Day 5- Witnessing the scope of Northwest Haiti Christain Mission

The previous night's voodoo ceremony continued until at least 5:30. The roosters were in full chorus by that time too. It is a constant cacaphony every morning by dozens of roosters in every direction, starting in the deep, dark of night. I will never hear a rooster crow again without thinking about Haiti!

We got a much needed reprieve Wednesday morning. We had been on the go constantly since we got there. We were tired but a good tired. We had seen and done so much. The missionaries had been awesome about exposing us to as much of the mission activities as possible. Today was to be a closer more intimate glimpse of daily life on the main compound in St. Louis du Nord.

I started by going with Seromone and watching as people were let in the gates starting just before 8:00. There was a very large crowd gathered outside as there is every day. Seromone and the two guards "sorted" through the people coming in. Several people went to the Triage area to either be treated for either minor injuries or sickness. Many came to get appointments for surgical, dental, or eye procedures that would be performed when the appropriate medical missions were present from the states. They were given an appointment time for when the teams would be there. I saw several people who definitely did not look well and one boy about 10 holding a very bloody towel to his head.

Also arriving were women who were receiving pre-natal help. The NW Haiti mission is the only place for many, many miles that provided such help. It also is the only place for birthing. Since the hospital in Port de Paix charges for birthing, the mission is the only place to have children besides at home in the huts and shanties. The mission helps with 4-6 births per day! No one is turned away.

Others arriving were there for feeding programs for both kids and adults. Also, some women were there to pick up our laundry. As a part of the mission's empowering of the Haitians they serve, we as American visitors were encouraged to have our laundry done by local Haitian women for $3-5 per day. This is a very good wage for these women and work is so hard to come by that the women will start lining up outside the mission at 4 am in order to get this work. They take our laundry home and wash them (usually in the river) and then lay them out on rocks to dry. We really were glad to help out and daily put out clothes, even if we only had a few to wash.

One of my most vivid moments was observing the morning devotions they have with many of the workers. At the end of the devotion time, these 50+ workers all started their one prayers out loud. The sound of 50 different prayers being simultaneously uttered (in a foreign language to boot) was AWE INSPIRING. God hears millions of these prayers everyday in hundreds of languages. This one event may have shown me God's awesome power more effectively than anything else I have ever witnessed!

Lisa and I went with a few others and spent some time in the baby orphange on the grounds that morning. Lisa was holding a baby girl named Angela who had been brought to the mission near death. Her mother, who had AIDS, died shortly after her birth. Angela herself has HIV. While the father struggled to even feed his family, now without a mother, a rat had chewed on her face during the night. Desperate because he could no longer feed her or take care of her, Angela's father brought her to the mission. It is one of those stories most people only read about. Here was one of those little ones right in my wife's arms.

I was holding a plump little boy named Gevensky. He was the cutest little kid. I held him and talked to him for quite a while. Once I put him down and he immediately started fussing and crawling furiously back to me. I picked him up and sat down in a rocker for another 30 minutes til he fell asleep. Gevensky was from another sad though entirely too common situation in Haiti. He was the last of 9 kids. His mother died in childbirth with him. The father simply could not take care of the kids and desperate, brought Gevensky to the mission.

After lunch we spent the afternoon loading up 4 truckloads of formula, nutritional supplements, ensure, and other food to consolidate in a stock room on the mission grounds. Box, by box, by box. No fork lifts, no master cartons, no skids. 4 hours of hard, sweatly, dusty work. It felt great! I don't get to do that much in my real life and I loved being able to show the many Haitians inside that we Americans are here to serve them in Christ's name by doing the dirty work.

I was very thankful I had gotten in shape before the trip. I had lost 20 pounds and did daily pushups and situps. When we were finished I was exhausted but felt invigorated. The cold shower actually felt great!

After supper we had our daily devotians and played cards and chatted. We were blessed with a clear, calm night so Lisa and I finally were able to spend the whole night in the tent (no mosquitos!). I slept VERY, VERY well that night. In the middle of the night I awoke briefly and heard some distant voodoo chanting, though curiously they were not accompanied by drums.

Day 4 continued. Prayer against voodoo

We went to bed in the dorms that night at 10:00. I fell asleep right away. I was surprised because right after we went to bed, a voodoo ceremony started just up the hill behind the mission. The sharp thump of the drumming was constant and chanting and singing was frequent. I had actually "hoped" to hear a ceremony while we were there, though I felt guilty for feeling that way. The pervasive hold that voodoo has on the people of Haiti saddens me. It is perhaps Satan's strongest tool in this impoverished nation. But I wanted to hear a ceremony in hopes to have a deeper glimpse into the daily lives of these people and this nation.

That night (Tuesday night) the men had prayer time in the prayer chapel. My time was from 1:00-2:00 AM. Neal woke me up from a deep sleep. He said the prayer tower had a fair amount of mosquitos in it so he had prayer on the roof. I decided to do the same and it definitely was the right place for me to pray.

The voodoo cermony was in full swing during my prayer time. I stared into the hills behind us searching for the lights of this ceremony but saw none. But it was so close. I could clearly hear the chants (no idea of course of what was being said). The drumming was sharp and rythmic. Hearing the drumming and chanting during prayer time was a very powerful reminder of the evil gripping this country.

Haiti is surrounded by so much darkness. Crushing poverty and human suffering. So much of this is tied to voodoo and the people don't realize it. SO MUCH money and hope, both of which are far too rare in Haiti, are poured into this religion and its witch doctors and sacrifices. This is a religion now steeped in greed and desperation and anger. It is not a religion of loving one's fellow man.

Let me give you a brief history of voodoo in Haiti. Voodoo at its roots is the tribal religion of the African slaves from their homeland in West Africa. Voodooists DO believe in one supreme God. But they mistaking believe that this one God has no interest in the daily lives of people and that there are a vast number of lesser gods that "intercede" on the behalf of the people. Some of these gods are gentle, some seductive, some angry, some vulgar.

Unfortunately, one cannot fault the Haitians for there deep distrust, if not hatred, of the white man's version of "Christianity". Anyone who reads about the origins of Haiti will be absolutely repulsed by the unimaginable cruelty inflicted on the slaves by the French slave owners. When the slaves finally had enough and successfully revolted, they of course wanted NOTHING to do with the white mans God. Who would? So the practice of voodoo (vodoun is the proper term) grew in the 200 years of virtual isolation that struck Haiti.

Christianity, as taught by Jesus, is making inroads in Haiti. The same white people, whose distant descendants brutally murdered and mistreated these people, are now in many cases coming back to humbly serve the descendants of those so terribly mistreated. To me this is what a foriegn mission trip, be it short term or long term, is ALL ABOUT!

Looking out into the darkness, hearing the voodoo ceremony, remembering the images we saw, was the most surreal thing I believe I have ever experienced. So much mental preperation, many books and articles read about Haiti, had preceeded this trip for me.

Living it, hearing it, seeing it for only a few days didn't even seem real. And that tears my heart out.

SIDEBAR: To get a non-biased, secular detail of voodoo, read Alfred Metraux's "Voodoo in Haiti". It is considered to the most detailed view of voodoo from a white person's perspective. You owe it to yourself to read it if you want to understand these people.

I read it about a month before we went to Haiti. I actually approached reading this book "hoping" that voodoo was really not that far away from Christianity. I finished with a very deep, very clear conviction of the opposite, though that is not the author's intent. These spirits are real and they are from Satan. Voodoo is not the direct worship of Satan, but is a vast series of spirits under Satan that deceives these people. I finished the book feeling not fear or dread of those who follow voodoo, but instead a deep sadness for the deception of these people .

Day 4 - Far West Haiti back to St. Louis du Nord

Our first two full days in Haiti contained so many wonderful, exhilerating, emotional, sobering moments. Two days I will never forget as long as I live.

We woke up early on Miss Pat's roof. I'm an early riser anyway but when everyone goes to bed at 8:00, by 6:00 you have had enough sleep. Becky Kelley even saw what was supposedly her first sunrise!

We had over 4 hours to wait until our VBS that morning at 10:30. This would be to the schoolkids meeting at the church. This was a group of 30-40 kids (much less than the previous day). Many of them had already attended yesterday so Danielle Adamson spent the morning putting together another skit. She did a great job of instantly developing a play based on the story of Jesus walking on water and Peter's "floundering" faith.

Many of the guys and a few women decided to help the Haitian workers building Curtis and Danielle's house by carrying cement blocks from the pile made the previous day over to the house so the Haitains didn't have to carry them back. (sidebar: you don't buy cement blocks at Home Depot in Haiti. Cement bags of 100lb each are purchased in Port de Paix, 90 minutes away. A hole is dug in the ground and filled with water and the cement is mixed in these holes. When mixed, it is pored into cement block molds to set.).

We spent a couple of hours carrying block back and forth. I paused several moments to look around the countryside. I simply COULD NOT wrap my head around the knowledge that we were in a very remote section of the poorest country this side of Earth. Help of any sort was a long ways off. For some reason, looking at the mud huts and poor, dusty village in Haiti would not take form for me. It was surreal. I believe the mind goes into a "protect" mode. I really hate that it does. I am sure this happens to many people in many such situations and makes what they are seeing appear to be imaginary. Another subtle trick of Satan.

VBS started at 10:30. The kids are the lucky ones in this area. It is VERY tough for their parents to send them, even though it costs little as most of the costs are supported by the mission. We were told that many parents could only send one child at a time, usually whichever is the youngest of those old enough to attend. Thus school is increasingly not available to older kids. Several of these older kids watched from outside the school/church. This skit went well. We were impressed how well it went on short notice.

After a fish gumbo lunch at Miss Pat's we were ready to head back. Emotional fatigue appeared to be setting in somewhat. We had witnessed and participated in so many awesome and sometimes miraculous scenes and it was starting to sink in. We left about 1:30. It was a bright, gorgeous sunny day. The drive out was so picturesque. Small scattered huts, small corn plots, cactus with a few thin cows here and there. Very frequently you would see some threadbare children just pop-up out in the middle of nowhere. Obviously not the fortunate ones who attended school. We passed many donkeys with weathered Haitian women on the way to market in Beauchamp or Port de Paix. Again it was very desert like right up until we crossed the river outside Port de Paix.

Once more we drove the bus across a wide river! Weird. Women and some kids were bathing in the river. Kids were washing vehicles. Laundry was being done in the river. People gathered water at the river. The smelly, smoky market is at the river. The rivers are the life-blood of these towns in Haiti.

God then gave us a great faith experience! Right in the middle of the narrow one-way streets of Port de Paix, the bus broke down. The driver popped the hood up and a geyser of steam launched up. Initially I was concerned, a bunch of whites ("blans") stuck in a busy street in a third world country. But quickly I felt calm. All of us did in fact. Everyone of us commented on this fact. Without faith, we would be flipping out I'm sure.

We were definitely the attraction of the day down there. Dozens and dozens watched us. A few came up to the bus windows and asked for money or food. The driver had disappeared down a street after assessing the problem. About 15 minutes later he came back with the biggest Haitian we had seen the whole trip. He was either the mechanic or the defensive end for the Lions (his clothes suggested the former). He set to work right there in the middle of the street. About an hour later, he had fixed it (blown hose) and got the engine cooled down with a few buckets of water.

I couln't help but think about what an awesome faith test this was. We had been placed in an unplanned situation that could have been dangerous. God worked his power and we easily made in back to St Louis du Nord.

I hoped to finally spend a night with Lisa in the tent. Apparently they had a wind storm the previous night (25 miles away in Le Bay, it had been calm most of the night). ALL 3 of our tents were flat as pancakes when we went up to check on them. Rain looked immenent so we got the tents back up and zipped closed. The Simmons tent had a splintered tent pole but was able to stand up right anyway. The rain came, came hard, and came long. It poured almost non-stop for 4 to 5 hours.

One of our group dealing with a stomach bug had been feeling poorly and then fainted around 8:00 outside the bathroom. The staff there got some gatorade in him and gave him some Cipro. After 30 minutes or so, he looked a lot better. He just had to take it easy for a day and he was OK.

Next up, "praying against voodoo".

Wrapup of Day 3 in Haiti - Far Northwest

After chilling out for a bit, we took a walk down through Ti Charles to the beach. The beach was a village in abject poverty with a million-dollar view. Very surreal. We walked right by the mud huts and lean-tos in this dusty little forgotten town our our way to the beach. An old fishing boat was tied up by shore. Most of the group walked west down the beach. I stayed at the edge of town on the beach talking with Henry Joseph for about an hour. It was really great to get his first hand views on the government of Haiti, voodoo, the American government, and what can help turn Haiti around. Henry is "hope" for this country. He is a very intelligent, thoughtful, deeply Christian man. 26 years old, looks just like Ray Allen of the Celtics. He is a student of Haitian history and a more knowledgable Christain than I am. It was good to talk to him and we continue to do so via email.

The group that had walked on ahead found a nice collection of seashells in good shape. A couple of the Haitians found a live sea urchin and a fiddler crab and showed everyone before releasing it.

Dusk comes very early here due to the mountain range immediately to the west. Just before we left I saw another poignant snapshot: a young boy, naked but for a shirt standing on this beach with the gorgeous view, watching the white people as we stood in awe of God's beautiful work.

We got back to Miss Pat's about 6:00 and ate supper. It was already dark. We all headed to the roof at 7:30 where we would be sleeping under the stars. Miss Pat's is not a big house by any means. The 4 Haitian construction workers working on Curtis and Danielle's house slept in the living room/ dining room. The two interpretors slept on the bus.

The solar battery ran dry before 8:00 as predicted so we had nothing to do but sit under the sky full of stars and chat. We had a great time chatting and discussing God's work in our lives. About that time we saw the "ultimate" irony! Standing on Miss Pat's roof in a dirt poor little village on the coast of Haiti, no lights anywhere, we saw a cruise ship go by about 20 miles offshore, with 300+ lights ablaze! The people on that boat were living in luxury as they unknowingly cruised by poverty of which they had never known. They have NO clue.

After my 3 nights of poor sleep, it was very nice to go to bed early! Lisa and I slept behind JR and Anna's (short-term missionaries there) tent to get out of the wind, which was gusting up to 20mph. Right after we went to bed, it started to sprinkle. We couldn't believe it! It almost never rains there that time of year and we really had nowhere to go. Fortunately it was a very brief passing shower, hardly getting anything wet.

Unfortunately for Lisa and I the wind immediately died down after that and we soon found out how Le Baie du Moustiques (the Bay of Mosquitos) got its name. I had my head and entire body under the covers that night. I was so tired I actually slept very well. The rest of the group was out in the open more where the breeze was present and had only a few issues with mosquitos.

I woke up once that night and stared at all the stars. Without any city lights, it's amzing how much brighter the stars are and how many more you see! I woke up often but since it was a long night, I got caught up on sleep. Most of us woke up early. I watched the procession of people and animals leave the village for the market in the early dawn. Very peaceful.

Day 3 - VBS in the Far West

After lunch we did our our VBS skit for the Gran Moun at Miss Pat's. We were a little "rough" the first time at Sunday School at church. We did better this time! We told about Jesus: how he called his disciples after him, told them of his leaving, betrayed by the Jews in Jerusalem, dying on the cross, rising again from the tomb, and meeting Mary and Mary and the disciples. I narrated the story while Henry Joseph, our interpretor from Port de Paix translated into Creole.

Henry Joseph is one of the GREATEST persons I have ever met. Young people like him need to be the future of Haiti. He is very intelligent, detailed, friendly, and most important, Godly people I have ever met. He and I continue to email each other often. He attends college in Port de Paix and is training to become a teacher and pastor. Please pray for him that God would continue to guide him and he would continue to be eager in listening.

The Gran Moun (about 15, all women) were reacted very enthusiastically to our play. so much so that several of the women in our group were in tears watching how eagerly and happily these women reacted. I can only imagine the extreme trials these elderly Haitian women have endured. Lives spent in hard poverty. Yet they are so enthusiastic about our Savior! They commented frequently during the skit and gave a big applause when we were finished. It was very memorable for everyone.

What happened that afternoon though was nothing short of a miracle. We were doing VBS at the church for what we were told to expect was 120-150 kids (all from the area). Well, the word must have travelled quickly. 30 minutes prior to 2:00 there were well over 100 kids of all ages outside the locked church waiting to get in.

Roland, one of the workers at the mission had to let the littlest kids in first. Many were in tears due to the commotion and the crush of the crowd. It was getting to be an unsafe situation. It was clear we would have way over 150 kids. Roland patiently held the crowd outside and let the littlest kids in a few at a time. Soon the church was full and many of the older kids had to watch from outside. Some of the nursing mothers were let in and they stood along the back. We planned for 150 kids but God had a different paln. He brought about 350 kids. We had made peanut butter sandwiches for them and brought a goody bag for 150 kids with toothbrushes, shampoo, and toys. We frantically divided all the sandwiches in two so every kid could have some.

For many of these kids, this would be there only meal of the day. You could tell that some of the kids were definitely malnourished. It broke our hearts to have to divided the sandwiches up. We figured that some of the kids would just have to go without and that would break our hearts. You know what, God provided. we actually had enough for every kids and a fair amount left over to give to the nursing mom's and some of the older kids! We were amazed! Not one kid or mom complained and each took the half-sandwich graciously.

Before all this, Roland had led the kids in a raucous song service. Roland, who I thought at first was kind of rough and distant, did an excellant job of crowd control and was great with the kids as he led them in singing. The kids were SO INTO the song service. Here it was, a Monday afternoon, and these kids were eagerly praising God at the top of there lungs. These kids who have almost nothing. God was there in all his glory! Each of us was moved by the joyful worship of these people.

We gave our skit for the kids. We had it down cold by this time. Bob Helm (our 300lb soldier) virtually threw Ryan (Jesus) up against the wall when it was time to "nail Jesus to the cross". The kids got a real kick out of it.

After this was the feeding of the sandwiches and then handing out the now divided up toys and toothbrushes. This went well also and every child was able to get something. The amazing thing was that a good many of the kids didn't want the toys (balls and pencils) and instead insisted on the toothbrushes. Again, another sobering reminder on what a luxury item toothbrushes are to these kids. They are so grateful for even the smallest item!

After we let the kids out, Ryan threw up a couple of kickball we had brought for the kids. The kids mobbed after these and got into shoving matches for the balls. We should have listened to Dave (Danielle Rogers' cousin, a missionary out in Le Bay). He had wanted us to give them directly to him so that they would be better taken care of. We did leave two other balls and a ball pump with him.

Our entire group was stunned after all this had happened. So many emotions were present. Joy over all the kids who heard the of Jesus and were fed nutricious peanut butter sandwichs and the Holy Spirit. Sadness at the desperate needs of these people.

This is the third world we hear about but never take the time to visit and help. A good many kids were running around with pants or underwear and over half without shoes. As difficult as it was to believe, Ti Charles and the Far West are even more desperate than Port de Paix and St Louis du Nord.

Wrapup of Day 3 to come.

Day 3 in Haiti - Out to the Far West Mission

After the debacle the previous night, I was the target of much good-natured ribbing. "Oh, crap" was now my tag-line. I was VERY tired and we were headed out on a long bus ride the the Far West as it is called. The Far West was about 3 hours away (only 25 miles or so). It was located at the Baie de Moustiques (Bay of Mosquitos) near a tiny hamlet named, as near as I can figure, Ti Charles. Breakfast was sub-par that day, a rubbery pancake and poor bacon. I actually fit a little queasy shortly after getting underway. The constant bouncing, poor breakfast, and no sleep, I'm sure. God heard my prayer and shortly after felt better. I was fine the rest of the day. Danielle and Ryan didn't feel well either but both were troopers and ended up OK.

The trip to "the Bay" was very memorable. After we passed Port de Paix (about 1.5 hours) we came to the west edge of the city. It was continuosly residential from the mission all the way into Port de Paix. The city was hustling commotion, noise, and smells such as the ever present smoke, vehicle fumes, rot, and sweat. After the city we came to a very wide and apparently shallow river, Trois Rivieres. I say apparently shallow because we drove the bus across the entire width of the river. Never had I experienced anything like that before! There is no bridge in sight so I guess that's the way it's done in Haiti.

What was amazing is how rapidly the climate changed after crossing Trois Rivieres. Almost immediately it became much more sparse: few trees, fewer homes, and very soon cactus became a common sight. This is only 12-14 miles from the virtual rainforest found at St. Louis du Nord! It was like having Louisiana and Arizona 12 miles apart. Crazy.

The road was by now much less travelled by vehicle and still heavily travelled by foot. Lots of peasants walking and women going to and from market on donkeys, laden down with their wares, be it food, utensils, or charcoal. The remaining 1.5 hour ride took us about 10 miles into what could only be described as desert. Hundreds of cactus, mostly organ-pipe, plots of spindly corn here and there, the occasion group of palm trees, a few cows and goats grazing about, and most notably, an even greater level of poverty. Looked exactly like Africa. Many of the houses were mud huts sparsely scattered amongst de-nuded hills and mountains. The people looked even poorer and that was hard to believe.

We arrived as Miss Pat's house (the 77 yr old missionary who lived at the Bay) around 11:30. Curtis and Danielle Rogers are having there house built next door to Miss Pat. It should be done in March. About 2/3 of the cement block was up when we arrived. (sidebar: You don't go to Home Depot and buy block in Haiti. Bags of concrete are mixed in a shallow depression with water and then poured into block molds to set. Very long and tedious process)

The church ( a picture is above) is right at the edge of Ti Charles. Ti Charles looks like a small African bush village of scattered huts, mostly mud and palm tree branch roofs. Some of the better ones had rusted tin roofs. Maybe 400 people. This collection of abject poverty is right on the ocean. The beach was relatively clean and the view was spectacular. Blue water, cliffs on both sides, the west end of Tortuga about 10 miles offshore.

We had lunch of a very tasty fish gumbo after we arrived.

Oh, Crap (Night 2 in Haiti)

At the end of a wonderful day in Haiti enjoying God's beauty, God showed some of his power as well! The truck with our totes for the mission (27 - 50lb totes all packed with food, medical supplies, and supplies and gifts for the VBS programs we would put on) arrived and everyone was very happy to get everything sorted and organized. Neal & Becky, Dave (Sparky) & Penny, and Lisa & I had all brought tents in these totes so we could snooze with the spouses (I know what you're thinking :)

We set up the tents in a pretty strong wind on the concrete roof of the mission. Well the wind was just warming up! The wind was quite strong (25-35 mph) and I was having trouble sleeping because of the flapping of the tent. Not only that, the pins that went into the ends of the tent poles kept coming out (they couldn't be staked down, only tied to re-bar). I kept having to put the pins back in and needless to say, couldn't sleep.

Then whamo! Shortly before 1:00 AM a monsoon hit! The wind picked up to a gale (maybe 40mph) and an all-out downpour started. The wind blew one corner of the rainfly off and we started getting wet. Before I could even get out to fix that the other corner blew off and the monsoon was coming down in our tent!

In the melee that followed, we were frantically getting our stuff out of the tent and downstairs. Apparently I was saying "Oh, crap!" (or a slightly stronger version thereof) repeatedly as I try to repair the tent. I was soaked. Lisa and I got some clean sheets and went back to the seperate dorms. All 3 couples were blown off the roof that night.

So, at 1:30 in the morning I was soaking wet, and worked up. And of course it was my turn in the prayer tower! (I had the 1-2 AM shift on the guys night). I thought about bagging it. But God planted a thought......think of the Haitians outside these gates in their leaky shacks and lean-tos. I hate it when he does that! Seriously it was good to have some prayer time and get things back in focus.

The storm had blown over and it was very calm out when I was finished. I got Sparky up for his shift and laid down on a mattress. With the wind gone and the heavy rain over, the mosquitos had woken up. After 10 minutes of swatting (still not cool with the DEET yet) I headed back up to the tent alone (sidebar: tent = no mosquitos. These are mosquitos you don't want to mess around with either, they carry malaria, dengue fever, typhoid). I wiped up much of the water inside and stacked the mattresses on top of each other. I got 2 hours of sleep for the second time in 3 nights. I was by then concerned about getting sick due to low defenses. I prayed often about this and you know what....God provided good health the whole trip.

Day 3 next

Day 2 - A beautiful walk with God's children

After lunch, we took a AWESOME walk through the Haitian countryside. I will never forget this day! Our walk would be over 2 hours each way. The destination was a 100ft waterfall. It was a great hike. We started out from the mission and walked through town. About 20 minutes later, we arrived at the river at the edge of town. We had to walk across the shallow, wide river. Most decided to spare their shoes and walk across bare-foot. After we had crossed, Matt told us we had 5 more crossings to do. He "failed" to mention this before we left. By the river was a large, noisy, open-air market, even on Sunday. Little tables were everywhere with people selling fruit, dried fish, dishes, and charcoal. The charcoal sellers are the poorest of the poor. These are mountain people with no other source of income except cutting down and partially burning wood to sell as charcoal (sidebar: Haiti has almost no electricity and no natural gas companies. Charcoal is the only way to cook food.) The Haitians were also using the river for bathing and doing laundry. Many kids and some women were naked and taking baths in the river. Several boys were washing mopeds and bikes in the river as well.

After crossing the river we walked for a few miles down a long dirt path that followed the river for the most part. It was too small for trucks but a few scooters would go by. It was VERY heavily used for foot traffic. Hundreds of people were using the path. It really struck me here that the vast majority of Haitians walk to wherever they need to go. We ended up crossing the river 2 more times (with shoes on this time) before coming to the waterfall. It was beautiful! Several of us climed about 15' us the falls and jumped into the river (led by Neal of course!) It was fairly murky and shallow enough that my jaws clacked together when my feet hit bottom. I was holding my sunglasses but the force the dive ripped them right out of my hand and they were lost at the bottom. It was incredible to be jumping off a waterfall in Haiti! We went to another spot (large rock) about 12' high that went into a deeper part of the river. After this we walked back to the mission. Along the way we stopped in a town called LaForge to see one of the other churches planted by NWHCM. So much good is being done here.

We walked through the river for the 6th and final time as we came back to the open market. Seeing the charcoal sellers right in front of me was surreal. I have read so much about the crushing poverty of Haiti and here it was, right in front of me. We ended up in a tap-tap for the last bit to the mission, saving us the tricky ascent up the steep hill to the mission. We had been gone about 5 hours.

The people and this land are beautiful. Yet they have virtually nothing by worldly standards, oppressed for centuries by greedy and ruthless dictators, oppressed by its rich and wealthy neighbors (mainly us) who choose to ignore these people because they offer us nothing. (sidebar: WHY did the US send hundreds of millions of dollars to the ruthless Duvalier regimes and the feared Tonton Macoutes in the 60's - 80's and to the brutal military junta that followed, yet when the people elected democratically a man, Jean Betrand Aristide, who promised to help and empower the poor, the USA led an international embargo that still continues, withholding over 500 million in foreign aid. There is NO ARGUMENT that thousands and thousands of lives have been lost to disease and starvation and violence that this aid would have prevented.)

Day 2- Church in St Louis du Nord and a beautiful walk with God's beautiful people

What an awesome day!! We started with Sunday School and church across the street. We met so many people. The Haitian Christians are a warm and inviting people and we appreciated the chance to worship with them. The church filled in steadily and eventually was overflowing with people. Many people watched from outside. Each of us on the trip gave a brief greeting and testimony, aided by Elveus, our interpretor. The most moving part came when a former voodoo medicine man, now training to be a pastor shared his testimony. He shared how difficult it had been for him to turn from Satan and embrace Christ. It is STILL hard for him. He can't make nearly as money now as he did as a medicine man. (sidebar: A voodoo Bokur, or medicine man, is a good paying position as people must pay for "medicines" or other rituals to ward off sorcery). This man, who gave up so much to follow Jesus, was in tears and asked the people for prayers.

Wow, that's something you don't see in church every Sunday.

After this, half of us took the children (about 60-70) back across the street to childrens church. They had so much enthusiasm! They sang songs in Creole, sounding loud and beautiful. We helped each of them make bracelets out of beads. The kids loved it! What was 3 hours of worship seemed like 30 minutes! The group that had stayed behind in church saw an older Haitian man tearfully accept Christ! This is the way every church should be on Sunday morning! Everyone was so happy to be there and eager to worship our savior! It is so important to realize that the Savior of these people, who I look nothing like, speak nothing like, and have nothing worldly in common with, is the VERY same Savior for us!

Day 1 or our Mission Trip to Northwest Haiti Christian Mission in St. Louis du Nord, Haiti

I have decided to post my journal notes taken on our recent trip to Northwest Haiti Christian Mission. Our group of 14 people from Jenison Christian Church in the Jenison/Hudsonville/Allendale area west of Grand Rapids visited this mission from February 9-16, 2008. Our experience moved every one of us. It was a tremendous spiritual experience and trial. I cannot wait to return again soon!

Day 1, Saturday, February 9, 2008

Well, God blessed me with a short but good 2 hours of sleep last night. Due to delays out of GR and Chicago, we arrived in Miami 2 hours late and didn't get to our rooms until after 1:30. We got up at 4:00 to head back to the airport to fly into Port au Prince.

At the Miami airport we met another mission group. Believe it or not, they were from Jenison as well! Holy Cross Lutheran was sending a group to Les Cayes (on the south coast) for a week. Jenison appears to have a heart for Haiti.

We landed at the Port au Prince airport around 10:00 AM. I was expecting the worst, but it was a bit nicer than I expected. Since it was February, it was pleasant (about 75 F) and breezy. The airport was in better repair than I expected. Spartan but clean. Flying in, one could see that Haiti is definitely poor but after reading about the horrible air quality, I found it not bad at all at the airport. Clearing customs was quick. We met Matt Sereno and Jacques from the mission. We then all loaded up into the back of a pickup truck (the first of what would be dozens of times that week) and took a quick drive to the smaller domestic airport. This drive gave me a first glimpse of Haiti. The people are poor and obviously under-employed. Even this short drive had several roadside stands selling different foods and trinkets. We waited in a crowded and hot room for our flight on Tortug Air to Port de Paix, on the north coast of Haiti. Jacques had us on a flight soon.

The 50 minute flight to Port de Paix showed a mountainous but almost totally de-foliated country beneath us. Large trees are sparse. I have read much about the vast, rich forests of Saint Domingue (as Haiti was known before independence). It is almost impossible to envision that given the desert like appearance below. Haiti was more mountainous than I thought also.

It was a brilliant, sunny day (VERY welcome compared to the Michigan winter). We landed on the dirt runway in Port de Paix. This was definitely a different Haiti. Much more rural and much poorer than the brief glimpse seen at the airport.

We piled into the back of a pickup with our stuff and headed off on the one hour drive to St. Louis du Nord. It is only about 8 miles away but the roads are horrible. This IS the third world. My first experience with it, I am ashamed to admit. Congestion, utter poverty, pollution, run-down buildings and shacks everywhere. All this less than 2 hours by air from Miami.

The roads were apparently much better than the last time the group was there 3 years ago. I found that hard to believe. As I said, it took an hour to go 8 miles and it wasn't because of traffic. My car would be a pile of bolts within 100 yards on a Haiti road. Looking back, I never saw a car the whole week there. Toyota trucks, a very few SUV's and some mopeds were the only motorized vehicles. Some bikes, but the great majority either walk or crowd onto a tap-tap (the Haitian taxi). Tap-taps are pickups of varying sizes that one takes by sitting on the rail or bed with 10-30 others. When you get where you want to go, you "tap-tap" the side of the truck, signally the driver to stop.

We drove thru some huge potholes and puddles (some over 2 feet deep) on the road to St. Louis du Nord. We finally arrived at the mission around 1:00. Since it was Saturday, there was almost no activity. Matt took our group on a tour of the mission grounds. The highlight of the tour was seeing the Gran Moun home at the base of the hill. This is a home for about 40 older Haitians who had no one to turn to for help. NWHCM has provided a home for them here and 1 meal a day. To us Americans, that sounds terrible, but that is better than many if not most Haitians get. These people would likely be dead if not for NWHCM. It is so hard for Haitians to feed themselves and their children, let alone the elderly who can no longer contribute income. Many of these people have no surviving offspring.
The Gran Moun were so excited to see us. They did a very raucous sing-along for us welcoming us to Haiti. One elderly and blind women led the group. There were only a few men and they were all greatly disabled in one form or another.

The St Louis area actually has a great deal of foliage. It is one of the very few spots left with abundant trees. It doesn't fit the denuded, arid idea one has of rural Haiti. But the poverty is oppressive and everywhere you turn.

The sleeping quarters are spartan....this ain't a Sandals resort! It was an open-air room that got occasional breezes. The mosquitos did make for a restless night. I didn't want to spray myself and my sheets with DEET. I very quickly got over that fear! The newness of this adventure kept my mind churning. I got about 5 hours sleep that night. There are some confused roosters in this country! They crow periodically all night long, building into a chorus around 6:00.

Day 2 up next.