MVCC Haiti: Haiti Day 9 Team update

MVCC Haiti Day 9 - Sunday Jan 29

one of Anderson's murals. This is at the school.

Sundays are usually my (Jim) favorite days in Haiti and the second Sunday of the trip is usually even better than the first. This was no exception.

We warmed up leftover pates and fried rice to go with the options of cereal and fruit for breakfast and anxiously waited to go to Port-Au-Prince Fellowship. John and I also took advantage of delivering something to Cindy Ahrentzen in order for him to see the Cascaia (sp) church and grounds. This is the park like atmosphere where the children are able to play on a lot of Sunday afternoons. The chapel is quite reverent and the cross design is nice. There were also many people there early doing Bible study on the grounds. It had a beautiful and serene retreat type feel to it.

The fellowship, worship and sermons at PAP Fellowship are fantastic and Spirit lead. The new pastor John Meadth is a wonderful teacher and most of our old friends are there. They have now been supplemented with more missionary families and a lot of visiting teams. It is growing to the point that they are considering how to have two services. The conversations include amazing stories of how God is working everywhere in Haiti and around the world as many have been involved in other areas. The congregation is very missions driven. Between 40-50% of their budget goes to missions support. Only one of the ministries that they support is located in Haiti. So to overstate the obvious, missionaries and residents of the poorest country in the world are sending out missionaries in other countries. It is quite humbling. On the first Sunday, a friend who was visiting a member and was introduced was a part of Brother Andrews Ministry of smuggling Bibles into the Soviet bloc countries in the 80’s. This Sunday, a member was preparing to leave the ministry in Haiti to work with Samaritan’s Purse in the Congo.

I was blessed to sit with David Sanders of the Transition Program this Sunday and we had a great conversation with two other of his friends who are there long term and are working with ministries in the provinces. The friends’ ministry has a strong focus of working with visiting teams while they serve the ministries here. It was a reminder of how the trips are as much about changing the trip participants as they are about serving those we visit. David is also a quiet, humble, hard working, intelligent man who is doing a great work with the Transition Program. It was a privilege to serve with him, worship with him and to pray with him.

Sunday afternoons carry the fellowship theme forward as we go to the Manasseros’ for lunch. There may be someone there who has been in Haiti for 20 years like we met this week. I have also been there with visiting doctors, the wife of the former World Vision Director for Haiti, and other full time missionaries who have incredible life stories and perspectives. This Sunday was a slightly smaller crowd than usual and the day included impromptu Latin dancing, a cello concert by a graduate of Julliard in NYC and tremendous amounts of laughter and bonding. Sainteman’s Cuban arroz con pollo, pikliz, fried bananas (not plantains this time), potatoes and ocra (sp? -Not okra – this is a tuber), fruit and salad were amazing of course. But her hug and beautiful smile warm up the soul as much as her food. Her new assistant, Chuck Slone was also at the fryer post again.

Three of the team members were blessed to have Mr. Ivans take them on a tour of the local tent city in the afternoon and they came back with a new perspective. He also showed them the home where he is raising 9 street boys. He is the de-facto mayor of the area in addition to his work as the school principal, feeding program teacher and worship leader, Saturday night neighborhood services administrator and the go to guy for anything that needs to happen. He and Cindy A. are currently trying to rescue two young sisters who are being terribly neglected and physically abused in the tent city. Child services would have arrested their mother a long time ago in the US and the community is trying to compensate for the mother here. Just as optimism knows no borders, neither does selfishness.

The dental team leaders were able to video the setup for the dental clinic so that other dental teams can use the facilities. It will also hopefully serve to give an example for other ministries in Haiti and third world countries. It looks very promising and Dr Slone and Chandra were great presenters.

I was blessed to spend most of the afternoon with my sponsor daughter Cherline and several of her friends. We used Skype to talk with one of her other sponsors and Facebook to send messages to a couple of other sponsors and mentoring visitors who have made a big impact on Chedline and her lives. They loved seeing the Facebook pictures, meeting their other sponsor’s wife and granddaughter, talking, laughing and hugging. I am so fortunate that the Lord allows me to have a personal relationship with her. A funny thing that happened was that she explained that she had one other sponsor who she writes but who never writes back. She was rather heartbroken over this. She told me that their names are Costella and James. I had to explain to her that these are the formal names for my mom and me. My mom uses her middle name Lou and the Kriol culture doesn’t shorten James to Jim. It was a valuable reminder of how important the ongoing contact is with the sponsors and mentors who visit. This was also brought home to me as Davidson gave me a box that he made for my aunt who sponsors him. She sent a letter, picture and cross to him and he wanted to send her back a letter, drawing and the box. He spent hours preparing it all for her.

Cindy A. was able to join us for the evening (along with David & Sam who joined us for the second time each) and it was wonderful to have our sister with us for fellowship, the cookies that she baked and her insights. We are her home team even though all of the teams that come through report how much of an impact she has on them. We love her so much and are so grateful for her fellowship, leadership, encouragement, hugs, smiles and laughter when we are here.

The sunset was also beautiful and a few of the team members were able to join us on the roof for the first time. It is a tougher climb than the old guesthouse roof but the views of God’s artwork are surely worth it.

To cap it off, our devotions tonight were in John 20. What better completion than to be reminded that nothing else matters if Jesus did not go to the cross, if he did not raise from the dead, if we do not learn of it from the testimonies of the disciples, if we do not accept Him as our Lord and Savior and if we do not help others to do the same.