7.21.2010

Going to bed listening to the rain (well if you can call it sleep) and waking up to it too. I hope that means it will keep the heat away and not make it ultra sticky and steamy.

So, back to the mixed feelings about the trip in. I guess I should have expected it, but I guess it struck a cord with me. Some of the kids were happy and waving, but we had other kids (and adults) yelling what seemed to be 'not so nice' phrases. We were even flipped off.

On the bumpy trip in we also went through (well, waited for it to pass) a funeral procession. Of course there is a sense of sadness around death, but it was also awesome to see how loved the person was. It seemed like the whole community came out to mourn this young woman (about 30, a wife of one of the Haitians that worked here at the mission campus).

Last night we were told that Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and this area (haiti is broken into 10 smaller zones) is the poorest zone in the country. It just hit me about all of the verses about feeding the poor and taking care of the least of these. We are for sure doing the work of the Lord. Whatever we do for these people we are doing directly for God.

Back to the mixed feelings of the ride in (just remembered a few more thoughts I had). I know that we are here to show Haiti God, but I was thinking if I was in their position how I would feel. I mean this is all that most of these people will ever know. And when we 'white' people come in, I hope that they are thankful for the work we do, but I could see how they could feel like they were put on display for us privileged people. Sometimes it seems like mission trips are more for the people that go on the trip than for the people they are trying to help. Of course bringing these issues to peoples forefront is great and hopefully we all bring the things we learn here back to the rest of the world - but the eternal impact is what really matters.

Melonnie (one of the staff members on the St. Louis campus) made a little rules speech last night. I think the biggest thing that I took away from it is not stealing the glory for God. I know we don't walk in thinking that we are 'stealing God's glory' but subconsciously we are selfish and want the acknowledgement for ourselves. It is important for the Haitians (and all people for that matter) to realize that it isn't the 'Americans' providing things to them, but that God is the one that provides (I would have never really thought about that, but it makes it important that they see the church is taking care of their needs - which is why they need to be part of a program - not for selfish reasons (like they want their numbers to be higher or anything like that) but there are reasons behind it all). Even if we don't understand the rules, but they are there for us to obey - they are there for our benefit - just like God's rules. We may not fully understand them on this side of Heaven, but we need to obey them no matter what. Just like Chris said a few weeks ago in his sermon - Obedience follows obedience. We follow because we believe it is true and because we want to obey and please God, not because of what we can get from God or how we can manipulate Him to do what we want (or think we want).

This morning was our 'campus' day. We were able to do and help with and of the ministries on campus. We decided as a group to go to the Gran Moun - which is list the elderly orphanage. The social security system here is your kids. If your children die out from under you, you are left to live on porches or homeless. The Gran Moun is run by sponsors, I mean all of the people there are sponsored by outsiders. We were told that the baby orphanages are seen a lot, but that the elderly are often over looked. We asked the director is they had any crafts that we could do with them. They told us that many of the VBS's have left over color pages and we could take coloring down to them. The 7 of us went and grabbed the pages and saw that the scene was that of Jesus washing His disciples feet. We thought it would be an awesome opportunity for us to do that for them. We sat and colored with them for a good 2 hours. They all seemed to really enjoy it. Brenda had stickers so we used the stickers (and the rest of the sticky paper) to hang their colored pictures on their fridge and cupboards. After that we went back on their porch with their rocking chairs. We had 4 people washing feet and 2 drying. We went through and washed about 40 elderly folks feet and prayed for them. They were all very appreciative.

Kristina and I also walked around campus and played with some kids over by the nutrition center. They were cute, and much easier to entertain than American kids, even without speaking their language.

After playing with the kids we found medical supplies that had been donated and separated them. Each of the kits has things like pipe cleaners, plastic tweezers, gauze, etc. We sat and broke down a couple hundred kits till the boxes were empty. This afternoon (at 3) we will be heading over to the jail. Apparently in Haiti, the prisoners only get food if their friends or family bring it. With that being said there is a HUGE need for outsiders to bring food and the gospel to them. It should be quite an adventure, especially since it is down-pouring right now and we are supposed to ride over there in an open back truck. God will bless whatever we do, even if it doesn't line up with our plans. His plans are always better, huh?

The rain stopped about 10 minutes before we left for the jail. It is the jail in St. Louis. Melonnie walked us down there (maybe about a 10 minute walk or so). She said that the jail is more of like a holding cell. It is a jail of all sorts. Sometimes it can be used as a debtors prison, sometimes it is for people that have committed violent crimes, etc. They have one cell for the guys and one cell for the ladies. There were no ladies today, just 4 men. One of them was beat and left for dead by the community for stealing a goat. Melonnie said that she was going to have to call a nurse to go see him because he was in pretty bad shape. A man that is staying at the mission (not in any one particular group) asked if he could come with us. He does prison ministry back in the states and really felt like he wanted to go with us. He shared the gospel with the guys (through a translator of course). Then we asked if there was anything specific we could pray for with them. One one gentleman spoke and asked that we pray he can change his ways (because what he was doing was not good). They all said that they had accepted Christ earlier in their lives. When we got back we were able to go up to the baby orphanage to hang out with some of the kids.

There are rumors of a tropical storm / hurricane on its way. We will see what we are able to do tomorrow. It sounded like most people were going off campus, but it won't really work is the rain is pouring down. At least the rain gives us a little soundtrack to fall asleep to (that is, if you can sleep).