Mission Trip: Haiti 2010
Journal of Haiti Trip (February 26, 2010 – March 6, 2010) By Pastor Tom Hatley
Sometimes God plans when you will go on a mission trip. This one was unexpected. I had been advising a team that was to go into Haiti and place water purification machines. As they approached the date for leaving they strongly encouraged me to come with them. None of them had been in country and they needed a preacher. I was glad to go because since the earthquake there was a deep yearning in my heart to encourage our dear friends there.
Friday: Going in.
I packed my absolutely needed stuff in a backpack and some merely “needed” stuff in a small suitcase I could check. AT the airport the equipment we were carrying took up 20 checked items, so I left my suitcase with Peggy. In my backpack (a carry-on item) were my bible, clothes, toiletries, air mattress, blanket, mosquito net, notebook, etc.
This trip would be about the Lord helping us to overcome obstacles. The first hurdle: how four people can check a total of 20 bags without it costing hundreds of dollars in additional costs? The American Airlines manager discovered our purpose, to take four water purification machines into Haiti. She waved all extra charges and wrote a note to the people in Miami to do the same on the flight into Port-au-Prince. Wow! What a blessing. This was over 1000 pounds of equipment.
Saying goodbye to Peggy is always hard. At least this trip is for only eight days. On a brighter side, I’m leaving cold weather for warm. My bones are ready for the change.
After going through security we have a few minutes to get acquainted. I’ve met only one of these guys before today. Phil is an engineer from Little Rock and is responsible for the design of these water purifiers. He knows his stuff and will make sure each unit is fully functional and that each site has two or three people fully trained to run them.
Klaus is the electrician. He is from Kansas and loves people and is high energy. Besides the electrical work he will help troubleshoot and fix various problems.
Matt is the team leader. He is very missions minded and I met him when we hosted the Tom Cox Evangelistic Association Annual Meeting last year. He is here as a scientist and to represent TCWM. He is very good at keeping us on target with our mission and he also is from Kansas.
Everyone is wearing goofy-looking floppy hats. We look more like we are going to Australia than Haiti.
Our day takes us to Chicago, then to Miami. We must spend the night in Miami and take an early flight into Port-au-Prince, Haiti. My seat from Chicago to Miami was an upgrade to business-class so I had a seat that reclined and had a foot-rest. Was able to catch a little nap on the way and some ragging from the guys in the “cheap seats.” I told them, “It pays to have a good prayer life.”
I also had a witnessing opportunity. The young lady in the seat next to me was very pleasant and I sensed an opportunity to share. She was going home to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and her name was Gabriella. After a few minutes of sharing pleasantries we enjoyed a chance to rest. I knew as we approached Miami there would be a few minutes where we had to put our seats up straight and I could talk to her. The Lord gave me an approach just for her. I drew three circles and explained to her how the bible taught the three divisions of our lives: body, soul, and spirit. I told her several truths about this, including that when we die our soul and spirit go to the Lord but our body remains on earth until Jesus returns, at which time He generates for us an eternal body and joins it to our already glorified soul/spirit. I gave her some verses from the Roman Road and waited for her reaction. She cried a little and told me she was on her way to Rio because that was her childhood home and her grandfather had died unexpectedly. He had raised her for most of her childhood and she was very close to him. She said the diagram meant a great deal to her and she wanted to keep it.
I also wrote down some passages such as John 14 for comfort during her time of grief. She and her family were Catholic, which is no surprise since most of South America is the same, and I hope the need for a personal commitment to Jesus came through my witness to her. I also gave her our IBC web-address and told her to study the plan of salvation there.
Landing in Miami presented a new challenge. Where do we sleep and how? To retrieve our luggage takes several hours and now we must move it from the domestic terminal to the international terminal, a walk of about a quarter mile. There are no rooms available in the area and we can’t leave our luggage anywhere safe anyway so we declare a need to camp out. We sleep around the luggage to protect it and stay in the terminal. No one really sleeps more than an hour or two.
Kenson, Pastor Kenan’s son, lives in Miami. I had told him what we were doing and he comes down and spend a couple of hours with us. This too is a blessing. He knows the answers to some of the questions team members have about source water, delivery systems, and more. I enjoy Kenson. We have a kindred spirit and we reminisce about three years ago in Haiti when we climbed a mountain and hiked across the peninsula near Mole St. Nicholas. My hope is that someday the Lord will lead him to return and take over his father’s ministry, though I hope the need for such is still a long time in coming. Pastor Kenan will turn sixty soon.
The floor is cold and hard and the lights are on full bright in the airport. I use the $3.99 air mattress for my bed. It’s the kind you float on in a swimming pool. In a pinch it is a decent bed. We are up at 4 a.m. because the counter is about to open for check-in. It takes over an hour for them to process our luggage. They can’t promise it will all fit on this flight, so we may have to wait a few hours at the airport at Port-au-Prince for whatever doesn’t fit on this plane.
Our flight leaves a little after six a.m. and arrives at 8:30 a.m. The terminal was still standing, but cracked by the earthquake. In fact, a metal building has been added by relief crews so it is bigger than in the past. We wait in that non-air-conditioned building for over three hours for our luggage. Half is on our flight and half is on the next flight, but praise the Lord, it is all here now.
On the way out of the baggage claim area we are told we must pay a tax on our checked bags. We know this trick and I am glad to be the spokesman for the moment. I tell the man we cannot pay a tax because we are going to give the machines to people in their country who need water. He makes us open two of the boxes. The contents of one looks like a bomb and that isn’t always good when going through airports.
He says this is new stuff and we must pay the tax. Again I tell him we cannot pay the tax because the labor and materials were donated and we were not selling them. These are all free to the needy people of Haiti. Reluctantly he concedes and with a motion of his hand toward the door we take that as our signal to hit the streets without looking back. Thank you Lord for another hurdle crossed.
One thing the earthquake did not change is the confusion outside the airport. There is pushing, shoving, and plenty of yelling from people wanting to carry your bags and then wanting a large “tip”. This is not a good first impression for a country that should be appreciating those who are here to rescue her. We escape with tips that combine to be only about $50 U.S. Even then there is some anger from those “helping” us.
We connect with Pastor Kenan. He has two vehicles there to load us and our equipment. This takes a while but we are ready for our first stop in-country, a trip to Eko Depot (Home Depot). Why there? We need parts fort he equipment and hoses and power cords and much more. We’ll come here three times during our stay and spend over $1,000.
This is my first Home Depot to visit where the greeter at the door is not smiling but is in a uniform and carrying a twelve gauge shotgun. I wonder if this would cut back on shop-lifting at Wal-Mart?
By mid-afternoon we are seeing much of the devastation. Unbelievable piles of rubble. Thousands still buried under mountains of concrete, years away from being removed. Accounts of those who survived were that for ten seconds they saw buildings shaking like a long piece of paper in the wind. Some stood, but with cracks. Some fell and some are partially collapsed. Many will fall at any moment. Others seem to look OK but have painted on their walls that they will be demolished. Three and four story buildings are pan caked and now stand only eight feet high.
Pastor Kenan (pronounced Kenna, the second “n” is silent) takes us to his home in Port-au-Prince. It is standing, the only one in the neighborhood left standing. He has no consistent electricity and is not able to sleep there. Some of the walls around his home have collapsed and because his neighbors have no homes, most are now living in tents in his yard. Three are over a dozen tents on his property which is about a half acre in size.
The pastor takes us to the room in the house where he and his wife were when the quake hit. He tells us, “It nearly threw me down. I saw out the window and my car (a new Toyota Land Cruiser our VBS offering last summer helped to purchase) was bouncing up and down. I got to the door and I told my wife to leave. It was hard to walk because the floors were moving and the walls were moving, shaking like paper.” He and his wife made it to the yard and saw surrounding homes falling. The wall near the Toyota fell where the vehicle had rested only ten seconds earlier. But it was now standing unharmed and ready for the great amount of use for which it will be needed in the days to come.
It is amazing how ten seconds can change a nation. It can set it back 100 years. This will take over a decade of work to put things in order. Wow, what powers there are in this world. Powers we can neither predict nor control. All such chaos is the result of the fall of man and is evidence that when man fell all of creation fell with him. It also reminds us that this world is not eternal and that our security must come from outside this temporary space-time existence. Imagine the one second it took for Adam to sin and how we have yet to fully account for that devastation.
While at Pastor Kenan’s house in Port-au-Prince we unload and work on our units for hours, only stopping an hour past dark because there is little light due to the lack of electricity. We had to work on the machines in the yard to have adequate light. We finish prepping three units and then store them at the house and drive to an orphanage just outside of town. They have a guest room we will rent for any time we are in this area. It is about 12’ X15’ and has 5 bunk beds with thin but welcome mattresses upon them (a great improvement over the floor at the airport). They have also been keeping a dinner for us and we are hungry. It has been two days since a shower or significant sleep. All are in bed by 10 p.m. Mosquitoes are thick and we are taking malaria pills but even then you have a chance of getting the disease. My mosquito net will have great value on this trip.
They have a West African Rooster within their compound. I assume it is from West Africa because it begins to crow loudly at the moment the sun rises in West Africa, about 2 a.m. our time in Haiti. Many vow we will enjoy chicken as a meal before we leave, a revenge meal. Seriously, most of the evening meals involve rice, beans, perhaps a vegetable and if there is meat it is usually goat. Goat meat is good with some of the sauces they have.
Morning begins with devotionals and a good breakfast. It is also our first chance to meet the children. They are mostly between ages 5 and 15. There are about 25 in this facility. They are well adjusted, loved, and learning quickly. The lady who runs this ministry is named Mary. She is a great Christian lady with a very happy disposition.
This is Sunday and it is time for the journey to church. I get to preach to the church here that pastor Kenan pastors. The people are well dressed and appreciate the message. I use the Baptism and Temptation of Jesus to talk about spiritual warfare. This is a subject they face every day. I encourage them to know that the quake has opened a door of opportunity and that they needed to look beyond the need to survive and realize that the Lord will use them to establish a new priority in Haiti. Added was an admonition that as they have missionaries come to help them they should take notice because the day will come when they too will send missionaries into the world. These saints are natural servants and my desire is to give them the hope that they will be used by the Lord to do more than just survive.
We take a meal at a restaurant that looks like a combination MacDonald’s/Subway. The food is OK but the real treat is that the cokes are cold and they taste like “the real thing”. We drive around and see more of the devastation. Almost all government buildings and banks are destroyed. Even the Presidential Palace was destroyed.
Pastor Kenan knows of a preacher who warned many national leaders of the coming of judgment if things did not change. Corruption is part of the fabric of this country. Only the leaders of Cap Haitian believed him. They held public prayer walks and sang hymns in the streets before the earthquake. The damaging effects of the quake never reached that city, the second largest in the nation.
The president back in Port-au-Prince reportedly responded to the preacher with disbelief and told him, “What do you try to do, make a protestant out of me?” He refused to change. Six days later came the earthquake. One good sign from his office came in that he canceled Mardi gras and suggested the nation spend the time in prayer. Some hope he is yet to turn to Christ or at least to allow Christianity to begin to be a significant part of the leadership of the nation.
In the afternoon we work on the machines and again we talk of our first installation which was to go in Les Caye (located a four hour drive southwest of Port-au-Prince). The rains washed out the bridge there and had we gone it could have been disastrous. Twelve people were killed in the flood. Les Caye will wait until the last day of the trip to receive a machine. Their need of clean water was revealed to us by the missions team associated with the Arkansas Baptist Convention.
As we work on the machines we get to know the neighbors living in Kenan’s yard. They are very friendly and seem to be content. That is a little disturbing to Kenan. He needs his fence rebuilt so he can start moving the neighbors out of his yard. Electricity will soon be more consistent and he may be able use his house again if it is found to not have too much damage.
Back at the orphanage for a meal and more discussion. Then to sleep because tomorrow will be a very long day.
Monday morning and we enjoy a light breakfast, a moment with the children and we load up for the drive north. More is needed from Eco Depot and by the time we head for Gonaives it is about 1:30 p.m. We have no place to eat lunch and so we each raid our back-packs and begin to share with one another. To no surprise we have all brought some version of trail-mix. There is little else and we stop at a truck stop and buys some chips and other junk food, it is all the food they sell at this place. Back on the road I offer my greatest source of real food. I have 5 packets of tuna. There are six of us in the car and three don’t like tuna so there is some for those who like this form of protein. These snacks will be both lunch and supper and we are blessed to have them. Thanks Peggy for packing good stuff to eat in the small pockets of my back pack.
In Gonaives by 5 p.m. and we begin our first installation. The well is a hand pump and they have a 150 gallon storage tank. We fill the tank with five gallon buckets of the well water, attach a hose and run it into a storage building 25 feet away. From there the unit will draw the water in and through the several filters that strain down to .35 microns in size. Into this filtered water is injected Ozone that kills anything left that could cause any illness. The process can produce two gallons of pure water per hour.
Installation and training keep us until about 11 p.m. Now we are going further north and west to Mole St. Nicholas, the base of Pastor Kenan’s ministry and the place where Immanuel has taken dozens of mission trips and invested over one million dollars over the years. The road from Port to Gonaives was smooth and wider than a few years ago. The road from Gonaives to Mole is just as it was the day after the flood of Noah. At about 2 a.m. Pastor Kenan asks me to drive. He gets out and locks the hubs so I can have the full benefit of four wheel drive. This is the roughest part of the trip and the Pastor’s back is hurting. He has a great deal of back trouble from the years of making this journey on a motorcycle when he was younger. I’m having a blast. In the states such “four wheeling” is a recreational joy. My fellow travelers are worried at first as to whether or not I can handle the situation but they soon let their weariness set in and actually sleep part of the way.
As we approach Mole, at about 45 minutes out, I return the vehicle to Pastor Kenan. It is now almost 4 a.m. and we pull into the compound to find Madame Kenan waiting with snacks and encouragement. We lay down at about 5 a.m. for a two hour nap before beginning our day. It is great to be back in Mole, but I notice they also have a few roosters.
Tuesday Morning is a time to rest and explore. Michael, a 17 year old preacher’s kid from NW Arkansas is our guide. He is spending three months helping out and learning about missions. He and I serve as tour guides as we show the team an old French Fort, the beach, and the town of Mole St. Nicholas. After lunch we begin the installation of the machine for the church. Since the church is next door to the pastor’s home we install it on his side porch. There we have good access to water (spring fed) and to electricity. It is a covered porch so that helps as well. This install goes much quicker and in two hours we are producing good water. Everyone is so happy about this great gift. Just a few weeks earlier a child died in this town from Typhoid. May that never happen again.
Tuesday evening is supper followed by church. A good crowd gathers and after I preach for about 40 minutes there is a choir practice led by the pastor that lasts another hour. We get to visit with some of the young men who are helping with the work here in Mole. They are introduced to us by Michael. There is a laptop we can use and call home and check emails. Thank the Lord for satellites.
The next morning I check with my cell carrier and am able to purchase an affordable package for Haiti. It is only for relief workers, but I qualify and now I can call home and check on things at church. The other guys are not able to get the same package for some reason. Again, it helps to have a prayer life, I tell them. Now they all use my phone to call home and each really appreciate being able to talk to their wives. Surprisingly, I get decent cell strength even here in Mole. Will miracles never cease?
Wednesday morning we are to install a unit at the school. This goes well though the access to electricity is not quite as simple. This is working and the children are told of what it means. They are so appreciative. I get to speak to the high school and college students. I challenge them from Isaiah 6 to respond to God’s call and ask some of them to be open to the call to missions.
After the install two groups from the school, one from leadership and one representing the students seek us out and formally and sincerely thank us for the water. That night we have church again and I preach about the power of the gospel. As a closing illustration I speak about the fact that because they had won so many to Jesus in their town and area that the Voodoo leaders had made a habit of holding ceremonies at the spring a few miles above their homes. Everyone knew they were performing animal sacrifice and pouring blood and ashes into the water so that as it ran to the village Voodoo would again be in the people. The spring was their only consistent source of water. I told them that in answer to their prayers the Lord had brought them the filtration system that would now remove all those contaminates from the water and give them living water. They applaud and cheer, knowing this is both a physical and spiritual victory.
Thursday morning we arise early and say our goodbyes and begin the long drive back to Port-au-Prince. It will be sundown before we reach the outskirts of the city, but we’ll make the journey safely. Pastor Kenan drives to Gonaives where we stop to check on the first machine. They want it moved to a different area and it takes about an hour to accommodate them. The pastor’s home is next door and we are welcomed to a very good lunch including coke that is so cold it is partially frozen. Now we are only three hours from Port and after a while the pastor asks me to drive again. The roads are so much smoother than when last I drove and I try to match the pastor’s skills and daring technique. There are no speed limit signs or any kind of rules. You go where you have the courage to go, at the speed you might have the courage to attain. And don’t spare the horn.
We enter town just about dark and I am stuck in a big traffic jam. Bluff, honking, and the helpful instruction from the pastor on when and who to “cut-off” in traffic find us finally back at Pastor Kenan’s home: the one with the neighbors living in his yard. We get the last machine and all remaining filters and parts and carry them to the orphanage. By cell phone calls we have arranged for the people from Les Caye to meet us the next day at the orphanage where we will train them and help them pack up the equipment for transport. It is all we have time to do. Les Caye continued to receive rain and travel there for us might risk the ability to make our flight out on Saturday morning.
Though it is about 8 p.m. when we get to the orphanage we are met with dinner. I hate it when I take a mission trip and don’t lose weight. We spend some time calling loved ones and mentally thinking through the next day. When a day begins in Mole and ends in Port it is a long day. And your rear hurts.
Something else you should know about this team. Early on we could see we were all cut from different cloth. That is we were all different, which usually makes for either a good team or a group of people who are good at getting on one another’s nerves. To take the edge off and facilitate the team mind-set I decided to give each member a nick-name. I chose a Star Wars theme. Matt was our leader so I called him Luke Skywalker. He was disgustingly clean-cut and nice. Phil was the brains of the operation so he became Yoda, especially smart was he. On the first night we identified Klaus as having the strangest snore we ever heard, he was to be Chewbacca. Only a Wookie could snore like that. I was dubbed Han Solo, no doubt because of my Harrison Ford like good looks, or perhaps because of the fact that I drove the Land Cruiser as fearlessly as did Han his spaceship.
About half the time we would refer to one another by our Star Wars names. I was even accused of using “the force” as a driving aid. Which is not true, I just used the experience of many years of driving in Dallas traffic. The guys even named Pastor Kenan Obi wan Kenobi, the Jedi training master, because he was always surrounded by younger men he was training for the ministry. The pastor seemed to really enjoy the humor that flowed through the team. It was a balance to the broken hearts we had much of the time as we surveyed the disaster that seemed to never go away even after the earth stopped shaking.
Friday morning goes well. We are prepared for the folks from Les Caye. But they are late. We play with the children and write in our journals until finally they arrive. We spend several hours training and packing these guys up for the journey home. They are surprised at the quality and production of this unit. I think it is much more than they thought it would be. They have several ministries but the main purpose is a school that needs fresh water. Their water table is only a few feet below ground level and therefore susceptible to contaminates. Again, living water to the rescue.
We journey into town for a last look at the needs there. Traffic is really bad again and people really need to leave this town and go somewhere else and start over. They seem determined to stay in these tent cities but they are in the way of the clean-up and with the rainy season upon them they could really be in for some problems with sanitation. There is talk of the government forcing some of them out of the city by gunpoint just to save their lives.
By the way. There is no Haitian Army. It was disbanded by Clinton and Aristide over a decade ago. Now the UN roams the land in thousands of tanks, helicopters, and SUVs. All are white with a U.N. in black on the side. I’m not sure this is the way to run a country and yet I know this is what many in America want for us. But that can’t happen as long as there is this stubborn obstacle called the south.
Back to the Orphanage for a late meal and a final night of fighting mosquitoes and listening to the Wookie and the African Rooster. Tomorrow night, a hot shower and a real bed. My how blessed we are.
Next morning are sweet goodbyes. The trip to the airport is quick and we have time to kill. I am surprised as the waiting area fills with many disaster relief teams, almost all are Baptist. The Lord is using His people in America and their big hearts. There was much more noticeable relief being done by Christian volunteer groups than by government groups. I don’t know where all that secular concern money is going but its impact is not as obvious as that of Christian ministries. If I were giving to Haiti, and I have, I’d give through Christian groups who deliver their help in person. What goes through the government or secular relief agencies seldom gets to the people.
The trip home is uneventful. All flights are on time. We have a three hour wait in Fort Lauderdale. It is time for beef. So off to a TGI Fridays in the airport and I order a hamburger. On to Dallas and then to home. This time we sit close together and it allows for time to debrief and to enjoy stories of the trip. Everyone is willing to come back in a few months with more machines if funds become available.
Back home I am able to go straight to the pick-up zone at XNA because I have no checked bag. Peggy is there to pick me up. It is so great to see my precious bride. I ask about the children and grandchildren and when home I am treated to a brisket she has cooked for Sunday dinner.
Once home I prepare for my message on Sunday and go through pictures for a slide show that will help with my report to the church. Bedtime is not until after 2 a.m. If I were not the preacher I’d be tempted to sleep-in but I’m too excited to share with the dearest people in the world just how their prayers and sacrificial giving has helped to change the world. Now, let’s grow a church that can do even more to reach the world.