Mission trips can't be accurately expressed through words. Nor photos. Nor videos. Some things you just have to experience for yourself. I know that.
As I attempt to journal our 8-day trip to Haiti, I know that the ones who will be most impacted by words, photos, and videos are the ones who have actually been to Jacmel, Haiti. The ones who have smelled the smells. The ones who have felt the heat. The ones who have experienced the traffic. The ones who have loved on the children and staff of
House of Abraham.
Day 1: Monday, October 29
Jacob Walley and I had flown to Miami on Sunday night and met up with the rest of our team there early Monday morning. Looking back on meeting all those strangers seems like forever ago now. It didn't take us long to become family, and I miss them like family. The team was comprised of 10 people from
Salisbury Church in Charleston, Illinois; three people from two different places in Florida; and us two
CHC representatives. There were a husband and wife, mother and daughter, mother and son, and father and daughter as part of the team dynamics.
Scott Sims, Salisbury's pastor, served as our
Isle Go facilitator. Scott got us all there, helped us to run the gauntlet of "airport luggage facilitators," let everyone's gifts flourish throughout the week, and helped us to see how God was at work in us and through us. He encouraged us to filter the week through these three questions:
1. What did I see? (Observation)
2. What does it mean? (Interpretation)
3. What does God want me to do with it? (Application)
In the airport parking lot, we met Fenel Bruna, who, along with his wife Mimi, founded and runs the House of Abraham.
I knew going in that I would not be prepared for the humanity piled upon humanity that is Port au Prince. We drove for about an hour through streets filled with people trying to scrape out a living by selling something, past the rubble that still remains from the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti, and past row after row of tents and tiny shacks that so many there call home.
I took very few photos there and reluctantly share only a couple of them. You see, God cares for every individual among that mass of humanity, and I don't take their plight lightly. As Scott reminded us in urging sensitivity about taking photos of extreme poverty, "That's someone's 24/7." However, if attention to the issues that plague Haiti (and they are many, but I will let you do your own research) helps any of these people, then I want you to see them. Understand, though, that a couple of photos don't include the massiveness or the smell or the hopelessness of extreme poverty.
After driving through Port au Prince and the surrounding towns, we began to climb the mountains toward Jacmel. The scenery along this two-lane winding highway was breathtaking!
We saw school children everywhere, dressed in sharp, neatly pressed, colorful uniforms. They stood in stark contrast to everyone else and were the picture of hope for Haiti's future.
We finally arrived in Jacmel at the House of Abraham late Monday afternoon. There, we met the 13 children who live there, some of whom I felt like I had known since March, when a team from CHC served there. We went through a brief orientation, ate dinner, and took in the first of many beautiful sunsets from the roof of HoA. Have I mentioned that Haiti is a beautiful place?
Haiti is also a hot place. Though there were fans throughout our rooms, it was hard to sleep. For me, personally, this served as a great time to listen to the mix of songs that I had chosen for this trip and allow God to speak to me for sometimes hours before I could go to sleep. He certainly strengthened me beyond the number of hours of sleep I was able to get while we were there!
Day 2: Tuesday, October 30
We were unable to get to the work site of the new HoA on Tuesday. Flooding from Hurricane Sandy from the previous week had caused the rivers to swell, and there was a river that we were not able to cross on Tuesday. That crossing would be interesting, to say the least, as you will see tomorrow.
Instead, we bought several hundred pounds of rice and beans, along with some canned fish and pasta to make food bags for the children at a school where Fenel leads discipleship training. These families were affected by Sandy, so we prepared 140 bags of food to give away to the students and teachers there. (And while we waited for the truck to return with the supplies, some of the team helped with laundry...House of Abraham style.
The children and teachers expressed gratitude for the food, school supplies, and candy that we gave them but joy that we stayed and played with them. We had a blast, and I'm pretty sure they did, too.
After our time at the school, we had time to take a drive and walk through downtown Jacmel, and then we returned to the HoA, where the children had returned home from school. It was playtime, where sometimes it is more fun to get the paper airplane out of the tree (and the bottle you got stuck trying to get it down) than it was playing with it in the first place!
Another delicious Haitian supper, more team sharing and hanging out together, Gabe's rendition of "Jacmel Blues" and the word of the day, and Tuesday was in the books. We would begin our part of the construction of the new HoA home on Wednesday.
I will be back tomorrow with my chronicles on Wednesday and Thursday of our trip. Like today's blog, those entries will seem so incomplete compared to the actual experience.
For Those Who Invested Prayer and Finances in Our Trip
Thanks to everyone who prayed and paid for us to go. I think I speak for the whole team when I say that your investment in us will reap long-lasting rewards in addition to the short-term benefits of our mission. I pray that God will return to you many times over what you have invested in His work in Haiti.
Thanks for reading.
4theVoiceless,
Al
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