Haiti 2008

I’m back from Haiti! Wow, what an experience I had there. I can hardly believe I was only there for about 9 days. We started off our trip with plane delays giving us one overnight stay in Miami, then onto Haiti. We arrived in the evening on Tuesday, November 17. Outside the airpot there was a mob of people trying to take our luggage for us, but we were told not to because they would expect a tip. Once we were on the bus we had a two hour trip from Port au Prince to St. Marc where the YWAM base was. We had some training on our disaster relief work and then we were off to sleep.

Wednesday the fun began. We set out to the 5th section of St. Marc in a little town called La Grange. We went through a lot of spiritual warfare that day. We all stood/sat in the back of the work truck while Terry Snow (the director of the YWAM base) attempted to get us through all the mud to the town. It was only by God’s protection and help that we were able to make it all the way there. The people were so excited to see us. We set up the equipment and began our process. A few people from our group went out and did investigating of the homes. They had to figure out, with the help of our Haitian translators, the names of the families, how many people lived in the house, telephone numbers (who would have thought they would have phones when they can hardly find food to eat), and then they had to evaluate the condition of the home and the families needs. Then the rest of us, myself included, entered this data into the computer and took pictures of the people to make ID cards. Amazingly the rain held off while we were there (it appeared the clouds separated and was raining in the mountains and the ocean but not in the section we were in. Isn’t our God Great!)

The next day we went to another town, Desfouneau, and did the same process while Terry went and handed out the Blue Cards to La Grange so that they could get food boxes. On Friday we went back to La Grange to hand out the food boxes. The drive is about 1-1.5 hours and we had to take about 4 trips to get all the food boxes to the town. We started with a group leaving at 6 am and the last group arriving at 3 pm. During this time we taught the school kids our names, played hop scotch, did some dramas, took photos, and just had fun with the kids. Then Alyssa and I gave our testimonies, Luke gave a little sermon, and then we started handing out the food boxes. There was some chaos, but everyone ended up getting their food box and we were able to head back to the base. It was an amazing day!
Over the weekend we went to the local market, ate out at a local restaurant, relaxed and performed our dramas, gave testimonies/sermons and worshiped at the bases Church service. Then another week began.

Monday we had some issues with Gervie (another town) lying to us, so we ended up packing up and leaving early. The town was filled with Greed, so we had a time of prayer for them that evening. Tuesday we headed back to Desfouneau, we performed our dramas, gave testimonies and a sermon and then handed out food boxes. The town was very appreciative and very cooperative about waiting in line. Some people even stopped in our prayer line to be prayed for longer. It was so awesome to see. Then we went to a small town called Ba-Lalle who were so excited to see us and hear what we had to say. We performed our dramas again along with testimonies and a sermon. Many people accepted Christ and we were able to have a time of prayer for the people there. Then after lunch we went to a town called Luben, which Terry had just recently gone to for the 1st time in his almost 20 years of ministry there. We handed out food cards. I had a following of kids the whole time I was there :)

Wednesday a group went back to Luben to hand out food, while the rest of us helped out with the Children’s Academy that they had on the base. We did some dramas, told a bible story and then headed to the different classrooms. I helped out the kindergardeners. They were so cute, we attempted to make 3D pumpkins and then we had snack break and watched part of WALL-E. In the afternoon we had a lesson from Terry Snow. In the evening the base was celebrating everyones birthdays for the month of November, we played TrainReck, threw the birthday people in the pool, and had cupcakes. It was a fun evening.

Thursday we made our way home to St. Croix. We had issues getting back though. Our flight out of Haiti was delayed so half of our group ended up staying in Miami because Immigration took so long and the other half of us barely made our flight to San Juan, PR. But we made it and we are all trying to rest up this weekend.

The outreach overall was life brought a lot of light towards missions for me. The people in these towns had such an amazing joy for how little they have. There was one man that was helping us control the lines, showing people where to go. He was so happy and he had lost his house in the Hurricanes (Hanna and Ike) and probably had hardly any food or possessions. He was such an example for all of us. God really helped me through my fear of public speaking and He helped me see that my words could bring someone to Christ. I am so excited to learn even more about God and about going to Nicaragua in January. I think I will truly come home a changed person. OUR GOD IS AMAZING, HIS LOVE IS STEADY AND UNCHANGING!

Thank you to everyone for your prayers while we were gone. God’s power was definitely proven while I was in Haiti. I know that it is through prayer that we were able to do the work we did there.

I hope to get pictures uploaded soon, but it takes a long time because our internet is so slow. Thanks again for your patience in this area :)

Love in Christ,

Kathy Beth Miersma