Below is a report from John Burr, one of the leaders of the Haiti missions team who returned on Saturday. I was touched by John’s story and know you will be too.
Chris Drombetta
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Good evening everyone! I am back in the land of the free and the home of the beef! I had to go out for lunch today to get a hamburger and french fries! I was tired of overcooked goat!
The mission’s trip to Haiti was hard. It was hard to prepare for and it was hard to do. It began with lost luggage at the airport in Port Au Prince and never really got much better. We did retrieve the luggage a few days later. It rained 4 or 5 nights and if you have ever camped out in a tent, in a torrential downpour you know the feeling of sleeping in wet clothes and with a wet blanket. If it wasn’t raining you were soaked to the skin with sweat in the 100 degree temps with no ventilation in those tents. The rain did feel good after a hard day in the high temps. After a few days I got used to wet shoes or just flip-flops sloshing through the muddy puddles. I am still processing much of the memories and emotions, (they come in spurts of tears for no apparent reason) but I wanted to give you a brief update.
The land: it is beautiful as you would imagine a Caribbean island to be. It was however littered with rubble from the earthquake, with trash not from the earthquake, and with desperate eyes and open hands.
The people: Unlike the Dominican Republic where you can see the evidence of the wealthy and the very poor. Haiti does not show any evidence of wealth, at least as we would recognize it. I am sure there are some Haitians who have enough food and water and clothing. There are many who survive on what they can beg. There are some who live off the land quite literally, by eating the food God grows in abundance there, but do not have anything else.
We worked at and around a little compound about 50 miles south from Port Au Prince just outside of a little town called Petit Goave. It was near the ocean with a grand mountain behind. This little compound is half Christian school and half medical clinic. It sprang from the God given desire of a few Haitians and a few Americans with the help of Missionary Ventures International.
There were always people around, mostly children. At night there were always the sounds of cows, dogs and chickens. When it was quiet, in the still of the night, you sometimes heard the drumbeats and chanting way off in the distance, up in the mountain. The sound of Voodoo services. The people were trained from birth to seek a handout and every one of them, at least once would ask you for money or food or water. It really is hard to help them learn to be self-sufficient. That will be the trial of Haiti. They do love you for being there and it is sincere. They do also know how to work a mission’s team. They size you up and befriend you in hopes of getting all you have before you leave. Do not think badly of that. I would too if I was living that way, and so would each of us. They live in that little space between being deceitful and loving you more that you thought possible. I made some friends who if I never see again in this life will be a joy to me in our eternal life. I never walked far without little hands in mine. They just show up, you feel them slip into yours with little notice. If I sat down anywhere outside of the compound, there was little hands feeling my hair, my skin, or fanning my face. They live to please those frequent visitors. The one’s that put a lump in your throat are the ones who put their heads on your chest and hold on hoping you will take them with you.
The water flows down both sides of the street in man-made open trenches. I don’t know where it all comes from, but I do know that it is the bathroom, the laundry-room and the toilet. All at one time.
There is construction on-going there and we started a few and we finished a few. We roofed a house, we helped raise the block on another, we helped finish a floor, and we built furniture and ran some electric lines. Yes they do have electric, from dusk until dawn. The 2 wire system that is there is unbelievably dangerous with no circuit protection and in some places held together with scotch tape. During the day we needed a generator.
I learned all the normal things I expected to learn about poverty and living conditions. I also learned some things about humility and about how the hands and feet of the body of Christ…are dirty. It must be so, to do the good work He has prepared. I look forward to when Christ will wash the hands of His bride and says well done; now enter into eternity with me. Then, all those hungry eyes that chose to believe in the love that was shown to them will rejoice together as one.
John Burr
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