Mirror

Remember the saying "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" In Haiti there are not many mirrors. Most of what you see are small pieces. And yet most of the women had hair always done up. The way that happens most of the time is because they do each others hair. In their culture, almost all women are hair dressers who work for free. And doing each others hair is not a small feat! One evening as we were taking a break waiting on supper to be cooked, I was sitting across the street and happened to look up and see two of the girls in Rob's house sitting on the roof, Junie was doing Kimberly's hair. As the evening shadow crept over the sky, and the night descended, she continued to work by the light of a cell phone. I could hear them chatting when I could no longer make out their heads against the black night sky. I remember thinking again about all the ways we have made ourselves independent of each other. How we enter our homes that have almost become recluses from the rest of the world, and can't help but think that somehow we are not the better for it. Isolation is a terrible foe in our culture. Poverty is a nasty enemy, but loneliness is a killer. People die in Haiti all the time, but they are not suicidal, and as I have said before, they rarely die alone. While here, we have to have suicide hotlines because we are unwilling to hear each other out! I was usually one of the last to get cleaned up in the day, and there was so much to do, that I often didn't get to it until quite late. As Rob and I were flying around one day, we came into a store and made a quick purchase. As I stepped to the glass to pay for our goods, I saw my reflection in it and noticed that I looked pretty bad. I said to Rob, "I look awful." He said to me; "Who told you this?" Then he continued his chiding; "It seems you are listening to the glass!" It gave me pause. How many Americans live by what the glass mirror says. We rated ourselves because we do a comparative study of ourselves against someone's picture. Our beauty is something unique to each of us. God made and formed each one of us for a reason, a divine purpose, a beauty compared to no other, yet we lock ourselves away from the world in front of the mirror waiting for it's approval. It's lying to you, robbing you of relationship, and it is wreaking havoc in our culture. I am not advocating we be tramps, that we neglect ourselves, but that we be cautious of what we let the mirror tell us. I am thankful for the mirror, it has saved me a few embarrassing moments, but I too have fallen prey to it's lies. And I was reminded of the character hiding behind that little glass! It could be healthy for our lives if we had to depend on each other a little more. Independence is not all it's cracked up to be, we have taken a good concept a little too far! Mom's be thankful for the opportunity to do your daughters hair, utilize those moments to forge relationship. Someday it will come back to pay you big dividends. And warn those young daughters of the tale of the mirror. It will always tell its little lies! The Haitian people I have said again and again, are a beautiful people. So are we, let us love one another, for we all are the fairest of them all. God did not make anyone we could compare ourselves to. He did that for a reason!! He gave us the mirror of His word to look into, that is where you should place your trust! These Haitian people are doing that all the time, their choices are much narrower than ours! Blessings from the dining room table, away from the mirror!

Home

Finally home! These trips go by so slowly and yet so quickly. When you first hit the ground in Port Au Prince and start the journey northward to St. Marc, about the halfway point, depending on how you are doing at the time you begin to think; "What am I doing?" "What have I done?" "Will this ever end?" Eight more days of this seems like an eternity away, and yet here we are. Back home again. The trip home was uneventful, the reuniting of family members was delightful, but my bones are weary, and my body says rest. So that is what I am going to do. But just to let you in on a new development, the men managed to drill down to 75' today for the new well. If all goes well... no pun intended... we could have a well by tomorrow afternoon! Keep this in your prayers, and I will update as soon as I hear. This proves the faithfulness of God, working on our behalf. As we are faithful to Him, He takes care of us. Pray for the team members, that they recover their strength quickly as all gave much over the last 9 days. They performed amazingly well together, despite our different personalities. I am proud of each one. I will try to also get a few more pictures up tomorrow, and am planning to fill in a little more info on our trip in over the next few days, so stay tuned and check back frequently. Blessings always.

More Pictures

Throng

On kid’s day, we started our program at around 2:30 p.m. Beth had been very ill, and was struggling so we got a later start than planned. As we got underway, we had the kids congregated across the road and Robinson was in charge of crowd control while also serving as traffic police. We had passed out whistles, and it was pretty crazy as Americans and Haitians alike blew those shrill little tools to announce races, finishes, station changes, and trying to signal directions for the children. Rob would pick 6-10 kids randomly and send them in where we would set them to playing their games, rotating them around from place to place. We had to improvise quite a bit, and we learned a lot more about how to structure such an event. We are gaining more and more insight into working with masses of children because that is what always shows up. When we reached the end of our time, we had not even made a dent in the volume of kids. It was a little overwhelming. I finally made the call and told Robinson we would quickly clear the game activities and reset all the chairs and benches in the tent and bring all the rest of the children inside. When we were ready (or so I thought) I gave the signal and the throng of children came across the street and started through a 3’ gate. The pressure at that gateway was unbelievable as some 350 children desperately surged to get through, each one afraid of being part of a group that would not be allowed to come in, that there wouldn’t be enough room for them. Bob and I stood in that gateway and used all the strength we possessed to slow them and keep them from crushing each other. At one point a young child tripped and the kids attempted to run over her, and in that moment I came face to face with the force of sheer desperation. It must have been a certain God strength that allowed us to stop the forward momentum of that crowd of thronging kids long enough to reach down and free that little one. As their frantic bodies struggled to get inside, I wept. My heart cried for them. In that scene their agony of life flowed into mine. I could not feel anger, but determined instead to take their desperation upon myself. How can one fault them? Where are they to find hope if I am unwilling to share it? Where will they ever catch a break if I won’t give it to them? How can I show them Jesus if I am unwilling to first feel their pain? Once inside I had Robinson share with them our attempted endeavor; and apologized for not being able to get to them all. I told them we were going to do it again, but that they would all leave with the treat originally intended for each one. As we talked and sang, their desperate energy began to subside, and single file, those children ALL walked out of that same 3’ gate that they had crashed through earlier calmly with a sack of treats. Hope had found another foothold, somewhere they got the message that with God there is enough. Through an amazing ministry that Rob is putting together, 43 children connected with our ministry are attending school this year supported by wonderful Christian people. These kids deserve a break, pray God continues to help us minister both to the single child, as well as the masses. God is the difference maker, and only as He continues to help us, will we be able to minister this way. But it is working, and we are blessed to be a part! Stay tuned for more miracles of grace. Blessings to all.

Uncle Ray

I have mentioned that one of the great features of these trips are the relationships established between our teams and the people. I have a posted a couple of times about a young man named Parnel. He works with the youth of our church. He is a bundle of joy and energy, skinny as a bean pole, and energy like an energizer battery. He is very tall, and so was one of team members named Ray Hasse. I'm not sure how much that played a role in their connection, but they developed a wonderful and unique relationship. As I watched that tall lanky young man bend way over to give Ray a hug on his matress on the floor of the tent last night saying his last good byes, I was taken with the way these two people have bonded. Ray through the week became Uncle Ray. Parnel's affection and joy are very contageous. Ray didn't seem to mind his new found nephew and the affectionate affiliation he gained as Parmel continued to call him Uncle Ray. We laughed, but the truth is now Ray's infleunce has been poured into this young man's life. Any time God allows that, it is a good day for His children. What an awesome priviledge it is to continue to connect on a deeply relational level with these amazing people. We are now 34,000 feet in the air. I just snapped a picture of St. Marc from the window of the plane. As we fly northward to the life I know, part of my heart stays here; touched, impacted, changed forever as I am sure the rest of the team will testify. So go my thoughts for now. Blessing from a beautiful blue sky.

Douseman

We are now readying for our journey home. The team is showering, packing, sorting, finalizing. I still have a to-do list. Not sure what else I will be able to get done. But sending off a final post from here is one of the items. This day has gone fabulous. The painting that we hoped to get done we wrapped up before 11:00. Jim mounted a bathroom light fixture that Ray purchased for Naromie and installed the switch so there will be light in the bathroom when the power is on. Jim and Bob went over and installed the bathroom sink and toilet at the property; the bathroom is really taking shape and looks awesome. I spent an hour with my drilling team here with instructions and demonstrations, we drilled a little more and my system is working amazingly well. Emmanuel shook my hand and said; “Pastor, we hope to call you soon and tell you the well is done!” I think I was able to instill a bit of confidence in them, and used the word ‘douseman’ (creole for slowly) to help them understand that if they take their time their problems will be small, if they hurry, MY problems will be big. Come to think of it, that is probably good advise for us Americans. Robinson explained it to the guys this way; if you are driving slow and you have a flat tire, you will only have to replace the tire, if you are driving fast and you get a flat tire, you may have to replace the whole car.What a great illustration. We have done so much on this trip it is a little hard to fathom. I am going to be drafting a list on our way home tomorrow, but for all the sickness and trials this trip brought our team, they have pulled through with flying colors. Krystle is miserable, suffering much. Keep her in your prayers. Ray seems to think symptomatically that both of the kids have suffered the dreaded ‘swine flu’. It has been a really rough week for them. Many in the country are sick right now. The rainfall is way down, and the dust is very high. We are all looking forward to breathing some fresh Miami air tomorrow. The team just got back from seeing our old rented facility. They are in awe. It is amazing where God has brought us from and what He is doing now. Beth and I went and looked at an orphanage building downtown. The owner wants to rent or sell it to us. Not sure what is happening, but something is in the making. Tonight my heart is full. This has been another high impact trip, for us and for our Haitian family. One day as we were walking the mile journey from the house to the church, all the sudden we heard; “Krystle, Krystle…” so even the town folk are connecting with us and it’s a warm feeling. As the teams show up, it helps our church family. Robinson told us that every time we have shown up, the church has grown its membership. We are grateful to be used by God in this great mission field. The team got to experience ‘noon prayer’ today. That is always a life transforming experience. It is rather sobering as they started at 11:30 and ended at after 3:00 and now as I am typing they are having a special prayer service from 6:00-8:00. It is staggering to try to take it all in. We are a blessed people, and I as I ready for the journey back home tomorrow, I am filled with gladness to come home, and yet a sorrowful longing to just stay here for a while longer. The load of team leadership is a bit taxing, I exercise the eyes in the back of my head a lot here. But God is so faithful, and these people so amazing, it lightens the burden, and makes it feasible to continue the journey to help this desperate land, to make a difference for a hurting life whose pain very few of us can understand or comprehend. Keep us in your hearts as we make our way home. Blessings tonight from a dark front porch...freshly painted!

Contrast

We had a great trip to Des Dunes this afternoon. It went by too quickly. We passed out candy right and left. The village children are so delightful! The desperation in their eyes is unfathomable. As we pulled out of the small village, Ray said; ‘we are bringing more candy!’ His sentiment says it all. You wonder how a piece of candy can change a child’s life, just ask Robinson. He can tell you from experience. As I stared at a pig, standing at a little puddle made in the front yard of a home, tethered on a three foot rope, with two piglets still trying to suckle, I declared, ‘there is a Haitian farm.’ I was reminded of the incredible contrasts in this country. Beauty exists right beside vast corruption and spoiling. One faces one direction and the luxury of a blue ocean greets your eyes, you shift your gaze downward and a scene of a different nature robs your momentary elation. I continue to be mystified by the contrast and seek a connection to justify the terrible discrepancy. A setting that would be the envy of host of vacationers is littered with sewage and eroded by abuse. My heart yearns to restore, and there in I discover the heart of God. He yearns to restore as well. The nature of His heart is revealed in the progress being made here. One of the roads to Des Dunes has been restored to a respectable condition. A drive that took us 30-35 minutes last spring was reduced to ten minutes. I mentioned to Robinson and his reply was ‘election is coming.’ I had to laugh, sounded familiar. No matter the reason or way, I believe God is working through His people to bring change. I measure the success of our trips incrementally. It is all working together for a greater good. Our labor weaves in to a much bigger fabric of God’s design and plan for these people. And I am thrilled to be a part. Tomorrow is wrap up day. I am instructing and training for the well completion. I have built a really nice set-up, and with some elbow grease and time, we should have the well completed before Christmas. Ray and the gang will complete what we can at the house and final packing to head home happens tomorrow-late afternoon. We have hit the jet stream of the final wrap up. These trips end like a Haitian day, all at once it is dark and the day is over, so ends our visit this time. The consuming fire of our endeavors to finish, and to finish well sweeps us along. We are grateful for all your support. Ray and I trimmed out the kitchen today, and Naromie’s glowing face as she pronounced ‘belle’ (creole for beautiful) fueled our aspirations to complete as much as we could. Robinson also shared with us a surprise of his own for his wonderful wife. I will share later, but let it be said, this journey has filled our hearts with unexpected joy and satisfaction. It has been a hard-fought one, but so successful and rewarding. As always, upon further review I have discovered errors in my grammar on the blog posts as they have not been proofed yet. Bear with my humanity; I will fix them when my eyes are no longer bleary or my mind so weary! Blessings from St. Marc.