Seeing the face of Jesus in the hard places

It is hard to believe, but we leave for the airport in a couple of hours. The week has gone by so fast. We are so thankful for the opportunity we had to come and serve here this week. Yesterday after breakfast we headed into three different directions. Five members of the team (Abby, Lindsey, Natalie, Susan, and Keith) headed out to join another team to work on a medical clinic all day. Arnie, Kim, and Leonora headed out to work on music ministry at Pastor Odvin's church, and I headed back to Sherrie's to find a quiet place to work on planning for the house and ministry. Once Arnie, Leonora, and Kim were finished they joined the others at the medical clinic.

When I arrived at Sherrie's one of the American ladies staying there was holding a baby. This baby had been there with his mother for several days as workers there tried to help the mother with medical care for the baby. The baby was hydrocephalic (water on the brain). He was so precious, and when you looked at him you could clearly see Jesus in his face. The mother wanted to leave the baby there but they are not staffed to be able to care for a child so such extensive on-going medical needs. So we watched the mother leave with her precious son, knowing that if he does not receive the care he needs he will not have a very long life. Also knowing that if she was willing to leave him there she may vey well leave him somewhere else. We stood there and cried, silently praying for this precious child. May God place His loving hands on that child and his mother.

At the music session, there were 12 Haitian men that play a role in leading worship in their churches. The team taught the group a range of topics such as theory of music, chords, focusing on the meaning of the words in the worship songs, and tuning and caring for their instruments.

At the medical clinic, more than 325 prescriptions were filled with more than 500 people coming through the clinic. The team spent time playing with the children and handing out candy. It was a wonderful day of more than 20 American's and Haitians working side-by-side to serve the people.

I was able to accomplish some initial planning for the house and the ministry so that when I return in two weeks I can accomplish the top priorities so we can get the house up and running. I was also able to sit down and talk with Sherrie about how to do some things we need to do for initial set up, such as utilities, etc. That was an interesting conversation as well. The garbage is picked up by a man with a wheelbarrow, you have to provide your blood type (among other things) to open a bank account, and Haitian minimum wage is just over $5 per day.

We arrived back at the guest house just before dinner and it was nice to hang out here for a while. This morning we slept in a bit, or at least tried with the rooster that woke us up quite early. We had breakfast and finished sorting out and packing our stuff. Then we headed up to Delmas 75 to visit the Apparent Project. What an awesome business! They employ Haitians to make handmade jewelry, pottery, art, and other items that provides tremendous opportunity for economic development. The jewelry is now available at a variety of locations in the US. The journey to the Apparent Project was interesting as they driver had to keep asking for directions, where some gave us correct directions and others did not. We finally made it and spent some time looking around. Then we headed back toward the guest house and the driver stopped and had a lady walking along the road with a watermelon and a butcher knife get on the bus and cut the watermelon up into wedges and they passed it out to us on the bus. What a nice gesture and a surprising treat! Our bus driver has been great. He is so funny and has such a sweet heart.

Now we are hanging out at the guest house waiting to go to the airport. Tonight we will spend the night in Miami and head home tomorrow morning. Haiti is such an amazing place, where God's heart is so evident. While driving around in some of the roughest looking places, you will see a beautiful tree full of brightly colored blooms, or some other creation of God that just jumps out at you. There is a beauty here that words cannot explain. Every time you leave here you truly do leave a piece of your heart here and take some of Haiti with you. I have no doubt that God is going to continue to do amazing things in the lives of each member of this team. Most, if not all, will come back and other new people will join future teams. God will certainly continue the work He has begun in this beautiful country. May we always be willing servants, open to whatever He places in front of us.

So long from Haiti!
God bless,

Patricia