed

City walls have turned to dust

Broken hands and blistered feet

We walk for miles to find relief

When the thief takes, when our hopes cave

You build us back

You build us back

When the earth shakes, when the world breaks

You build us back

You build us back

We are scared, we are poor

All our safety nets are torn

We’ve been humbled to our knees

From these ruins, we believe

Redeemer, redeem us

Restorer, restore us

Oh build us back

Though the mountains be shaken, the hills be removed

Your unfailing love remains

After all that’s been taken, Your promise, still sacred

You build us back with precious stones

It's Haiti's story.  It's our story as the body of Christ, the church.  

I was privileged to see some precious stones put together to form something beautiful in Haiti last week.  Here is a photo of those precious stones:

 Thanks for reading.

4theVoiceless,
Al