Life here on the river’s edge was so peaceful and simple, a tremendous contrast from the busyness of the market where your senses were assaulted from every direction. Two seemingly different worlds, only meters from each other.

In a country where nothing could get worse, it just did. Our hearts and prayers are with Haiti today.

We were in Haiti for two weeks. But it had an impact on me that will last a lifetime. The people we spent time with were amazing, compassionate men and women dedicated to pulling Haiti out of the muck and mire one soul at a time.

And now, they face a horrible reality in the wake of destruction left by devastating earthquake. It’s hard to imagine the country ever rising from such rubble. But through God, all things are possible. Pray that the Christians in this country will be a beacon of hope to the communities. For our friends at HaitiARISE, pray they can help in the time of need and that God will provide more than they can hope or imagine as they reach out to the community of Grand Guave. Praise God that HaitiARISE director Marc Honorat is OK as is a team from Nelson, BC (non HFL) that arrived just hours before the quake hit.

Pray for these things, pray for whatever else God sets on your heart as the news rolls in. Just pray.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. - Psalm 40:2

If you would like to donate, please click here to be re-directed to a secure donation page, and in the “Donation Designation” section, select Projects – Haiti: Earthquake Response from the drop-down menu. As with all Hungry for Life projects, 100% of the funds given to this project will be used for this project.

I share that because many people we have talked to about the Pockets of Change project have remarked at ‘what a grand adventure we will have ‘, and ‘aren’t we lucky to have this opportunity’ and so on.

I agree. Wholeheartedly.

But. The getting to the adventures? Oh my.

I write this in my notebook at 3 a.m. in the Miami International Airport. I’m laying on a bench that reminds me of a doctor’s office bench. I’m listening to a mix of really bad jazz and security notices about watching your luggage, announced in English and Spanish.

We’ve been trying to get to Peru for more than a full day now. We left our hotel in Port Au Prince at a prompt 8:45 a.m. around 9:15 a.m. because our hotel staff couldn’t quite agree on just how it is we’re supposed to get to the airport in the free airport shuttle.

Ok. So we do get to the airport. And hurray, no problem with the famed ‘Red Hatters’ – men who try very forcefully to “help” you with your luggage for a fee. No thanks guys, we’re missionaries and not really flowing with extra dough!

Customs, check-in, and all the rigmarole. No problem.

Wait for 2.5 hours for our flight to depart. No problem.

About to take off on the runway when dog and hazardous materials are found to be in the same cargo container.

Shuttle back to terminal, move old Fido away from the liquids, and by then we’ve burned through 2,000 lbs of fuel. Captain, in his southern drawl, shares with us that he “hopes” the fuel tank is on its way.

No problem. We’re off again, about an hour past initial take-off time. Back to the runway, picking up speed, just about to lift off when lady two rows up has a very serious asthma attack due to the very hot and smelly cabin we’ve all been sitting in together getting cozy. Good Lord, this is starting to be a problem.

Ok. Back to the terminal, where five paramedics clamber aboard and take the woman off, and Captain says once her luggage is found we’ll be off.

We rumbled down that ol’ runway just over two hours after our scheduled time, headed for Miami.

Leg one done, and we’re feeling positive about it all.

We decide to hang it out at the airport for four or five hours before check-in. We pick up a few needed items, grab a bite to eat and wander for infinity a couple hours, then casually check the departures board again to confirm our gate. Bright yellow letters inform us that instead of leaving at 12:05 a.m., we are leaving at 5 a.m.

It’s a long walk down that corridor and back to the main terminal.

The good news is in Miami the airline company gives you a hotel stay for free. So we got to spend about three hours at a hotel complete with a voucher for the hotel restaurant. Since it was about midnight when we got to the hotel we ate two delicious pieces of pie (key lime and cheesecake) with two tall glasses of chocolate milk.

While the airline told us to get on the airport shuttle at 2:30, security wasn’t open until 3:30 a.m. And thus it is that I wrote this post, laying on a hard red bench in the Maimi International Airport, listening to really bad jazz.

I’m loving the project, and feel overwhelmingly grateful. And we’re excited to get to share our experiences with people through this blog. So, to come along on the ride, I wanted to share with you some of the bumps we face along the way so you’re truly a part of this.

This blog post was written in my notebook at the Miami airport. We’ve since landed and left our destination in Peru, and will hopefully post more soon. We had limited internet access this last week, and expect to have better access at our next stop. So check back soon!

The smell in the air was the most powerful: a mix of car exhaust, rotten mangos and something indescribable mixed in. It filled my head with each breath.

The sounds of Haiti if you are driving include a great deal of honking – it seems the biggest vehicle gets the right of way and everyone else scoots around whatever car they can in the opposite lane of traffic. Drivers honk at just about anything in their way. Pedestrians definitely don’t have the right of way here.

Our driver Juliom whipped past motorbikes carrying anywhere from one to four people, close enough you could reach out and high five them. He honked at ambling bikers to get off the road and slowed down as we caught up with Tap Taps full of people piled inside squished shoulder to shoulder. Some sat on top, the wind whipping at them as they hung onto metal railings. Delivery trucks also seem to be passenger vehicles here. We watched as one man leapt onto the back of a truck using a knotted rope as support, flipping his body at least four feet up to the bed of the truck as it bumped along the road. Not exactly Canadian standards of safety apply here.

The other thing you hear a lot of is ‘Blanc, Blanc!’ People shouting ‘white, white’ as Justin and I sat in the second row of the van looking out. We’ve heard this phrase often since arriving. It’s a novelty having a group of white people. When we were in Mirebelais with the team from Chilliwack’s Southside Church, we heard this shout even more. Sometimes the team leader would smile and call back, ‘Yes, black!’ Many giggles from kids would quickly follow.

Along the sides of the road, there were always people. Some areas were teeming with people – women carrying buckets and baskets and bags on their head; children playing naked in the streams and along the roadsides, and men on their way to work, or sitting in the shade because there is not enough work for all. There is more than 80 per cent unemployment rate in this country, so there is a lot of sitting, and waiting, and wandering that seems to happen here.

Haiti has been an interesting country in which to start our Pockets of Change project. We had been warned of the dangers that exist in this country, and I believe there were angels protecting us as we walked and drove and slept in this country. Yet at the same time I saw such hope and such vision from the Christians here. They believe in a God that will save their land, and that’s encouraging to me. Yes, there’s poverty, spiritual darkness and many other problems. But God is bigger than all of that. And the Christians in this country know it. Praise God!

In Haiti’s Grand Goave, a coastal community about two hours west of the captial city of Port Au Prince, there sits a strip of land no more than four acres. The 15-foot walls surrounding this property encase a lush green space with dozens of palm trees, kid goats scampering below the boughs of giant mango trees and a host of other tropical plants.

Inside these walls, Haitian men and women are learning the Word of God and gaining technical skills to go and support their families.

There is a particular mango tree that sits in this property. It’s an area where people often gather to swap stories, to talk faith, to impart wisdom. During the hot and humid days, the shaded boughs offer a cool comfort and the vantage point is optimal to see all that goes on at the compound. The dirt driveway cuts the mango grove from the guesthouse where teams come to stay and a long-term missionary couple now live. To the left you can see the technical and Bible school compound. Behind the school you can see the edge of the outdoor church where more than 400 people fill the pews and spill out into the grass as hundreds kids pile into one room for Sunday school.

We chose this mango tree as our interview spot. We listened as men and women shared their stories of how they came to be at HaitiARISE, how God has worked in their lives, and how the community of Grand Goave has been transformed because of the faithful Christians serving here. We met with a man named Sterling. He began attending church at the HaitiARISE compound because they were offering a music class. He ended up becoming a Christian there, getting baptized and is now the administrator for the HaitiARISE school. He praises God for saving his life and wants to continue to serve as administrator of this expanding school.

Sterling, who is from Grand Goave, says before HaitiARISE set up five years ago, the community was not looking good. There were many practicing voodou, there weren’t a lot of opportunities for jobs and most training was far away in the big city of Port Au Prince. Now he sees community transformation taking place and is excited to be a part of what HaitiARISE is doing for people’s souls and lives.

We met another woman named Nadia. She was a small, frail young woman when she showed up to HaitiARISE for the clinic. She could barely walk and spent much of her life lying down because her heart did not work right. When she showed up at a medical clinic set up at HaitiARISE by a team from Cranbrook, she found out she might only have another six months or so to live if her heart was not fixed. The medical team was able to get her into Chile for heart surgery and cover the medical expenses.  Nadia is now a healthy woman. Shy and sweet, Nadia spends her days at HaitiARISE helping cook, take care of Marc and Lisa Honorat’s youngest daughter and be of assistance in any way she can. She is now able to go to school and is taking elementary level classes right now. She praises God for saving her life, both spiritually and physically.

As we listened to story after story under the mango tree, it sunk in how important ministries like this are in a community. In Canada, we have well-functioning levels of government. We have social assistance offices for people in financial need, and food banks to feed hungry bellies. We have employment assistance programs, tuition assistance to go to school and so many other opportunities. We have hospitals in most communities and safe transit if we need to get to more specialized medical services.

In Grand Goave, what do the people have? They have Marc and Lisa Honorat, and the team of people serving to make HaitiARISE help raise up godly men and women in Haiti who will help to turn the country around. It was quite the experience, to sit under the mango tree and realize through hearing the stories how important this place has become in such a short time. God is clearly working here. And everyone we talked to was excited to see what God would do in the future here too. I would recomend that if you ever go to Grand Goave, sit under that mango tree and watch God’s hand at work.

But most of the time, I order the most delectable dessert I see then about halfway through realize I should probably not finish it. A friend of mine once told me when we were out on such a treat night, “Lorene, you can’t let it conquer you.” Of course she was speaking in jest. But I still like to think of that. If I plan to do something, I can’t let it conquer me.

Pockets of Change is kind of like that enticing piece of pie. I know it will be great, I know I’ll enjoy it along the way, but it could conquer me before I conquer the project.

OK, enough about dessert. All that to say I feel I’ve bitten off a sizable chunk of interviews already and have yet to digest them for your enjoyment. (Do you like how I used digest there as a double meaning? Oh my, perhaps I need to get out more…)

We’re now finished our time in Haiti. In fact, we’re not even in the country anymore and I have yet to tell more about Mirebelais, all the excitement of Haiti Children’s Home and the people we worked with from Chilliwack’s Southside Church. I haven’t even mentioned Grand Goave, our meetings at HaitiARISE Ministries and the amazing things God is doing through this organization. I could write about a dozen more things too, such as the trip to Port Au Prince, our time with the very first project partner Hungry for Life every had, the antics we have had along the way and what we are learning from the experience.

Like I say, it’s a big piece of cake. I now realize I’m not going to get to share every bite with you along the way. But with one country down and three more to go, I’m going to focus on the most tasty morsels from now on to share on the Pockets of Change blog. For now, we’re going to give you a three-course meal in quick succession to fill you up. We’ll have a few posts here next time we have internet to give you a taste of Haiti, then the blog topics move to Peru.

Bon appetit.

I wanted to share with you some of what I have seen and experienced through the lens of my camera during our time in Mirebalais.

For Patricia Smith, the 25 years of employment have gone by quickly and have indeed been a success. But perhaps not in the traditional sense of the term.

Patricia rates her success on the number of children she’s helped, not on the number in her bank account. Her success is found in the smiles on the faces of those she helps, not the pats on the back by important people. Patricia and her daughter Melinda run the Haiti Children’s Home, an orphanage for about 45 kids right now. And for her 25 year celebration, what will Pat do? Probably change some diapers, do some cleaning, feed some hungry mouths and work to keep this faith-based ministry running, she says with a laugh.

Wearing an ankle length denim dress, her white hair pulled back in a bun, Patricia sits in a rocking chair to chat with us. You could take her out of her room in Haiti and drop her in a southern U.S. small town front porch and she’d fit right in. But while she is an American, Patricia spends her days and years in Haiti, helping some of the poorest of the poor.

Children in Haiti don’t have a lot of options. Patricia and Melinda provide a safe home with loving caretakers, a strong Christian focus, three square meals a day and even birthday cake for each birthday boy and girl.

They never know where the next amount of funding will come from. But, as Melinda says, the Lord has always provided when they have been in need.

In the past, I haven’t been willing to sponsor even one child because I have been afraid of running out of money when times have been tight for Justin and me. Yet these two women take care of 45, plus help countless others in the community with medical issues, on little more than faith and a prayer. It makes me wonder what God could have accomplished through me over our last eight years of marriage if I had stepped out in faith a little more instead of counting my pennies and hoarding them.

While Patricia might not get a gold watch or even an ‘Atta-boy’ for her 25 years of service, I am sure that God has a special seat for her in heaven. And that’s better than any earthly recognition.

This morning we saw the school that Chilliwack’s Southside Church is helping to operate. There are 75 kids there who could not afford to go to school without Southsides’s support, so that was pretty neat to see.

At Haiti Children’s Home, Justin and I had a chance to visit with the women who started and operate the facility. I’ll share more about the women there in another post when I have some more time.

Saturday evening and Sunday morning we had the priveledge of attending Southside’s sister church in Mirebelais. There was such an energy in the air, and the people there were glad to have us in attendance. Our translator was able to translate the service for us, which our team leader Steve says is a real treat as he has never had that before. It was great to be part of the service here and enjoy a different culture’s way of doing church. There were many similarities, such as having a singing and preaching component. But there were definitely differences, such as the women and men sitting on different sides, and the loudness of the preacher!

I could write so much more, but now I’m late for lunch. Suffice to say, it has been an incredible experience so far. Steve has had better luck with posting (there’s internet at Haiti Children’s Home), so feel free to check out their blog here if you want to see a little more.

Tomorrow we head to Port Au Prince to meet up with the next project partner, Lisa and Marc from Haiti Arise Ministries. As soon as we get another chance, we’ll post again.