Winter Vacation...to Haiti

In February, I had the opportunity to join a medical mission team VERY last minute and travel back to Haiti. I am so grateful to have a husband and two bosses that were all on-board with this impromptu adventure because I literally started talking about going two weeks before we left (booked my flight 10 days before departure, no big deal!).

The team was much smaller than the one I "carpetbagged" with in June - only 7 of us - but it was great to be a part of the medical side of the mission experience. I know God opened those doors to better prepare me to lead our team in May as there was so much I was NOT prepared for that I learned in February. I know that I am still in NO WAY fully prepared, but pray that through my weakness God's glory will shine!

We worked in a VERY remote village about 15 miles from Anse-a-Pitres, called Recif. Although it was only 15 miles, it took us over 1 1/2 hours to get there (and back!) each day. Needless to say, we were not exactly traveling on well-paved roads. Recif is a fishing village and located on possibly one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen! The people were amazing - so grateful and appreciative. They do not currently have access to clean water in their village, and I pray daily that God will work out the logistics of getting the equipment in to the area to drill a well soon. 

When I look back on the past year, I am awed and humbled at the evidence of God's presence in my life (not necessarily in my everyday actions, but rather the overall picture! :-/ ). If you had told me five years ago I would be traveling multiple times a year to the poorest country in the world, I would have likely laughed in your face. Haiti was on the map...but certainly not my life map. But our plans are not always God's plans and I am SLOWLY (and I do mean, SLOWLY) learning to surrender my plans to His. 

I hope to write more about the upcoming trip in May and share some of the things God has already done for and through the team. Would love to hear some of your experiences of God's faithfulness to your surrender!

"How, then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 

And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 

"How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

Romans 10:14-15

Medical Mission

While one part of our team built schools and played with the kids (we liked to call it "family life ministry"),  the other part of our crew in Haiti was the medical team. An amazing group of people worked in very close quarters and with limited technology and supplies to treat approximately 800 people and pull over 400 teeth in four days. Praise God for their willingness to give of themselves to help the Haitian people!

The medical tent.

Hundreds of men, women and children waited in the terrible heat to see a doctor.

Because of the close quarters in the tent, the rest of us didn't spend a whole lot of time inside the medical tent. We did, however, get to enjoy the amazing stories over a yummy meal of beans and rice at the end of the day. This is the one that continues to both haunt and motivate me...

An older gentleman approached the work site one morning and asked to borrow one of the wheel barrows. With some skepticism and trepidation, he was allowed to take it. We all watched him take off across the field and many of us grumbled and mused that we'd probably never see that wheel barrow again. A little while later, we stood in humbled silence and awe. The man returned carrying his elderly friend in the wheel barrow who was unable to walk. The doctors believe the man had suffered a stroke several weeks prior to our arrival. 

I immediately thought of the story in the Bible of the friends who lowered their sick friend through the roof to have Jesus heal him (Mark 2:1-12). I was sickened at my own lack of commitment to help my suffering friends around me through whatever means possible...even if it meant pushing him or her miles in a wheel barrow or lowering him or her through a roof to receive the healing touch of God's grace and mercy. I realized how many of my friends are hurting and longing to be healed and how many times in my busyness and selfishness had simply just passed them by. 

That man - and the friends in Mark 2 - are the kind of friends I want to be...what about you?