Mosquito Bait

From Amy

We have been back for 2 weeks now.  It’s taken me some time to figure out what I wanted to close with on this site.  I have several other reflections going up on my own blog, but I didn’t necessarily want to bombard this site will all of that madness…so its taken me some time to figure out what I wanted to say here.  

Short term missions have a lot of value - not only for the staff and organizations that are served, but also for the individuals who are going.  Sure, that seems selfish, but it’s a reality that can not be ignored…after all, if you are truly going with a “learner’s heart”, how can you expect to not receive something about God and His Global Kingdom when you go?  

I hope and sense that our efforts to serve Child Hope were valuable.  The house we provided, the things we built and organized, the care we provided with the kids - all of those efforts were to serve the staff working there for long-term and the community and kids they are caring for.  

On a personal level, I came back from Haiti with some conviction that I had to take to the Lord.  I’m used to being the odd person out.  I usually know how people are going to respond when they start asking questions about my parents or life growing up.  I know my story is a little awkward or sad for people to hear, but I’m okay with that.  For the first time in my life, and by going to an orphanage, I found myself surrounded by kids who have stories that carry more similarities than I’m used to finding in the people I typically encounter.  I didn’t really feel like the odd person out because I knew they too experienced loss and had to grow up far too early.  In some cases I felt like I was staring into a mirror - seeing in others tendencies others have brought to my attention (that I couldn’t really see in myself).  In other cases, I felt like being there with those kids was God’s way of showing me there was something beyond the mirror into which I was staring.  

let me explain…

I don’t for one instance claim to know or understand the full experience of life that these kids have, but in some ways I relate. I know what its like to be abandoned and unwanted by one parent, only to watch the other die at a young age.  I struggled to make sense of justice and love in the midst of some really bad experiences.  This is the mirror that I’m speaking of.  It is different from the lives of these kids, but perhaps more relatable and similar than any other community of people that I’ve ever met.

What I noticed and rejoiced with the Child Hope kids is that regardless of their circumstances, they loved to praise and worship God.  I saw pure joy exuding from them at times…simple excitement, thanksgiving, and praise to the Lord.  And this is where God started showing me what was beyond that mirror.  I think it is best described as “joy”.  

Coming home, I was very convicted at my own lack of thankfulness toward God and was led to repentance. Beyond the circumstances that have defined our past or are shaping our current reality, there is God and through His Holy Spirit, joy is possible.  There are opportunities to be thankful and to worship God that are not circumstantial.  In Philippians 4:8 Paul exhorts us to focus on what is good and worthy of praise.  I speculate that we are more prone to look at the trials and difficulties we face than we are to the good things, especially when things aren’t necessarily “good”.  It takes effort to look beyond those harder realities into the character of God and worship Him.  God challenged me to do that during our week in Haiti using kids who exuded joy.  He left no room for the exemptions that I usually conjure up when I see joy alive in the lives of others.  I couldn’t find a single “yeah, but…” as I tried to understand what was before my eyes.  They have experienced the harder realities of life, but they had something different…something I wanted.  

In a place where I expected to see pain and sorrow much more manifest I found Joy…and through that experience God is challenging me to be more thankful toward Him and through Grace, He is ultimately leading me to experience more joy.

I will never forget this opportunity, and I am so thankful to those who helped to make it possible.  Every time I share, I tell a different story and realize a different way that I saw God move.  The staff of Child Hope do a wonderful job at loving these kids and pointing them to Christ…Maison de lumiere is truly a house of light in this nation.  

now stop reading and go PRAISE God for them and PRAY for the work they continue to do there :-)   

From Bernice:

It’s Sunday and I’m glad to be home.  I took a three minute shower (compared to three cups of cold water at the MDL guest house because the pump broke) and enjoyed every minute of it.  Jody and I sat outside because it was beautifully cool this morning and I couldn’t resist looking at the pictures of the MDL kids one more time and trying to remember as much as I could about each one of them.  They are now real people to me, not just a picture and bio that I’m trying to memorize.  I have to admit that I don’t remember every one of them but I have a clear memory of half of them.  If only I had more time to get to know the rest of them.  I feel one week was not enough time.

I’m also thinking about the staff at MDL, they were awesome.  They do so much and definetly earned my respect.  If they are reading this, I want to thank them for their hospitality and patience.  Our team came in with a plan and that plan went out the window on Tuesday morning.  We all adjust and just wanted to help where needed. Maybe we did a little clock watching but I think we adjusted to “Haitian” time.  The exception was Jody, who just couldn’t give up the watch!  I hope the staff at MDL know how much they mean to us.  Again, they are now real people and not just an email from someone with instructions or a request for supplies.

I had a great time because so many people contributed to our trip.  I want to thank those who prayed and donated to the trip.  We had transportation folks, people along they way who made things happen to physically get us to Haiti (see earlier blogs),  the MDL staff, the MDL kids, and especially the Revolution Team.  I discovered a great group of people because of this Haiti trip: Jason, Heidi, Steve, Holly, Amy, Andy, Karrisa, Kenny and Andrew the Magnificent.  Thanks for your fellowship. Of course I have to thank Jody, Eric and Dan for their hard work and support.  I got to see a different side of them as they hung out with the MDL kids.  Again, many thanks to all!

It has been quite ride! We have experienced all emotions here, worked very hard and worshipped like never before. It has been a joy! Yesterday will be a visual image that I will never forget. If you look at our photos you wil see an older haitan woman worshipping in a field up in the mountains. She had suffered a great loss and had come to the fields to openly worship God! It was so beautiful and moving. We were up on the mountain to hear about a future vision for Child Hope. Their prayer is to have property up on the mountain and build smaller cottages where they can have a group of children with a haitan mom and dad living together as a family. The hope is to model to the children what a family is and how the dynamics are in a family with a mom and dad. This they pray will carry over to the haitan culture so that couples will get married and care for their children as a family. It is not that way now. Most children do not have a father present in their life and sometimes they are orphaned because their mother can not provide for her child anymore and she gives the child to an orphanage . Being here has taught me that there are no easy fixes. In fact, so many of the problems are a vicious cycle which leaves you with a feeling of where do you start. I have been in awe of the organization and the staff here because they realize the barriers they are up against and they forge ahead with new ideas and new plans. For example, the cottage homes and vocational training for men and women. It is amazing to be around so many selfless people and see their good works for children and God.

I am so thankful to have had this experience. I am very thankful for the great team we had here. I
thoroughly enjoyed each of them and am so proud of all that we did accomplish. I am also thankful to the haitan people who were very gracious and kind to us.

As we get ready to leave this morning, our conversations with our hosts continue to impress upon me what I believe has been the central lesson of this mission trip: Maison de Lumiere, and Child Hope International, need partners more than they need teams. So much of our time here has been about understanding: how the orphanage works, how the missionaries live, how Haitian culture functions, how the Church can truly make a difference. Because of this, so much of our time here hasn’t been about service, but about learning how to serve. I think I speak for all of our team when I say that I wish I could have this whole week to do again: I know now how much more useful I could have and should have been. When you talk to the staff here, they say much the same thin about the teams that come here, in as delicate a way as possible: reeducating is a lot of work, and acclimating a team to Haiti often fails to happen before the team leaves. This is exhausting!

Now, this doesn’t mean they don’t want short term teams: the supplies teams bring and the energy levels of short term missionaries are clearly a needed encouragement here. But MdL really wants to establish lasting relationships with organizations and churches they can count on for continuing prayer, support, and weekly teams. They want to grow all of us together as a Church—not entertain team after team of one time aides. Good can come of that…but it ends up feeling like a shallow call for the staff here.

My prayer today is that Revolution can be a long term partner. That we can continue to support the work here in Haiti in every way we can, including sending more teams here in the future. Being the church together means living and walking together in relationship. That’s true for us at home, and it should be true for us here in Haiti, too.

Phriday Photos

From Jody

That was Kenny Camacho’s response to little Kenny’s innocent query “how come your butt has cow poop on it”.  

We were sitting on a lovely hillside, at 5,000 foot, enjoying a distinctly different climate…cool breeze, scent of pine trees.  It was was a long 2nd bumpy ride in the back of the tap tap…but boy did we appreciate the sight seeing with the Manassero’s.  

We busted up laughing.

Within 10 minutes, we were in an amazingly intense prayer session with a 75 year old woman, Marie Therese, that has lived her entire life on that hill, and recently lost a son and a grandchild.  That’s how it seems to be in Haiti…lots of highs and lows and shifts of emotion.

Great day again, the feeding program was rather orderly.  The kids loved the gliders and parachutes.  Andy Guzik’s pied pipers were so good they were called for an encore. Andrew Hunter had them transfixed with his slight of hand magic tricks.  The slide show was accompanied by “Preachers for Christ”, the quite talented band of MdL boys.  We had chili dogs and Tang.  Then we watched “Tangled”, projected on the wall of “the Bens” on a very clear, and comfortable evening.  We served a garbage bag of popcorn, in red plastic cups.  Perfect.

None of us have been too bothered by waking to no running water.  I have to admit to letting myself getting pretty agitated by the other team that showed up at the Guest House last night, and headed for the airport this morning, leaving their trash, and sense of entitlement behind for us to pick up.  Then I read Ephesians 4 this morning:

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love”.  

Still working on that patience thing.  And I think it helped us all to be a little more cognisant of how our actions can be perceived by others.  They were good people, giving their time and talents and treasure to serve people in Haiti.  We don’t have the corner on that market. 

in fact, I have been amazed at the number of teams from America that I’ve seen this week.  Add to that the UN, US Aid, Red Cross, World Vision and other NGO trucks seen every few minutes.  Yet, it seems that what is needed are more people, like the Manasseros.  Willing to do the really hard work to improve Haiti..one child, one heart, one soul, at a time.  That requires patience, faith and a whole lot of Love…the verb kind of Love.

Looking forward to the trip home tomorrow.  And planning the return.

Wednesday photos

Thursday photos