Mission Trip to Haiti
When? December 28-January 9 2012
Who? My sister, four people from her
church (The Rock, San Diego) and myself (Crystal from Freechurch Toronto)
Where? Renmen Foundation Orphanage, La Pleine du Cul de Sac, north of
Port au Prince, Haiti
Why? To show God’s love and serve the
orphans in Haiti
It first started with my sister
Melanie. A speaker at her church returned from Haiti and gave a talk about his
time there. Before he left Haiti, he asked a Haitian pastor what message he would
like brought back to the people in the USA. The Haitian pastor said that Haiti
as a country often feels quite forgotten about and that they appreciate it so
much when people come visit. My sister really related to the feeling of being
forgotten about and later felt called to go to Haiti. Then the earthquake
happened and she knew she needed to go more than ever. She went with an
organization called Adventures in Missions, they interviewed her and placed her
in Renmen Foundation Orphanage for a month in June 2010 and the rest is
history. They were welcomed to return and visit again so some of the other team
members and her went back the following Christmas for a surprise visit to the
kids. They had a great time. She felt that if she was meant to return again it
would be because she was meant to bring others down and form long lasting
relationships and ties there. The next fall (2011) a team came together from
her church to go back and I wanted to join them. Partly for selfish reasons, (I
live in Toronto, she lives in San Diego and I never get to see her) and also I
did feel called to serve and who better to go on my first mission trip with than
with my sister? I also knew they could benefit from having another person
besides her who could speak the language and I love working with kids. (It is
part of my job as an arts educator).
A big question emerged when I was
deciding whether to commit to the trip. Why go instead of sending money? Money
would be so helpful. In addition to all of the orphanage’s expenses, it
costs $50 USD a month for each child to attend school in Haiti. I was starting
to calculate the cost of my plane tickets, travel medical appointment, shots
and travel medications and room and board. It added up to about two years of schooling
for a child! Wouldn’t that be better than little old me? I could send down the
money I would have spent coming and then some. But my sister said that from her experience
there, what is more needed than money is some personal attention and love. Many
of the children have been abandoned by living parents. The staffing at the
orphanage is limited as most of their time is taken up with the basic care of the babies and littlest
ones, as well as administration to keep the place running. So for us to go down
there and just be with them and hang out with them, it would be a nice treat. It
sounded so simple; I took this need for granted.
What? Loving the kids like brothers and
sisters.
Some of the activities we did
during our time there:
-sports
-we funded a beach day (the last
time they were able to go to the beach was eight months ago)
-arts and crafts including paper
stain glass and bracelets
-mural painting with some of the
young adults
-manicures, washing the feet and
painting the toes of the young girls à la John 13:14
- discussions about our
testimonies, life, love, God and encouraging them
-building a drain for the
courtyard
-they took us sightseeing into
the mountains and countryside and threw us an amazing goodbye party
One of the most overwhelming
moments of the trip was just arriving and being kissed on the cheek and greeted
hello by over 50 beautiful kids. I felt like a celebrity! Every morning and
evening this beautiful ritual would repeat itself after worship songs and
prayers, with the kids getting more affectionate and the little ones coming
faster and faster and kiss-traffic jamming to us.
We brought diapers (which they
told us they were in a big need of, lots of new babies and small enough diapers
were hard to find there), books, soccer balls, $1500 to contribute towards the
rebuilding of the damaged walls that surround the compound from the earthquake.
But the main way we served them was
not by building or bringing anything but as loving them as our brothers and
sisters. They gave us the most beautiful goodbye party and called us their
brothers and sisters. I received some beautiful goodbye cards expressing their
love, which was often surprising as some of them were shy and had not spoken to
me much. The biggest gift they gave me was embodying God’s peace, joy and love.
They were such generous hosts to us. I knew going into this trip that often
when you serve someone it is you who gets served but I was not prepared for how
generously and easily they accepted me, hosted me and loved me. It was so
humbling. Whatever I did for them, they did back to me tenfold. Sometimes I wondered
if we were working hard enough, it felt like a vacation. But one youth
complemented me, observing that I worked hard and said “Tu est génial”. They
reminded me of how generous God’s love is and how it is just given freely, it
cannot be earned.
What next?
I went back to
Canada thinking about when I could go back to visit my new family again. My
church had supported me with a hip hop for Haiti fundraiser before I left and
so when I came back I gave a report in front of the congregation on my time
there. In my power point I included a picture of the kids in the cage of the
truck going to the beach and casually mentioned that the lady who runs the
orphanage-Florence- told us she dreamed of getting a bus one day. She could
take more of the kids out on outings and all in the same vehicle. And she said
when they did not need to use the bus for the kids they could put it on the
street and have it generate income for the orphanage as public transit. (The
transit system in Haiti is rather informal). The garbage system is also rather
informal and the kids wouldn’t have to pull their shirts over the faces when
they drove by the huge burning garbage piles with the thick white smoke in the
streets. They’d be more protected from that frequent form of pollution inside a
bus, and safer. I casually mentioned this in my presentation but didn’t think
much would come of it. It is quite a bit of money and seemed like such a huge
project for our church. I didn’t expect anything to come of that. But a few
days later I got an email from a girl named Andrea who I didn’t really know : “Hi Crystal,
I was really inspired by your talk this past Sunday. I was speaking to my
living room (small group) last night & I mentioned how the kids in Haiti
were in need of a bus. I think that we should raise the money for it and I'd
love to organize a fundraiser of sorts to do it!” When Florence mentioned her dream of a school
bus it became a wild dream in my imagination-how fun to bring them a bus and
then paint it with the kids all crazy
and colourful with messages of love, like all the other buses in Haiti called “Tap
Taps”. It was kind of a fantasy. But when someone else came forward about it
back in Canada I realized that Florence’s dream could actually become a
reality.
