Day two in Haiti started off at Faith, Hope, Love orphanage and infant rescue center. When we arrived, most of the kids had already left for school. The few that remained touched my heart. One child had hydrocephalus, another had lymphoma in his eyes and the other had brittle bone disease. As I saw the little girl with this bone disease laying in her crib, my heart broke. She was so thin and frail. She had no strength to move. As the others walked on to see the rest of the orphanage, I stayed behind to pray for her.
She reminded me of my spiritual state. I was helpless without Christ. I had no strength without Him. He had to come into my life to give me the strength I needed to survive. It was He who pulled me from my broken state where I couldn’t stand, lifted me up and provided the strength to move. It is with proper nutrition that both she and I have a chance. Mine comes from God’s Word and spending time with Him daily. Without that, I would die spiritually. For her, a doctor called yesterday and agreed to give her a feeding tube so we can get her the nutrition that she would die without.
After we left there, we drove out of Port au Prince to the site of the mass grave for all who died in the earthquake of 2010. As we stood on this field, we were reminded of that tragic time in this country when over 100,000 died in one day. We heard stories of bodies being drug into the streets. Trucks would come and get a load of bodies and dump them in this field. Other trucks would come take rubble to the site and pile it on top of them. They did this for days. It was a grim reminder of what had happened. One of the team members asked me, “Could you imagine the memorial in America if 100,000 died in one event? Think of what we did for 9/11 for 3,000.” Here, because of poverty, they just dumped in a field and covered them.
We left there and began our long, bumpy trip to Gonaives. We rode in the back of the truck, sitting on our luggage, enjoying the beautiful Haitian country side. Mountains. Farms. Broken roads. Check points. Markets. They were all on our path. The sites, sounds and smells make this ride so memorable. Where we would place multimillion dollar homes with a view, they have piecemeal shacks with rusted tin roofs not even facing the ocean. What a stark contrast of cultures between theirs and ours. The average Haitian makes in a week, less than most of us make in an hour.
Once we arrived in Gonaives, we unloaded our bags at the guest house, said hello to familiar friends who live here and headed out to Myan where we are building an orphanage. As we drove down the long dirt road and went side to side looking for a smooth surface (which didn’t exist), people cheered and waved. We weren’t just building an orphanage in this rural community, we were bringing hope. The well that was completed yesterday will keep this community from having to walk six miles with a 5 gallon bucket to fetch clean water. The gardens we will plant will supply nutritious food. The orphans will hear about Jesus and change the spiritual landscape of this community. What we are building with concrete and mortar is creating hope.
As we exited the truck, kids came running out of no where. Dirty, half naked and smiling they came and held our hands. They walked us up Prayer Mountain and listened as we shared the vision of this property with our team. They sat in our laps as we prayed over them, their community and the future possibilities of this orphanage. When we finished, the kids sang “This is the Day That The Lord Has Made” in their native Creole. They were singing a song about a God they had never known before we arrived last year.
When they finished singing, the kids instinctively grabbed us by our hands and led us to the orphanage. There were chains of 5 or 6 people long as we made our way down the hill and through the gates. The men at the site worked until there was no more daylight. We checked the well to see how deep the water was and to get a sample. We toured the unfinished buildings and made a plan for how we could help. We told them to come back on Thursday for medical treatment and check ups. We danced and played with the kids before we had to leave. We arrived back at our house in time for a typical Haitian meal, had a church service on our balcony and went to bed. Our hearts are full and the work is just beginning.
Devotions by Chris Hendrix 