Journals from Haiti (1)

Matthew 17:20- He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."


Although it was only 1 week, Haiti was one of the most eye-opening and life changing experiences of my life. The things we did and saw were devastating. I was able to keep a journal to try my best to remember everything God did with us but to actually share the experience, you'd have to be there with the sights, sounds and smells. The news, pictures and testimonies were not nearly enough to prepare me for what we were really going into.

One of the neatest parts about this trip was that it was so clearly hand-picked. The team consisted of 11 of us total and the only people who knew each other were me and Jack who had briefly met in Jamaica. Everybody was coming from different cities, states and walks of life in order to come together for our mission. Our travels started with 6 of us meeting in Orlando to take a van down to Miami. When we arrived in Miami, we met 3 more team members before flying to Port Au Prince where we'd be meeting the final 2. It was a definite first experience going on a trip to a foreign country with a group of strangers but man, thank you God for the journey.

After arriving in Port Au Prince, we were immediately able to see some of the destruction. The airport was covered with cracks and broken wires. Customs hardly existed, bags were unorganized and it was a definite enter at your own risk environment- we were lucky to make it out alive with all of our bags! I was fortunate enough to catch a ride with our Haitian brother Fenel up to Jacmel which is a 3 hour drive. The first hour and a half was spent with tears in my eyes as we drove through the destruction. The tent cities are indescribable. I had heard about these tent cities, but to actually be there and see tent after tent after tent with thousands of people forced out of their houses and into the streets was sickening. There was smoke from garbage burning, gigantic buildings brought to the ground everywhere you could see, mounds and mounds of garbage with pigs eating and rats scurrying, people bathing in the streets using only a bowl of water, UN and military trucks driving around delivering little bags of drinking water and for the first time I thought of the idea of dignity as a luxury. These people are forced to be in their situation with no choice but to bathe in the middle of the street. They have no privacy and until recently, they didn't have a toilet. Even now there are 2-5 porta-potties per city. To take a place that is already in terrible poverty and bring it crashing to the ground is hard to imagine. After I took a few pictures and asked Fenel question after question, he put on some Christian music... in english.

Now, it's a long story that will take up another page, but for me to get to Haiti was a huge test in faith. It took many months of God telling me over and over though songs, phone calls and prayer that Haiti was where I was supposed to be. During those months, I tried my hardest to get out of it after realizing I had $0 to finance the trip. After a final prayer of "God, is this really where I should be going," having the prayer answered and putting all of my faith in him, I made it. When I was riding in that car with Fenel, I had that wow moment of seeing what faith can do. There were many times I told Him that it was just Him and I because I had many of the closest people to me telling me not to and not only did God take care of me but I'm sure they've gained faith through seeing that He can move the mountains. As we were riding and I was awe-struck over what we were seeing, "Shout to the Lord' came on. I was looking at all of the people shoved shoulder to shoulder in these small areas with little to no shelter when I really listened to the lyrics. My comfort, my shelter... mountains will bow and the seas will roar... how powerful. As I was listening to the song, I saw a tap tap (Haitian form of transportation that I'll explain later) drive by that had JESUS written on the back, I saw scripture spray painted on the remaining rubble of crushed buildings, the beautiful sunset over the bright blue ocean and I was able to see some hope and beauty that I could only pray the Haitian people could see from under the tarps covering their heads.

After we were out of Port Au Prince we headed up into the mountains and it started to get dark. I looked in the sky and saw more stars than I've ever seen in my life. It looked like He spray painted metallic gold onto the midnight black universe. The only word that kept popping into my head was "freckled." I've on many occasions seen a beautiful night sky but they were nothing compared to the sky I saw from up in the mountains on the way to the mission house that night.

We made it to the mission house that night with a chicken and rice dinner waiting for us. I was told that we were staying in tents so the thought of an air mattress with a roof over our heads was pretty exciting. That night we met our amazing cooks and spent some time getting to know each other as we were clueless about what the week would bring...