Building homes and relationships in Jacmel

So what did I see, smell, experience over my most recent week in Haiti? Is it even plausible to put into words? Or share the whole story in pictures? No, you'll have to go see for yourself and you'll be glad that you did, but in the mean time I'll do my best to share. And don't be fooled by my light heartedness, laughter and pictures of smiling faces, as I mentioned in my previous post, the people there do have joy, but there is pain and suffering there too, Haiti is in need of relief.

This was my 3rd trip back and I don't know how many trips it takes to get use to the Port-au-Prince airport, but it's not 3! Thinking back on the experience it really is very comical. You should have seen the looks on my team's faces as we left customs with our bags and men are swarming our carts trying to "help" us. If you didn't know any better and with the language barrier you would think they were trying to run away with our belongings, but we knew that it wasn't our bags they wanted, but our tips. It's just very intimidating having so many men hovering, yelling, and grabbing. Over the past 2 years I've been trying to learn creole, so when I was telling the men "no merci" we already have chosen someone to help us, I could understand one of them making fun of me for not knowing creole! LOL it really is funny looking back on it, I felt so sorry for my husband with this being his first trip and feeling responsible for me and our group. But finally we saw familiar faces, Jean Mary and Chris, and they were able to help us through the chaos. We loaded up in our vans and met a second team, Conduit Missions, who we would be working alongside with over the week. Now to take in the view of devastation as we drive 3 hours through Port-au-Prince and the mountains to our destination, Jacmel.

Our work was hard that week. We had to break the ground with pick axes and shovels to lay a foundation to add another room for an expanding family who was living in only a one room home. Another site required us to carry sand and rocks down a steep curvy hill, a quarter of a mile long each way. These rocks and sand were then sifted to make cement to build a house for a woman in need. Progress was being made one cement brick at a time, one bucket of sand at a time, with one team a week at a time. And in between the heavy lifting and swinging of a pick axe we took breaks to spend time with the many children who followed us everywhere, and we loved on them as if they were our own.

We were just volunteering that week, but we were working alongside men who do this everyday to provide for their families. These men who know how to laugh, smile, and joke, these men who told me they loved Jesus and that He was their life, only make $2 a day! And don't be fooled into thinking that cost of living is cheaper when it is not by much. This is back breaking work to do everyday for just $2. These men work hard, they aren't lazy, so it doesn't seem fair that they bring home so little, when my life back home is a vacation and I have so much...this knowledge breaks me.

Beside one of the houses we worked on was a home of a mother and her 6 children. The father was not present. She still has the same household task that I do back at home, cook, clean, dishes in a bucket, laundry in the river (ok maybe not the same), get the kids fed, make sure they brush their teeth, have clothes to wear (that is if they want to wear them, clothing seemed to be optional in their home), only her worries and mundaned tasks are weighed heavy by poverty and wondering where the next meal is going to come from. Thoughts must flood her young 25 year old mind who had her first of six children as a teen, "can I keep going?" 6 demanding children need her and they look to her with hopeful hungry eyes and I know there must been some days she can't provide. But why does she have the life that she has and I have mine? Did I work any harder to deserve my life? No. She simply was born in Haiti and I simply was born in America. How can it be that where we are born determines our wealth? While playing with her kids I gave them a bag of small toys and a bag of granola bars. This mother wrapped her arms around me and kissed me, thanked me. What had I done really? It was nothing, but to her it meant something. The next day she gave me a bag of mangos. How could I take food from this family...but she insisted and my husband and I didn't want to insult her and her generosity. Again, I am broken.

It turns out that this entire family is being sponsored by a couple I met just a year ago, which means these children do at least get one hot meal 5 days a week, their education is paid for and they receive basic health care. Praise God!

I have so many more memories to share and I will pour out my thoughts in posts to come. Thank you again for reading what is on my heart. I hope that what I've experienced inspires you to move and share the grace that we all have so undeservingly been given.

Home from Haiti

I'm writing this post inside of an air conditioned hotel room complete with my own refrigerator, flat screen tv, couch and a king sized bed with plush pillows. I was woke up by a wake up call service this morning and then later dipped my feet in the hotel's pool. I'm here with my husband while he's on a business trip, and I'm enjoying some alone time, reflecting. It's a very far cry from where I was last week, working hard carrying gravel and rocks up and down a steep and curvy hill, kissing boo-boos of starving children grateful to just receive a granola bar, listening to a man explain to me that he only makes two dollars a day, and visting homes made up of just one room for 10 people to live with no door or lock to keep them safe, no bed to lay down to rest and no A/C to keep them cool from the unforgiving heat. The poverty in Haiti is so great, the food is not cheap, the schools are not free and most families are forced to choose one of the following; food, shelter, or education. Which would you choose?

We traveled down to Haiti to work with Restoration Ministries, a church located in Jacmel. So is Haiti being Restored? Yes, and by God's grace! Matt, a Pastor from another team who was working with us asked an old lady, "What is different here from 5 years ago?" she responded, “The little kids were always running around singing vodou songs, now they all run around and sing Christian songs.” Praise God! The differences that I have noticed personally were less tents and more homes, more of the children in the small village we visited had sponsors! More parents now had jobs, where as just two years ago I saw countless children sitting outside the feeding program hungry without a sponsor or an education. Unless you've been there you can't understand how frustrating it is to not be able to put into words the feeling that comes over you when a child tells you he's hungry and asks for something to eat, it breaks you. And then you return home and the greatest joy you find is watching your own child eat a meal, ask for more and then gladly giving them more, praising God for His grace. But what of His grace in Haiti, is it there? Yes! God is there and He is doing great things among His people in Jacmel. While there God showed me that I do not need things for happiness, I just need Him, and those who only have Him are far richer than I am. My daughter asked me "are the people in Haiti sad?" she was surprised and couldn't understand when I told her that they are filled with joy! "Why?" because they have hope in Jesus, they live simply, and they hold on to one another. Our own world so easily distracts us from God, our family, our community, and our things that we buy, thinking it will bring us joy, only brings us discontentment.

So how do the mission teams make a difference? One brick at a time! One bag of supplies, one brush stroke, sponsoring one child... at a time. Shining the light of Jesus, and then getting the word out. Before leaving on my first mission trip 2 years ago a person approached me with this comment, "Haiti doesn't need Jesus, they need food, water, and shelter!" Appauled I thought, they need it all and the need Him too! And the difference between an aid worker and a missionary is that in addition to providing aid we share the love of Jesus who gives them hope and eternal salvation. Haiti has a heavy influence of vodou that oppresses the people enslaving them to a dark world not knowing that Christ offers them freedom and that having the love of Jesus gives them a better life of hope. God is doing great things in Jacmel Haiti and if you feel led to spend a week down there, loving on children, building, sanding, or painting houses, then I hope that you will go. If you can't go but would like to make a difference please consider sponsoring a child through RestoreHaiti, $30 a month with provide a child with a hot meal 5 days a week, send them to school with a uniform, and provide basic health care. Who knew $30 could do so much!

I have so much to share about my past week and I hope to do so this week while I'm still away from home and my normal. I plan on sharing stories, memories and photos in posts to come. Thanks for reading what will forever be on my heart.

"Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."
James 2:15-17

Haiti Bound

In just one week I will make my 3rd trip back to Haiti, and what really excites me is that my husband will be joining me for the first time as we lead a mission team together. Joining us will be our dear friends Karen, Kristy, Mark, and Elena.

I can't wait to get back to be hands on with the feeding program and housing project and whatever area they'll have us serve in. I'm excited about worshiping in their small yet amazing church. I'm excited about visiting with my sponsor child Loica (picture above), her family and seeing how much the children of the community that I have gotten to know have grown. I long to be back in a community that teaches me so much about hospitality, humility, gratitude, and respect. Away from all the distractions of my own world it seems that I can hear God speak into me more clearly, I worship more freely, I pray more intently, all my focus is on Him. I am convicted by the servant hearts of the people who so warmly welcomed me, their generosity embarrasses me in a away that I need to be. Looking at what they have or lack there of and what they give compared to what I have and what I give is a wake up call. What a humbling experience it is to go down to serve and to make whatever impact you think you can make, when in reality I find that it is I who has been impacted the most.

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, they are in desperate need of relief. Yet with such poverty this country is filled with such beauty, both within the people, their hearts and their land. Riding around in the back of a tap tap(a taxi pick up truck), I get to take in the most amazing views of lush landscape, colorful art, a beautiful caribbean beach, and children playing soccer in every field that isn't being labored in, and with a simple word of "bonjour" I can get a smile from anyone.

So many Haitian friends come to mind as I look forward to my trip, 2 young teens James and Wichnel, funny mischievous boys who make me laugh and who have taught me a few Haitian creole phases. Regi and Gaby, two young but older guys who have always been a huge help to the team members hosting us as our guide and translator when the pastors were busy. And I'm looking forward to seeing Pastor Laflour again, who is an amazing passionate Pastor over Restoration Ministries (the church and ministry we are going down to serve). I can't wait to get back!

If you're planning a trip to Haiti be sure to read this funny, but true blog on the Top 10 Fashion Crimes Commited By Mission Teams and Aid Workers in Haiti , written by a long term missionary in Haiti. I have been guilty of committing a few of these "crimes" myself, but you live and you learn :) and if you would like any information on how you can offer support or relief to the community of Jacmel Haiti, please visit RestoreHaiti.com

No more flies!

As the spring came in I started having trouble with flies, both fruit flies and the common fly. So after researching pinterest (where I do most of my research) I found a couple solutions that actually work! Both were real simple with items I already had around the house. The first is the fruit fly trap (above). Simply place a banana in a jar, create a funnel with a sheet of paper and then be sure to tape the edges. The flies fly in but they can't find their way out.

I was confident in the fruit fly solution but I was skeptical about the common fly trick (picture below). I love sitting on my back porch, but it can be invaded with flies, then I have to sweep away the dead ones, I was willing to try anything, even if it seemed silly. This idea came from pinterest and the pinner said to simply hang up a ziplock bag of water over the door frame. This is suppose to work because a fly has hundreds of eyes so the light reflecting off the bag keeps them away. My back porch has been fly free for 3 weeks now!

Summer Movies

Over the summer the Regal Cinemas in our area have offered free movies every Tuesday and Wednesday morning for G and PG rated movies. This year however they started charging a dollar, but $4 for a movie theater experience for a family of 4 is pretty awesome!In the picture above the kids are holding up their movie passports that get stamped every week that they come in, and once they get 9 stamps the 10th movie is free. I just love this summer tradition! So far we have viewed Journey 2, and Yogi Bear.

Our First Garden (Wordless Wednesday)

Virginia Beach

Last week the kids and I took a trip to visit my sister in Virginia. Mitch would have gone with us, but he had training all week for work. Besides with our upcoming trip to Haiti he can't afford anymore spontaneous vacation time.

We had a blast at my sister's, they live just 15 minutes from the beach, so that's where we spent most of our time. Maddox also got to enjoy welcoming uncle "G.I. Joe", Shane home everyday (he's a marine and would come home everyday in his uniform). I meant to get pictures of them, but it never happened. But here are a few of the kids at the beach and carnival: