Once again, I wish I could blog more. I am usually pretty good about journaling daily and I have been AWFUL at it since I have been here. I am making a new commitment today, actually I made it yesterday, that I will make time for quiet time and journaling, otherwise I will be no good for anyone. I don’t feel like there are enough hours in the day to do everything that needs to be done, but am realizing how important it is to make sure that my relationship with the Lord and learning and growing in Him HAS to be priority, it should always be a priority but I feel it even more so here…With the presence of VooDoo, if I do not maintain the armor of the Lord, I do not know how useful I will be.
All of that to say this last week has been interesting, as most days are here. As I mentioned in previous blogs I have been heading over the mountain to Grand Goave every Tuesday morning and returning to Jacmel on Thursday mornings. My time in Grand Goave is very different than it is in Jacmel. Not better, not worse, just different. After spending a couple of days with the kids who are stealing my heart just like the kids in Jacmel have done, I realized that I am madly in love with the entire country of Haiti, not just the city of Jacmel, not only the Hands and Feet Project, but the Lord has given me a burning passion for this entire nation. Last week was my second trip to Grand Goave, I had only spent one day with the kids there the week before but as soon I walked through the gate I hear “Bekah, Bekah!” No matter how many times I hear it, I will never grow tired of little Haitian children saying my name. I have only met these kids once and they remember me! This is why I am here, to make a difference. The kids in Grand Goave force me to use the little Kreyol I know since they do not know much English, but this is good for me, it challenges me to make sure I am committing to studying the language! I took new pictures of the kids there, and let me tell you, they LOVE having their pictures taken, and Emmanuel, one of ‘my boys’ is such a ‘ham’ after every photo I took, he would say “Bekah, photo, mwen!” Loosely translated, means Bekah take a picture of me! He would pose with his hand under his cheek, or with his thumbs up…he is precious. While I was at the school that day I noticed some more Americans there that I had yet to meet, so I introduced myself. They are there working on an orphanage called “Be Like Brit”. Len Gengel, father of Britney Gengel is building an orphanage in honor of his 19 year old daughter who was killed in the January 12th earthquake at the Hotel Montana. Mission of Hope is housing the Be Like Brit staff, in addition to the Hands and Feet staff so I was able to spend some time with this group of people. If I am honest it was hard for me to have a conversation without tearing up. Their story is heart-wrenching, but they believe so much in the passion and compassion of their daughter/cousin/friend, to continue her legacy to reach the orphans of Haiti. They will house 33 boys and 33 girls at Be Like Brit to remember the 33 days it took to recover her body after the quake. Their story is obviously much more in depth but I am already beginning to write a short novel so I will save that for another blog post, or you can email me and I can share my interactions with them. Be praying for their family and the organization that they will find the strength they need to complete this orphanage and to get through every day in the same place their loved one was taken from them. Needless to say I made some new friends that I am excited to take this Haitian journey with.
On our way back to Jacmel, traveling over the mountain that I have been traveling over for the last three years, and twice a week for the last few weeks, I had a new realization. I started wondering how many people lived in these mountains, with nothing, no running water, no power, in mud huts. How many people were living here that we couldn’t see? I don’t know why I had never wondered these things before, but my heart began to go out to the ‘unreached’, I guess you would say this was when I had my epiphany that the Lord had given me a burning passion for the people of Haiti as a whole. I know that I am unable to serve everywhere at once, but I also know that I can use my experience to mobilize others to serve in the areas I am unable to go to. I began wondering about the restaveks (child slaves), if you Google restavek in Haiti you can find a ton of info, I also began wondering about the prostitutes, and if Haiti had the infamous ‘red-light districts’. I still have not found a lot of answers for these questions, but that does not mean I am not determined to find out more info. When I got back, my heart was heavy, from conversations I had had the previous two days and the realizations I was having about this place I love that morning. I began talking to Stacie (my wonderful roommate, who I believe is also my twin) about all of these things, and we came to the conclusion that we both have had this same passion and calling for this place for years, we have dreamed of being in this place for some time, and now that we are here it’s almost surreal. We love being here, we are EXACTLY where we are supposed to be, but we cannot forget the Haiti outside these walls. We must ask the Lord to remind us daily of the people and conditions outside these walls.
We have had a lot of sick kids here lately. Apparently it is ‘flu season’ in Haiti and it is apparent. As I was taking care of one of the young sick boys I began tearing up, again, tearing up is a common occurrence for me. I was thinking of when I was five years old, maybe even 15 years old hah, and being sick, having a fever and just wanting my mom or dad to take care of me. I was reminded that this boy does not have a biological mom or dad to take care of him and it was our responsibility to play that role. I laid down with him for a bit with a cool rag over his head until he fell asleep. Lord remind me daily that these children are orphans….Sometimes it is easy to forget since we are one big family here. But I cannot act for a minute that their reality is not much harsher than mine. I want to love these kids well, and treat them as if they were my own children, in some ways I feel as if they are. We had to take a few of them back to the Cuban hospital and while we were there, there were 3 patients in the same room that we were seeing the doctor in. Stacie said she felt that it was important that we pray with them, so we approached each patient with their caregiver asking if we could pray with them. The first young lady was pregnant and on what appeared to be a breathing machine, with our ‘petit petit’ kreyol we were unsure what was actually wrong with her, the second patient was a young boy, maybe eight years old who had some sort of infection in his lymph node under his arm, he could barely put his arm down, his grandmother was sitting with him and she thanked us for praying over him. The last patient was a baby boy 18 months I believe, we are unsure of what was wrong with him also but his father spoke a little English and he said “God is my Father, thank you for praying with my son.” Those moments when I am being ministered to by Haitian people will NEVER cease to amaze me. I don’t know why that is, but I feel like in Christian America we get caught in this frame of mind that we are the only ones who know the saving grace of Christ and it is our responsibility to minister to the ends of the earth, what about the Christians all over the world, they also have the same calling we do, to minister to the ends of the earth, and they are simply doing that when they converse with us. Lord remind me that you have revealed yourself to many, teach me that these people are my brothers and sisters in Christ and I should never be surprised by your saving Grace in them that they so graciously choose to share with me!
I feel like I speak a lot to the difficult things that I see every day, but there are so many positive things that happen as well, I need to make sure and share those moments On Saturday, Cam,Cameron & I took the older boys to the beach. As soon as we got there I was racing all 12 of them into the water, do you know how difficult it is to number 1 run on the sand, and number 2 beat Haitian boys ages 8-14, hahah near impossible for me. However, I wasn’t going to give up, so the boys and I had a start and finish line that we raced back and forth on a good 15 to 20 times, needless to say I am a little sore today haha. The water was pretty rough so we kept the boys closer to the shore, but the beach here is more than perfect. It feels like bath water that you don’t have to ‘gradually get into’ you just jump right in and play. The boys had muddy sand fights, this was glorious to watch! Earlier on Saturday I had walked outside and one of the girls told me to look at the sun, there was this dark black circle around the sun with shades of the colors of the rainbow, and around that edge was a bright yellow circle…It was quite eerie to say the least, so we researched it a little and found out that according to folklore it means the beginning of hurricane season, this could explain why the water was so rough
There are so many more things I could share, and I am committing to at least journaling them every day so I don’t forget them when I post them on here. I don’t want any of you to miss out on this adventure that I am having in Haiti!! Pray that the Lord will continue to speak to each of here, that He will continue to use each of us here, that He will give us the words to speak in difficult moments, that He will pour so much love into us that we can’t do anything but pour into the people of Haiti, pray that He will give us new dreams, and new visions of how we can minister to the unreached outside of these walls….Thank you again for taking this journey with me, I know for a fact that I could not do it without your prayers and support!!!
PS- our new website is up! Check out the Family Room and help us get all of our kids sponsored at 100%! www.handsandfeetproject.org
Much Love,
Bek
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