Hey all! So seeing as it’s been a couple months since we got back, Dan asked me to post some more info about what we did while we were there. What can I say, I’m nothing if not punctual.
So where to start? I guess it’s worth saying a little bit about the group we worked with. So the Foursqaure Church’s mission base in Haiti consists of a house that is about a block away from the National Church’s property (the National Church being the name of the church Foursqaure is most directly partnered with). The full-time staff there consists of – if I understand it correctly – three people at least at the time of our visit. That is, Pastor John Booker and his wife Debbie (both of whom were incidentally in America at the time of our stay) and Pastor Mark Olson, who acts as overall team coordinator. Everyone else serving there at any given time is a volunteer. These people give up anywhere from a week to six months of their time to serve at the mission base. I may be getting the details wrong, but that’s how I understand it. Anyways, one of these volunteers was our personal team facilitator, Craig. He has a big heart and a dry sense of humor, and it was a blast getting to know him over the next week and a half! In addition to us, there was always at least one other team living at the house doing their own projects independent of us, though sometimes we got to work together.
They're hard to see in this picture, but we would pass the cows in this field every day on the way from the house to the church. By the end of the trip, we had names for them all... I miss you, Milky Way
Anyways, our time in Haiti was divided between a wide variety of experiences and tasks, but can be generally summed up into two categories: projects around the church complex, and direct service through interaction with local Haitians. First I’ll say a little bit about the stuff we did on the church complex.
So one of the cool things about the National Church complex is that it has, with the aid of the mission base, become much more than just a place of worship on Sunday mornings – rather, it functions as a hub for all sorts of community activity. Here are all the things I remember seeing happen on the church grounds during our visit: Sunday morning service, primary schooling for kids of all ages, English classes for adults four times a week, band practices (mainly the church band), food distribution to the locals, construction of cement pavers to be used by the church or sold, ongoing construction of a housing complex, the raising of chickens for meat and eggs, planting of banana trees, the hosting of a worship concert (which we got to participate in and brought in over a hundred people from the community in attendance!), and probably a couple other things I’m forgetting. Also, as Mark pointed out to us, they had just purchased tanks for raising tilapia (fish) and had plans for hydroponic gardening in the near future. There is also a functioning well on the grounds which supplies clean, fresh water to the mission house and members of the surrounding community. It seems like no matter what time of day there were always people doing something on the church grounds! All of this is part of the vision shared by the Foursquare team and the local pastors for the church effort as a whole in Haiti. (Incidentally, we got to work closely with Associate Pastor Rosenal – probably spelled wrong - while we were there, as Lead Pastor Guy was away.)
This is the church. Or, it will be - at the time of our visit, the church was waiting for the materials to arrive to build a new building. In the meantime they were meeting in a makeshift structure.
So what type of work was it that we did on the church grounds? One word for you: PAINTING! If there’s one thing that took up most of our time, it was painting of the interior of one of the bunkhouses that was intended to house visiting pastors in the future. Actually, we did a lot of work on this building, including hammering in nails, some electrical work, caulking shower stalls, assembling bunk beds… but the thing that I remember most is the painting! We spent a good five or six days painting all of the walls white to prepare them for future guests who would be attending pastoral conferences that the National Church would be putting on. As Chad explained to us, having painted walls is a big deal in Haiti, so it was a good feeling to know that we were going the extra step to make visitors feel welcome and comfortable. Besides, painting can be fun! Just ask Andy and Emily ;)
We did a few other projects around the area, including cleanup at a property that the church just bought to build a new orphanage (there was literally a mountain of garbage piled up on the property because a fallen tree had blocked up a stream), and the planting of banana trees at a nearby tent city. Whatever it was we did, it was great to feel like we were making a difference in the well-being of the community. It was also fun when people from the community would see us working and come up to help us without even being asked – the people there are so friendly and willing to help!
So all of that was pretty fun, but my favorite parts of the trip were when we got to interact with the people of the community directly. Our first opportunity to do this came our very first morning in Haiti when we got to go sit in on one of the English classes being held at the church. There were somewhere around forty Haitians there when we arrived, staring intently at a chalkboard with numerous vocabulary words written upon it. We got to participate in the lesson and help some of the students with the textbook, and then later we got to divide into groups to have some time to socialize. I’ll tell you, this was a bit of a stretch for me – first time out of my own country (Canada doesn’t count!) and here I am a naturally shy person trying to have a conversation with a group of total strangers who speak a different language! But, as I said before, the people there are so friendly, and they all wanted to know all kinds of things about me, like where in America I live, how many siblings I have, what I’m studying in school, and – most importantly – do I love Jesus? : )
Learning some vocabulary words :)
Another really cool thing we got do was visit a nearby tent city and play with the children there. Well, actually, we were going there to plant banana trees for the community – but that pretty much turned into playtime as we were literally surrounding by a mob of children wanting to watch, help, or play! I’ve never had so many children asking me to pick them up or just plain jumping on me and trying to ride me like a horse. I’m fond of saying children love me like they love a trampoline – or in this case, a jungle gym!
Those kids are silly
More about the tent city, though. There are 2000 plus people living in this makeshift community living in pretty squalid conditions. A lot of the residents there are in pretty poor health as well – but fortunately Jordyn was able to bring her medical supplies and help some of them out, alongside the member of one of the other teams who happened to be a nurse! Suffice it to say that the people there are pretty poor - too poor in fact to even send their children to school (which is not free in Haiti, apparently).
So here’s the cool part. A Haitian by the name of Jonas decided to open up a school for the children there. What’s more, he has made it free to attend and is supporting the entire school on his own income. And why, you might ask? Because God visited him in a dream and told him to. Yep, that’s pretty awesome. We got to visit the school later in the week and throw a joint concert with Jonas – we played some worship songs and he played a few songs that he’d written on the guitar, then he shared his testimony with the 200 plus people who showed up, drawn by the sound of the music! We learned after the concert that Jonas didn’t actually own his own guitar, so Dan gave him his as a gift before we left for home.
One last thing I’d like to share is the work going on with orphanages in the area. There are a number of orphanages that the Foursquare base is in partnership with, but we got to visit two of them that they have particularly close ties with. The first is an all-girls orphanages opened up fifteen years ago by a local Haitian. Some of the girls living there when we visited had been there since it opened – there is a wide age range between all the girls from 3 or 4 to 19. Their living space isn’t much to look at, but it’s certainly more than they would have had if not for the orphanage. In spite of that, however, the girls were full of energy and joy when we arrived, and despite the language barrier we were able to form some pretty strong bonds in the few hours we had to spend with them. One of the girls there stands out in my memory because she shared with us her dream of becoming a nurse one day – not an easy task for someone from her circumstance, but she was determined to see it through (it seems that the orphanage owner was paying to send some of the girls to school, which is awesome). Even though we did little more than simply show up to visit for a couple hours, it made me proud to be a small part of helping her realize that goal in that I was part of a team that was helping the church that was helping her! Anyways, our visit to this orphanage was quite a powerful experience, one that I know was quite potent for a few of the members of our team.
The girls at the orphanage (and Mark). Their houses mostly consisted of tents like this.
The other orphanage we got to visit is run by the pastor of another church in the area, Pastor Belan - also probably spelled wrong, but I’m trying here! The orphanage itself was actually well over an hour away from the house, up on top of the nearby hill which was apparently known as Lookout Hill. (Incidentally, the aforementioned property bought by the church is intended for the construction of a new orphanage for Belan to move into when his current lease is up). The orphanage itself is actually just a two-story house, but it’s pretty nice especially compared to the girls’ orphanage. The kids there are all quite young, and there are about 9 of them if I remember correctly. We got to play with them for a couple hours and give them some toys and coloring books. We were sad to leave them there, and more than one of us wished we could take one home with us (I’m looking at you, Andy).
Anyways, that’s just a small bit about what we got to do while we were in Haiti. It was an unforgettable experience. I know that there is a plan in the works for getting us back there again next year, so I for one would appreciate any prayers you could send our way. Thank so much to all of you who partnered with us this year! We couldn’t have done it without you!
