Skip to main content

Haiti 2013

The gates opened to reveal a crisp set of two-story buildings at the base of a lush, towering mountain. To the right of a green courtyard stood the new straw-thatched gazebo that last year’s team gave money to build; to our left, a new elongated concrete planter complete with ferns and a bench for rest. Whether its members were coming for the third time or seeing it for the first, the team that traveled to the Hands and Feet orphanage in Jacmel, Haiti, discovered that day the result of God’s people coming together to serve. They found a place of comfort for orphans; they found a place of provision for Haitian staff; and they found a place of purpose for short- and long-term missionaries alike.

Throughout that week, in fact, our team found ourselves fulfilling very real needs. Having purchased a large piece of land behind the orphanage proper, the missionaries there plan to build homes for the orphans who have become adults, a step that will ease each orphan’s transition into the world of work or study. Consequently, we were charged with the task of digging and building. We helped lay a dirt road along one side of this land so the missionaries could install a clean-water well; and we moved rocks, dug, and passed cement to Haitian workers as they built a new wall.

We found, however, that there were other, more subtle forms of building taking place in the orphanage. Indeed, those who had come for the third time noticed a stark difference in the behavior of the children. No longer clinging to us at every moment, the children seemed to be at greater peace than before. Stephen, the director, told us that this was because the children were now living in a family-style atmosphere, with a housemother and two or three children, together completing chores and eating meals. In short, the children were experiencing inside the orphanage a sense of the family that they had lost outside it.

This was to us just one example of the broader good taking place in Haiti. In fact, while we had come to serve physically, we witnessed a God already at work spiritually. He is, we learned, a God of building and restoration, and more than any other, it was this lesson that reminded us that the work he is doing in the lives of Haitian orphans is the same work he wants to do in us.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Heroes

Although we have several examples of heroes in our day, one of the best known is of a woman named Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (“Gonja Bojaju”), who devoted her life to sustaining the “poor, sick, orphaned, and dying.” Her venue was Calcutta, India, where she served as a teacher until she began to take notice of the poverty there. Seeking to do something about it, she began an organization that consisted of just thirteen members at its inception. Called the “Missionaries of Charity,” the organization would eventually burgeon into well over 5,000 members worldwide, running approximately 600 missions, schools and shelters in 120 countries; and caring for the orphaned, blind, aged, disabled, and poor. As her personal work expanded, she traveled to countries like Lebanon, where she rescued 37 children from a hospital by pressing for peace between Israel and Palestine; to Ethiopia, where she traveled to help the hungry; to Chernobyl, Russia, to assist victims of the nuclear meltdown there; and to
2 comments
Read more

Comparative Medical Care

One thing I'd like to understand is why there is such a difference between medical costs here and those in Haiti. At the time the book Mountains Beyond Mountains was written, in 2003, it often cost $15,000 to $20,000 annually to treat a patient with tuberculosis, while it cost one one-hundredth of that-- $150 to $200-- to treat a patient for the disease in Haiti. Even if the figures aren't completely accurate, the sheer difference would still be there. Indeed, the United States pays more per capita for medical care than any other country on Earth. My first guess for why the disparity exists is that there is a market willing and able to pay more for medical treatment, so suppliers see the demand and respond with higher prices. According to at least one doctor (go to http://scienceblogs.com/denialism/2009/05/what_is_the_cause_of_excess_co.php), part of the reason is administrative prices here. People here have a higher standard of living, and so the cost of care is shifted to
2 comments
Read more

Movie Night

We did it again. My leadership class and I put together another event. We invited the school to watch Dispicable Me . The movie was a hit, so much so that one little girl got up to dance with the main character at the end of the movie. It was a wholesome family night, and on a Monday no less! There were very few issues. It was just a relaxing evening. We're going to use the proceeds to pay for our leadership conference in late March and early April. It should make for a meanigful experience. Signing off...
1 comment
Read more