Katie hasn't updated the blog in a while and I just wanted to take an opportunity to share a bit about our trip to Haiti last week. My goal is to give everyone - particularly those who prayed and supported me financially for this trip - a brief overview of our time and hopefully lend some refreshing and life giving thoughts on everything we experienced.
A few thoughts before I get into the details of our trip:1. Even after having been there before and witnessing all of the unbelievable poverty and earthquake ravaged terrain, I don't think you can ever prepare yourself for this country. The sights, smells, and sounds are simply overwhelming. Many 3rd world nations have slums and extremely destitute areas, but this entire nation... like from boundary line to boundary line... is filthy, impoverished, and primitive. Imagine the most graphic scenes from the movies Slum-Dog Millionaire and Blood Diamond - and apply them to the whole country.
2. The individual Haitians there are very hungry to learn…to learn how to live by the fruits of the Spirit, to love their spouses well, to prepare for marriage without even having met their spouse yet, and to be equipped and empowered to transform their individual communities. Many of the translators want to become Pastors with the hopes of pouring back into different areas of Grand Goave. Many of the young little ones simply want parental figures to hold them and play with them. The boys want to be told their strong. The girls want to know that they’re pretty and are as important as the boys.
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| So thankful for these ferocious brothers in Christ (pictured from left - Jason Penland, Jonathan DeLay, and Chris Burnett) |
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| My Brother in Law, Sean Moore - being Salt and Light to orphaned children at Servants of All |
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| Jolene Seabourn being a Mother to the motherless |
Overall, I was reminded that even though we always go on a trip like with this with the expectation that we're going to help others, inevitably we're the ones who end up getting our socks blessed off. So thankful to God and to all of you who have supported me, prayed for me, and helped me get there. Having said all of that, I’m obviously so excited about everything else God has in store for Grand Goave and can't wait to go back...
Here is hopefully a not too long-winded break down of what we did down there after I've already written a lot.
DAY 1
The first day was mainly a travel day. We made our way into Port-Au-Prince, Haiti via a connecting flight in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. After arriving in Port-Au-Prince we hopped onto the bus we would use for the week and rode about 2 hours out to a community called Grand Goave. This was our primary target of community development and missional influence for this trip...and likely will be for the near future. By the time we arrived at "Servants of all Ministry" (our base for the week) it was dinner time. At nightfall and in the middle of an intense tropical thunderstorm we had one of the coolest dinner experiences of my life in an upper room of the orphanage - rolling thunder and downpouring showers provided the ambience for a kerosene lamp lit dinner with Haitian Food. Awesome.
After that it was back to this super nice hotel accomodation thanks to Scott with Global Effect.DAY 2
Before lunch we hit a local school for a quick opportunity to share the Gospel and speak on the importance of living out a Christ-like character. My team of 3 and I spoke out of Matthew 22...focusing on Jesus' first and second greatest commandments "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind...and secondly...Love your neighbor as yourself." The students' responses were receptive and encouraging but there were a few issues that we will continue to pray about. There is a consistent disconnect between how males in the Haitian culture view their women and what the scriptures tell us about the subject. Because their country is an every man for himself society, the males feel that their physical strength brings dominance and superiority over their female counterparts...this is prevalent at all levels. Certainly something to continue to pray and work through on future trips.
That afternoon it was back to the "Servants of All" Orphanage for our first stab at delivering a Haitian Vacation Bible School to the kids their. We were quickly reminded that you have to ration your supplies or you plow through all of your resources the first afternoon. Clearly, the children don't have many opportunities to color, make bracelets, or work on any kind of arts and crafts often, so there is no such thing as "one per person" to most of these kids. Having said that, their child-like faiths and love for Jesus was inspiring and a reminder for me of how we need to engage our Creator as believers in every moment.
DAY 3
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| Me speaking to the school on Galatians 5 - the Fruits of the Spirit |
We spent the last half of Wednesday at Servants of All and holding a marriage conference. The Spirit totally spoke through Rick White (Our trip leader and Cross Timbers Campus Pastor) and it was great to see not only men and women who were struggling making their marriage a priority for improvement, but also some single guys grilling Pastor Rick with questions in order to just be better prepared and equipped for their future brides. Afterwards, we were able to personally pray over some of these individuals. Lots of blessings involved.
DAY 4
God moves every day. Everything is authored by Him and happens because He sustains all things. Having said that, it felt like God was revealing Himself to us as a group more and more each day collectively... with Thursday being the absolute climax of the trip. I'll explain what I mean...
We were able to visit two schools in the morning: first a high school and then an elementary school. The high school kids were preparing for finals as well, so we were able to talk with them shortly and pray for them. We had a great experience doing VBS at the elementary school. Wonderful, well-behaved, Jesus-loving kids were at this place. Thanks to Cheer coach Amanda Moore, we sang, danced, and played "Simon Says" to great avail with this group! 
However it was that afternoon that we had the most gratifying experience of probably the entire trip. We traveled up to the top of a mountain in Ti Goave to visit a small church. We had been told they needed tarps to replace the roof on both the pastor's home and church, so we made the trip up the mountain. Before I continue I need to explain the transportation situation in Haiti in case some of you aren't aware. My buddy Chris Burnett (who came along on the trip with us) unpacked the situation perfectly in his own blog about our experience:
"utterly terrifying. There is no speed limit but hundreds of cars, pedestrians, buildings, blind turns, damaged pavement, detours through river beds, cars driving in all directions on either side of the road… in the mountains. I am convinced that our bus driver, Jacebeau would dominate NASCAR standings. He drove a massive truck full of terrified white people like he was threading a needle. Great opportunity to trust in God in my opinion."
After about 14 near death experiences heading up the mountain crammed into the Tap Tap shown above, we finally arrived at the primitive church you can see in the picture below. The view out to the rest of the island from this church was spectacular.
As I mentioned before, we helped them "re-roof" their home and church with some simple Tarp and Paracord we had brought with us. After doing so it was this next part that was easily the most overwhelming moment of the trip. As we began to say our goodbyes to the pastor and his family upon completing the roof work he told us to wait...and that he wanted to pray over us. Before the prayer he explained to everyone how long he had been praying for us to come...how he had been praying specifically for God's missionaries to come and bless them with a miracle. He cited the story of the blind beggar in Acts 3 who was healed by the disciples for his Faith in God and claimed that he felt God was lending him, his family, and his church the same provision that He gave the blind beggar that day. Unbelievable.
He compared us delivering a few simply items to a supernatural, mind bending miracle from Scripture. Items that anyone reading this could simply pick at a handful of local stores near their house...or that they maybe have laying around their garage. Something seemingly insignificant to us here in the states can be a bible sized miracle to someone else. I've often heard people here in Texas wonder why God has quit the miracle business that we see so often in the Bible. The truth is, we wake up in a miracle every day here. If you aren't worried about what you're going to eat tomorrow, then history says you're one of the wealthiest people to have ever lived. Let that soak in for a moment for the next time you hear someone question helping the nations abroad when there is so much to be done here stateside...
After his explanation, but before the prayer, the Pastor begain to sing over us in Creole. Before long his wife, children, and even the translators joined in as they sang a beautiful song of blessing over us. Let me just say that the tears were certainly flowing by that point. I was completely overcome with emotion by the whole experience. Then, just as only God does he sprinkled some icing on the cake for us - we opened our eyes to see one of the most gigantic, colorful, pronounced rainbows I've ever seen.
After his explanation, but before the prayer, the Pastor begain to sing over us in Creole. Before long his wife, children, and even the translators joined in as they sang a beautiful song of blessing over us. Let me just say that the tears were certainly flowing by that point. I was completely overcome with emotion by the whole experience. Then, just as only God does he sprinkled some icing on the cake for us - we opened our eyes to see one of the most gigantic, colorful, pronounced rainbows I've ever seen.
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DAY 5
Amazingly enough I feel like I've barely scratched the surface on all God did while we were there. Sorry for the length of the blog, but if you can't tell this trip has me as fired up as ever about everything the Spirit is doing. Thanks to all of our friends and family who once again prayed and supported us financially for this. Y'all have sewn into God's Kingdom more than you'll ever probably realize. Much love and you'll certainly be hearing from me about it again next year.
