Alright! So 3 months Haiti, summed up in a 10 minute video! To give you more detail I have written a summary below. There will be more to come after this, but you have all been patiently waiting and I want you to be able to see and enjoy some of the work done in Haiti!
The Lord provided us with a grace that I can not even describe, as I begin to look back and reflect, the things we were able to accomplish, the lives we touched, the hardships we endured, I begin to realize that there is no way human strength alone accomplished the things we did. I sit here totally exhausted and in awe of the Lord's grace at the things He allowed us to be a part of in Haiti, to see His Kingdom come to earth in one of the hardest, darkest places on earth, was a blessing I can not fathom.
The following order is not necessarily the order of events, but I am writing to match the order of the short video (courtesy of our talented media team members).
Jacmel!
Haiti is not a quiet place, I wouldn't be surprised if the word quiet didn't even exist in their local Kreyol language. The traffic is loud, the people are loud, the dogs are roosters come alive at night and have vocal cords on them that could outlast even the best opera singer. There is no such thing as personal space, or sleeping in in Haiti, whether your living with 30 people, including locals, or in house surrounded by cement walls and barb wire in Port-au-Prince. There are people everywhere, all the time, girls can not even walk outside the front door without a male “gaurd” (talk about giving up freedom). If your lucky enough to sleep through all the noise, then just to keep you on your toes you may feel a little earthquake, just big enough to wake you up and keep you freaked out for the rest of the night.
So why do I write this when talking about Jacmel, because Jacmel was our “quiet” restful place, and I just want you to understand that Jacmel is quiet compared to the other places we were, but by Canadian standards, it is not quite at all. We went to Jacmel to take a breather, study spiritual warfare, which we did do, but we also had manifestations (riots) outside our front door, and non stop discipleship, which is a blessing, but also exhausting.
Some of you have been able to be a part of these two people who's lives I was able to be a part of in discipling and providing hope for the future.
The first is a 14yr old girl named Liline, she is from Port-au-Prince and both her parents died in the earthquake. I met her when the lady she stays with was yelling at her and throwing her clothing on the street. Sometimes Liline was able to eat and go to school, but not often. Thanks to your generosity and the grace of God in the connections and timing He provided, she is now sponsored for 6 months of English school. This will provide her with level one English and dramatically improve her circumstances. This increases her chance of getting a job in the future as well allowing her to be in an atmosphere of well educated Haitians.
Then second is an 18yr old named Dickens who lost his father in 2006 and his mother in the earthquake. I spent 2 weeks, early morning to late night discipling this young man in every way I could. From how much the Lord loves him, to moral purity, to starting a bracelet business, how to save and spend money. With this he was able to save up for 2 months of art school, and your generosity has sponsored 3 more months of art school. This will truly help Dickens to transition from getting out of high school, and getting into the working world. He will be doing something he enjoys while aiding in his continual healing after becoming an orphan at 17 yrs old.
So that is Jacmel, we also got to spend time at a beautiful beach, and gorgeous waterfall (up a very scary drive, story for another time). I must admit, I did enjoy a lot of things about Jacmel, especially riding around on the moto's and meeting a lot of friendly, loving locals, it was a nice change of pace from Port-au-Prince.
Port-au-Prince!
Honestly, I am not sure where to start when describing this city. A part of me wants to write how much I dislike it, how much I think is wrong with it, how backwards everything seems to be, how discouraging it is, after sacrificing so much to go help there, and hearing people tell you to go home because you are giving them cholera and not to mention the pollution, that is bad beyond description, it gets hard to stay positive. You give all you can, you do food distribution after food distribution, you sing, you preach, you dance, you give until it hurts, and then you give some more. At the end of the day you wonder if anything you did make a single bit of difference. This city is one giant second hand store, with no sort of order or discipline. There is so much stuff there, everywhere, so much greed, so little sharing, this city doesn't need more stuff, it needs a government, it needs people who know how to give and love. When I can shake off the discouragement, I can see all the Haitians who are honest, and in desperate need, I see other Haitians who love the Lord, love their people, and are desperately trying to give and create change in their sphere of influence. I have to say that the YWAM Port-au-Prince is an incredible blessing for Haiti. The first DTS is running in June 2011 ( I will post the promotion video we made), and I believe with all my heart that this is the beginning of a glorious change for the country. Haitians helping Haitians. The “Hey you, Blanc, give me one dollar”, needs to change.
In the video you see a clip titled “broke-back mountain”. Literally, the tap tap ride was back breaking, but so worth it! This is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen! It is a ranch sitting on the top of the highest mountain in Port-au-Prince. It feels like you are in beautiful British Colombia, it is nice and cool (I can't tell you how thankful I was for the one day of cool weather after months of sweating). It was a hotel built to show that there still is paradise in Haiti, and that is exactly what it was, it is so sad that no one knows about it, and few people in Haiti can afford to go there. I am very excited about this place because I believe God will use this as a landmark that will be a part of the restoration of the country.
St.Marc
This is where the majority of the Cholera outbreak took place and major flooding from the hurricane, but really you see little effect of this there, just the usual Haiti madness. We mostly just went to St. Marc on tap taps (taxis) to pick up items we needed, and eat burgers, during the time we lived in Mount Rais at the beginning of our trip.
Mount Rais
We spent our first 4 weeks in this town, it is indeed our first love, and was a sweet, hard, wonderful time. We learned how to live like Haitians, no electricity, no running water, 1 to 2 meals a day, waiting up to 6 hours or so for a meal, living with 25 people and one bathroom. Never really knowing what we will be doing from one minute to the next, going to church every night for 4 hours. Learning patience, and discovering that there is no such thing as personal space in Haiti. We fell in love with the people in the town, we spent a lot of time at orphanages, playing, singing, teaching them English, and building clean water pumps for their wells. We ran a mini DTS for young adults, which was truly and amazing experience, and many of the students were earthquake survivors, and because of the miraculous way God had saved them, they have dedicated their lives to spreading the good news! Mount Rais, although a tough harsh reality, was truly a sweet blessed time.
Our First Tent City Experience.
Our fist visit to a tent city was when we were living in Mount Rais, at the time it didn't seem so bad (GRACE of God!), but looking back I can't believe what our team endured there. We rode to the tent city called Sou Pisa, on the top of truck with a roof made from a cut piece of a side of a semi truck, which is the largest tent city in Haiti of 5000 people (on the video). We spent 3 nights and 4 days there, 14 people crammed in a sweaty 8 person tent with children constantly attacking the tent, and bathrooms gross beyond description. There were children fighting every where, and you completely loose your appetite after attempting to eat with hungry orphans surrounding you, and you are not even allowed to share your food because it will start even more chaos. One day, we decided to do a garbage pick up, there is garbage littered every where in Haiti, it is a big problem there, but it was really joyful to teach the kids about picking up garbage, cleaning up the streets in the tent city, even if they fought over everything including holding the garbage bag and wearing the gloves.
Oh yes, and of course our highlight of that tent city, delivering a baby on that piece of semi truck that we sat on during the ride to Sou Pisa. (There is a short 3 min piece in this video, and then a full 21 min documentary I will post).
OH Haiti!
So much ministry was done in Haiti, lots of singing, preaching, performing our skit (separate video), loving and holding beautiful Haitian children, teaching English, giving clean water and healthcare, performing 2 weddings and 20 baptisms in one day, making lifelong friends with Haitians, and becoming family with teammates. Then going a little crazy after so much chaos, and using beach days, jumping off cliffs, dancing like no one is watching, Haitian truck surfing, and lots of laughter as an outlet to help restore sanity. Praise the Lord for his Amazing Grace, and endless Love!
Thank you everyone for your prayers and support!
Enjoy the Video!!!
Video Link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFqFzuC34Do
Picture: Hanging out in earthquake Rubble in Jacmel. The earthquake hit there really bad too, they have just manged to clean up a lot more quickly and effeciantly than in Port-au-Prince.
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