The Saturation of Life

Yesterday my wife Crystal mentioned that a month ago we were in Haiti. A month ago. Not even 30 days ago. My reaction was complete shock, and honestly, a little shame. Shame that Haiti has fallen so far from my mind already.

Somehow my daily responsibilities and life in general has saturated my life and washed Haiti from my mind all but 20 to 30 minutes a day during prayers or when stories come up.

I wonder how the rest of our group is doing. If life has overtaken their thoughts of Haiti.

It just so happens that Crystal mentioned Haiti on a day that I was thinking quite a bit about Haiti. Missing it. I was processing on the fact that every week away is a week that the kids I saw will meet new people. Have new experiences. Sooner or later I will be a blurry white face among many other faces who have come, shown them love for several days, and disappeared. It breaks my heart.

I'm glad that I can play a small part in their youth. Provide them a couple moments of smiles and love in a life that will likely be much difficult than the life I know. But I wish it was more.

I thank God for the Fudge family who is down there. They are consistent faces among the many groups.  Each group member that goes down there affects a child for a moment, plays a part of a larger plan that God is working on.  But those children in the few moments we get with them affect us so much more.

Life battles out the memories of the children that I met in Haiti. My own kids place my mind under duress, displacing my memories of the kids that affected my week in Haiti, like Lukeson and Kenya.

I'm battling to keep Haiti fresh. I'm hoping to keep the urgency alive.

Handicapped

Last night, in pain, teeth pressed together and my left arm clinched against my body my mind went to Haiti. I hurt my shoulder playing basketball. Unfortunately as of this point it is pretty much unusable.

I thought about what this injury would mean if I needed my arm to survive. If not being able to go out and hunt meant I would starve. A scary thought.

Then with that thought I remembered a man at the Port-au-Prince airport who helped our group get to our transportation and load baggage. He had only one arm.

For him, the idea of not being able to survive without an arm is so much closer to reality than mine. I work at a computer. As I type this my arm is up on the arm of my chair resting. No real danger here.

For him only having one arm just increases the danger that people live with in Haiti.

For me, to lose an arm would result in disability payments and assistance.

For him he either finds a way to survive... or he doesn't. There is no back up. He finds work... as an airport "helper" or he, and possibly any family he tries to support, goes hungry.

In Haiti, being handicapped seems much more scary.

The Minimal Life

I remain amazed at the work that we accomplished in Haiti. We transformed an environment there. Reflecting the changes we made make such a difference because in Haiti they live the minimal life. 

A classroom in the Harvest Care orphanage/school.
Practical but minimal.

A table in the older girls room displaying some of their
personal items.

Each child increased their 'personal space'
from a single shoe box sized plastic
tub to a full shelf on a cubbie.

A shelf to us is nothing, but they
live the minimal life.

Haiti Has Hope

Don't let my writing, photos or media reports make you think anything other than the fact that 

Haiti Has Hope.

Harvest Care Orphans raising the Haitian flag
 and singing their national anthem.

After hearing for years that Haiti was too big, to complicated to solve. I was discouraged.

I've read in books how complicated Haiti's problems are. How politicians and political policies have buried Haiti under a cloud of despair. I was discouraged.

I thought about the fact that their are MILLIONS of people in Haiti. That event the best of intentions wouldn't reach the masses. I felt hopeless.

But then I visited Haiti. I met the people. I saw some of the bad, but I mainly saw hope. Hope.

Over the last few years the United States was in recession and hope was lost by many. But we continued on.  Businesses and people did what we do... we survived. We adjusted and we figured out a way to go on and improve.  Not because of a government policy... but in spite of it.

Haiti is doing the same thing. The cards are stacked against it, but those who have counted Haiti out have forgotten an important factor... the Haitians. Most of them are beaten down by poverty. By natural disasters. Beaten down by loss. But there is hope.

Hope is in the form of those who are willing to love and serve and show Jesus to them. When they are loved and served they get to know Jesus.

Jesus is hope.  Jesus is love. Not in some hippie kumbaya singing way, but because Jesus knew what it was like to be beat down. He knows what loss felt like. He knew on the other side of the pain was the execution of a plan. God's plan.

Haiti has hope because of Jesus.

Haiti has hope because of Haitians.

Haiti has hope because of the men and woman who serve them.

Haiti has hope because of people like Kelly who serves the kids.

Haiti has hope because of the Fudge family who lives there everyday spilling Gods hope and love on them.

Haiti has hope.

What Can We Do To Create Hope?

• Serve Them - You should go an serve them. Set up a group with Back2Back and serve the Haitians.
• Support Those Who Serve - Not called to go? Support those who are.
• Support The Fudge Family who is there now:  https://donations.back2back.org/
• Another family is leaving to serve full-time in Haiti... Support the Kuntz Family - Their homepage: http://joshanderinkuntz.com/

Efficiency

This last winter my church, Blue Ash Community Church, set off on a grand challenge. We were out to raise $13,000 to purchase tools and a tool trailer to be used by the Back2Back Haiti Mission.

Lots of fund drives can raise more, but for our new and smaller (scrappier) church $13,000 is a lot of money representing around 10% of our annual budget. It happened. We raised the $13,000 and with the help of the kids we exceeded it raising a total of $13,300.

Blue Ash CC presenting a check for $13,300 to
Back2Back.

What was the money for?  Efficiency. We raised the money to purchase a large array of tools and a handmade Haitian trailer to transport them in.

Brent loading the new trailer with tools.

 This trailer allows Back2Back to create an efficient mobile work force that can transform orphanages and LIVES. Every mission trip that goes to Haiti will now be able to get more done and affect more lives because of this.

We had the benefit of the tools while in Haiti and our team transformed lives.

ACTION
I encourage you to take action and join a Back2Back mission team. Or better yet, get a group together and create your own team. You will efficiently change many lives while there... including your own.

Your life will change.

Survival

Brent Fudge, the Back2Back full-time missionary said to me that, 

"much of your time (in Haiti) is spent surviving."

Surviving. 

Recently in school my 12 year old son wrote in a school paper that, 

"I believe it takes strength to survive."

The Fudge family is strong. The Haitian's they serve are strong. Day in and day out they survive.

A wall being built around what will be
the Jesus in Haiti School
and Church

When I visited Haiti I got to witness the strength that was need to live. The daily grind. Find time to make money, buy food from your neighbors shanty store that they run from the gate of their property. Get home before it gets too dark, because things get scary after dark. There is a reason every single property has EIGHT FOOT HIGH WALLS with steel gates. These walls are what you build first!

Not Bad People...Bad Circumstances

The walls aren't built because there are more bad people in Haiti. The walls are built because there are so many people that have a significant need to scrap together a dollar. Theft isn't so they can live a more comfortable life. They live every day surviving. If there is something they can easily take to survive they will. In Haiti a crime of opportunity so happens to be pretty much anything not blocked by a wall. 

Because Surviving is so significant to how life is lived in Haiti I will likely have numerous posts about survival.

The Person That Loves You The Most

I had no intentions of writing in this blog on the weekends. But a thought entered my brain tonight and I wanted to think about it in text.

In your life, think about the person who loves you most. You're not allowed to simply choose Jesus. Think about the one person in your life that you can say loves you the most.

I wonder who the kids at the Harvest Care orphanage would say love them the most. When they think of that person, the love they receive will decide the depth of the love they know. It will be the depth that they can show others. It will be the depth that they measure future relationships against.

Crystal holding a sleeping child at the Jesus in Haiti Church.

Who in your life do you think would name you as the person who loves them the most? Out of the entire world they would look at you as their worldly depth gauge for love. How deep do you love them?

In Haiti many of the kids would crawl into your arms and be able to sleep. A cherished moment for those of us who have experienced it.

It occurs to me that to some of these kids... many of them, it may not be any one person who loves them the most. But the compilation of those who have decided to go and serve that they feel love them the most. It isn't about a single person.  It isn't about their mom or dad, who may no longer be alive. The person that they think love them the most are the people who show up on a weekly basis, smile, open up their arms and hold them.

The person that loves us the most is Jesus. The person or persons we have in this world that love us the most are those who show us the love of Christ the most.

A Different Set of Values

Watching the kids play in Haiti I was disturbed by how quick the older and stronger kids were to take toys from the smaller and younger kids. My 'values meter' was telling me: They Should Share!

I didn't know the Creole words to spread my value so, I ignored it, and processed on it.

As I thought about my value of sharing it occurred to me that sharing is a luxury. Sharing requires that there is some type of abundance. Abundance or time or resources. Haiti, and these kids don't have abundance. Outside of the walls of that orphanage it is a dog-eat-dog world. The weak are taken advantage of, and cast aside. The strong thrive.

Sharing is a luxury that we teach our kids because it makes sense in our world.  It doesn't make sense in theirs.

It pains me to see that one of my values doesn't apply in Haiti. That teaching these kids to share could be a disservice to them.

Value of Team

It occurs to me though that while sharing may not be a value that applies to Haiti a similar value, teamwork, does.

I think of the group of orphans at Harvest Care and I want to let them know that together they are better. Outside of those walls are a bunch of individuals watching out for themselves... but if they work together they can be greater than any one person.

A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple braided cord is not easily broken.

Ecclesiastes 4:12 NLT

A team of 12+ kids seems like a great team to me. It is much more than a rope. It is a brick wall, where I hope God is their foundation, providing rebar reinforcement.

Post-Haiti Depression

I left the office on Wednesday feeling rather discouraged and depressed. I'm missing Haiti. This week, my first week back to work, has been one day after another of the same old same old.

I have realized that compared to Haiti "normal life" is a bit bland. The meaning behind my work lacks the meaning that was behind the work in Haiti. In Haiti things got done.  Not only did they get done there impact was immediate and significant.

We Turned This....

Mosquito, disease ridden mud and over flowing sewage pits that surrounded half of the Harvest Care Orphanage

Into This...

A play area where kids can climb during free time...

A clean space where even after a heavy rain... like shown above... kicking a ball and running is still possible.

I run a company. In fact I run companies...My life is by no means boring or without meaning. Before Haiti I would describe the work I do as exciting and fulfilling. Today, my description would be different.

I'm suffering from...Post-Haiti Depression

Why Does a Kid Wearing a Broken Belt in Haiti Matter?

You see many things in Haiti. A dog lying dead on the side of a crowded road. Towering walls everywhere. The boys bathroom for an entire orphanage and school being "go behind the tarp."

One of the boys who live in this world stood in his red checkered school uniform with khaki shorts and a brown belt undone hanging below his shirt. I saw him walking around with other parentless kids playing on dirt and gravel that makes up his world.

He finally gets close enough to check, and as I begin to point enquiring about his belt I realize that half of it is torn off. But he is still wearing it. It isn't capable of holding up his pants. It isn't capable of completing a well-dressed uniform, because it is never fastened. So I wonder why he wears it? It has no purpose.

I have him take it off and evaluate if it is fixable. I have a drill nearby so I drill a new hole. Problem solved, broken belt fixed, I think, as he puts it back on. He wraps the belt around himself and uses the newly drilled hole, but the belt hangs there, way too large for him.

My first attempt to fix the belt.

This means the belt was not only broke. It was also not the right size for him. Yet he wore it. Why? Dangling there. Hanging out in the loops of his khaki shorts, serving no purpose. If anything it was a burden.

I take the belt again and drill 5 additional holes a couple inches apart. He places the belt on again and ratchets it tight around his waist using the tightest hole. With a large smile he shakes his head yes and walks away holding the belt buckle and looking down at it talking to other boys.

Why did he wear a broken belt? Broken and too large? It served no purpose. He didn't wear it for any of the reasons I wear a belt. He wore it because he could. Because he had one simple item that was his...so he wore it. Somewhere along the line in a box of clothes donated to them there was a broken belt and he chose to make it his. So he wore his broken belt. He smiled a and played. And peed behind a tarp.

  

I hope that the fixed belt will serve a purpose for him. I pray that he will find and pursue God's purpose for his life. That he won't be broken, lost without a purpose.

Finally giving the belt a purpose adding more holes.

 .

Secret Identities

God Isn't Limited By What You Do For a Living

Most of us describe ourselves by our profession. For example, I'm a businessman and computer programmer. I might expand it more and say I'm an Entrepreneur.

But God knows our secret identities.  Identities that we might not even know ourselves.

Our team looking at the project list.

The Skills Needed
The skills needed in Haiti don't line up with the what I do for a living. When a team from church and I looked over the project list that we hoped to accomplish during the week it was obvious that Haiti needed carpenters, plumbers and electricians.  It needed mechanics, doctors and handymen.  Not sales reps, computer programmers and travel agents.

Haiti got sales reps, computer programmers and travel agents when we showed up.

God didn't limit what we would accomplish to what we did for a living. In fact he didn't limit what we accomplished to our list and plans (A story for another day).

Instead, God used the group that showed up. A group with our hands in the air saying "Pick me, I'll try it."

We turned control (CTRL) of our week over to God.  We Asked, Listened and Trusted (ALT) what He wanted us to do. Then we watched as He Deleted who we thought we were and replaced it with who He wanted us to be.

Crystal, a travel agent and bookkeeper, works as a
carpenter to build a cubby that
will give orphans their own space.

Jeff and Josh, work in video and pharmaceuticals, worked
to repair a well to provide water for Harvest Care.
A requirement for working toilets, showers and kitchen.

Most of us took on new roles for the week of the mission. Some in the world are bold enough to take on the role God has for them for years or life. People like this include Kelly, the Haitian who ran the Harvest Care orphanage and school.

Kelly, (I believe) was an engineer. When moved by seeing
kids on the street he opened his home up to
start Harvest Care orphanage. Harvest Care is also a school.
He is an engineer turned orphanage director and
school superintendent

Another are the Fudge family. Brent went from working for Coke to following God's call to lead and start Back2Back's Haiti Mission.

The Fudge Family. Brent use to work for Coca-Cola but
changed the direction of life when he allowed God to
use him as a full-time missionary in Haiti. 

Picnic Tables

On my last day in Haiti I set out to make a picnic table within two and a half hours. Seemed simple enough.  We had the wood, the tools, instructions and even the motivation!  After all we had spent the entire week eating our lunches leaning against trees and sitting in the back of the truck. It would be nice for the kids to have a place to sit outside to eat.

Mission accomplished. We built the table in about an hour and a half and had a moment to enjoy it with the kids.

Sitting at the newly finished table with my friend Luckson

and several of the other orphans at Harvest Care.

Now for the perspective change. When we asked where to place the table we weren't given an immediate answer. In my mind I knew the perfect spot.  Outside near the well, half under a tree, half out in the sun. It would be a great spot.  But when we finally got instructions it didn't end up under the tree by the well.  We took the picnic table inside.

It turns out it wasn't a picnic table at all. It wasn't for leisurely sitting in the shade enjoying a meal. It wasn't for playing board games with your kids. Instead of a picnic table we build a school table.  A breakfast, lunch and dinner table. A table not of leisure, but of necessity.

The this photo you can see the table as it sits in the school/orphanage. At right is Kelly the man who runs the home and school. When we brought the table over he stopped what he did and walked over to it, staring at the pile of lumber organized by screws into a table. He placed his hand on the table and walked a step admiring it.

His reaction was impactful. It hit me hard. To me I had built a picnic table. To him I had provided a surface for change. For kids to take in food, and to sit and work on lessons.

We built the table in under two hours. It will sit there and have an impact for years. I hope I can spend many more hours of my life having that kind of impact.