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| Tent Worship Service |
My word of the day is MINISTRY. We started our day at a sunrise worship
service in a tent that is almost beyond description. The Haitians are so unabashed in worship and
so filled with the Holy Spirit. It set
the tone for a beautiful day. After
breakfast we traveled to Titanyen, a village outside of Port-au-Prince where
Grace Village is located. On the way
there we stopped at a school with dirt floors, no bathrooms, no playground, no
food, and hundreds of children. There
are so many opportunities to make such a huge difference in Haiti. We also stopped at a mass grave where tens of
thousands of Haitians were buried, unidentified, after the devastating
earthquake in 2010. One of our Haitian
guides and translators, Wilson, shared the story of how he lost 55 classmates in
the earthquake. He had stepped out of
his school to buy a bottle of water, and was across the street to witness the
collapse of his three-story school that killed all of the students in his
class. He also lost his father in the
earthquake. The next words out of his
mouth after describing his losses were, “I give thanks to God.” What an incredible example of faith. God calls him to great things.
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| Antonia |
In Titanyen I had the opportunity to serve the elderly
through what I will call guerilla health care and meals on wheels. Guerilla health care involves 3 untrained
women (me, my sister Ann, and our teammate Shelley), attempting to minister to
the needs of the forgotten elderly with Neosporin, powder, basins, peaches,
Spam, straws, water, washcloths, clean sheets, clothing, and wet wipes. Shelley gave sponge baths while Ann and I
applied powder and distributed food and water in their shanties. My heart was broken wide open when we
ministered to Antonia. A paraplegic,
Antonia suffers from bedsores and a fungal infection on her feet, and was on a
flea-infested blanket on a filthy mattress soaked with her feces and urine. If a dog were found in such conditions in the
United States, the owners would be charged with animal cruelty. I couldn’t stop crying. We did what we could to clean her up, apply
ointment, change her bedding, pray with her and give her nourishment. But it was clear that what she truly needs is
24-hour care in an elder care facility.
This is not an option for Antonia…
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| Haiti's forgotten elderly |
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| Andrenoi |
After guerilla healthcare I set off on a 4-wheeler with our
Haitian guide and translator Andrenoi.
At age 29, Andrenoi is compassionate beyond his years and ministers to
the elderly. Six days each week Andrenoi
delivers hot meals in Tupperware containers to 10 suffering elderly in
Titanyen. He will soon expand his
ministry to 20 elderly. Andrenoi
supports his parents, brothers and sisters on his salary from Healing Haiti, and
feels so blessed to have the opportunity to do what he does. Half way through our meals on wheels
deliveries Andrenoi asked me, “What is your ministry?” I have never been asked that question before
and wasn’t sure how to answer. I told
him about Reiser Relief and Fr. Reiser and the ministries we support. But, after all that I have seen this week, I
can honestly say that the ministry closest to my heart is the elderly. People like Antonia are beloved children of
God, and as such deserve to live their final days in dignity and love. Thank you, Andreoi, for revealing my
ministry to me. Thank you, Haiti, for
opening my eyes and heart to God’s will.
Peace,
Joyce
Today was our day of
endings. First of all, it was our last
full day in Haiti—our last day to take in a few more pieces of this beautiful,
complicated country. We started with a 6
a.m. tent service that was anything but an ending. It was an inspiring start to our day inside a
huge white tent filled with people of all ages singing and praising the
Lord. Haitian people are filled with the
love of God, and watching them praise His name is a joyful thing to behold. Thankfully, the tent service gave us the
strength to witness some of the things we experienced the rest of the
day.
Our first stop was at
Redemptor School, another very poor Haitian school with so many needs but yet,
like the other schools we have seen, it’s filled with the smiling faces of
Haitian children who seem to find the beauty in every day despite a
poverty-filled existence. We then visited the mass graves in Haiti made after
the 2010 earthquake. It was painful to
look out at the crosses and memorials scattered over the mass grave and think of
the horrific way these thousands of peoples lives had ended in the earthquake
and even more painful as we listened to the stories of some of the Haitian men
with us who shared their stories about loved ones lost in the earthquake.
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| Mass Grave |
From there, we went to Grace
Village. It was such a contrast in
comparison to what we’d seen so much of what we’d seen during the week—a
beautiful complex of brightly colored buildings and so much more building still
taking place. Besides the 43 smiling
orphans we met who were so lucky to have been placed in such a love-filled
environment, there is a feeding center and plans for elder care, a church,
medical clinic and much more. Good
things ARE happening in Haiti.
But, sadly, the next part of
our day was back to all about endings.
We made visits to sick, elderly people living in one-room huts who were
sleeping on filthy, flea-infested mattresses on the dirt floors (if they were
lucky enough to have a mattress at all), with soiled clothes, painful bedsores,
little or no food and water, and little or no loving care. What we were able to do to help these elderly
people in their final stages of life were so small, yet they were better than
the alternative of nothing at all. In
the United States, we rightfully put so much emphasis on dying with dignity, and
to many poor elderly people in Haiti, there is no dignity at all in dying--only
loneliness, hunger, thirst, filth, and pain.
It was such a tragic thing to view on our last day in Haiti. Yet, maybe God had that in his plan for us,
because now, besides leaving Haiti with a passion to help the children of Haiti,
we are leaving with a passion to help the elderly.
I have truly been blessed to
have the opportunity to see, hear, and touch Haiti, and I am filled with a sense
of urgency to come back here. There is
so much left to do, and so many hands are needed to complete God’s work. I thank Father Reiser for “giving me the
nudge” to go to Haiti, and I thank the people of Haiti for being so willing to
share a piece of each of their lives with me.
My deepest gratitude and love to every person I have met on this trip,
and my sincere thanks to those who have supported our mission and continue to do
so.
I will end my Haiti blog
with a quote from Mother Teresa:
“If we want the poor to see
Christ in us, we must first see Christ in the poor.”
Blessings,
Ann
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