attempting to love in a relevant way ~ haiti 2006

mercy

2006-03-05T17:31:00.000-06:00

just before i went on this trip to haiti i made a commitment to continue working with women at my church. after my yes i had a kind-of sick feeling of panic that i’d made a recommitment with nothing of any real merit to give. i felt a bit washed up … i’d been telling stories for a few years and was kind of storied-out. what more was there to tell?

also before i went on this trip, i had dinner with my dear friend teresa, who has joined me on 2 of my previous trips to haiti. she had just come back from another visit to haiti and the mother teresa hospital for children there. holding babies at this hospital is a big part of what we do in haiti. over dinner teresa said: tina, when you get to haiti you need to hold a baby for me. in one of the rooms, there was a baby that was oozing all over the place. i just couldn't hold it and i don’t know why. it had a huge sore on its head and it didn't look human. i could hardly even look at it. i feel so bad, so guilty. you have to see if that baby is still there. if you see it i know you will hold it … please. i wondered about this as teresa is usually drawn to the really broken ones.

so our team went to haiti … and as soon as we arrived at the children’s hospital i went to the room i always go into first … a room filled with children who are in critical care. i love to hold these wee ones. i held a 2 year old, 8 lb child … an 8 month old 5 lb baby … a 6 month old 3 lb baby. some were heartier … but … you get the picture? these are the babies you see on world vision … many have AIDS … some have tuberculosis which they will die from … others are severely malnourished … and so forth. i held, sang to and loved these wee ones for the day.

the next day i decided to wander around a bit and see if i could find teresa’s baby. she was quite sure that it would probably have died by the time we arrived and was feeling so guilty for not picking the child up. teresa didn't know the sex or name of the child. she didn't know much about the child at all … except for the way it looked and made her feel.

i walked down the hall toward room room # 3 where teresa said the child was, stopped just outside of the room and observed for a while. there were a couple of women moving in and out of the room, giving care to children who were standing or sitting in their cribs. one child, who just lie on it's back, stuck out to me. something about this child was different. to me, from a distance, it looked … alone. after some time i went into the room and walked toward this child, whose head was stretched far over to one side. on the back of its head was a huge, elephant-man type sore that was oozing. i looked at the child’s face only to see that it had no eye lids. its eyes were perpetually open, eye-balls entirely white and it was obviously blind. its deformed mouth was stretched into a permanent open position, the inside full of sores and it had patches of stretched scarring from what appeared to be acute burns all over its face and body. there was a small wisp of down hair on the top of its head, and it could not have weighed more than 5 lbs. if you've seen the lord of the rings, this child looked like a decrepit little gollum.

i gazed at this child for a long while, did not feel that i had the skill to pick it up un-coached and then feeding time came. i picked up a child i felt i could manage and sat in a rocking chair across from room 3. as i watched how children in room 3 were being handled, everything seemed normal for the environment we were in … for all but one baby … the gollum baby. the person feeding it took a spoon and glanced it over the baby’s ever-open mouth until the child choked the food back. i thought it odd that this care-giver not only did not pick this child up, she also did not make any physical contact with it. usually a child who can not sit up on its own is picked up and fed, no matter how sick. since the sore on the baby’s head was consistent with the types of sores i've seen on children with AIDS, i was beginning to feel more and more uncomfortable with how oddly different life seemed for this one.

so i stayed in my chair and as workers passed by i began asking about this child. no one seemed to know anything about it. i asked the sex of the child and no one answered. i asked the name of the child and no one seemed to know. not even the woman who was assigned to its room and had just fed it seemed to know anything about this child.

at this point i became a bit annoyed, so i inquired with some of the sisters. but even they did not seem to know anything about this child. i found this to be very upsetting … my third trip to this hospital and i had NEVER experienced this type of indifference before. what was going on??!

finally i grabbed the arm of sister stanisha … who gives day to day oversight to the hospital. i asked after the child and she said ‘oh, tina … this child is a very difficult case.’ she told of the child being transferred to them from another hospital. it was a botched abortion. initially the mother was staying at the hospital with it, but her husband came and told her she needed to be with their other children. when the doctor told her that this child was not viable she left it there to die. i could now see that most people who encountered this child had something in common – a denial of, repulsion toward, and disengagement from it. this little moppet, was very much on its own.

as i stood there speaking with sister stanisha, a couple of things came together in the heart of my understanding. first of all, i didn't feel any judgment toward the mother for her attempt on this child’s life. since the child apparently had AIDS i could safely assume that the mother did also. also, poverty is so profound in haiti that many children die of starvation … and the mother may not have felt that she had a choice with other mouths to care for. secondly, as you can tell from my description of it, this child was severely deformed by whatever attempt was made to end its life. what i came to understand is that in haiti, people with deformities are considered to be embodiments of the demonic, or voodoo. haiti's national religion is voodoo and a child considered to “be” voodoo is greatly feared and avoided. also i was told that, in haiti if a child is abandoned - the first person to pick it up is considered responsible for it. even though this would not ordinarily make sense in a hospital facility full of abandoned children … for some reason ... since people equated this child with voodoo, they were distancing themselves from it on every level possible. and thirdly, even the sisters distancing themselves from this little one somehow made sense to me because of their strong feelings against abortion. so the way this child was being treated made sense; it made complete sense in some weak, sick, way. i guess what i am saying is that although i felt that strong injustices prevailed against this child, for some reason i had an aha of grace for those who contributed to its pain.

personally, i felt a strong affinity with this broken, abandoned, marginalized child.

so i taught myself how to pick it up. the first time it howled … partly from pain as i kept accidentally touching its head … and partly because it had become so completely primitive from such profound lack of touch and care.

the next day i learned that this child was a female. she had an enlarged clitoris which somehow only made the care-givers around her even more fearful of her … as they thought that she might be cross-gendered, which would mean; more voodoo and further alienation. she was so obviously a girl in so many ways. it saddened me that even the professionals around her hadn't investigated enough to allay their own misgivings and superstitions. it did, however, explain why no one wanted to name her - no one knew her gender. so i named her Mercy. it just felt right in my heart to call her this since she was such an obvious expression of God’s mercy to those around her. it seemed to me that she was a gift of mercy to all of us … a look in the mirror at our own brokenness … the brokenness in her that we may or may not want to identify with … and a look at the brokenness of those around her who did not want to associate or identify with her.

i bathed and rubbed lotion into her little body … even though she vomited and had diarrhea constantly as i was doing it. i kept washing and rubbing the lotion into her. she seemed to respond to the care that she was being given. i swaddled her … perhaps for the first time … and she loved it. she would get this glow on her little deformed face that was hard to miss. i sang to her and prayed for her, rocked her and cried over her. and you know … Mercy became a totally different little person. she had this little glow of joy from the love that she was receiving. she seemed to literally transform out of a primitive gollum creature, into a beautiful Mercy.

two of our final days in Haiti i spent mornings at the mother teresa home for the dying and afternoons at the children’s hospital with Mercy.

joyce and i had an amazing time at the home for the dying. the first morning we massaged women’s limbs, singing over them and praying for them. many had AIDS and a few had cancer. the second morning was ash wednesday and i went alone. there were only 3 women in the room i was working in … and what do you think the chances would be that two of these women would have the same names as my mother, helen and my grandmother madeliene? i felt something deep stir in my heart during my encounters with these two women.

i later returned to the children’s hospital for my final afternoon with Mercy.

as i rocked my little girl, i reflected on my morning. dots began to connect as i reflected on my grandmother madeliene and her 12 sisters, who grew up in northern ontario. as the story has been passed on to me: during the war and into the depression these young women were all prostitutes as a means of survival. also: their mother, my great grandmother, taught these young women how to bring children into the world … and how to take them out of the world. later in life, my grandmother strongly and successfully pressured my mother to abort some of her children. one abortion took place shortly after my mother had a complete nervous breakdown at 20. she had just left an abusive relationship and already had 3 small children. many years later i became pregnant with my son out of wedlock and my grandmother told my mother that she was going to visit me because she needed to have a talk with me. when she arrived at my home, my grandmother began to weep and implore me ‘tina, please do not throw this baby away … i've thrown so many away … please promise me that you will not do this.’ i then learned of her history and assured her that i had no intention of doing this. but my grandmother’s story and brokenness deeply touched me and i have never forgotten that time with her. my grandmother died a couple of years ago … and my mother has never completely forgiven my grandmother. nor has she lost the stigma of association with my grandmother’s past and some of the parts she played in it. i prayed for reconciliation when my grandmother was alive, and healing for my mom since then. i even took my mother to a seminar once to assist her in working through the pain and grief of her lost children … and to forgive my grandmother. she has found it too difficult to do.

so i sat there with Mercy and thought about this. and it dawned on me that i was living in a redemptive moment of time … right in the centre of my destiny … right in the center of eternity … of what we call in the vineyard the already and the not yet. there was no mistake in my meeting with Mercy. my heritage spoke into hers ... and hers into mine. we were connected by a Love that brought us together and neither of us would ever be the same. "Mercy", i said, "i have come to you from a long line of women who have brought life into and taken life out of the world and i am here with a message of love, justice, and mercy for you … and i want you to live." my heart was filled with love and awe. i said to the Lord, "ok … i have total faith that you can heal this child. it would be such an act of love, bring incredible glory to your name and be a total act of justice if you healed this baby right now." i prepared myself to pray in that vein … and felt the Lord interrupt me. ‘tina, what if the whole reason that you came out here to haiti this visit was so that Mercy could die with dignity? what if that is your destiny … what would you think of that … would it be enough?' well i just started to cry and cry and i thought … yes, it would be just like God to bring redemption to an entire lineage of women through one who thinks that her story is too small - and to bring dignity to a child so utterly abandoned, rejected and disenfranchised ... and for that to be enough. i thought … 'ok God, if Your will has been satisfied then i trust you in this place.'

so i prayed for her and blessed my little Mercy … i gave her deep firm hugs (until then i had been afraid that i might break her bones) … and she just loved it. i swaddled her really tight and laid her in her crib. it was such an act of faith for me to walk away and leave her there and yet i was so overwhelmed with bigness of God.

i will never be the same after my encounter with Mercy. what a severe mercy that God would bring such a broken child into my world. i did not choose her … God chose her for me. yet the first time i saw her, i loved her. i was also curious about all of the behavior around her … and about how she herself had adapted to a primitive way of being, in response to her environment. but the dignity that filled her life from being loved and treated like a human, like a baby, like a beautiful little girl, transformed her.

when we left haiti my ticket was the only one that looked like this:

which was incredibly meaningful to me, as i felt God was saying that i was bringing Mercy back home with me.

so i give you Mercy, just as she was given to me.

day 12 - homeward bound

2006-03-04T06:13:00.000-06:00

we left miami early in the a.m. for the big t.o. to be greeted and loved on by our families.

wow ... we will never be the same.

here is our motto

and here is something brigitte recorded on our last day day in haiti - a great ending to a great trip

day 11 - homeward attempt

2006-03-03T06:13:00.000-06:00

today we hung out at st joseph's for a few hours, said goodbye to our friends, packed and got ready to leave. a van came to pick us up ... and emmanuel surprised us by showing up also. VIP coming and going!!! we hung out at the airport for a while and said our good-byes to emmanuel and our friends at the airport.

THEN ... our flight was delayed! what a fiasco! but we made the best of it ... played cards, used someone's phone to call our family's (for free!) and waited, and waited and waited. finally, with our ticket's in hand we boarded a flight to miami. we stayed in really nice hotel rooms for hot showers and a couple of hours rest.

here are some pics of our last two days.

day 10 - r & r poolside

2006-03-02T19:21:00.000-06:00

today emmanuel (along with one of his friends) took us to a local hotel for a bit of r & r. we hung out pool-side all day ... ate some food, rested and had some fun.

at the end of the day, we had a little car trouble, so emmanuel and his friend fixed it in an interesting way.

we also bought a few things at a local market.

here are some more pics of the day.

day 10 - morning at three angels school

2006-03-02T07:22:00.000-06:00

in the morning some of the gals went back to three angels - to visit their school. they spent some time with the children and the teachers ... and gave out school supplies, dolls and other items that had been donated by people back home.

here are some more pictures of their time at the school:

Day 9 - last day at the hospital

2006-03-01T06:12:00.000-06:00

hard to believe it was our last day. we mothered and smothered the children with all of the love we could expend. i rocked mercy all day, with other wee ones coming over from time to time to investigate. we cried a lot when we left. it was very bitter-sweet.

i don't have any more notes on this day ... i think i was saturated by the time this day came and i had no more words.

day 8 - home for the dying

2006-02-28T06:12:00.000-06:00

this morning joyce and i went to the mother teresa home for the dying. this was my first visit to this place. because we are women, we were told that we would only be allowed to volunteer in the women's sections of the hospital. there were about 200 women in varous rooms ... many bed-ridden ... most dying of AIDS. joyce and i spent our time massaging the women's limbs, singing to them, praying for them and communicating with them any way that we could. joyce knows a bit of spanish and connected with a couple of women who spoke some spanish. i am always amazed at how much french comes back to me when i am in haiti. of course, i sound like a small child, but the haitians do not seem to mind at all. these women in particular, appreciate any love, care and effort extented toward them. this was a very fulfilling time for me, as i have wanted to go to this place for many years but have not until now.

joyce and i then travelled to the hospital for children, met up with the other gals, went for lunch at a haitian restaurant, and then went back to the children's hospital for the afternoon. i spent all of my afternoon with mercy. by the time we left, we were all pretty tired.

we returned to the guest house and met some canadian reporters who will be staying at st. joseph's for some time. we chatted with them over dinner.

for the evening, we gals decided to have some fun. we shared our photos, had a bra contest ... and just dialed down til bed time.

day 7 - back to the hospital

2006-02-27T06:12:00.000-06:00

today i went to the second floor of the hospital, where many children are in wait for adoption ... or are terminal AIDS victims without symptoms that demand hospitalization. i held rosalee who was 1 lb when she came to the hospital and is now a robust 3 lbs at about 3 months old. i fed luis and spent the rest of my morning with mercy.

we were pretty tired after yesterday's full schedule, so we left the hospital at lunch time.

we had lunch at a western delicatessen where we met some canadian and french peace-keepers. Joyce and I had a food fight and joyce almost got us kicked out! :)

we went to the internet cafe to send emails home, and then back to st. joseph's for dinner.

in the evening serge hung out with us, we had dinner, had some beer and chatted with him til late. after our evening debrief and spending some time on the st. joseph computer, doing some computer maintenance and clean-up, we went to bed.

traveling sites

2006-02-27T06:00:00.000-06:00

here we are: our team of 5 + our translator, serge.

each day was full of sites and sounds: of people who travelled by foot,

tap tap,

u.n. command vehicle;

of a living market-place with items and foods for sale;

of the adventure of being in Haiti. here are some of the sights and sounds of every-day Haiti.

day 6 - evening at carnival

2006-02-26T18:30:00.000-06:00

take a look at our photos of this fun and crazy nite

this was an incredible and unexpected highlight of our trip. emmanuel asked us if we wanted to go to kanaval ... and after checking it out with a few people, we decided to go. we were a bit tentative but, because emmanuel is with the police and he promised that we would be safe, we decided to go. joyce was totally prepared for fun and gave us stick-on tattoos and such to dress up with. emmanuel picked us up at 6 pm. we took the tourist route by the palace. there were a lot of people partying as we got closer to the event. we waived and gave out canada pins and such. i even got to drive! we parked in the police parking lot, toured the station and met emmanuel's commander.

as we began to walk through a park toward the event, we met up with a tactical/swat team. we gave them canada pins and glow sticks and just hung out for a while. then emmanuel headed toward the carnival. we understood before the event that there may be 100,000 or so people there and were told to stay close. as the crowd thickened, we held on tight to each others shirts and danced into the crowd. it became apparent that the crowd was going to be difficult to wade through. i'm a bit claustrophobic and was wondering how i was going to do in this massive crowd that was so tightly woven together. the possiblility of being carried away by them, by pure accident, was very real and someone could easily get lost or trampled by accident.

what happened next was unbelievable! we met up again with the swat team and they escorted us through the crowd by creating a box around us. we walked with ease as they created a human wall against the surging crowd (which turned out to consist of over one million people!) the team escorted us for some time ... and at one point the group commander leaned forward and whispered into my ear "i've got your back". at this point i was weeping with the living picture of what God's protection looks like ... something so undeserved and complete. this leader kept pushing and leading me left, right, straight etc. it was profound to me to be this protected and i will never forget it. we were escorted to guarded staircase and climbed up stairs to a platform where we enjoyed the carnival from an elevated place. we were given t-shirts. we danced, sang, painted, gave out the rest of our stuff, watched the carnival and had a lot of fun.

we were right beside another stage that was broadcasting the event and was hosted by a nationally renowned dj, who is also a rapper. wyclef jean came by on a float and rapped with this guy ... right within our reach!

a bit of a challenge came when the voodoo float went by. a couple of the gals on the team found this stressful ... and i must say that it was as though a heavy cloud descended over the place for a time. i sensed the heaviness around us ... but felt a real peace to stay put. the float went by and the cloud passed.

we had to stay til 2 am because of the size of the crowd and where our car was parked. on the way home there was a terrible accident - 3 people died. bodies were pulled out of a truck right in front of us. emmanuel got out and wanted to help, but we had to get out of the area as it was late and there was a lot of traffic. so emmanuel helped to push the truck into an upright position and called the police.

a note here on emmanuel: spending this evening with him was amazing. he is a profoundly loving and caring man. he is well liked ... has a very good heart. we could not believe the trouble he went through for us ... and wuold have never gone if we knew that he and his friends would be working so hard to ensure our safety and comfort. teresa has made a good choice in him as a husband.

day 6 - afternoon performance at st. joseph's home for boys

2006-02-26T12:00:00.000-06:00

in the afternoon we were delighted to view a performance of the sacred dancers. these boys travel and perform internationally. what a rare treat. check out more performance photos here.

day 6 - morning at three angels orphanage

2006-02-26T08:00:00.000-06:00

we spent the morning at three angels orphange, which is a short distance from st. joseph's guesthouse. we took dolls hand-made by laura's daughter's highschool class and by a group who donated some to joyce. joyce used her dolls as a fund-raiser at her school. it was a great way to raise money for the places we visited, and for people to partner with us. we played with the children all morning with the stuff we brought for them ... dolls, bubbles, balloons and such. the children were enthralled to have toys and some people to play with. most of them just wanted to be held and touched. they couldn't get enough of that. here is a slide show of our morning with these precious ones.

day 5 - 2nd day at the hospital

2006-02-25T06:11:00.000-06:00

we spent a second day at the hospital - which was at least as fulfilling as the first. i spent some time with angeline and louis ... and then went on the look-out for a baby my girlfriend teresa asked me to check into. my final post, which will be entitled 'mercy' will be dedicated to this child and to this trip.

here is a link to a post i committed to my personal blog on the 26th, which summarizes the past few days.

day 4 - our first day at mother teresa sister's of charity children's hospital

2006-02-24T06:07:00.000-06:00

we traveled by tap tap to the mother teresa, sisters of charity, hospital for children.

walking back into that place was like coming home for me. i can't explain how very natural it is to be there. the other team members mentioned feeling this way also.

i spent the day holding children - particularly drawn to angeline - 8 mos old - 4 kg. - very small and sweet. sitting on the floor at lunch, some of the children were grabbing big fists-full of each other's food and feeding one another ... and then stuffing food into their own mouths - beautiful. others were docile and sickly, with no obvious hunger - but actually starving ... some had to be force-fed.

the sisters are so inspiring - loving, patient, smart, firm, soft-hearted women with a gentle but solid faith. they do not allow pictures to be taken in the hospital, but allowed us to take a couple of a volunteer and me beside medical packs that we donated to the hospital. these packs were obtained from health partners international of canada. they contained thousands of dollars worth of medicines which we acquired for only a few hundred dollars (the money for these was generously donated).

every other time i have gone to this hospital, our groups have had to leave at around noon, which is a standard rule that the sisters strictly adhere to. it was about that time when a truck load of food arrived at the hospital, which i helped to unload with the sisters. it took a fair amount of organising and we had such a great time doing it together. afterward, as our group was about to leave, i asked if our team could stay a bit longer than noon each day, to hold the children and help out. sister stanisha hesitated and then said, 'as long as you leave no later than 5 pm'. i couldn't believe it! i was so deeply touched that she allowed us this incredible honour ... what a true answer to prayer that came about in such an unexpected way. i think part of it was because there have been so very few volunteers, with all of the unrest there has been in the country. so tomorrow we will bring our lunch and sit in the courtyard for a break ... after which we will have about 4 - 4 1/2 more hours with the children per day than we expected. i am so happy about this ... words will never properly express the joy.

we came back to the guesthouse and debriefed. i taught the gals how to play farkle. we had a lot of fun with this. we tried our luck at emailing home too ... never sure if the emails will be received because they system here is down a lot.

seeing haiti ... particularly today at the hospital ... through the eyes of the women on my team is very impacting for me. they are having very profound and meaningful experiences. it is such a huge 'get to' for me to be here with them.

here are a few pics of our travels today

day 3 - wings of hope

2006-02-23T18:34:00.000-06:00

we had a great trip to wings of hope - caught a ride with michael, who is the director of st. joseph home for boys in pettionville, wings of hope in fermathe, and trinity house in jacmel. what a beautiful ride up into the mountains where wings is located! the facility and surrounding landscape is also beautiful.

we had a quick tour and then got right into spending time with the children. it was overwhelming, in some ways, to be in a room with so many children with such high needs. there was no question about whether or not they enjoyed having us with them. we were allowed to take photos, so i have prepared a slide show of our day that you can find a link to at the end of this post.

before we left, we spoke with rene (the house manager) in order to discuss how we could help out in a meaningful way in the future. knowing that joyce and laura have experience working with children with special needs, gave rene an opportunity to talk about having each child properly assessed (which has never happened) and having skilled people come in to train the workers, etc. this is something that, God willing, they could actually do with a team of their own. i could hear the wheels turning in their heads ... and it was pretty exciting to have a sense of greater purpose in our visit. perhaps they could bring a team of people who could meet a really felt need and make significant and lasting difference. hummm.

we had lunch, bought a few things from some local vendors, took some photos of local school children and then made our way back to st. joseph's.

with regard to our mode of travel: michael, rene ... and our translator serge were all been pretty clear that we should go ahead and take public transportation. they felt that we came at a very safe time to do that ... and that, in fact, it was probably safer to travel by tap tap than by a hired van. this was pretty exciting for me, as i was really wanting to go by tap tap, but only if it was completely safe. having being convinced, we took one home later that day. I FINALLY really felt like i was in haiti!!!

we stopped at a grocery store to get a few supplies, met an officer stationed with the UN, who is from canada then went home to a nice dinner. emmanuel and a couple of his friends dropped by for a little visit, and then we had some down time.
during our debrief joyce shared 1 john 25:4: for thou hast been a strength to the poor and needy. we really saw that today ... through the story of wings of hope, in the eyes of the children, and in our opportunity to be Jesus to them today. it was a good day.

here's a slide show of our day

wings of hope

2006-02-23T07:52:00.000-06:00

I was excited to visit this home for Children with Special needs. I work with this population of children at home and was interested to find out how things were done in Haiti. The ride up the mountain was beautiful. The building was quite nice especially compared to all the other buildings I had seen so far. Wings of Hope was taken over by the St Joseph's home for boys, the guest house that we stayed at. I was surprised to see how severely affected most of the children were. 35 Children of various ages live there. Most are wheelchair bound and non-verbal. Their many smiles told us how happy they were to have visitors. Their wheelchairs were of variying types and conditions. I couldn't help thinking that most would be considered unusable in Canada.

We spent the morning playing. We had brought some toys to add to theirs. The musical instruments were a hit as we gently pried open clenched hands to place a maraca or tamborine into them as many were unable to grasp it on their own. We were able to take pictures here and with digital cameras were could show children their photos. They really liked that.

We spoke with Rene who works there after and found out the sad truth of children with special needs in Haiti. Voodoo is highly praacticed and people believe these individuals are manifestations of evil spirits. They are truely shunned from society. My job in Canada is to make sure children are included in all activities in their childcare setting. Do they have adaptions made so they can fully participate in circle, art, outdoor play etc. In Haiti they are not even included in society! Many have not been outside the walls of Wings, never have felt grass beneath their feet. A real reality check for me.

day 2 - arriving in haiti

2006-02-22T06:05:00.000-06:00

got up early and had the last hot shower for a few days ... did the group bathroom thing etc. we met an american couple in the airporter ... prayed for our day, the couple and alfonso - our driver. alfonso was so touched by our prayers that he hugged and kissed each one of us after unloading our luggage. miami airport was nearly empty ... no hurry ... long breakfast ... unbelievable. i was 'c.a.' today (canadian idol) because i sang in the restaurant.

while standing in line to check in, we met marilyn mcilroy from world partners canada, who lives in waterloo. we also met margaret brown, who trained and served with bruce and helen snyder in nigeria when they first went there many years ago. both of these gals also worked with bruce in haiti many years ago, before bruce and helen were married! imagine that! they will work in haiti with association eglise mission (aem) until they return home march 4th.

we played 'zobmondo' on the airplane with francoise, a haitian man who lives between the states and haiti. his question was 'which would you choose - to change 3 things in the past or 1 in the future?' he said without any hesitation whatsoever - 1 in the past. he spoke with conviction about haiti, his family, etc. he is picking up his wife after 3 years of living apart, to bring her to washington. he feels that he had set some things in motion, in reaction to not being able to school his 4 teenage children for the past 3 years because of unrest in the country. his #1 decision would be to have peace in haiti, so that he and his family could live together there in peace. interesting discussion and prayer time with him.

we arrived in haiti to VIP treatment, compliments of emanuel, my friend teresa's husband. it was quite unbelievable actually. we were escorted to a VIP area where we lounged as our passports and luggage were processed without any effort on our part. the only thing i had to do, besides tell an airport official that i was not a diplomat (even though he treated me like one before and after i told him i wasn't one) was to explain what the medications we brought were for and to identify our bags. it was the most unbelievably easy entry to haiti (or any country for that matter) that i've ever experienced. it still boggles my mind just to think of it!

emanuel is the sweetest guy ... besides my jeff of course ... what a soft hearted man. we met him and some of his tactical/swat team buddies, who escorted us by diplomatic vehicle to our digs at st. joseph's home for boys. he did a huge thing, setting up our VIP entrance to haiti, and we will never be able to thank him enough. he and his friend, evans, could not believe that we were coming to their country without pay to do our mission ... and he said it was the least he could do.

after arriving at st. joseph's, joyce and laura scurried upstairs where the boys were practicing their dance. they had a great time! i went to chapel with the boys before dinner. they do this thing before readings and prayer where they say 3 good things about each person present. it is a way that they celebrate each other each day. it is really quite beautiful. we had a great dinner! no rice and beans for a bunch of bemused team members ... ha! ha!

tonight everyone shared: brigitte shared that we are special. joyce shared about her son sending 10 bible pages from his first bible, and some words for her each day to accompany them. mary shared about her trips to europe and india. joyce and brigitte shared some funny stories about going to baptist churches while they were growing up. some verses that were shared included: 2 Corinthians 5:14 'Christ's love compels us.' 1 John 3 'dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions. it is by our actions that we know we are living in the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before the Lord, even if our hearts condemn us. for God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.'

there seems to be contentment and wonder in the group. interesting that we have had so many divine encounters already. at the end of this day i journalled 'i feel full but empty, surrounded but lonely, taken care of but that i must take care of others - the children, the women on my team. my heart is full and challenged but 'God is greater than my heart.' i miss james, my former translator who died about a year or so ago. i wept through some of these feelings. what an incredibly wonderful and deep beginning ...

here are pic's from the day

st. joseph's home for boys

2006-02-22T06:00:00.000-06:00

while in haiti, we stayed in the guesthouse at st. joseph's home for boys. i have prepared a little 100 photo pictorial for you to view at your leisure, which guides you through most of the house from entranceway to rooftop. i added titles to a few of these, in order help you capture a sense of the place and some of the things we did there.

day 1 - miami, here we come

2006-02-21T08:00:00.000-06:00

Day 1 - what a relief! we were finally on our way to destination Haiti after many questions, concerns ... and opportunities to turn our worries into prayers. we began the day pretty early - left at about 5 am or so for the airport, to take our stop-over flight to miami. it was an adventure right from the start ... with challenges from an airport official about the medical packs that we were bringing into miami overnight. 'how do we know that you are not going to sell the items in these packs on the black market in miami?', was one of the questions asked. since the miami lay-over was a last minute change by the airline, i was unprepared for the effect that would have on us with regard to our luggage. the airport was not willing to store our stuff (siting a change in policy about such things since 911). this was a new one for me ... so i gave the official all of my paperwork and my civilian i.d. from where i work, which helped! after a few questions, now based on sincere interest in our trip, the official said that he thought we were doing a great thing and wished us well. i was pleasantly surprised at the turn in attitude of this guy. other staff ensured that our medicines were transported in a special way so that the items would not be crushed or damaged. i chuckled at the unexpected favour and joined my group, who waited for me in the sidelines. after a yummy breakfast and a few laughs, we boarded our flight for miami.

we arrived in miami with a bit of trouble with regard to our reservations; but i want to give laurie and the other gals an opportunity to tell about that.

at the end of our day, our reflections included reading:
Ephesians 3:17-19 paraphrased ... that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in Him. may your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. the message

James1:2-4
... whenever trouble comes your way let it be an opportunity for joy. for when your faith is tested your endurance has a chance to grow, so let it grow. for when your endurance is fully developed you will be strong in character and ready for anything.

Celtic Blessing: may the peace of Christ go with you wherever He may send you. may He guide you through the wilderness and protect you throught the storm. may He bring you home rejoicing a the wonders He has shown us. may He bring us home rejoicing once again unto our door.

our photos include waiting at the airport; hanging out pool-side at the hotel in miami; joyce sleeping in a cot provided by the hotel. today's slide show begins looking at today's weather ... and ends, again, in the cot.

day one

2006-02-21T07:00:00.000-06:00

Day one for me was difficult! It was a surreal journey into the unknown. I felt thrown into something that I knew I must participate in. I did not know these women very well. I did not know the outcome of our journey. What I did know was that each of us was brought to this place in our journey by God. I felt compelled to know them more but at the same time know myself more as well. I was excited to begin our first day-although it was flight and stopover-I knew it was only the beginning for all of us! How exciting to become a VIP for God! What is next??