Saturday, January 12, 2013

Gressier, Haiti

Today is the third anniversary of the 2010 earthquake that destroyed most of the southeastern part of Haiti. 357, 785 people still live in tent cities in Port au Prince. There are still homes to be built and lives to be restored.

 I thought traveling to Cap Haitien would be a dream come true. To live life with some of the poorest people in the Western Hemisphere. And, don't get me wrong, it definitely was. But God has called me to go farther. God has graciously provided me with the opportunity to travel to a village not far from Port au Prince called Gressier. I will be working at a mission called Christianville. And my heart is overjoyed.
This experience will be much different from my prior experience as I will be going with a mission team. Our task will be to paint the school located in the mission and possibly travel to a mountain church in Bel Air. Bel Air is part of Port au Prince's slum and it was one of the most heavily damaged areas after the earthquake. Rebuilding a church in this area is significant, even more significant is rebuilding one up in the mountains of this area. Culturally, construction is looked down upon in terms of position. And supplies are costly to be able to rebuild. When you take into account that this is also in a mountain where people are poor and isolated, it means that much more to see a "blanc" helping. I am praying that I will be of use in some way in the clinic because I do have some prior experience filling prescriptions and reading French scripts. I also pray that we will be able to talk with the people in the villages, especially children.

 During this experience I will NOT be at a school everyday, I will NOT be teaching, and I will only be there for seven incredibly short days. I will be serving through my hands and feet. I am an unsure of how specifically Christ will use me, but I am filled with certainty that He will. Through this experience I will be able to live next to people who's homes were destroyed, who know people who were injured or killed, and to spread God's pure hope and light to the darkest corners of souls. I will be able to tell children that "Bondye renmen ou" as I sing and play and brush dirt off of their faces.

 I know this will all happen, because I am confident that God will provide the means for me to travel to Haiti. I am about $1,000 short for my trip, but God knows where the money will come from. I am confident even that He will provide more money than I actually need. So I am planning on once again taking a suit case filled with school supplies down. Christianville runs a school sponsorship program for students. Through this sponsorship program students are able to receive school supplies and their tuition is paid for. But there is still always a great need. What if for one month, instead of the students getting new pencils and paper and erasers.. they were able to receive a vaccination against a preventable disease like Hepatitis? Or they were able to receive the means to drink clean water preventing water born diseases like Typhoid or Cholera or gastrointestinal parasites that can be cured with one simple Albendazole? Imagine what that will look like?

 In America flu season this year is very serious. Children are getting very sick with fevers. But we have prescriptions that are cheap and vaccinations to prevent it entirely. Imagine living in a place where every single day there is a risk of Malaria from the bugs around you, Cholera from the water you drink, Hepatitis from the streets you walk. None of these things exist in America, we can't comprehend it. But we do understand what children who are sick with influenza looks like. Imagine what it would look like if money was spent instead on preventing these 100% preventable diseases rather than school supplies because they have already been donated.

 I'm dreaming big for 168 hours.

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