Because he is owned by Christ, he owes Christ to the world!!

Bonswa!

I am so sorry it has been awhile since I blogged last but so much has happened since then so I apologize in advance for the length of this blog.

Last Sunday, we went to church here in Haiti at the same church we attended while I was here in March. It was a great service that I was so blessed by. These church members worship God so diligently and with such passion and love in their hearts. I am always in awe of their faith knowing that many of these same people lost family members, friends, and loved ones in the Earthquake. It was so great to be back in fellowship with them again and I look forward to two more Sunday’s with them before I have to return home!

After church, we got to take Haitian transportation affectionately known as tap-taps!! These are along the same lines as taxis, but are nothing like those you see in America. They are brightly colored trucks with an overhang on top of the bed to shield you from the sun. Haitians pile into these tap-taps, sitting in each other’s laps and filling them to the brim before using them to travel around the city. Then, once you want to stop you just ask someone to tap on the window and they will stop and let you out. It is a great way to travel around here and I was so excited that we all got to travel back to the house this way!! Before anyone panics, our security guard that stands guard at the house rode with us and made sure that we were well taken care of and stayed safe during our adventure! It was soooo much fun and I look forward to riding one again soon!!

Once we got back to the house from church, we quickly changed clothes and then headed out to the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic to visit Jimani. Jimani is the birthplace of Chadasha-where Dr. Clint Dorian and those on the board established a hospital and boarding school with team housing right across the Haiti-DR border. It was such a beautiful place and extremely nice and well-taken care of. John and Melissa Hanley run this branch of Chadasha and were such sweet people to take us in for a few days. During our time there we helped organize the medicine in the pharmacy of the hospital, including getting rid of all the expired medicine. I was SO excited about exploring the hospital since it is my dream, that if it be God’s will I can one day open a similar hospital in Haiti! It was so surreal walking through the operating rooms, examination rooms and seeing all the plans to make the hospital even better than it is now. I am so excited for what God has in store for that place and all the good that will come from it!

Also, while we were in Jimani a team from Largo, Florida was staying there as well. They were an AMAZING group of people will beautiful hearts! I am soooo thankful that God allowed us to be a part of their trip and watch them interact and minister to the community! It was a beautiful thing.

The best day of our stay in Jimani was our adventure to Batey 41. Batey 41 is actually in Haiti, but lies across a lake and can only be reached by land on the DR side of the border. With 2 days of failed attempts to cross into Batey 41 because of border patrol police who refused to let us through, God showed his power and we used an alternate route! We took a boat, rowboat to be exact, across the biggest lake in Haiti to reach Batey 41. The rowboats were made by the people who live in the Batey from any extra lumbar they could find. You can imagine the adventure we had as we piled into these boats and rowed across the lake as someone pailed out water from the inside until we reached the shore on the other side. It was an awesome experience and I loved it!! God had his hand on us and we made it to and from the Batey safely in these boats. The adventure was well worth it to get to visit Batey 41 and meet so many sweet, sweet people.

As soon as we reached the shore, children swarmed us. These children live in huts, with thatched roofs and have no running water or electricity. It is a truly humbling place. Despite all this, these people are genuinely happy! They have nothing, but were so excited to show us their houses and walk us through the neighborhood. I had a little boy who stayed attached to me for most of the time we spent there. His sweet smile will forever be in my memory. Also, a young boy who had come to Port-Au-Prince from Batey 41 for hernia repair had just recently returned to the Batey. It was so excited to see him and his mother again and look at his incision and see how great his was doing post-surgery!! He just reached for me and let me and the other girls here hold him as we continued exploring the Batey. We walked through the neighborhood praying for people and playing with children when we came to a house with a young week old baby inside. The mother said he was sick and while one of the other girls was holding him he began to have a seizure. As we stayed and examined further, it was seen that they were long lasting; longest one was 11 minutes long. This was truly a heartbreaking situation for everyone involved. This young child going through so much at such a young age, and not being able to eat because of such frequent seizures was just numbing. John Hanley then worked his magic and found out that a neurologist was coming to Port-Au-Prince and that we could get the baby to our house until Monday when the doctor arrived!! It was all God’s provision and just goes to show that he will never leave nor forsake us and will always provide for his children!! Leaving that place was so difficult. The sweet, sweet people will forever remain in my heart and I hope and pray for the day that I can return there!!

After going to the Batey, we returned home to Port-Au-Prince on Thursday. Not long after we returned we made a trip to the orphanage to visit with the children who by this time I was desperate to see!! Children complaining that they were sick soon swarmed me. One young boy, around the age of 3, had a fever and was very weak. Through the help of the other girls and our translator I was able to get some medicine down him and instructions left with the ladies who stay at the orphanage to watch him and monitor his temperature and call if he got worse. My heart ached when I had to leave him there so sick. As I went to lay him down before we had to leave I remembered that the God is a healer and our comforter and said a quiet prayer for the child. The next day as we returned to the orphanage I was greeted by his sweet smiling face and hands reaching up for me to hold him. His fever had broken and he was doing much better!!! To God be the glory!! We spent the rest of the day there holding children and teaching them songs. It was such a beautiful day.

As we returned home, we were greeted by the translator who works with the Hanley’s in Jimani and the young sick baby from the Batey and his mother!! It was a great evening spent holding the young child so his mother could rest from her travels. It is a great comfort to know that God holds this baby in his hands and loves him more than I or his mother ever could!! Keep praying for this baby, his mother, and the doctor that they will see on Monday. Pray that the mother will find peace and rest in God’s grace, that the baby will be free from pain and be able to rest with minimal seizure activity, and that the doctor will have the knowledge to know what to do to help this young family. God holds them in his hands and it is only through him that this baby will be healed.

While here in Haiti our group has been conducting a bible study on the book Radical by David Platt. I highly recommend this book. It will challenge you in so many ways in your walk with God and the way you view life. I just want to share a quote from this book that touched me this past week. “The message of biblical Christianity is not ‘God loves me, period,’ as if we were the object of our own faith. The message of biblical Christianity is ‘God loves me so that I might make him—his ways, his salvation, and his greatness—known among all nations.” “Because he is owned by Christ, he owes Christ to the world.” God has challenged me through reading this to never be afraid to proclaim his name and tell others how he has impacted my life and how he can impact theirs for the better. Because I am a follow of Jesus Christ, I owe it to the world to share my faith with them. Here in Haiti I can hold a sick baby, rock a young child to sleep, and provide them all with clean water and food, but the only thing that is going to matter on an eternal perspective is sharing the love of Christ with them. God’s love is the only thing that has the power to change their life completely!!

My thoughts and prayers are with all of you that are reading this blog. I pray God’s hand of blessing over you. Remember our group here, the young sick baby and his mother, and the whole country of Haiti in your prayers. God has it all under control and it is only through him that this country will reach it’s full potential. I love you all!! 

Love and Prayers,

Brittany