Haiti Trip 2013: Thursday

I know it's been awhile since I posted the last entry about the trip I took with a group from Embrace to Mission Haiti in February and it's because 1) I am still journaling about the trip (yes, a month later) and 2) we've sort of been preoccupied with Amy's cancer diagnosis. I'm sure you'll be hearing more about both in the weeks to come, but while we are in a lull waiting for Amy's treatment plan to take shape, I figured I would take some time to resume the recap of the trip.

Thursday, February 21, 2013- Ti Rivier, Haiti

A few things about sleeping at Mission Haiti: earplugs are a must and roosters are plentiful. The sleeping arrangements are such that the men were in one room with five bunk beds and the ladies in one with three or four (I'm not sure how many because I am a gentleman and covered my eyes every time I walked by there. Okay, not really. Turns out I only have a detailed memory for things that directly effect me). Troy & Rachael got the honeymoon suite (a storeroom with a few single beds) and we all shared an entry room that is part foyer, part pantry, and part first aid area.

After falling asleep the first night, I slept fairly soundly with a bit of tossing & turning because of the heat and the roosters. I know there are at least two roosters on sight and the neighbors have several within crowing distance as well. Once everyone is sound asleep though, they multiply and amplify to the point where sleeping without earplugs would be an effort in futility. I'm not sure what time they started crowing that first night, but it was an endless cock-a-doodle-drone all night.

I was pretty much awake by 5:00am (after going to bed at 7:30 the night before), but stayed in bed until 6:15 before venturing out for my first bucket shower. Our showers consisted of two stalls with a bench that holds a bucket of water that is filled from barrels that get filled once a day from the well that is on site. Most of the team preferred showers at the end of the afternoon or before bed because the water is warmer, but I opted for mornings because 1) I am a creature of habit and 2) it was the coolest I would be the entire trip. The only thing I was uncertain about was shaving since it would have to happen in the shower and there was no mirror present. I opted to take my phone in and used the front facing camera as a makeshift mirror (an idea that proved quite effective for the duration of the trip).

Breakfast was at 7:00 and consisted of instant oatmeal and instant coffee, both of which were quite appreciated. Breakfast for the full week was more a form of function than cultural immersion and alternated between the above and variations on the theme along with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on days that required something with a little more substance. Each morning also began with a team devotional. On Thursday I gave a one that I had written from Isaiah 55 about our expectations and submitting them to the plans that God had for us for the trip.

After devos, we marched to the first school of the day which is less than a quarter mile from the mission. We were there to take pictures of the kids that have school sponsors through Mission Haiti that help pay for supplies, uniforms, & lunches for the students for a sum of only $75-150 per year depending on whether they are in elementary or high school.

One by one, each child was marched down to the photo area in the former courtyard of the pink school (the wall to the courtyard was destroyed at some point in time, though portions remain). Each student had a plastic sleeve with a sheet of paper with their name and a copy of their picture from the previous year which they got to keep. They each had one photo with the name card and one without (to make sure we had the right child's name for each packet) before being given a sticker, a piece of candy, smiles from all of our team (because they were absolutely adorable), and were finally sent back to class.

The kids were excited to have us there and they looked sharp/cute in their blue & white uniforms with the girls' hair done with barrettes & ribbons. It was interesting to see kids come late or go early, but apparently the teachers in a lot of these schools may or may not show up and things often wrap up by noon or so. No education is needed to be a teacher. All you have to do is buy a certificate, so the quality and commitment level of the teachers are often low to say the least.

We saw about 300 kids at that school before packing up and heading back up the hill. One of the highlights of our first excursion for me was Scott Johnson. As we started at the school, Scott was grabbing pictures left and right and continued to do so as the kids began to have their pictures taken. At one point, he asked if there was anything he could do because he felt like he wasn't really helping. I told him that taking pictures for us was huge because it allowed everybody else to do what they were doing while still knowing that things were being documented so that we could remember the experience and better communicate the opportunities for future trips. His face lit up and he unofficially took on the role of team photographer. It was a joy to be able to affirm him in his gifts and to give him permission to do what comes so naturally to him. He does an amazing job of making people feel comfortable (kids and adults) and takes a simple, beautiful joy in showing the people of Haiti their beauty through his lens. All of the photos in this post (with the exception of the first and last) are courtesy of Scott.

It wasn't long before we headed back out to the next school which was just a stone's throw around the bend from the first school. Replace the pink building with a blue one, blue for red in the uniform, and the broken wall for a hillside ocean view and the rest played out in a similar fashion to the first school.

At the first school, I found myself shifting roles from helping kids get from check-in to the photographers, to helping with the name cards, to handing out candy. At the second school, the set up was such that I quickly found myself jobless. I opted to spend the time praying, taking pictures of the team, and having conversations with other team members.

We returned from the second school and settled in for beans, rice, chicken, and fried plantains that had been prepared for us. Conversations were good as we unpacked our first morning of work and lunch was followed by a little trip to the home of one of Gretchen's friends. A handful of us visited Robert who was quite hospitable in showing us the boat he was building, his garden, and his home. His home is a simple Haitian home with a few small rooms and an amazing beachfront view. We wandered down to check out the beach and it was unlike anything I'd ever seen. The water and the view of the far side of the bay are breathtaking until you look at your feet and see the massive amounts of trash that you are standing on.

Haiti is, without a doubt, the most littered place I've ever been (in my admittedly limited travels). What garbage is not burned is simply left where it lies. It is not a stretch to say that we didn't walk more than ten feed on any roadway that we traveled without seeing a menagerie of trash including wrappers, plastic bottles, parts of old shoes and any number of other things. The beach at Robert's was almost more garbage than rock and seemed a surreal framework for the view that it surrounds.

Robert's home was both simple and warm with one special, notable piece of decor that was of interest to us as a team. It was a picture of Mike, Pam, and their family that was at least ten years old. It was a beautiful testimony to the time that they have invested in the people of Ti-Rivier and the family that they have made in this community.

When we got back to the mission, we were able to sit in on some teaching by Pastor Jeff Stam. Jeff was accidentally brought on the trip by Pam as she thought she was contacting someone else, but Jeff proved to be a blessing as his ministry (Set Free Ministries) is focused on spiritual bondage and teaching about things pertaining to spiritual warfare. It was a little unclear what Jeff's purpose on the trip was to be and as he started his session, he wasn't even certain whether it should be directed at our team or at the Haitians that had come to hear him. Pam was not around, so I encouraged him to focus the teaching toward the Haitians knowing we would have other opportunities of our own to hear from him.

Jeff began by recounting the spiritual history of Haiti and discussing the prevalence of voodoo and how, even in cases where people tried to follow Christ, their lives were still impacted by voodoo in a variety of ways. It was very interesting to get a bit more perspective on the issue of voodoo which is a daily reality in the daily lives of many that would encounter in the days ahead and helped to inform my prayers for the remainder of the trip.

After Jeff's teaching, we had the chance to go hang out with Pam's kids at the orphanage. Aubrey, Julie, Rachael, Gretchen, Troy, Taylor, Seth and I went and delivered the crosses that the Embrace kids had made for the Haiti kids and gave Pam's kids the chance to make some for us to bring back with us. There are currently ten kids at the orphanage (four boys and six girls) all probably aged 12 or younger. Some of the older kids remembered Aubrey from past trips and wanted to know how the other Scarlet Letter boys were doing (a band Aubrey sang for for a few years) and if Aubrey had married Art (her guitar player, friend and former boyfriend). It was sort of fun seeing Aubrey try to navigate the questions and to realize just how much has changed for her in the last two years.

Before long Lucy & Aubrey had slipped away to play basketball while the rest continued to press on with the craft. Things eventually wound down, cleaned up, and moved on to other things. Some of the kids played hopscotch while others of us moved to the basketball court to join Lucy & Aubrey.

Pam had shared with us the day before that there was a strong possibility that Lucy would be taken from the orphanage while we were there. Lucy's mom and dad had been heavily involved in gangs before her father died and Lucy had been at the orphanage for several years because her mother didn't want her. Pam has all of the legal paperwork to be Lucy's legal guardian, but in Haiti her mother could easily tell a judge that she wants her back and Pam's paperwork wouldn't matter a bit. Her mother had expressed a desire to do exactly that and Pam was scheduled to meet with Lucy's mom Thursday morning. We were all praying that she would have a change of heart and decide to let Lucy stay because the situation with her mom would not be a healthy one.

For the time being, we played ball. The teams naturally took on a boys vs girls vibe as we began our play on a rim at about eight feet in height on a concrete slab that was sloped and uneven. It was clear early that Lucy was a sharp shooter, Julie was fiercely competitive, and Rose, Lucy, and Schneider (all orphans) were fierce defenders who used every ounce of energy to harass, harangue, and foul each other to get the ball back.

Lucy's scoring potential quickly made us abandon our initial soft defensive approach. I started by simply making sure I kept my hands up to make her shoot over me, but it quickly escalated to actively attempting to block her shots (much to my shame, or not so much). I was heckled mercilessly after my first block, but I protested that I had to play her tough since she'd already scored 80 points on me (a bit of hyperbole). Julie finally had to quit giving me grief after blocking one of 4'0'' Schneider's shots.

We finally ended a hard fought contest to head over to the other side to eat. Turns out that we were not only late to dinner, but late to youth as well as several young men in their teens and early 20's were already on hand. Supper was macaroni & cheese that the medical crew had made and was greatly appreciated, if belatedly enjoyed.

After the evening meal, it was finally time for youth group. Patricko led worship on guitar in both Creole and English and it was definitely a blessing to get to hear familiar songs in another language and to hear the voices of so many of the area youth lifted in praise. Aubrey followed that with the first of a two part lesson on Esther for the youth and she taught using an interpreter for about five minutes before we continued on in worship.

After youth had wrapped up and things had quieted a bit, we gathered our team in the dining area and had our team time where we discussed our plans for Friday and also shared our highs and lows for the day. For the most part, the highs flowed easily from just about everybody and the lows were few and far between. It had really been a fun day of seeing the team come together and begin to form an identity.

Pam then gave a brief update about where things stood with Lucy's mom who was still determined to take Lucy. The expectation was that she would arrive with a court order, or the police, on Friday to do so. Obviously, this was a major topic of the prayer time that followed the sharing that capped off the night.

After that, it was finally time to settle in, grab some rest, and let the rooster chorus serenade us 'til dawn.

An unwelcome guest

Some things do not go according to plan. Instead they sneak up, sucker punch you, move into your house, and refuse to leave. Cancer is like that.

We received a diagnosis on Wednesday that flipped our world upside down. Amy has breast cancer. I still can't say it with any sense that the statement is based in reality, but there it is. If you haven't read Amy's story, take a minute to read it here and then come back.

Obviously, I am blessed beyond reason to be married to this woman. Her outer beauty still stuns me after 20 years of marriage, and it can only be eclipsed by her heart, character, spirit, and the depth of her faith. Her beauty has grown over time as I've watched Jesus transform, refine, and redeem her. I hate that she has to go through this and hurt so badly for her as we consider what may be on the road before us. At the same time, just when I didn't think I could possibly love her more, God gives me an opportunity to experience that love in an entirely new way.

We have both had our moments over the last few days as fresh emotions and new fears have washed over us. I held her in the exam room right after we first heard the news as she allowed herself a moment to purge herself of the emotions she was feeling. She has held me, in return, as I've expressed how helpless I feel and how desperately I need her. The smallest thing can be overwhelming and catch us completely by surprise, but nothing can shake our faith or belief that Amy will beat this.

We have also been overwhelmed at the outpouring of support from so many that we have been blessed to experience life with over the years. We know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that we are loved and can constantly feel ourselves lifted in prayer by hundreds and hundreds of people.

Cancer may be an unwelcome guest, but there is absolutely no question that we are in this together and that we will come out the other side stronger as a couple and stronger in our faith.

Haiti Trip 2013 The Travel Days

I've been back in the US from a vision trip with a team from Embrace Church with Mission Haiti and am still in the process of completing my journal from the trip. I figured I would post the first entry from the journal and hope to follow with the rest of the posts in the next week or so (time permitting).

This was my first international missions trip which is a little hard for me to believe given that I have worked in vocational ministry in one sense or another for most of the last 16 years. For whatever reason, the opportunity never quite presented itself in the past, but this time I found myself forcing the effort a bit as Embrace hasn't had a consistent, ongoing effort in global missions since I started two and a half years ago on staff. It seemed like every time international missions came up in a staff setting, I was usually the one bringing the topic up and finally about a year ago I told Adam and Travis that I was willing to help get the ball rolling.

This trip was actually our second with Mission Haiti, but the previous trip was three or more years ago and we really hadn't pursued that ministry relationship since then. This, then would be our attempt to reboot the relationship with an eye toward long term partnership. The team was a vision team that was going without much in the way of specific purpose other than to see what Mission Haiti does and to look for opportunities to partner with them wherever their initiatives and our gifts and personalities match up.

The Embrace Team

The team consisted of Adam Weber (Embrace's Lead Pastor), Aubrey Bohl (Embrace's Worship Leader), Julie Babb, Brent Tucker, Taylor Burkett, Scott Johnson, Seth Peterson, Gretchen Schafer, and me. We had a few other folks along that were invited by Pam Plasier (founder of Mission Haiti) including Troy and Rachael Weiland (Troy is the Pastor of Zion Mennonite Church in Bridgewater, SD), Danny (one of their parishioners), and Pastor Jeff Stam (who was there doing some teaching on spiritual bondage/warfare). There was also a three person medical team working to establish some systems for their clinic. Liza (from that team) also helped out quite a bit with photography.

The initial flight out of Sioux Falls was fairly uneventful with a two hour layover in Dallas. We began to see some of the personality of the team early on, especially with Gretchen. We hadn't been in the air for more than 10 minutes when she wanted to teach us "The Plane Game." The game consisted of looking up ads in the SkyMall magazine, posing like the people in the ad, and everybody else guessing which page we were found on. Gretchen also decided to challenge us to ride the shuttle at the Dallas airport without the use of our hands while trying to keep our balance. A few stops after we started, Gretchen was bantering with some strangers from Kentucky while goading them into playing as well. One of the guys was fairly playful and the conversation got fairly colorful before we reached our stop.

From Dallas, we were off to Miami where we arrived shortly after midnight. We set off in search of a gate at the airport where we could find a promising spot to try to grab a few hours of sleep before our 6:20am check in time for the flight to Port-Au-Prince.

Pam had warned us that we would probably get bumped from the gate and sent to the main lobby of the airport which would slow us down getting going in the morning. On previous trips, teams would get chased off as cleaning crews methodically made their way through all of the gates to prepare the airport for the next day's pandemonium.

As everybody grabbed seats or a piece of floor to try to settle in, I went to the next gate over to charge devices and try to sleep. It wasn't too long before I realized that the volume on CNN at that gate was going to prove too loud (even with earplugs), so I waited until my phone was charged and headed back to where the rest of the team was in various stages of sleeping/not sleeping. I grabbed a few pictures for both Embrace's and my personal Instagram including a sweet one of Aubrey sleeping, while seated, with a pillow in her lap and her arms and head resting on the pillow.

While Aubrey sweetly slumbered, I tried grabbing a spot on the floor and set myself up with a sleep mask and ear plugs. I quickly found that the Miami airport keeps their air conditioning set right around 51 degrees and that it was coldest on the floor. I gave up trying to sleep after awhile and most of the team was experiencing the same predicament. Many longing glances were cast at the Starbucks across the aisle which was closed and gated for the night. Conversation and YouTube videos passed the time between failed attempts to sleep. Rumors of a 4am Starbucks opening at another location in the airport led to a handful of the team going on what proved to be a fruitless expedition. 

During their journey, I stacked my bags in one seat and sat in another with my feet over the armrest of a third and finally got my first 30 minutes of sleep of the trip. The brevity of the sleep was due in part to the a/c and in part because of the cleaning crew that had been working the place over. Luckily, they did not kick us out and we were able to to wait out the stay at the gate we had chosen.

Starbucks finally had mercy on us and opened at 5:00 where their first seven customers were from Embrace (which should surprise no one). About 5:30, a handful of us went to grab breakfast at an a la carte place where all of the employees kissed each other (often) while working behind the counter where we were able to refuel before the trek to the next gate for the flight that would finally take us to Haiti.

We had been well prepared for the Port-Au-Prince airport and our protocol to get through with as little hassle as possible. We had been warned that we would be offered help at every turn with the expectation of some kind of payment and our main task was claiming the 25 or so bags that Mike and Pam had packed with various supplies for Mission Haiti without having to pay anyone anything extra for doing what we were perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves. Each bag was marked with a spray painted orange "X" clearly and intentionally sprayed making them easy to identify. We had six or seven carts piled high by the time we had everything and we made our way to customs.

Pam ran point and all of her baby ducks followed. The customs agents checked a couple of sample bags before we were sent on our way. We learned that we very nearly risked losing a bag of medicine that had been near the top. Pam said the street value of medicine in Haiti makes it one of the most sought after items for customs agents to steal. She said they occasionally will lose medicine in transit when it is discovered, but sometimes she is able to buy it back from the agents.

Making our escape from the airport, we headed across the lot to the bus where Ronald (Mission Haiti's Haitian director/kamikazee bus driver) was waiting. The bus seats 16 with a large cargo cage in back where all of the bags were stored for the trek over the mountains and through the jungles to the mission. I had hoped to grab some sleep shortly after getting underway, but Port-Au-Prince proved far too interesting and harrowing to sleep through. Signs of the earthquake were still readily visible as we passed tents, makeshift tin sheds, and countless buildings in various states of either ruin or reconstruction. Aubrey and Gretchen (who had both been to Mission Haiti previously) both spoke of how much better everything looked, which was good to hear, yet hard to believe.

The other thing that amazed me was that there were people everywhere. Here it was, mid-morning and there were tens of thousands of people lining the streets. Gretchen told us that some of the small shops we drove past (in sheds sometimes no bigger than 4'x6') stayed open into the evening when the shop owner would gather everything inside, lock up, and go to sleep in the shop. These types of shops and longer standing stores stretched for miles, only occasionally broken up by a tent community, tin community, or large public market that was simply one large, loosely organized free for all. Black Friday on steroids couldn't begin to describe what was going on on this Wednesday in the middle of February.

As if the surroundings weren't enough, there was also the traffic. Haitian traffic is one gigantic, every man for himself, extravaganza where busses, trucks, tap-taps (mostly pickups that serve as mass transit for a fee, cars, and motorcyclists engage in survival of the fittest feats of bravery for their little piece of the roadway. Note to self: never, ever challenge a Haitian driver to a game of chicken. 

A true Haitian tap-tap

Eventually, the traffic began to thin a bit as we made our way out of the city. One of the main indicators that we had made it out was that the roads grew progressively worse. We inched through sections of the road an immediately accelerated to 55mph and began bombing our way through traffic again. Every opportunity to pass, no matter how significant the odds against us, was seized with reckless abandon as though anything that delayed us was to be feared more than death itself. Thankfully, self preservation on the part of those on the road kept us from any unscheduled opportunities to partake in the Haitian healthcare system.

When we reached the town closest to Ti-Rivier (where supplies are usually purchased) we stopped at a school to make some contacts for the medical crew with another clinic and to see some new, high efficiency wood burning ovens that allow them to cook much faster while using less fuel. The ovens had just been installed and were definitely giving Pam and the team some ideas of how something similar might be used by Mission Haiti.



From there we made the last leg of our 5+ hour journey from Port-Au-Prince. We had been up and down mountain roads (where I slept haltingly in 30 second increments) and crossed to the south west coast of the island where we finally arrived at Ti-Rivier.

The bus went in the gate when we arrived at Mission Haiti on the orphanage end of the "L" shaped compound. The yard was spacious, the buildings beautiful, and the playground had a couple of towers and other opportunities for kids to play. At the end of the orphanage compound is a gate to the rest of the mission consisting of Pam's house, a large guest house, a tent where they have youth meetings, and another house where Patricko (one of the on-site Haitian leaders) and his family live. A few outbuildings, showers, a hydroponics set up, and a pump indicating the location of the well round the place out.There is another gate at the far end of that compound that serves as the main gate for those that come to the mission (and there are a lot of people that come during the course of a normal day).

When we arrived, it wasn't long before we had food served. Our steady lunch diet of beans, rice, and chicken (w/ habanero sauce for those of us with a taste for heat) began as we gladly ate our first meal since the Miami airport.

We spent a little time getting a feel fro the place before our team meeting that night which primarily involved discussing the plan for the next day when the main task would be doing photos for Mission Haiti's school sponsorship program at a couple of schools.

We were all well and truly spent, so we adjourned and headed to bed at about 7:30 after a long, long 26 hour journey.