The Bridge Team - Day 5

Cite Soleil started as a home for sugar workers in the 1950's.  The Haitian government created an export processing zone near Cite Soleil in the 1970's and new factories sprang up.  People flocked to Cite Soleil seeking work at the factories.  In 1991 the coup that deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide led to a boycott of Haitian products which caused the factories to close.  In the 2000's the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti was installed in Cite Soleil to provide security for neighborhoods terrorized by gangs.  The children recognizing the letter "U" on the side of the UN vehicles started calling out "Hey you."

My first memory of Cite Soleil is of a barefoot young boy probably 4 or 5 years old dressed only in a dirty striped shirt.  As our vehicle traveled past he raced after us down a dirty street lined with open sewage canals.  With a huge smile on his face and his arms outstretched he chanted, "Hey you!  Hey you!  Hey you!  Hey you!"

Today is our second water truck day in Cite Soleil.  We follow the water tank truck to a water station that sells water.  Our tank truck waits with 10 or 12 others to take on its cargo of 3000 gallons of water.  The  contents of the truck will be freely distributed to one small section of Cite Soleil.

People are lined up with their buckets, cooking oil jugs, and wash tubs  seemingly before we arrive.  As we try to exit our tap-tap truck small children crowd the back door, each vying for our attention by reaching  up to us and shouting "Hey you!"  We step down and have difficulty walking as children grab our arms, legs, and clothes.  Many of the children are partially dressed or wear no clothes at all.

Two people man the hose of the water truck and start filling containers.  Soon the rest of us are either holding small children or responding to requests of "Hey you" followed by fingers pointed towards their home.  Women ask us to set 5 gallon buckets on their heads.  Women and children say "Hey you" grabbing us by the hand, wrist, or shirt and lead us to their buckets.  The men are conspicuously absent.  Soon the orderly bucket line descends into chaos as children and others start cutting to the front of the line.  We carry bucket after bucket under a 108 degree heat index.  Toddlers shout "Hey you" from dirty alleys while other children hold on to our shirt tails hoping to be carried back to the water truck.  Parents offer us their infants and ask us to take them home with us.  We repeat these trips over and over until the truck is empty.  We drive back to the water station two more times and return to deliver water to two other sections of Cite Soleil.

I've been called "Hey you" hundreds of times in Cite Soleil, but I will not forget that solitary barefoot boy joyfully pursuing us.  He modeled how I need to joyfully pursue Jesus.

Hey You Jesus, please bless this little boy as he has truly blessed me.

Todd

The Bridge Team - Day 4

Today began early, before the roosters crowed and the sun came up. No horns were honking yet as we boarded the tap-tap, and beyond the gates of the guest house, only a few lights illuminated the streets. Tent church began at 6 AM and as we arrived early, we took our seats. We quickly realized Haitians don't actually sit in church. Worship was both communal and at the exact same time incredibly intimate. As the worship leaders sang, people began to come in. Some embraced and worshiped together, others walked around, while still others lay nearly prostrate on the floor. Some songs were sang in English, as well as some prayers.

 "Jesus, we come to you today, and we have no requests. We only want to praise you." It seems in America, where we want for nothing, we often come to the Lord with our hands outstretched asking for more. Today we witnessed a church going before God with their empty hands lifted high only with praise as they sang hallelujahs to Him- their Jezi, their powerful Jesus - because He deserves it.

"No requests", that's how we started our day.

"Ayiti pa bliye". January 12, 2010 is the day Haiti will never forget. Unaware of what an earthquake was or how to protect oneself in the event of one, many Haitians fled into buildings as the earth in Port au Prince began to tremble. Buildings tumbled down, and as the dust settled, the reality of what had happened left terror and grief in the heart of every Haitian. While it is impossible to arrive at an exact death toll, at least 160,000 people lost their lives. Everyone here lost someone, and some people lost everyone. The cemeteries were quickly filled to capacity, and as days passed and bodies began to decompose, it was necessary to remove them from the streets. A few kilometers west of Port au Prince, the Haitian government dug a mass grave and bodies were dumped and buried there. We stopped at the mass grave today as our Haitian friend Valery explained to us what that day was like for him. It is a peaceful and lovely monument nestled in the hillside, overlooking the water, but it is also a sobering reminder of how the life of a nation can be changed in an instant.

Further up the mountain in Titanyen, sits Grace Village- a true city on a hill, and a testament of the power of God's church-in a town that literally means "less than nothing".

 Today, the town flourishes.

Grace Village sits atop the hill- a medical clinic, a feeding center, a school for close to 400 children, and homes- real homes with a mom and a dad, for groups of orphaned children. Grace Village employs around 300 Haitian people, and empowers children by providing them an education, and job skills. Grace Village is a ministry of Healing Haiti, and as we toured the facility we were truly amazed by what God's people can do through the empowerment of His Spirit.

One of the ministries of Healing Haiti that we are able to participate in are elder visits. Quite simply, we visit the elderly people of Titanyen, bring them food, water, wash their feet, rub their aching muscles and joints, pray with them and sing to them. The three women we met with today received great joy from our visits, and we were each impacted in different ways by today.

I loved visiting with the elders, but at the third home we went to, I noticed a little boy with Down Syndrome standing by himself while all of the other children came to see who was getting off the tap-tap. We walked into the yard of the elderly woman, and the other children followed, but the little boy did not come. I knew the Lord wanted me to go to that little boy. I went to him and asked him his name in Creole, and realized he did not speak, so I stretched out my arms to him, and with a little hesitation, he came to me.

There is something the Spirit of God does to your heart in those moments that I can only describe as sacred.  As I held that boy, whom no one seemed to notice, I felt like I was holding my own son. I cupped his cheek and I kissed his head and I loved that precious little boy with everything I had and I begged Jesus to protect him and be near to him because I knew my time with him was so very short.

 It's almost like...God was loving him through me...like my arms were actually the Father's arms holding that little boy.

So I did what mothers do. I rocked him and I sang to him in a language He could not understand about a God who is so great I can't fully understand, all while he curiously stared at the guitar Tommy was playing. As he began to get heavy in my arms, I laid his head on my shoulder, and he wrapped his arms around me and fell asleep.

 I asked some of the other children what his name was. No one knew. They only knew he was sometimes called Dezi. Another boy soon came and took Dezi from my arms, and began to walk away with him. As he passed me by, outside of the gate of the home, he awoke, looked at me and made a small cry.

And for what seems like the hundredth time this week, my heart was shattered.

Soon we boarded the tap-tap, and I scanned the area for one last sign of Dezi, but I couldn't find him. Then, suddenly, as we passed by, he walked into the middle of the road and stood and watched us go. I watched him and he watched us until we could no longer see each other.

And as I reflect, I'm so thankful for a God who is omnipresent. Because while I was only able to be present with Dezi for a few minutes, the God who knit him together in his mother's womb and knew every one of his days before even one of them came to be...the God who knows his name...that same God is always with Him, and He will never leave him, or forsake him.

And today....today my omnipresent God gave me the privilege to kiss the face of His son.

The Bridge Team - Day 3

We began our morning today in Cite Soleil, one of the most impoverished cities in the world.  300,000 people live there.  Today was "Water Truck Day." The water trucks deliver clean water to the neighborhoods of Cite Soleil on routes similar to the way our trash is picked up throughout the week.  The women and children of the neighborhood come from every corner and alleyway to retrieve water to drink, eat, cook, and bathe in.  At least 2,500 gallons of water is delivered and carried in buckets by hand and head.

At the head of every Tap Tap (bus) it says, "Be the hands and feet." We had the privilege of literally being Jesus' hands, feet, arms, back and even some of our own heads to carry water alongside the people of the neighborhood today.  We have been taught that we cannot live without water for more than a few days.  But stepping into Cite Soleil, immediately we learned that physical touch, smiles, loving connection and help, we can't live without either.

The unspoken bond we speak through touch casuses a deep, sweet connection that has no words but both know a deep bond.  There have been times during the past few days in which one of our team members has been holding a child who is leaning in and yearning for their desire for love and affection to be met.  In those moments, in the most unlikely places, time stops.  The chaos that ensues around you seems to stand still.  Nothing else matters!  There is a giving and recieving that can touch the core of us and bring the most meaning.  It's a hard thing to describe but it seems to be an experience that is a knowing of a Jesus-like love.

To be completely transparent, this day has been a challenging one in many ways.  From manual labor to emotional hardship we have all had our own responses to what we witnessed today.  But because we have bonded together as a family and communtiy here in Haiti and we have allowed God to take over in our hearts and our minds, challenging days don't seem so difficult and the good moments seem much sweeter.

Following Cite Soleil, we came back to the guest house to prepare for a family reunion.  We went to the orphanage that the girls were adopted from over ten years ago.  The smile on El's face was brighter than the sun in Soleil when she recognized the door, squealing with anticipation she jumped off of the Tap Tap to meet Josette who was riding shotgun and they both ran up the steps to the front door like two children coming home to play.  Greeted at the door by their previous nannies as we all looked on glowing with joy filled hearts, children began to poor out.

We were welcomed into the orphanage by a doctor that Natalie, El's mother, had been in contact with throughout the trip and were given a tour.  In the backyard of the orphanage where El and Josette spent time learning and growing, a medical team traveling with the doctor had begun a new project.  A young man named, Mo had decided to rehab the playground.  He and his team had cleaned the entire playground of trash, large rocks and tree limbs.  They filled in the area with new sand and were beginning work on a border to keep the sand in.  They had been working all day and are leaving tomorrow, they were digging a trench by hand and filling it with cement blocks, hand mixing concrete, and then adding sand to hold the wall in place.

Our team, women dressed in skirts and men in nice khaki shorts, picked up shovels and a pick axe and began working.  Breaking through tree roots and concrete we were able to dig a 60 foot trench and placed as many blocks as we had on site.  Mo and Tommy began mixing concrete while Todd began digging on the other side of the playground. Toni, Megan, and Jess were pouring the mixed concrete as the guys rested.  Since the concrete was mixed and trenches dug, we were only waiting for the men to return with more blocks to complete the project.

El's family soon arrived and as in every other encounter here this week we were welcomed into the family, a few of us privileged to be asked to join in a family photo.

As El reunited with her birth family and Natalie found peace and assurance of the joy and heartfelt gratitude from her family in Haiti, the world seemed to be at shalom.  At that time little did we know, a story similar to the beginning of El's story was unraveling just behind us.  Starting over in a different family, a story all too familiar in Haiti.  A mother unable to provide food and education for her children; praying, hoping, wishing for a loving woman to come along and be her children's "new mother," someone who could give them more than she could fathom.

As the sorrows of this story are overwhelming and heartbreaking, the joy in knowing that one day these children can be reunited with our Father in heaven, where money can not withhold dreams, and tears are only shed in happiness is greater than any peace known.  As true as this is, there is no explanation or understanding for the pain this mother has for her children.  Our team prayed today with this woman that God would met her practical and deep emotional needs. It's a sobering encounter that causes us to seek God's heart in what he wants us to do for her and her children. 

This has been our prayer and our mission this week; to learn how to better serve the people of God, through God.

Jessica Varner and Karen LaBoube

"Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?"

James 2: 15-16

The Bridge Team - Day 2

Just as shalom has 70 different translations in the NIV Bible, so can Haiti to each of us individually.  Haiti is unfolding before us to mean so many different things.  The deeper we look, the more beauty, need, complexity, and compassion there is.  As its beauty unfolds, we are being taught, and are learning as a team.  The Holy Spirit is moving in, around, and through us.  We see events happening before our eyes that can only be explained by God's presence.

Our team continues to bond as we share and work together.  We visited an orphanage called La Phare which housed about 20 children between the ages of a one year old baby to an 18 year old young man.  From the moment we stepped into the courtyard where the children played, we were greeted with smiles, hugs, and open arms.  Jesus teaches us to treat others as we would treat him.  With this in and on our hearts as we strive to connect with each individual, we are immensely blessed from receiving the gifts the children and staff behold.   Everyone immediately started working as a team using their spiritual gifts. Karen gave a massage and served the woman that ran the orphanage.  Natalie helped with laundry. Jessica, Lori, and Todd played soccer with the teenage boys.  Erika, Josette, Lisa, and Dianna played duck, duck, goose with the girls.  Toni, Meghan, and Eliana played jump rope with the older girls. Tommy played the guitar and overall entertained all of us.  Megan from SC drew pictures, played sidewalk chalk, and sang.  The joy and laughter of the kids was infectious, but we all agree that we don't know who had more fun--the kids or the Bridge team.  Team time explored Shalom and how just the discussion around it was a perfect fit for the day we experienced a peace and completeness as a team that some have admittedly not felt since their last trip to Haiti one year ago.  We are thankful for our Lord and Saviour and the amazing day he laid out for us.  As we write this our team is singing, "I am a child of God."  We are all children of God.  We cannot wait for tomorrow!

"May those who delight in my vindication shout for joy and gladness; may they always say, The Lord be exalted who delights in the shalom of his servant."  Psalms 35:27.

By:  Lori Kinder and Lisa Finn

The Bridge Team - Day 1 (PM)

This afternoon we visited a place of extremes.

Gertrude's is a special needs orphanage in Port-au-Prince.

It's tucked in amidst concrete structures - some partially finished, many left unfinished - in the heart of a neighborhood. Nearby were pigs roaming about piles of garbage. We pulled up in our trusty blue tap tap, unloaded, and a teenage boy with special needs waited for us at the gate. We hugged and walked through the house into a courtyard void of children. We were told the children were coming home from school soon, and evidence of their existence was all around us: a plastic yard chair-turned-wheelchair, other wheelchairs of various sizes, and a sensory wall out back.

Dozens of children arrived soon thereafter, but I mainly remember one: Rosemarie.

Rosemarie is nonverbal and in a wheelchair. I'm not sure about what happened to her to leave her in this state. Many of the children at Gertrude's were found on the street, uncared for, alone, and underdeveloped. Rosemarie's story is likely similar.

But boy, can she smile.

I mean, she can SMILE.

My first interaction with Rosemarie went like this: I sat down at a picnic table next to her wheelchair. She sat at the head of the table, and I sat at the corner next to her. As I leaned toward her to tell her how beautiful she was, she leaned forward, locked her eyes with mine, and placed her forehead snug against mine. And we sat for what seemed like forever.

And as we did, she smiled...a wide toothy grin that surpassed language. Dimples that spoke volumes.

She possesses unbridled joy and gifted it to me...in the midst of sadness and brokenness.

It wasn't all roses.

We had to say goodbye. Her smile became stoic when she realized what was happening. My heart broke. And just as quickly as I had been filled with joy, I too was filled with sadness.

You know what's beautiful though?

I believe I'll get to see Rosemarie again one day. Or at least I hope this is true. One day Rosemarie won't be nonverbal and in a wheelchair. One day she will be in glory, and she will run freely on her own two feet. She'll have a full family that loves her perfectly. Jesus will enjoy her everlasting smile. No doubt He already does.

I long deeply for that day. The groanings of this world and the brokenness of humanity are hard to take sometimes.

But today, I got to enjoy the smile and her spirit of a fellow human who bears the image of God. I got to spend time with a beautiful daughter of the King who has a gift of radiating His joy. I experienced previews of the coming attraction of eternity, in which language won't be a barrier, and joy and love will flow freely. For this preview, I will always be thankful.

This doesn't negate our responsibility to Rosemarie here and now. People with special needs living in severe poverty are among the most vulnerable people in the entire world. They need our love, advocacy, and support. Jesus cared and cares for them beautifully. We need to as well.

Admittedly, I forget about them. When they're not in front of me, gifting me with their beauty and joy, I forget that there are children like Rosemarie trying to survive in our world.

I guess the moral of the story is this: let's be aware. Let's be sensitive. Let's seek out the people in our neighborhoods and cities who are vulnerable. Let's offer a better way. And let's love them.

Thanks to a group of Haitian Christians doing this in Port-au-Prince, Rosemarie has a home where she is cared for. She has people who love her...who treat her with dignity.

Let's bring the kingdom to earth friends. It's what we were made for; it's what we were redeemed for. There's a bigger story. And I'm really, really glad Rosemarie is in it.

With love and great joy,
Erika

The Bridge Team - Day 1 (AM)

On the one hand grief, on the other hand hope. This morning we visited an orphanage where nearly all of the children had been voluntarily placed there by parents who were unable to care for them. The parents are able to visit the children monthly, and each child is well cared for by nannies and teachers. It was a true joy to visit with the children and their caretakers today. It is a sad reality that many of the children who reside in orphanages in Haiti are not "true" orphans, but rather live there because the lack of employment here makes it difficult for parents to provide for their children. My heart aches for parents who feel they have no other option.

This is one of the reasons, I am so passionate about Apparent Project/Papillion Enterprises and the work they do in Haiti. Apparent Project employs 267 Haitians who are able to support their families and keep their families intact. We were able to shop at  the Papillion Enterprises store...and spend nearly all of the money we brought with us! There is also a restaurant with pizza, smoothies and lattes above the store. After shopping, we were able to take a tour of the facility and watch the artisans at work. Apparent Project has an on-site daycare for all of the employees to utilize as well as a training center where employees can learn computer skills and English. 

You guys, I have so much joy at the work that is happening here in Haiti through this ministry and one woman's vision to transform a community through job creation. While it is a special gift to serve at an orphanage, and make a child smile, knowing that a mom can rock her own baby tonight because I bought a pizza in Haiti, or you bought a bracelet from my Apparent Project party- that thrills my heart. Thank you to each one of you who have purchased jewelry from this awesome company. I hope these pictures make your heart happy, and fill you with hope at the work God is doing here.

Natalie

This is Viola. She is sewing dresses for Haitian Friend dolls, which represent 12 of the larger cities in Haiti.

Haitians understand community. It permeates everything they do, from home to work. 

The Bridge Team - Arrival Day

The plane's arrival at the gate marked not only my first time in Haiti, but my first time on a mission trip. Suffice it to say I was incredibly excited. And more than a little bit unsure of what to expect. Walking through the airport and navigating customs was easier than expected, thanks mostly to the smiles and directions I received along the way. Being a bit of a control freak, this experience should've stressed me out...but instead, I felt an overwhelming peace that I was exactly where I was supposed to be. Almost like God's hand was literally guiding me along.

I waited outside baggage claim for our Team Leader to pick me up, again feeling a sense of peace that God was going to move mightily during my week in Haiti. The streets were alive with people and laughter and color, matching the excitement that continued to bubble up inside me. I don't think I stopped grinning once as I met the rest of the team and we enjoyed our first meal together. My first taste of Haiti was, quite literally, incredible.

As we get ready for bed, the team seems just as excited as I am to head out tomorrow morning. I'm not sure exactly what God has in store for us, and for His people here in Haiti. But that's the beautiful thing: we don't have to know. Or understand. We're just called to love. To pour His love on every single person we encounter and learn from each interaction. So that's the plan! And I think I speak for all of us when I say bring it on!

Megan