Moments...

Today was an incredible day delivering over 7500 gallons of clean,safe water on three different water runs to area's of City Soleil. The experience of pulling the huge truck onto a street filled with people, goats, chickens and rubbish piles and then seeing the excitement and chaos that soon followed was a bit overwhelming. We were greeted with children, adults and elders, some who were clothed and some who were not. The smiles on the faces melted my heart and we worked fast and furious to fill the large buckets that came before us. The line got longer and longer and you could see the desperation from the people as the water to them were like buckets of gold. As the water ran dry from the 3 loads we delivered, it shattered my soul to load up our team and drive away as so many were still standing in the street waiting ever so patiently in the line for drops of gold. Even though there was disappointment that we were leaving, the people waved and smiled as we left them on the disheveled, dusty roads of City Soleil.

My heart felt overwhelmed with joy and also pain in leaving these loving people. While water was being dispersed, many of us held, played and jump roped with the kids. They loved to have their pictures taken and then seen on the camera right away. We captured so many beautiful children who have lived through so much. It is amazing to me to see such joy in these children of the tent cities. It bothers me that our children in the United States have SOOO much and still seem to want more and more. They could all learn so much from seeing where happiness truly comes from. It is not from the material goods that we Americans gather!

It also made me realize, how much we waste: the precious water that others desperately depend on for life. I personally will let my water run while I brush my teeth. I shower once or twice a day. I water my lawn to have nice green grass. It made me feel so selfish and wasteful today after serving water to those who have no water, home, electricity or plumbing. Hard to believe I live approx 1000 miles from a place so foreign to me and my loved ones. As we sang songs of praise tonight after dinner, the rain began to pour down and has lasted a long time. It makes me wonder how all those thousands of people we saw today are managing in the wet, muddy streets and tents. If only those drops of gold coming from the sky tonight could be bottled and used to help these faithful people of Haiti.

Each day we share a word with the team that best describes what we felt on this day. Tom's word tonight was MOMENT. Each minute and hour of this day will forever be moments that we will never forget. These moments are forever engraved on our hearts and we will carry them with us for the rest of our lives. These moments will change who we are and how we view things at home in Minnesota. I have always heard that taking a risk and making a change is always a good thing. Like the chameleon who changes color to adapt to new surroundings….I truly believe this journey of risk out of our comfort zone, will turn out some really amazing chameleons!! There are sure a lot of those little creatures running around here!

I feel blessed to be sharing this experience with an amazing group of people. Our team has melded together as one to serve our Lord and the people of Haiti. The spiritual journey continues tomorrow when we go to the orphanages. Please continue to pray for our team as we reach out and stretch our arms to Haiti with love and joy.

Ask God to Bless and use your gifts of time, talent and treasures to bring hope and justice to a world in need!

Ke Bondye Beni'ou

God Bless you,

Jane Bacchus-Ray

Healing Haiti Team Member

Senses Attacked

Pulling back from the gate is an odd feeling right now. I am not sure I can describe what I am feeling. Over the past week all my senses were attacked, challenged and forever changed.

As I close my eyes as we are lifting off, I am overtaken by a flash of all the many things I encountered. Children screaming with joy and laughter, babies crying, horns honking, trucks gears grinding and all the warm greetings of the many faces I came across.

These faces have been forever burned into my eyes, along with the homes they live in. Crowded tap taps and buses, garbage and sewage packed streets. Buildings reduced to ruble and more than tens of thousand of tents ever where you look. Pigs, chickens, roosters and dogs roaming the streets. The smell of diesel, miscellaneous things burning and the strong odor of rotting trash.

Of all the senses affected, touch has impacted me the most. in City Soleil, we delivered buckets of water deep into the streets where most people do not go, especially without some sort of escort. Along the way children would want to hold your hand or anything they could get a hold of. All they wanted was to feel that touch, even if it was for 30-90 seconds as you walked back to the truck to grab another bucket. There was no other motive. They did not want your money, your possessions, your food or water. They simply wanted to be touched, loved and noticed. It breaks my heart into so many pieces I can hardly contain it as we have lifted off and are headed for home. I am no longer crying behind my sunglasses. I am just crying with an emptiness I cannot fill or fix. I thought I would leave Haiti with a feeling of satisfaction and a sense of being full of God's love, instead I am broken and feel so much guilt and sadness for leaving them all behind. I never thought I would be this impacted. I never imagined I would get so emotional. How is it possible for me to find it so difficult to go home? I wish everyone could feel this.

So where do we go from here? Where do I lead my family? Do my wife and I pack up our four children and move to Haiti to be the hands and feet of Christ on the ground? Do we change the way we live? Do we continue to teach our children about the many sufferings around the world? Do we get our church even more involved on global missions by leading trips. I wish I knew the answer, but the fact is I have no idea which way God will lead us. A lot of praying is needed.

Lord, thank you for changing my heart and putting these blessings in our path. I pray for you to help illuminate a path whichever it may be.

Brian - Healing Haiti Team Member

Where is God?

That was our first question as we started our first full day in Haiti.

As we end the week, it turns out that God is here in Haiti.

He is in the children whose eyes sparkle with love and joy even though they are not clothed, have no shoes and live in the poorest, filthiest conditions imaginable. Many are sick and dying; many are orphaned; many are abandoned by their parents and forced to live on the streets fending for themselves.

He is in the volunteers who care for the sick and dying babies and children at Mother Teresa’s and the special needs children at Gertrude’s Home.

He is in the Healing Haiti team members who deliver water to the poorest of the poor in Cite Soleil.

He is in the elderly woman who patiently waited in line for water, but yet when it was her turn to fill her bucket, the water had run out; yet she still said “Merci”.

He is in Grace Village; that one day will be home to orphans and the elderly.

He is in Jude Jean Paul. A young man who suffered from so many seizures it caused permanent brain damage.He is a quadrapalegic. Who if he lived in the US would have been treated and suffered minimal affects.

He is in the people of Haiti who celebrate His love each day through devout worship and praise.

He is in all of us.

How are we going to show that He is in all of us?

Healing Haiti Team Members

Jeannette, Barb, Jan

Transformation

How does God transform people. Does he he simply make a motion with his hand and we are changed? Does he wait until we are sleeping, change us and when we wake up we are something different, into something he wants us to be. I believe he gives us free will for a reason, to have the ability to transform ourselves and to make choices that directly reflect how Jesus lived and served. Many people have asked how can God make people suffer the way they do, or why are the poor people poor? If God is almighty, why can't he just fix this all?

The answer to me is God is with the poor people, he is with the sick and needy children in Haiti and the rest of the world. He always has been. He talks about poor people in the Bible over any other group. He has blessed people like us to spread these blessings around to poor and needy. We are the ones that should step up.

I have had an amazing trip to Haiti, one in which that has blessed me when I was supposed to be the one serving. I have had God move farther in my heart than I have in a long time. I believed I had a strong faith before, and after seeing Haiti first hand my faith is even stronger. I have a new found hope and understanding for the life that God wants us to live. We are given an opportunity to do life our way, we can either ignore the world around us or we can step up and serve the way Jesus served. We can meet the poor where they are, whether they are in the United States or another country. We as Christians can help our neighbors wherever they may be.

God, thank you for bringing me to Haiti to witness lives transformed, faith renewed, to have my heart broken and to instill a new passion inside of me. Please help me to determine what steps are next for me and my family and how we can use this experience to further your glory.

I pray for our team and the teams before and after us to keep the passion you have given us by witnessing the people of Haiti.

Brian McNeill - Healing Haiti Team Member

Jumping and Screaming...

Driving a firetruck up to a school of excited and screaming kids is an amazing and wonderful feeling I have felt in my heart. I would hit the siren and honk the horn to see all the kids running and jumping with laughter on their faces. What an awesome sight.

I never thought there would be something that would impact me as it had on the first day in Haiti. Yesterday our team drove a water truck into the worst areas of Cite Soleil, "City of the Sun." As we drove hanging on the side of the truck I was awe struck at what I was seeing, the devastation, the garbage, the naked kids, the sick, the hungry, the ......everything you can think of. I just kept thinking how much more could I see that would affect me, how much more is there , until we slowed down and Maxime our driver honked the big air horn. At first I thought a car was in our way as I had heard hundreds of horns already. Then I heard a longer sustaining horn and noticed what was going on.

Kids from all sides started emerging from their tattered tents and rusted shacks, jumping and screaming in the same fashion as I had witnessed driving a fire truck. What came over my heart next shook me to my core. This was all happening because of water, it was then when I cried behind my sunglasses. This was such a basic need, something so simple yet these children of God had little to none. They continued running, screaming and smiling right at us and I kept trying to hide my eyes and smile back. From that moment on it went in a blur of mismatched emotions.

We filled hundreds of buckets of water, delivering them deep into row after row of crowded shacks, averaging in size by 8 feet by 8 feet filled with families. We would deliver water to shacks that had ocean front property completely overtaken by garbage, human waste and many other things that are simply unidentifiable. We walked by a woman in labor, children so crippled they could not move and countless mothers offering their children up for a better life with us in America.

As I said before, the day went by in a blur of mismatched of emotions. We all should be sad and full of despair, but that was not the case for them. Everyone we met smiled and greeted us with Bon Jou or "Good morning." Their lives are full of daily struggles for simple things I take for granted. Children sick and malnourished, but they are full of life and smiles. On a walk we took through the city we would sing Hallelujah and the children would sing it back with a smile and a laugh followed by Bondye, Creole for God.. Hallelujah to God. I am amazed these people we encountered have had everything taken away from them, yet all I hear is "Glory to God" and "Honor to God in the Highest."

We went to three separate places in Cite Soleil and left each one with children hanging on us, still smiling and all of us with breaking hearts.

Lord I am so thankful for my experiences here, your willingness to use me in any way you see how and for transforming me into something a new.

Brian McNeill - Healing Haiti Member

Leaving Haiti...

As I sit here in this airport and reflect on the trip I find myself very content yet filled with so many feelings. There is a big part of me that doesn’t want to come home yet, but I’m excited to see friends and family as well. I often wonder why Haiti? Why did I come to Haiti? But when I’m here I know why. God is so present in everything. Haiti is a beautiful country but yet so much poverty. Where someone might see despair and garbage I see the kid flying a kite or the men fishing in the ocean. Haiti is a place that brings me joy and makes me smile. When I’m in Haiti it is much easier for me to completely let go and let God. Why is it when I get home I try to control things and try to do things my own way?

When I’m in Haiti it’s a constant reminder to me as to how extremely blessed I am. This is something I often take for granted or simply over look. It’s the little things in life like being able to brush your teeth with clean water from the faucet, taking a hot shower, walking down the street and not being covered in dust, simply walking down a paved street with sidewalks, or having enough food to eat. In America these are things we expect, but here it would be a luxury. I’ve learned that God doesn’t want me to feel guilty about where I live but He wants me to remember all that He has blessed me with and challenges me to extend the love and grace that I am so richly blessed with to those less fortunate. Whether this is in Haiti or Minnesota or where ever, I know that God is calling me serve and be thankful for all that He has given me. Nothing that I have is because of me, but it is all from Him and should be used for Him. But why is that so hard to do in America? I think God is teaching me that it is important for me to extend grace to others as God has extended to me. This isn’t always easy, but if someone has done it for me shouldn’t I be willing to do it for others?

Leaving Haiti makes me sad, but I am joyful for all that God has used me for and what He has done in my heart. We serve an amazing God and I know He has great plans for the country of Haiti.

Jessica
Healing Haiti Team Member