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.