Marie

From Laura Looney (patient and gentle spirit, expert little kid hand holder, and chicken salad enthusiast):

I’ve been thinking for a while now that I need to do a better job stewarding my blessings, furthering the kingdom of God through an externally focused ministry. On Sunday night, we were shown a video of Mission of Hope’s (“MOH”) history and vision. We also talked about child sponsorship. I immediately felt a stirring in my heart from the Lord that this is where He wanted me to invest. After the prayer ended, I walked straight to the back of the basketball court, and the first card I picked up was for Marie Helene Saintil. She is 17 years old and an 11th grader at MOH’s school.

Today (Thursday) I got to meet Marie face to face. When the translator introduced us, I was expecting a handshake at most (older Haitians aren’t big on physical touch). Instead, her face lit up and a huge smile formed on her face as she rushed towards me and gave me the biggest hug. Tears welled up in my eyes and my heart filled with joy. We were able to sit and talk through a translator for about 20 minutes while I painted her nails.

To be honest, I had a bad attitude in my heart about five minutes before we met. I was boarding the bus for our last day of village ministry when I found out that I would be meeting Marie in 30 minutes and would not be able to go out with my team this morning. I was sad. God, are you being serious? What am I going to do for the next three hours by myself? This wasn’t my plan. Oh, but it was definitely God’s plan! He used this time to break my heart for sweet Marie. Not only that, but He provided time for me to reflect on this week and all of the good work He has done. I was also able to spend some good time in the MOH orphanage and love on the sweet babies there.

{God, you are so good. Your ways are so much better than mine, and your timing is perfect. I pray that you watch over and protect Marie. Give her endurance and focus to complete her education. Draw near to her, and I pray she draws ever nearer to you. Use her to make a difference in this nation that glorifies you. Remind her that she is fearfully and wonderfully made and that her identity is found in you alone. In Jesus’ name, Amen.}

We have seen God working in Haiti this week and are confident that His name will continue to be made famous throughout this beautiful country.

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I have sent it.” Isaiah 55:10-11

Jackson

From Stephen Morrow (expert cactus spotter, calm and confident evangelist, and professional team photographer):

Today we went to a small village called Mesaye to love on the Haitian people and share the Gospel with them. As we are walking through the banana fields, we come across a gentle old woman who stopped to talk to the group. We go through our normal “relationship building” talk, and learn a lot about the old woman. Come to find out, she has heard of Jesus and knows who God is, but refuses to accept the free gift of eternal life through our Savior Christ Jesus. We leave the conversation discouraged and concerned about the woman’s fate.

As soon as we walked off, we run into a young man walking toward us down the trail. He stops to talk to us and tells us his name is Jackson (or Jaqúe Sun in Haitian). He is a local banana farmer in Mesaye. After learning more about him, he tells us there is no local church in the village. In light of this, I ask Jackson if he has ever heard of Jesus. He says he knows who Jesus is, but doesn’t know anything about Him. I ask his permission to tell him the story of Jesus (aka “The Gospel”), and he enthusiastically says yes.

After walking through the good news of Jesus with him with our evangi-cube, he tells us that he is ready to accept Jesus and give his life to God. Our moods are immediately brightened as we see that he truly has a desire to know God and serve him. We pray for him and ask Jesus to come into his life and bless him and everyone he comes in contact with.

Praise be to our Father for showing us that although we get discouraged in our circumstances sometimes (like with the old woman), God has a plan for everything he puts in our path, even if that be to hold us up long enough so we can share the Gospel with the next person that enters our life.

Please pray for our new brother in Christ, Jackson, that the Lord would reveal Himself to him and work through him to make Haiti a better nation. Also pray for the old woman that refused to accept the free gift of everlasting life with our God, that He would open the eyes of her heart to the freedom that comes from sin when we have a relationship with Christ.

Last few days in photos

Sharing the gospel, painting homes, breaking up firewood, helping pump at a water well….looks like some of the gentlemen are getting worn out!

Why?

From Erin Gauglitz: (evangicube professional, fan of gnats, and wake leader)

Day Five

The lyrics in Hosanna say:
Open up my eyes to the things unseen;
show me how to love like you have loved me.
Break my heart for what breaks yours.

The Lord has definitely done just this. Yesterday we painted the inside of a young woman’s home. On the front porch across from her house sat two precious children. There was a baby girl who appeared to be 18 months old and her older brother. He was around seven years of age. They were there by themselves for 45 minutes before we engaged with them. As I made my way over to say hello, I noticed the front door was locked. I was baffled by this. As I picked up this sweet child, I noticed she had reddish color hair which is a sign of malnourishment. That tugged at my heart. Her parents left her on the front porch for the day AND she was hungry. We asked her brother how old she was and he replied with “three”. What?! There is no way this child is three! She can barely walk and is severely underdeveloped. That’s when it hit me. These kids don’t get food on a regular basis. They don’t get Baby Einstein. They don’t get tummy time. They don’t get puzzles or Fischer Price toys. They don’t get attention. They don’t get love. As I’m starting to process this, the neighbor proceeds to tell us that she witnessed the brother get beat the day prior by his father. He had gashes in his head and deep scratches on his back. Tears starting flowing and I felt like I had been punched in the stomach. My heart was ripped from my chest and stomped on. Questions starting filling my mind:
What human being would do this?
Why would God allow this to happen?
Why do these poor innocent children have to suffer?
Why do I have to see this?
What am I supposed to learn from this?

Answers that I’m still processing through:
We are all wicked people who have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Abuse is a sin I hate but my heart is filled with sadness for the sinner. This father needs Godly men in his life to share Christ with him and shepherd him. These children have a Heavenly Father who will lavish his love on them. God created us in His image and to experience emotion. He broke my heart because His heart breaks for this situation. He is a God of compassion. He opened my eyes to pain and showed me how to love in that moment.

Some verses that come to mind:
1 John 3:1a
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!

Isaiah 55:8
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

Psalm 34:18
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those crushed in spirt.

Please be praying for the country of Haiti and for more workers. The harvest is plentiful here. Pray for our last full day of ministry; for eyes to open and ears to hear. Pray for rest and endurance for our team. It is extremely hot and physically taxing each day. Please pray for our team’s health. We have a few upset tummies. Spiritual warfare does exist and Satan has used heat, bugs, comparison, and stomach issues to try and distract us. Different than distractions of Dallas but still very real. Thanks for your prayers and support!!

Redefine: success

From Bill Slagel (5-days-a-week -watermarker including porch volunteer and “how can we pray for you” asking professional):

Today was just an ordinary day in Haiti. If only I knew what that meant. We took part in painting 4 houses, interior only, played soccer with the “Haiti deaf community” (that’s what they call themselves) and participated in the Porch Haiti.

Painting these houses was a great experience, the houses that the mission of hope have built are 2 bedroom and a living room. Probably around 500 sq ft in total. The houses we painted today had to pull everything out of the house as we showed up, that took about 5 min (just to put things in perspective) and the house I was at I was under the impression that all the spare clothes were being used as a mattress in the living room. It makes me think about how much junk is in my room.

My big impression of the day was the Tuesday night church service. It was 95 degrees with 90% humidity and I’m dripping sweat while listening to Haitians sing their hearts out to God in Creole. We went to the Sunday service earlier so I knew what to expect; it was going to be loud, charismatic, and long. All of these came true, but what was on the forefront of my mind was that I expect none of these people have electricity at home. On Sunday I figured that these folks couldn’t live in the villages we had visited, they were dressed too nice and seemed too happy to be at church! By Tuesday I knew the reality and realized their hope was in the Lord and of all the things they could legitimately complain about (all of which I was complaining about, heat, humidity, no electricity) they would rather spend their time with God!

Joshua 1:8 has been on my mind all day (thanks ED2). Keep this book of law on your lips at all times, meditate on it day and night. Then you will be prosperous and successful. That’s my memorized version, sorry if it’s not word perfect Bobby.

These Haitians are prosperous and successful even though it looks nothing like how an American would define it. I have never seen so many people who are joyful because of the fact that they have a relationship with God, and not because of their corporate success or financial prosperity.

We ended the day with a great team meeting and a challenge to finish strong despite the fact that we are tired, bug bitten, and constantly hot.

God has been good to us and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us the rest of the week!

Ylona.

The team spent today in the mountain village of Zoranje. We met Ylona and her family. She became a Christian after the earthquake because she realized that God had a purpose for her life. Please pray for Ylona with us and that she might know God more and more every day and that as she finds her identity in Him, her light shines so that others may come to know Christ through her.

Changed

From Meera Snyder (obedient servant, porch volunteer, and #1 hugger):

I never thought I’d be here… In Haiti. It was never in MY plan. It still feels surreal. In all honestly, I wasn’t sure I’d still go through with it even after I gave my yes to go. I was way too used to my Dallas comfort and way too terrified of the unfamiliar. But I knew I had to step out in faith and be bold to what God had called me to do. I knew that if I just showed up, God would take care of the rest. He wouldn’t be sending me if He wasn’t going to use me. And the reality is, growth takes place through the uncomfortable and unfamiliar.

At first I felt really disconnected and isolated from my very type A team. I’m often very quiet, soft spoken and a woman of few words so I was very overwhelmed. I felt like an amateur, disqualified, that I didn’t know enough, and that they made a mistake in picking me. I was intimidated. Im not a missionary. I didn’t grow up in the church. I don’t know all the bible stories or have as many scriptures memorized. But all of my insecurities suddenly became very irrelevant when we stepped foot in Leveque yesterday. The children just run up to you with pure, genuine joy in their eyes and they just want to love on you. They were so thirsty for affection. And until that moment I didn’t realize how thirsty I was for love and affection, too. I knew I was called to love on the least of these and I immediately realized that I, too am one of the least of these. I may be quiet and not very eloquent in speech, but God has given me a very loving, compassionate, merciful heart and an infinite amount of love to give… And He put me in exactly the right place to do it. We are called to love our neighbor as ourselves and I have watched it play out very clearly here in Haiti and it breaks my heart that we, Christ followers, here on a mission don’t do the same with each other here… or back in Dallas… our mission field (at the moment at least). So, that leaves me to wonder, who are really the blessed, rich ones?

My prayer for this trip has been that I would become less and He would become more. That He would break my heart for what breaks His. And not that I would change Haiti, but that Haiti would change me.

“For I am overwhelmed, and you alone know the way I should turn.” Psalm 142:3a

Memorial Day

From Mike Barger (human jungle gym and farkler extraordinaire):

This morning was a great morning because I got to get a heavy burden off my shoulders that has been weighing me down the last 2 days. At our group breakfast where we had the rest of the campers (probably about 50 others) I was able to make a public confession. When we first arrived we were shown around and one thing that stood out to me was the old school Coke bottles filled with soda with real sugar (vs corn sugar). We were instructed that every time you take one you are supposed to put a dollar in the lock box. My confession to the whole group was that since we’ve been here I’ve indulged myself and made the sodas my idol and have drank somewhere between 20-25 bottles over the last 2 days. I also had to confess that I didn’t bring any cash and have not paid for a one of them. Looking out over the crowd amidst all the awkward stares I asked for donations to cover my debt. No one responded but at least I was able to get that heavy burden off my shoulders. Ok, another confession …. I lost a farkle and the public confession was my punishment or prize depending on how you want to look at it.

Besides those shenanigans we had an amazing start to our trip. Yesterday we got a preview of what our next four days will look like. We attended a Haitian church service and Sunday school with about 150 kids and then took a tour of MOH’s different campuses. At each of those we were able to spend quality time loving on the kids and getting a better understanding of the awesome work that MOH is doing in this country. Yesterday was our first full day here and I can tell we are all coming together and gelling as a team. We know God has some huge and exciting things in store for us this week and we can’t wait to be a part of His perfect plan.

Hip hip Hor-Haiti!

On our way! Farewell for a week DFw!

Bring it on!

from team member Kariss Lynch (brilliant author, dedicated Porch volunteer, and “ya’ll” enthusiast):

In 2010, I wrote the first words to a story that has since spun into a book about a young woman who develops a heart for the Haitian people in the midst of the earthquake. In the course of writing and researching that book, I fell in love with the people of Haiti. In less than a week, I will meet them!

As I researched for this book, people asked if I had any interest in visiting Haiti. I always said yes, but deep down I never thought I would actually go. I knew the reality. Those familiar with Haiti say that the people are 80 percent Catholic, 20 percent Protestant, and 100 percent voodoo. A series of natural disasters in the last ten years has devastated the tiny country. Many feel hopeless. The land cannot produce crops. Food is scarce. Men and women lack education and skills to take care of their families. They don’t need a quick fix. They need a life change.

How can we fix that in a week?

Quick answer? I can’t. My team can’t. But, we can be faithful. We can focus on reaching one. On being the hands and feet of Jesus to a people who are trapped in cultural confusion and chaos. We can go. We can be the church.

But, that never comes without sacrifice. Inevitably on these short-term mission trips, we go to serve and return changed.  These trips are part of the refining process, a beautiful part of the story that the Lord uses to transform us more into His likeness and give us His heart. The change that will come as a result of this trip scares me. I know after seeing how these people live, I will never be able to return to the naivety of my comfortable, American lifestyle.

I once heard that if we had but a drop of the Lord’s compassion, it would break our hearts. I’m praying that the Lord will break my heart for what breaks His. As Hosea 6:1-3, says, the Lord breaks us so that He can bind up our wounds, revive us, and restore us. All for His glory.

No matter how He chooses to transform us, bring it on! I pray for life change on the part of the Haitians, whether we get to see tangible results or not. And, I pray that none of my team returns the same. Lord, have Your way. We’re ready!