Epilogue and "So you're ready to serve?"--May 2010 Mission Experience in Port-au-Prince

Fairhope, Alabama

Thank you for your interest in our experience in Haiti. If you haven't read the entries about our week, do so before reading this epilogue.

Many people have asked how they might be a part of the ongoing efforts in Haiti. First: PRAY. Pray for the people of Haiti. Pray for the missionaries on the ground now. Our prayers and thanks go to people like Greg and Michelle who moved their family from Tennessee to Haiti to make our work possible there. Pray about how God might call you to be involved.

The people there don't need us to send them our stuff--just for the sake of sending our stuff. They need US there to walk alongside them for a while. There is a time and a place to send things right after a disaster, but we're moving beyond that time. Yes, there are still materialistic needs. If you have the opportunity to give something, put it directly in the hands of team members who can put it directly in the hands of the Haitian leaders. Let them be the ones to distribute it as the needs arise. The people of Haiti are now moving into a long-term recovery phase. Community development that focuses on Haitian leaders is critical at this point.

Hope for Haiti will come through the church. The UN, foreign governments, Non-Governmental Organizations and the others will continue work in Haiti. But true, sustaining hope can only come through the people of the church embodying the Hope that Christ offers. We must be His Hands, His Feet, His Presence to the people of Haiti.

The needs are real and they are deep. As Brian of Harvest Field Ministries (www.harvestfieldhaiti.org) taught me: Many children suffer from malnutrition and dehydration. Malnutrition and dehydration are polite terms for starving to death. It was bad before the earthquake. It took years to get to this point. It will take years to move beyond these great needs.

So you think you want to serve in Haiti? Great. There are some great opportunities to serve and I encourage you to do so. Here are some steps to get you started on the journey.

1. PRAY this will be your guide and sustaining power throughout the experience.
2. Apply for your passport NOW if you don’t already have one.
3. Read When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert www.whenhelpinghurts.org. This is a thought-provoking book that is required reading for teams that I lead.
4. Future teams are forming. Contact me rob.haynes@fairhopeumc.org for more information.

Day 7--Headed Home

6:00am

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

As usual on a mission journey, I leave for home with mixed emotions. I am excited to get to see my family again, but I fell as though I'm leaving a part of me here in Haiti. The work we've done here has been wonderful. God has done many miraculous things. The people we met are great. I pray that I can return here soon to be a part of it again.

9:07pm

Birmingham, Alabama

The flight home was easy. The Port-au-Prince airport is an experience in and of itself. Waiting in the airport, I felt like I was in a Jimmy Buffett song.

Coming home was an adjustment. It was good to see family again. We went to the Galleria where I could walk into any store and find thousands of choices before me. I stepped into an air-conditioned restaurant where I ate the food and drank the water without hesitation. The people seated at the tables around me had no idea. They had no idea of what I'd been through or what I'd seen. How will we tell them? How will we tell others of the call to live a life that serves others and to answer the call to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and imprisoned? May I show up and pay attention to the opportunities presented to me here and wherever the Lord may lead me next.

Day 6--Life-giving water

8:05 pm

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Today was our last full day in Haiti. I went with "Cowboy" to work on the installation of a water system at the Haiti Christian Orphanage. We checked on two others that he's recently installed. We had several other things planned for today too, but everything in Haiti takes longer than you expect--everything. Life moves differently here. As those who serve here, we must adopt that rhythm too. We cannot expect them to do things our way, we learn to do things their way while serving them.

Installing the water systems required us to drive all over town. Driving here is interesting. There are very few traffic control devices, no lines on the road, etc. The rules are the road seem to be 1) Blow the horn, 2) GO!

The streets are crowded with UN trucks, animals, tap-tap's (small trucks used as taxis), motorcycles

, and people selling all nature of things.

The water systems used are fascinating. The key is sustainability of parts and maintenance. Cowboy trained Haitian leaders in the community to install and maintain the systems. Then he connected them to one another as a network of resources. The system use just two tablespoons of salt and can chlorinate thousands of gallons of water. Current from a car battery separates the sodium and chlorine from the salt. The chlorine gas is infused in the water and in just an hour or so, the water is ready to drink.

In the clinics we saw children dying because of a lack of clean water. We can give them these medicines for a 10 days, but the illness will be back when they drink the only water they have. It was encouraging to install the water systems. However, the great need for water for thousands and thousands more lingers over me. I pray that I can be a part of such a project again.

Day 5--Connecting to one another

9:00pm

Port-au-Prince

Today I worked the pharmacy again. It is a pleasure to work alongside the Haitian students. More than anything, I like finding out about them and what it is like to live in Haiti.

I like the people of Haiti. They are very warm and friendly. I feel as though I stick out here. Most of the time I ride down the street of the city in the back of the pickup truck. People stop and stare at the "Blanc." When I wave to them their faces light and up and they wave back, enthusiastically. There seems to be a joy lingering under the heaviness of need here.

I like connecting with the students who serve as our translators. They have hopes and plans like anyone else their age. I ask them what they like to do for fun. They tell me that there is nothing to do, not is there time to do it even if there was anything to do. In the U.S. we hear students say this too despite a myriad of options before them. When the Haitian students tell me that, I believe them.

They know that the task before them, and the rest of Haiti, is huge. It took years for Haiti to get to this spot. It will take years to get out of it. Infrastructure will need to be rebuilt. Communities will have to be developed. Lives will have to be changed. That will happen when we connect to one another, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to live out the call to live a life that becomes the Gospel. That message of Good News will be our transformation.

Day 4--How will we tell them of the Hope?

8:17 pm

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Today we worked at the Good Shepherd Clinic. This clinic is a ministry of the local church with whom we've partnered. We arrived to find over 100 people waiting for us. Some lined up before 6am for a chance to see the doctor. Some have appointments, some come without an appointment--only a hope they that too will be seen. We worked all day until we saw all of them, with one break of about 15 minutes.

I worked in the pharmacy all day. I worked alongside Haitian students from the church. They are real pros in the pharmacy. We filled orders for antibiotics, anti-malaria medications, and the like for most of the day. Then we got an order for an HIV test on a three-year-old a girl. The students didn't seem to flinch.

I took pause as I looked into the eyes of our young patient. She was so tiny and so frail. I wanted to take her home and give her a place at my house to live her last days. I thought she deserved a chance for dignity for what may lay before her.

Well, the test was negative. She does not have HIV. But that moment lingered in my heart. Children suffer at no fault of their own and it breaks my heart. And I ask, "What am I doing for those at home?" I've said that hope for Haiti will come through the Church. The same is true of those in the U.S. True Hope for them will only come through the Church. The Church that follows the Spirit as she should will be the one to bring Hope around the world.

Lord, how am I to be that message of hope? How am I to the be one who is obedient to the Spirit? How am I to bring hope to my children and the children who suffer?

Day 3--Tell them there is Hope

8:15pm, Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Today we worshiped at the church that sponsors the clinics where we work. As we pulled up to the church I could hear impassioned singing coming from inside. I recognized the tune to which I have sung, "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone." Hearing those words in Creole, sung by those who have feared tomorrows, the song took on a whole new meaning for me.

During the service, God told me to tell the people that there is hope for Haiti. He said that it will come through my Church, the bride I love. I asked God how I was to tell them. Soon, Pastor Jude asked me to come forth and give the closing prayer. It was time to tell them. I prayed Jeremiah 29:11 over the the Church. I thanked God that Hope for Haiti will come through the Church that He is raising up for such a time as this.

After church we drove through Port-au-Prince. We saw the wide-spread damage that we've heard about through the media all these months. Buildings are flattened, seemingly at random. One of our translators pointed out a a pile of rubble to me. It was a movie theater, he told me. Because they haven't cleared the rubble yet, bodies remain inside--entombed right there, he told me.

As we continued our drive, we saw thousands of tents. Along the streets, people hawked their wares. Raw meat, fruit, vegetables, medicines, cell phones, shoes, tires, reclaimed rebar, etc. lined the curb. Sometimes polluted water flowed over the food for sale. We passed slum neighborhoods that exemplify a need beyond my comprehension.

We also saw piles of clothes and other "donated goods." Piles and piles of North American cast offs sat rotting in the sun in front of the slums. A few people picked through things, but it was obvious that most of it would never be used. It became very clear to me that the people of Haiti don't need anymore of our stuff--for stuff's sake. They need the Love of Christ shown through the hands and feet of His people--present and compassionate. They need to know that there is Hope, Hope that will come through the people of the church who will live a life that becomes the Gospel. They need to know that there is Hope that is shown by our presence to share His Love. Sure there are specific needs to be met, but those must be completed by a person who gives in Love for best interest of Christ mission to the people of Haiti.

Day 2--Expectations realized

6:30 am, Port-au-Prince, Haiti

We face the day unafraid. The sky is blue and beautiful. They told us to expect the rainy season. However, today we enjoy being on a Caribbean Island in the spring.

I have a colleague who was here in March. He warned me that I would never forget the smell of Haiti. I braced myself for it when I got off the plane. I didn't notice anything unexpected. I've searched for that smell ever since. Maybe it is because they have tended to the bodies of the 200,000+ who died in the quake. I only smell a poor, developing nation. There are no public works, really, to be seen. Trash is everywhere and the streets and full of animals, people, diesel trucks, and dirty water. That's to be expected here.

Expectations are difficult here. We're headed off to work a "mobile clinic" today in a community outside the city. I look forward to beginning our work today--unsure of what to expect.

8:45 pm

Today we served in a isolated community that has been in great need since long before the earthquake (that really is the case everywhere we go in Haiti). This community has never had a doctor before. We bounced over rough gravel roads leading to the remote location, thankful for our four-wheel drive vehicles.

Our medical team arrived to find hundreds of people waiting for us. They gathered early that morning and found what shade the could. They were quiet and still as we walked past them and onto the porch where we would set up the clinic.

Pastor Jude and those from his church set organized an impromptu triage center, exam areas, and pharmacy in the area about 20' by 15'. Three doctors and two nurses got to work as quickly as possible to see the patients. After a few hours, the patience of our patients wore thin. They pressed in on all sides in an effort to see the doctors. I had this picture of Jesus teaching in the house where so many people wanted to see Him that they crowded around the door outside, straining to hear. (See Luke 5:17-26). Some friends wanted to get their paralytic friend to be healed by Jesus. They made a hole in the roof and lowered him down. Jesus healed him before everyone's eyes.

While the Haitians crowded outside our open-air porch, they too wanted a healing in the name of Christ. We said we wanted to bring that healing. But what would that mean? I looked up and saw the crowd passing a four-year-old girl over their heads and over the wall, through the doorway and place her at my feet. She was obviously in some sort of distress. We put her in a chair and tried to cool her off. Then her body began to shake. The doctors began to work on her as she began what would turn out to be a two-hour seizure. Using one of our trucks, the team was able to get her to a nearby clinic to get her stabilized and then to a hospital. Our doctors saved her life.

She had no history of seizures, no family history, no other symptoms. There had never been a doctor there. Our team was there the day her seizures began to appear. It all came together for me. On our first day of clinic, we saw God show up in a powerful way to use the gifts He bestowed on our team to meet the needs of His people in Haiti. We were humbled to be a part of it.

Later, Patrice took me on a walk "around the neighborhood." We scrambled up paths just wide enough for one person (or the animal that made them) to see the new church/school. The previous one was lost in the earthquake. The new open-air, tin-roof building is home to the church on Sundays and a school during the week. An open-pit latrine 30 feet away serves as the only bathroom. In the building, six classes are held in a space big enough for maybe two classes in the USA. A seventh class meets outside under a blue tarp. The children all want to be in the class under the tarp. Patrice told me that they know a tarp will not hurt them if it should fall in another earthquake.