Day 8: Headed Home

The Journey of Faith (JOF) team is at the Haitian airport, soon to catch the flight to Miami and then California. As I sit in the empty guest house I am reflecting on the uplifting week. What started out as 15 strangers from California has evolved into my extended family. I was blessed to watch each Cali team members shine, and struggle, during a week full of new experiences. There was heartbreak, sadness, sometimes anger, laughter, and getting to the point of exhaustion that leaves us punchy and just cray cray (crazy)...last night as Evan went to bed, he made the mistake of charging his phone in the hallway and a few of the girls stayed up and filled his phone with random Haitian photos. :-) This has been a fun team and the laughter helps offset the sadness.

Haiti is not easy, it can be a difficult week that pushes us beyond our comfort and forces us to look at ourself and ask "What is God trying to teach me in this moment"? To watch some team mates break down with sadness is hard, but God is breaking our heart so we can help those in need. 

I will always remember each person on the JOF team for their unique personalities. I am already sad to have them gone, but I know I will see them again soon! 

Glwa Pou Bondye!! Bridget

Day 7: Last Day Reflection

Tonight is our last night at the Healing Haiti house and the thought of leaving tomorrow has brought about many mixed feelings. The trip as a whole has been an eye opening experience that I will not soon forget. From delivering water to the slums of Site Soleil to relaxing on the sandy shores of Wahoo Beach, it has been an emotional rollercoaster. I would need more than a few pages to fully illustrate my experience with the team but what has burned in my mind the most was the first day at the Home for the Sick and Dying Babies. The rooms were filled with cribs of Hatian babies starved for attention. I had never held a baby before this day. With the help of my exceptional teammates I quickly got over my hesitation and was able to make several of them smile and laugh. It was extremely gratifying to see which made it incredibly difficult to leave at the end of the visit.  Unlike the other group members, I was blessed with sharing my experiences with my Dad and Brother. I was impressed at how they handled each situation since it isn't every day we are presented with such tasks. Overall I am sad to leave but it was a humbling adventure that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

- Simon Schermerhorn

Healing Haiti has opened my eyes in so many ways.  I have seen the worst kinds of living conditions here in Haiti.  While I head back to Califorina I realize the privileged life I've lived.  Although there are orphanages that treat kids a lot better then some of the conditions in the Cite Soleil.  I was lucky enough to meet and live with a new young friend for a couple of days.  He was such a funny kid and made the trip such a blast not only for me but for the whole team.  We connected the first moment we met and started making nicknames for him "Christmas" and myself "Bacon" by the end of our stay everyone had a nickname on our team.  He would be the reason I would come back to Haiti to catch up with him and make sure he is having the life that God wants for him.  

- Evan "Bacon" Schermerhorn

It took so much for me to be sitting where I am right now.  To be honest walking into the first meeting with a bunch of adults I didn't know was terrifying.  I am so so glad I did.  This trip has brought me so much joy, heartbreak, and memories.  Honestly, I don't want to go home. 

One of the most memorable experiences of mine was at the water truck stops.  As we arrived on the first day, I saw this little girl that was about two years old standing by a pole all alone.  Because she was absolutely adorable, of course I decided to pick her up.  At the previous water truck stops I did my best to make every child that I came in contact with smile.  It wasn't the same with this little girl. She wouldn't talk, or even look me in the eye.  As I talked to one of the older Haitian girls who could speak English, she told me that she didn't have any parents.  I was sad at this, but I knew that's how it was for many of the kids there.  I just brushed it off.  We went to the same water stop a day later, and there she was again, same spot.  As I held her again it sunk in that this was her life, waiting at a pole for someone to come and love her.  Among the chaos surrounding us, she fell asleep in my arms.  Before I knew it there was this lady who took her from me so quickly.  She didn't even wake up to say goodbye.  As I still don't know her name, someone suggested that I should call her Grace.  To me Hope is a better fit.  During church this Sunday morning it hurt my heart to think of her being all alone, and that there was no guarantee that her life was going to be okay.  With the help of some friends, they reminded me that although she may not have much, she still has hope.  A hope for a better life.  A hope for a family.  A hope for an eternity spent with God.  Although I know that she has hope, she will forever hold a special place in my heart.  It gives me peace to know that God is watching down on her. 

Okay okay enough of the sad stuff. Overall, I am so glad that I took that leap of faith that one meeting to go on this trip.  All of the ladies on the team especially have all taken me under their wing in one way or another, and I am so thankful for them.  I am honored to have these Godly women as role models in my life. (Also the guys were all just super funny) Haiti, thanks for the memories, I look forward to the day I get to come back.

-Rebekah Ruther

 

The Jonas Brothers

Street Kids by the Guest House

On the mountain top

Day 6: Beach Day

Today we went to Wahoo Bay to enjoy the beach and to see the beauty of Haiti. We drove at least and hour and a half in the tap tap from Port-au-Prince through towns still very poor but we notice less and less destruction from the earthquake. Wahoo Bay is in stark contrast to the slums of Cite Soleil. The water is turquoise and it's like most Caribbean beaches. We are happy to be here and we have some fun, but we all know the struggle we have seen this past week. Today the theme was happiness and beauty and I pray that all the Haitians we have met could be just as blessed.  

Andrea Rupp

_ _ _ _ _

Today had many wonderful and fun aspects.  The beach we visited was gorgeous and our group played together wonderfully in temperatures that were ideal in and out of the water.  I'm experiencing an undercurrent of "stuff" both good and bad from the week, though.  As one of the oldest in the group I've noted how hard my heart is in some respects.  I see a lot of things others may miss, but I miss a lot of the emotional responses they describe.  The devotionals help me at least see that some of my questions and even irritations are based in my own inability to follow the example Jesus provided us all.  As I watch my two sons Simon and Evan respond to these situations, which I brought them into with very limited preparation, I am filled with pride, gratified to socialize and play with them as young adults (which we rarely if ever have done). I'm grateful to have a character model in Jesus that I can point to as the kind of person I'd like to be have modeled for them. I now have a more complete picture of their personalities than the limited overlaps of our lives to date gave me, and I've heard them sum up days with thoughts like questioning why we have it so good while so many here have it so bad, and how swimming in the ocean today reminded one of how connected all the people of the world are symbolized by us at our beaches near home and people here swimming in connected waters. While I am making more progress opening my mind than my heart, we each respond with the gifts we can offer within the limitations we have built around ourselves. 

Roy Schermerhorn 

Day 5, part one: So Many Things...

The more time I spend in Haiti, the more my heart yearns to do more for this country. I find myself quickly falling in love with this beautiful place. Today was another full day. Full physically, spiritually, and emotionally. We started our day going back to Cite Soleil to deliver water at two water trucks. Even though this was our second day amongst the poverty of this city, the sights and sounds were still overwhelming. Children running naked in the streets; men, women, and children physically clawing and climbing over each other for a place in line to fill up their beat up bucket with water; and the gang members standing in the distance, watching it all. Chaos is the only word that comes to mind when trying to describe the scene of distributing water at Cite Soleil today, absolute chaos. The children still clung to each of us as if we were the key to their salvation. I held one little girl the majority of the time at our second water truck stop, she couldn't have been older than two, she clung to me as if she had never been held before. Her beautiful big brown eyes, torn red shirt, huge smile, and the way she so willingly opened her arms to me and latched herself on to me will stay in my heart forever. Right before we left the second stop, one of my team members brought a teenage boy up to me who had been asking if there was a hospital close by. The boy had apparently fallen off his bike, and had a small piece of metal shrapnel lodged in the upper portion of his back. Luckily, we had some medical supplies on the tap tap, and I was able remove the piece of metal and quickly clean his wound- it felt good being able to use my nursing skills outside of my typical hospital setting. 

Later in the day, we had the opportunity to visit the pediatric emergency room/ ward at the general hospital not far from where we are staying in Port Au Prince. At the hospital, we handed out water to the parents as well potato packets from Feed My Starving Children for the kids. Having the opportunity to get a glimpse of the healthcare system in Haiti was such a precious moment for me since I work as an ER nurse back in Los Angeles. Being in a hospital setting and not getting straight to work treating patients was definitely an odd feeling, since that comprises so much of who I am back in the US. The hospital was nothing glamorous or special, it was simply two dome structures with metal walls connected with doorways. Patient privacy and extra comfort measures are simply non-existent in Haiti, and it was evident that those we interacted with today didn't care, they were simply content having a roof over their heads and to be receiving medical care for their children. Each dome held approximately thirty children, all different ages with various medical complaints. In one of the domes there was a premature baby that had recently been born and was simply fighting to stay alive, meanwhile the patient in the neighboring bed was an approximate two year old that was receiving the rest of his blood transfusion. So many patients with so many complex medical complaints, and I only counted four nurses while we were there, I so desperately wanted to jump in and help relieve some of the work load that I knew each of them were feeling. Even amongst the heaviness of the two domes, every person we came in contact with seemed to have an incredible amount of peace. In addition to handing out the food and water, we also had the opportunity to pray with the parents and children. I don't usually have the opportunity to pray with the patients that I care for back in the US, so it was such a unique opportunity to be in a setting that I am so comfortable with, the hospital, and share the love of Christ with others. The parents and children didn't care that we weren't speaking in Creole as we prayed, they were simply grateful. I had been having thoughts all week of possibly wanting to come back to Haiti to do more medical based work, and after visiting the hospital this afternoon, my thoughts were reaffirmed. Haiti has such a huge need, not only for medical personnel, but for others to come and simply show them the love of Christ. I look forward to the day when I have the opportunity to come back to this beautiful country and share both medicine and the love of Christ with the people of Haiti.

Erin Minnick

~

Day 4: On the Road to a Healed Heart

I'm sitting at the Guest House dinner table trying to put into words what I saw today. The first word that comes to mind is heartbroken. I am completely heartbroken for the elders that we had the privilege of visiting today. I have never in my life seen a man in so much need for human touch and love. While we sat in Edmond's hut he didn't ask for money, food, or any materialistic good. He wanted to be loved. It felt unreal to be given the opportunity to sit next to him on his small bed to massage his arms and back with lotion. While we all huddled into his hut we sang songs and asked some questions. When asked how many children he had, he said one son. I thought to myself "Well hey at least he isn't alone." I couldn't have been more wrong. He said he didn't know where his son was and that he never came to visit him. At that exact moment I felt my heart break into a million pieces. I could not wrap my mind around the fact that this man would be receiving loving touch only a couple times a week. What an awful way to live the last years of your life. I found myself not wanting to leave him, all alone in his extremely small hut without a single soul to accompany him. As we drove in the tap tap to the next elder's hut all I could think about was how unfair it all was. Why is it that during this trip I get to be surrounded by a team of 16 amazing human beings for 24 hours a day and this man only receives about 30 minutes of attention every couple of days. I sat there and cried begging God to show me what the purpose of it all was; why me and not this man. In the stillness of my broken heart God made it clear to me that the purpose was for me to be changed. At home I am a part of the care ministry at church and have the privilege of visiting the elderly as often as I want. God used Edmond to validate that He is calling me to continue my work with the care ministry. I know I shouldn't gripe about it or take it lightly because it's about doing His work and not my own. That's what all of this is about, Jesus, not me. What is Jesus doing in and through me to show the world that His love is so great and for everyone to experience. He breaks us to show us the work that He wants done, but does not leave us broken. He heals every single wound and hears every cry. It is through the power of Christ alone that tonight when I lay my head down I can have peace knowing that one day soon things will change. 

Mady

Day 3: Water Truck Day: Two Views of Cite Soleil

Today was an incredibly difficult and challenging day yet so rewarding on so many levels. Our day began with us arriving in Cite Soleil greeted by an overjoyed group of kids shouting "Hey you!" as they eagerly awaited the arrival of our water trucks.  As we stepped off the Tap-Tap these kids literally jumped and climbed on us desperately seeking to be hugged and held just so starved for affection. Some of us held up to two kids at a time while others carried as many as four.  A lot of these kids weren't even wearing underpants and the poor children are filthy and none of us speak Creole but love transcends through all languages and all we could think about is reciprocating the warmth and affection that these children so freely gave.  We also all took turns manning the water hose that distributes the water to individual families as they all impatiently lined up to have their buckets filled.  It was astounding to see most of the children and women do all the work as they all carried the unbelievably heavy buckets.  Overall it's hard to get past the images that will be forever ingrained in my mind from of all the unfathomable sounds, sights and smells to the look in the child's eye that's desperately yearning for love and attention and the sight of children immersing themselves inside the water basins as if it were the best thing in the world.  What I experienced today was completely heartbreaking and left me with an incredible sense of overwhelming sadness, guilt and anxiety.  However I am also completely humbled at the thought of how privileged we really are and how most of us take the simplest of things for granted.  

Daisy Taylor

Cite Soleil revealed more layers of complexity to me with each of our three stops today. The first stop was on the edge of the community, probably a newer, less established part, and the social order was pretty basic with the needs for survival and emotional health right up front. The small children wanted attention and some needed help getting water their homes, but their comfort with the routine and enjoyment of the help and attention were apparent. At the second stop I saw more social structure appear, with teen boys passing by with no concern for helping, more people in more established structures physically and socially, a longer line with some irritations, and small children playing with the water while older ones were more on task, some girls at a younger age. The third stop seemed to have a much more established social order with a full range of community you'd see in any ethnically uniform neighborhood. The physical and social structures were even more clearly defined with much older women coming for water along with others. Older young men breaking into the line revealing a power structure, others asking for help getting water at all which I later realized may have been because they weren't allowed even in line. And the small children still wanted attention and affection, but some played established water games together instead, and some really young ones needed help getting water home further down the street than we'd ventured at the other sites. So more slave children were in play, revealing economic as well as social structure within what we view as just all poor people. Their lives are complete with family and community relations, differing challenges at the detail level among individuals and families, and dreams and hopes, but not the same ones we'd hope for them. This all leaves the question of how we can elevate their hopes and encourage them to work together to align the community to common good without undermining the good things they have, some which could be as good or better than we have in terms of community already at some levels. The answers are no less complex than the situation.

Roy Schermerhorn

Care giving pulls at the heart strings

Day 2, after hearty breakfast, 10 team members journeyed to The Home for the Sick and Dying Babies/Children and 6 team members ventured to Gertrude's (orphanage for special needs children). The Home for the Sick and Dying Babies/Children left us with mixed emotions. It is sad to see some children so sick they wouldn't even cry, yet we were moved by team members who had a special gift interacting with children. Simon, in particular, had never previously held a baby in his life and God clearly shined his light as he comforted several babies with care and nurturing words. Gertrude's arrival was greeted by many familiar faces not the least "Shirtman". The new team members immediately jumped in and began to make the kids feel loved. Evan jumped into action was very moved by the experience. He showed great compassion and love for these outcast children with special needs. It's truly amazing to see God shine his light on those who are doing his will. Another highlight, Gertrude showed us the water well that Healing Haiti and Journey of Faith put in for the children. It was a joyous time for the team and the children. In the afternoon we learned an important lesson on how Christ wanted to stretch our faith and shuffle the schedule. Our first faith lesson was expected to be later in the week, but due to adjusted scheduling...which is common in Haiti, we moved into Lapherre to teach bible stories. Without preparation and totally relying on the Holy Spirit, Mady dazzled the audience with strength from above. God is moving in this team and we are excited to see what tomorrow brings.