Day Five | God's Goodness

Our God is such a good God.

Today the team started the morning really early. 6:00 AM EARLY! We all visited the local church called Church on the Rock. This church offers a 6AM service every week day. We experienced the vibrant and loud sounds of worship. Our Haitian brothers and sisters walked around as they sang, moving to the sounds of the music and praising God. They also took pauses in between their praises to kneel on the ground and pray. We were so curious and excited to worship alongside them.

We were fully immersed in the experience with no understanding of what was exactly being said. Words that did stand out to us were Hallelujah, Jezi (Jesus) and Gloria. But during the middle of the Pastor's preaching, the Pastor started saying words in English. Talking about how the Good Lord is our Shepherd, he is our provider and we lack nothing. That Jesus will never leave us and that we praise God for our day.

Our team began to throw our hands up, clap, and shout Amen as he spoke to us. Though language was a barrier, we still felt unified as we worshiped together and we also felt the warm and welcoming love of Jesus as the Pastor spoke to us. It was an amazing way to begin our day. The team left feeling vibrant and full of life. 

Afterwards the team had the opportunity to visit a couple of local companies that are bringing job opportunities through beautiful design, fashion, locally sourced materials and handmade goods. 

Our first stop was to Haiti Design Co. Their goal is to bring sustainable development through design, training, and job creation. What started out as a small workshop grew and evolved into a training and production center employing over 150 people. 

Jerry, who is one of the designers, gave us a tour of the studio and talked about the importance they have in their ethical work environment. He walked us through the 15 different Code of Ethics. The number one code of ethics being “N’ap priye chak jou” which means “We pray every day.” It’s the most important part of their work day. They don’t begin any work until they have prayed. 

Next we visited Deux Mains which means “Two Hands.” Deux Mains is an ethical fashion brand that offers sustainable sandals, bags and accessories. We got to meet Sarah who is the Vice President of the company. She shared about Julie, the founder of the company who came as a volunteer to help in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. Her intentions were to give relief by handing out water and essentials for people. One woman commented to her “I don’t want water, I want a job.” That really struck Julie and she realized that the Haitian people wanted more than anything a way to provide for themselves and not be given a simple hand-out. 

That’s when she began working with Haitians to create sandals out of tires to find way to produce something to sell that is locally made in Haiti. What started off as a challenge soon grew into possibilities as they continued to refine their handmade goods into great, high-end qualities of work. It was incredibly inspiring to hear their stories.

We then toured the building and they shared how excited they were to finally see people coming back into their shop. It’s been over a year since they could experience that exciting energy of people shopping their store. One of the co-founders of the company mentioned to us that "it felt like her birthday today to see us." We felt the same. 

After we wrapped up at Deux Mains we then made a stop to Rebo Coffee to enjoy a drink and reflect on our day.

Our final trip of the day was a second visit to the Hospital for Sick and Dying Babies. The team was more familiar with the experience as we all got to visit the sweet faces we saw earlier in the week. We enjoyed feeding and taking the children outside again. Some of us try to get little smiles and giggles out of the babies, and sometime we see those moments happen. But for the most part we held, rocked and spoke words of encouragement and love over them.  We also enjoyed watching some older children take out small plastic trikes and ride down a ramp with big smiles and laughter. It was great fun for the smaller children to watch in wonder. Our goodbyes were still difficult, but the moments we were able to have together is what settled deep into our hearts.

During our team’s circle time we reflected on the last fruit of the spirit which is “self-control.” A verse Kat shared with the group really summed up what God is calling us to do. 2 Peter 1:5-7 “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith GOODNESS; and to goodness, KNOWLEDGE; and to knowledge, SELF-CONTROL; and to self-control, PERSERVERANCE; and to perseverance, GODLINESS; and to godliness, MUTUAL AFFECTION; and to mutual affection, LOVE. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

With every interaction we have, with every opportunity to serve, with every moment of prayer – we are building up the qualities God is asking us to possess. It is in these moments that we are in the progressive process of becoming more like Jesus.