April 2004
In mid April 2004, I felt a desire to join a short-term missions team from several Connecticut churches that I heard goes regularly to Haiti. After several team meetings and a lot of prayer, I knew this is where God wanted me.
I went with a group called the Bethesda Evangelical Mission (B.E.M.) which is a local Haitian church ministry that partners with churches and ministries in the United States to make a difference in the neighborhood of Les Cayes, Haiti. It is a small ministry, well managed by a half dozen Haitian Pastors who love the Lord and have a heart to minister to the severe poverty and conditions around them. For the last 4 years, American church teams have been traveling to the church and working alongside our Haitian brothers and sisters in Christ.
From the moment I arrived, I was struck by the similarity of West Africa. It truly felt like I was 'back in Africa' and I commented on this a number of times the first couple of days to other team members. The sights, the sounds, the smells, the culture......what a flashback. In a way, I felt like I was home.
For anyone who has done a DTS outreach, the conditions we lived in were similar. Metal framed beds in a sparse concrete room. Open fire cooking and the same pots and dishes...hand washed in bigger plastic, colorful tubs. Open windows invited mosquitoes and other flying and creeping creatures to investigate us. Of course, my mattress was home to some fleas or bedbugs, which left me multiple red tattoos every morning as a reminder of my laying there.
We experienced wonderful hospitality and generosity from people who had nothing. In Haiti, 70% of people are unemployed, so our team 'hired' some ladies to do the cooking and filter water for us. This way, we were able to eat healthy and not worry about food preparation or water problems, and the women were able to earn money in these desperate times.
So what did we do? It was a fine balance of physical labor and spiritual harvest. For work duties we worked on cutting metal and painting 8 new bed frames, moved bricks, washed the ministry bus in the river, sifted dirt to make cement, and took part in other domestic tasks.
Spiritually, every evening was a church service. The 300+ congregation loved to worship and sing and we were treated to some lovely times of corporate worship, as well as had many talented vocal groups perform Christian songs in Creole (official language) for us. One of the three pastors with us would preach the sermon, and it would be translated. At various times, our team would say quick testimonies and twice we sang a song in English for them. The services went way over 2 hours, but were wonderful to behold and participate in. Sunday service contained communion and a baby dedication too.
Also at church, we took part in 2 separate wedding ceremonies. The first was the marriage of two local Pastors. One of them could not have their best man attend, so I was asked to be his best man and witness and take part in the ceremony. I thought of the irony and uniqueness of the situation. How many times will you be asked to be in a wedding party 30 minutes after the wedding is SUPPOSED to start and having never met the bride or groom to be!!
The second wedding service was the mass wedding of 27 couples who had no money, rings, dresses, transportation, etc. to get married previously. SO...our mission team and the B.E.M. church brought donated wedding dresses and tuxedos, helped pay for rings and marriage certificates, provided all transportation AND coordinated a wedding reception for them all. It was such biblical symbolism.....anyone was invited to the wedding banquet, so over 400 people from the streets came for cake and soda.
Speaking of cakes, the ladies who did our cooking spent almost 5 days making a massive wedding cake from scratch. This cake was monstrous and I was awed at how much effort went into it. One Christian neighbor, upon hearing that they needed to bake cakes, disconnected her oven and propane tank and had it driven over for us to use for a week! Another neighbor, who attends a separate church, gave the space for the reception in his own home! What an event to behold.
The neighborhood kids were also wonderful and I was able to build relationships with them...laughing, playing soccer and 'keep-away', and singing.
This update could turn into a book of adventures...there was so much in such a short time. Other highlights included a river baptism of 85 people (Awesome!), shopping adventures in downtown Les Cayes, visiting the beach and outlying satellite churches, wheelbarrow soda runs, morning devotions every morning, witnessing the affects of Voodoo and spiritual warfare first hand, feeding malnourished and starving children, and being invited into local people homes.
Even leaving was a story. The main (and only) highway was washed out on our 6.5-hour journey returning to the capitol airport from Les Cayes. Although only 116 miles, the roads were as bad, if not worse, than West Africa!! We had to leave our van and carry all our belongings a half-mile through mud and ankle deep water to the opposite side past cars and trucks almost submerged in mud. Halfway across, I half fell into the mud so I was now half brown and half white which generated some laughs from the thousands of people in similar situation as us. On the other side, we found an open back truck and sped towards our destination. We missed our original flight, but thankfully another flight through Miami was given to us at no extra charge.
To sum it all up, I was so content and happy to be able to serve again. I really missed the 'full time ministry' aspect, and interacting and helping people who are suffering. A little willingness and flexibility on our part can put forth tremendous light to those besieged by darkness. I was also very impressed with the discipline and focus of the people of B.E.M., and would definitely consider going again with this organization.
It was an amazing time....not only was I able to see many awesome signatures of God working, but I was blessed, as well, in the process.