Haiti Recap

A missions team recently returned from a week-long medical/construction trip in Haiti (July 20–28). Elayne Saucier has since written a blog describing the trip. You can read it here:

Imagine this: You live in a tent. A tent that is one among thousands all crammed into a small area. You sleep on the ground. You have garbage piles all around the tent village. You are at the mercy of nations who donate things for you. You have no job. Your husband has no job. You fear for the safety of your children. You have no hope.

Imagine this: You are a child living in a home with 45 others. You experience an earthquake that causes all your buildings to fall. You now sleep in a small cramped area with 8 others. You have no clean water supply. You eat rice and beans twice a day. But wait, you see a group of foreigners arrive. They can't speak to you so you understand, but they smile. They give you medical check-ups. They work hard for a week to lay a foundation for your church that will out last another earthquake. They play with you throughout the week. They try to figure out your rock games which seem a lot like playing jacks.

A group of 12 of us from Crosspointe Church in Columbus, GA went to Haiti for a week. We worked through the efforts of Hopegivers, an organization that works mainly in India but is helping this children's home in Haiti. We had 7 of us who worked construction, bringing expertise to this building's foundation so then the local Haitians can someday build the rest of a building that will last better.The other 5 of us got to do medical clinics for the children there, as well as in several other places. 

We saw over 600 people medically. The most unique locations were two villages where medical care is scarce. One was quite near the epicenter and had had their church building flattened by the quake. The other was in a mountain village about 1 1/2 hours away, the last half mile of which we had to hike in on a muddy track and cross a swampy area carrying our medicines in bins.

The church there was an old log building with a dirt floor. But children are the same the world over! After warming up to us, they laughed and played just like a child here would do.

In that mountain village we saw a woman who was a witch doctor until last spring when she accepted Christ and now radiates His love from a beautiful countenance. We saw a boy of 8 who was afraid to eat food because someone had cast a spell on him and he thought it would hurt him. We saw a baby with 6 fingers on each hand, and a mom who was grateful that the offending digit could be removed. We saw a woman who didn't know until we came that she had breast cancer which might even be fatal. We saw an old man who had so much wax in his ears that he couldn't hear, but was all smiles when we got it out and his hearing returned! We saw another old man who was blind; when the opthalmologist told him he couldn't help his vision, but he could tell him about Someone else who could heal his heart, he wanted to believe! We saw kids who had nothing much in this world's goods, but who could laugh and play with the funny white-faced foreigners. Yes, our hearts are back in that village...

We stayed all week with a family who has given up everything here to live and work in Haiti. They don't use air conditioning. They have limited electricity. They deal with corruption and greed daily. They have to live in a walled area for safety. We were blessed to be in their home.

Why were we blessed to be born in a country with endless opportunities? Why do I get to lie down in an air conditioned house with clean sheets and comfortable bed? Why do I get to send my kids off in relative safety to school, feed them a variety of food, take them for good medical care, offer them a college education and the security that there are jobs to be had? Why could I go to a church and sit in comfort and hear about life and hope? Why, why, why?

I don't know why. But I do know that Jesus has told us to love "the least of these," to take care of widows and orphans, to go and tell the world about Him. We can't solve the problems of Haiti. Only God can. But we can be obedient. We can share what we have with a hurting world. 

Yes, Haiti is another world. But it's not really. It's OUR world. Our view of the world will never be the same. God, take our feeble efforts and use them for Your eternal purposes. Help us to be thankful for all the blessings You have given us, and help us hold them all in an open hand, letting You take them as you please for Your work in the world.

Pray for Haiti. Pray for our selfish American hearts.