We arrived in Port Au Prince on Saturday January 3. We settled in to the Wall's International Guest House and some of the girls purchased a few souvenirs. This was a pretty nice place but the smell of exhaust and burning styrofoam got to all of us. We attended church the next morning at the Port Au Prince Corps. They have a meet and greet time during their meetings where everyone goes around kissing everyone else on the cheek. Well, I got confused halfway through as to which side I should start on. I ended up grazing a woman's mouth with my mouth that morning. Yep, that's right. I kissed her on the lips unintentionally. Quite funny, yet embarrassing. C'est la vie! We sang a song for the congregation and introduced ourselves. The meeting was really enjoyable.
That afternoon we packed up and took the arduous journey to Fond des Negres. Fond de Negres (which Marty thinks sounds an awful lot like saying found an egg) is only 100 km from Port Au Prince but because of the roads it took us the better part of four hours. We passed several Voodoo marches that day and were perplexed. That night Joe shared some statistics with us about Haiti:
- The population of Haiti is 8 million people, 2 million live in Port Au Prince
- The unemployment rate of Haiti is 70%
- The Salvation Army's school system is the 4th largest in the country
- Voodoo is a sanctioned religion in Haiti. Voodoo priests have the right to perform marriages, preside at gravesides, etc.
- Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere
We all acted like we knew those things. What we didn't know was how deeply those statistics would affect us when we met them face to face.
The next morning we were scheduled to leave the beautiful Aldy hotel where we were staying at 9 a.m. Before our departure, children from the village just across the fence from us met us in front of the hotel. They wanted us to take their pictures and give them candy and take them with us on the tap tap (the Haitian form of public transport which is really just a pick up truck with makeshift benches installed in the back). Several of the little boys that morning showed up without anything on but a shirt that might or might not have covered their nether bits. That night when we saw one of them without any pants on again, Sabrina gave him her pajama shorts which fit once he rolled them up a bit. 
During the days in Fond des Negres we were blessed to spend time at the Bethany Children's Home. Bethany is home to 40 children who have either been orphaned or abandoned. The youngest at the home was left at The Salvation Army Bethel Clinic just down the street from the home by his mother. No one knows his real birth date. He is probably around two years old. None of the children's stories had happy beginnings but you'd never know it from the way they laughed and played. I've been on several mission trips in the past 10 years. I've never been to a home where the children were so unassuming. Sure, they loved it when we gave them candy or stuffed animals but more than that, they loved it when we spent time with them. We played game after game with them. They loved to play with the girls' hair. They held our hands, sat on our laps, asked questions that we didn't understand. They learned so much English and we learned a tiny tiny bit of Creole. We also spent our days painting the home. A fresh coat of paint goes a long way at a place like Bethany.
We took a tour of The Salvation Army's Bethel Clinic which is the only hospital in all of Fond des Negres. I've never seen such desperation. There were at least 150 people sitting in the waiting room. You could hear a baby's cries and cough over the rest of the noise. As we toured through the hospital we saw babies maybe 8,9, 10 months old hooked up to IVs next to 60 year old men. We saw people asleep on the benches waiting to be seen. There was an area where nurses were testing bloodwork to see if those who had come to the hospital that day had contracted TB. We toured the tuberculosis section of the hospital where those who are diagnosed with TB are sent for treatment over a nine month period. My grief for those people that day was beyond words. I simply watched and at the end I cried. This was a picture of desperation but also of hope. I realized that day that if it weren't for The Salvation Army's presence in this town, there would be no treatment, no IV, no hope. So, while the look of it was quite grim, people came here for help and healing and in that, there is hope!
In the evenings, after we had worn ourselves out playing with children all day long, we would have devotions together as a team. I feel like it's important to mention at this point that there were 16 participants on this trip and every single one of them was female. There were three leaders which were myself, Joe Lynch and Dean Feener who lead the sung worship. I also feel that it's important to mention the fact that with these girls, the level of spiritual maturity was deep and wide. They didn't hold back any part of themselves and dug right in to the Word and what God had to say. Their revelations were life-altering. We talked about fear, about hope, about our future and how this trip should change the way we live at home. We sang glorious songs on the top floor of the hotel which was open space. We had a 360 degree view of the town we were in. We could see mountains and sea all at the same time. I have no doubt that those in the town surrounding us heard our worship and could not question which God we served. On one evening a Voodoo march went up and down the small path on just the opposite side of the fence from our hotel. Many of the girls became scared. During sung worship that night, however, while we sang "Did you feel the mountains tremble" at least four or five people had the same vision - of a town hearing our worship and the Holy Spirit moving throughout the town wiping out the work that the Voodoo priest had come to do. We aren't naive enough to think it was a one time work but we did believe that the God of the universe could claim that town for himself and those people.
We became close friends with the children who met us each afternoon and evening at the hotel. We brought the boys clothing, particularly shorts and underwear since they had none. We gave them gum and candy. We gave them beanie babies. We spent time with them. We all wondered what would happen once we left. Then a prayer formed on our lips and in our hearts. Lord, please send someone hear to serve and live among these people who knows you and can bring hope where there isn't any. During devotions one night God lead me to Romans 8:35, 37 which says, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." The thing which struck me was that the nakedness and poverty of these children was secondary to their need for a Savior. Yes, they desperately need clothing but if they never receive that, my prayer is still that someone show them the love of Christ because once they receive him - NOTHING can separate them from him - NOTHING!!!
We did some other pretty amazing things like go to the beach, climb a mountain, buy stuff. In the end however, we counted the cost. We saw a nation in poverty and we hoped beyond their circumstances. We realized that the cost for us to come was menial compared to the return in education, depth of relationship, and life-changing experiences we received. The cost was a week of our time and a few of our bucks. The return was a heart full of love for a people who have Christ and for those who have yet to experience Him and His saving grace. To be quite honest, it cost me my life, the one that I knew before Haiti. I've exchanged it for a different life here at home. I choose to die to that life - a life of poor decisions and selfishness, greed and materialism. I choose to die to self and choose to spend more time pursuing Christ.
Did I do these things before? Sure but I feel like my experiences in Haiti have heightened the opportunities that I have here to change how they live there. Could my greed have caused some of their poverty? Absolutely. Could the cost of my thoughtlessness when it comes to consumerism have made things worse? Yes. So, now, I will make better choices when purchasing. I will choose to save energy. I will choose to use less water since they don't even have clean or running water in their homes. I won't do it because it's the cool thing to do. I will do it because protecting this earth is a part of bringing God glory and saving His people. The cost is my time, my money, my prayer, my hope for them and my life - for you my King!
