When meeting with Haitian pastors at the end of their time there, the American pastors asked what message the Haitians would like them to bring back to their churches in California.
Their answer?
To tell them "thank you" for remembering them. They were so thankful to have been recognized and remembered by the outside world (keep in mind, this is back in August '09). Many of the inhabitants live on smaller islands and have never met anyone from the outside world. These people hunger to know God and be known by Him but they believe they have been forgotten ... Haiti has the lowest per capita income of any country in the western hemisphere. Plagued by disease, malnutrition, illiteracy, political upheaval, and deforestation, more than three quarters of the population live in extreme poverty. For many who have heard of Jesus and would like to know him, their health is so poor from malnutrition that they cannot physically make it to church because they cannot get there in their weakened state by foot (most are too poor to have animals such as donkeys to help with travel).
In Haiti, life for children is particularly difficult (and has been for a long time before the earthquake)... They are 'supposed' to begin school at age six, but many can’t afford the mandatory school fees, and some villages don’t even have school facilities. It’s not uncommon for a child to enter the first grade at age 15, if they enter school at all. Because entire generations of parents are being wiped out by AIDS, children are left raising children when elderly grandparents are not able to step in. Right now one of the major issues that has resulted from this is what the UN is calling 'child slavery' - children are being deprived of most basic human rights to things like education, health, and food as well as being subjected to multiple forms of abuse including economic exploitation, sexual violence and corporal punishment.... (For more see the UN article: UN human rights expert condemns child ‘slavery’ in Haiti)
While God's made me more aware of what's going on in this particular country, He's also been putting it on my heart to Do Something. The first step last summer was sponsoring a child... the little guy I've been blessed to be able to help (and fell in love with at first sight) is Djefly (that's his picture! cute,eh?). He's 5 years old and speaks creole. Djefly lives with his Grandmother, he has no parents, brothers or sisters. His grandmother struggles to provide for them. They live in a community severely affected by the HIV and AIDS crisis. In some communities in Haiti, AIDS affects the entire social structure and a generation of hardworking adults is being wiped out. Frightened children and exhausted grandparents rarely have money for food, school, or medical care. Djefly isn't in school right now, but hopefully he will be soon.
Since starting sponsorship back in the summer, God also planted a seed in my heart to go to Haiti for some kind of missions trip. Originally, I had been looking at an opportunity to go over Christmas '09 in hopes that I might be able to talk my family into joining me. Things didn't work out that way. I continued to look into various outreach and missions opportunities but timing or logistical issues seemed to keep coming up, preventing them from being something I could pursue tangibly. Until after the earthquake hit, when I received the information on the trip with AIM.
Then things started lining up. Although some people might look at this as me being an adventure seeker,everything about going to Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake puts me well outside of my comfort zone. This is most definitely not a vacation. But, when God puts something in our hearts, loving Him means obeying Him. And God kept has kept going to Haiti on my heart. Towards the end of February, about a month since I first heard about the AIM trip, it got to the point where I knew the waiting was over, this is the opportunity, He wants me to Go.
I am really excited to see how God will provide for me to get there and serve Him and the people of Haiti.
