Source Matelas

This morning (Tuesday) we went to the village of Source Matelas (pronounced Sus Matla).  We met with the contact at the former location of their children’s camp.  Children’s camp is the equivalent of a VBS that meets once a week; they play games, have story time, and get to meet in safe atmosphere.

Now I say it was the former location of their children’s camp because after a strong windstorm a good deal of the structure was damaged.  They no longer held the camp there for fear of the roof falling on the 150+ kids who meet there every Wednesday.  What we saw was a couple broken support posts, what remained of a shredded palm leaf roof, and some rickety benches.  At this time the contact told us about the situation and asked us what we could do to help.  We offered to come back to repair what we could knowing it would be a temporary solution…but we also would put in the suggestion that a more permanent structure be placed on Mission of Hope’s project list.

Our ministry time in the village of Source Matelas consisted of the typical wandering around talking and praying for the people who want it.  But I didn’t participate this time in building relationships with the adults.  This was because a pair of kids had me wrapped around their fingers.  Everywhere our group went to minister, these two would follow holding my hand.  And no matter what was happening, they would quietly play with me a little distance away from ministry.  I felt like they were my ministry today.

Little Jenai especially would chat with me the whole time in Creole and even try to get me to sing…which sometimes happened.  At one point we came to the village’s what source; a spring that our contact told us would be clean if not for the runoff from the farms in the mountains.  In this spring I saw people bathing, doing laundry, and filling water jugs.  Jenai got in beside a man washing his shoes.  She scooped the water in her hands and drank.  All I could do was pray for her little belly not to get upset.

At this moment, I thought about it.  Being an Environmental Science teacher, I always talked about runoff and how it affected nature.  Because we treat the water so much in America, our pollution hurts us a lot less.  We try to save the environment for the environment’s sake.  BUT HERE: runoff kills people.  The way they treat the earth comes right back at them…and I didn’t know how to interpret this.  I guess I still am processing a little.

After lunch at the compound we went back to the children’s camp location with tools and many laborers.  We were able to patch the roof, build a couple new support beams, and even get a couple benches build/fixed.  We were told that the camp would meet tomorrow for the first time in a while in our newly repaired location.  I am overjoyed.  We were invited back there for the occasion.

3 Cords

“A cord of 3 strands is not easily broken” ~Ecclesiastes 4:12

Mission of Hope (MOH) was here before the earthquake.  They had an ambulance donated to them from Canada just before it occurred.  Oddly enough, at the time the director kept declining an ambulance saying, “we have no need, this is just a clinic”.  But the Canadian kept pushing, and telling him that God was telling him to send it.  The director finally relented and said if you ship it, we will take it.  THANK GOD the Canadian had the resources to send it.  The quake struck on the 12 of January 2010 and the MOH ambulance was one of the only two ambulances to make it to Port-Au-Prince.

A plastic hoop barn was set up here on campus for the surgeries since the little clinic couldn’t handle all of the patients.  And this was a birth place of 3 Cords.  There were so many amputations that had to occur because of the conditions here at the time of the emergency.  And some women went around to the amputees as they recovered to give them hair pieces as gifts.  They loved the hair pieces so much that they wanted to make them as well.  It spread from there, everyone wanted a hair piece!

Today 3 Cords is selling even more, the original hair pieces in addition to pins, purses, and the like.  The proceeds in turn go to MOH’s prosthetic ministry.  I was blessed enough to tour the workshop and meet NoNo who makes the limbs.  (It is truly an art and I hope to be able to work with him in there one day for ministry).  All the amputees that come to NoNo not only have a custom made limb for them and maintenance on the limb every 6 months, but also it is completely free through the sale of 3 Cords products.

Another brilliant thing that Mission of Hope does is to keep labor local.  The schools, the clinic, 3 Cords, the feeding centers, everything is run by locals.  This is a completely sustainable ministry that not only provides jobs in a land ravaged by unemployment, but also teaches Haitian laborers to stand on their own instead of becoming dependent on a foreign mission program.  With that said, some ladies on our squad went shopping for our 3 Cords hair pieces to support this good cause.  My particular piece was made by a lady named Beatrice and I am hoping to go down to the sew shop to meet her one day that I am here.  For more information see www.3cordshaiti.com

Flying and Feelings

To be honest, I have been struggling with numbness for the past few weeks.  I would say it started as I ended my job in NC.  And I have so wanted to be excited for this trip.  I wanted to be sad to say goodbye to family.  But instead just a bunch of numbness.  I thought at first it was just me being busy with work/the accident/leaving NC/seeing family/packing etc.  And these things too up too much time so that I didn’t get the chance to be excited.  But it didn’t go away with the circumstances.

During our last bit of training before Launching out, I was in prayer during worship service and I felt like God was saying that my excitement for this coming adventure would come as I shifted my mindset to one of thankfulness.  In an attempt to do this practically, I started to make a list of 100 things I am thankful for.  I was sure that by the time I hit 100, I would feel again.  But alas, 2 days of compiling and I didn’t feel.

After a night on the floor at the Atlanta airport, I found myself on a plane to Miami for a layover.  When we were above the clouds, they spread like a sea below us.  Then, the sun slowly made its way over this cloud horizon and set it ablaze like a molten landscape.  I thanked God for that…and I FELT!  Not for long, but it was good.  I felt that God had such good things in store for us.  The second time I felt today was as we were landing in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.  As we approached the runway we passed over little shacks with rusted roofs and tent cities.  It hit me…this is not something I have done before.  This isn’t some teach-abroad, or study-abroad, or pleasure trip, or even a short term mission.  This is an opportunity to be invited into the homes and lives of people to make a difference for the Kingdom.  It both terrified me and honored me.

Here in Haiti, we are working with a wonderful ministry that is completely sustainable.  These people provide aid to Haitians and teach to step up and run the ministry.  Subsequently, the people do not become dependent on the ministry but instead are able to live out the best life possible.  We begin ministry tomorrow.

Tonight we attended a worship service that the locals led.  And though I didn’t understand much but I sure felt the spirit.  I lifted a hand and sang out:

Ozana Ozana
Anyo a imole
Ozana Ozana
Jezi mouri I’ leve anko

Hosana Hosana
The lamb that was slain
Hosana Hosana
Jesus died and rose again

I found that worshiping with believers from around the world with a language and cultural barrier is POWERFUL!  And we got to meet the church members and chat in a mix of Creole, Broken French, and English.  A storm rolled in and lightning painted the sky.  I thought about all the to-dos that should be done today…but that would have to wait as I spent the cool evening laying on the roof of our dorm, listening to the thunder mix with the sound of praise music on the guitar.  I think I got a glimpse of the Kingdom tonight.  Amen!

If you want to read about our first day of ministry please visit my personal blog at http://carolineritchey.theworldrace.org/

Training Again and Goodbyes

I am in Atlanta doing a few more days of Training for my Mission.  We leave on Tuesday for Haiti.  I'm working on a few things that I want to get sorted before we leave in hopes of being a better teammate/person.  I could go into that, but that might be a bit too deep right now since I am still mentally processing a lot.  In short its about thankfulness, joy, excitement, judgment, connection, and quietness.  I guess I will let you know when the breakthroughs happen.

Until then, here are some photos I took while saying goodbye to family around the States.

Daddy took Chewy and Me out on the Boat to Smith Island.

And of course we ate Seafood on the Island.  YUM CRAB!

Kyle took me to the Mountains of Western Maryland.

My Brother Kyle following the tracks in Cumberland.