The Highway to Haiti

We sit and talk on the step under the warmth of the morning sun. I strain to hear her over plastic dumps trucks hard at work and children’s laughter filling the yard.

She finally asks. I was hoping she wouldn’t this time. Hoping she just came to visit. But she asks still and that is okay. She needs money, again. She has scrapped up enough for her daughter’s school bills, but needs a little more for supplies. I ask about her aunt, the one living in Miami whose sporadic generosity determines the bulk of decisions she makes in her life. She shakes her head. Nothing from her for a while now.

I am weary, at a loss for what to do. I have helped here and there, but deep down, I know I am not really helping her. And what is worse, she is learning to live only for the band-aids she can scrape up.

I sit quietly for a while, thinking, praying. I know the statistics. I wonder to whom and to what she will turn if desperation begins to tighten its nasty grip. I agree to give her some money, but we talk long. I remember the words of hard-working, middle-aged Haitian friends who say that there is work to be found for the one who really seeks it. I ask her gently if she’s seeking. I search her eyes as she looks away. Knowing that she swallowed a piece of her dignity in coming to ask me in the first place, I don’t want to push the issue. I give her the money and tell her that I know I don’t really understand what she is going through. That I really cannot relate to the struggles of a 23 year-old single mom. But I do care.

–

The back door opens. Papo comes to play and my little boys’ English ramblings turn to Creole at the slam of a door. I smile. They play and we love Papo. We paint. Luke teaches him how to do a puzzle; Silas shows him how to flush the toilet.

Papo is eight. His mom: twenty-two. I do the math and my heart aches. The boys get to work making paper airplanes and I start on lunch. “Mama…” I look down at my compassionate four year-old. “Papo said he’s hungry and his mom isn’t making food for him today. Can he eat lunch with us?” I love his simplicity. “We’ll see bud, okay?” He returns to his paper airplane and I throw another cup of rice in the pot and cut the chicken a bit smaller. I quietly go about my work, my mind wrestling again with the complexities of poverty.

I wonder what is better, to feed the boy or teach his girl-mom to care for her son? And yet I know, that at the end of the day, at the end of the line of careless choices and irresponsible living, it’s poverty’s children who suffer its consequences. Even deeper down, I know that without the grace I have received, that girl-mom could have been me.

These are the tough questions we face each day. These are the questions we don’t always have answers to. But we continue to wrestle, think, pray, seek and learn. How do we love God and love our neighbor in this deeply rooted, tangling, thorny mess? How do I tell my neighbor about Jesus when her mind is preoccupied with survival? How can we give without destroying dignity and squelching desperation’s drive to find work?

We give ourselves. We roll up our sleeves and jump in. Their problems become our problems and their toils our toils. Together we push and we pull, we sweat and we hurt. And at the end of the day our heartbeat is to make disciples and our prayer is that this earthly toil will birth greater things, eternal things.

Development and discipleship: in the fabric of our lives here in Haiti, the two are so tightly interwoven. The kingdom of God to which we belong is both for today and for days to come—and for when our days are no longer. Christ our Redeemer is our hope for today as well as tomorrow. So through development, we pray that doors might be flung open wide to make disciples. And through discipleship, that we might develop followers of Christ who understand that the Gospel has everything to do with everything.

Side by side, we live and work together. And we pray that when the Savior beckons “Come”, they might leave it all to follow Him.

Please pray with us as we’re currently negotiating with local landowners to buy suitable property to resettle families affected by the earthquake. We praise God for the interaction we’ve had with several owners and that funds are in place to make the purchase! In the coming months we will need upwards of $250,000 to begin building infrastructure and housing, and launch small business initiatives.

Consider making a long-term investment in Haiti? All of our work is guided by biblical principles for sustainable development. We are not a handout-based ministry—we don’t solicit funds to pay monthly operating costs for churches, schools, orphanages or clinics; rather with appropriate investment we work to help people develop solutions to provide for themselves.

Go to the people,
Live among them,
Learn from them,
Love them,
Start with what they know,
Build on what they have:
But of the best leaders,
When their task is done,
The people will remark
“We have done it ourselves.”
—Chinese Proverb

In October we attended the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) Conference in Miami. The CCDA, founded by John Perkins and Wayne Gordon twenty years ago, is a network of churches and ministries committed to “bear(ing) witness to the Kingdom of God by reclaiming and restoring under-resourced communities.” Tony Campolo, Ron Sider, Shane Claiborne, and Brian McLaren have been some of the more noteworthy voices, past and present, of the CCDA.

Each morning Dr. Perkins led a brilliant Bible study about raising-up “justice leaders”. Dove Enterprises recorded the sessions, and MP3s/CDs/DVDs can be purchased on their website for as little as $7 each. If you are interested in Christian community development on any level, we highly recommend getting a copy of Dr. Perkins’ teaching. Click here to link to the ordering page at Dove Enterprises.

The following letter was mailed last week:

August 12th, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

Three generations ago it was common for missionaries to pack their belongings in caskets and leave for the field quite aware of the challenges ahead. Times have changed, and one of the challenges today, ironically, may be a lack of awareness of the complex environments in which missionaries serve. (more…)

Thomas Malthus theorized that as the world’s population increases, the amount of resources available for each person decreases. Charles Darwin expanded Malthusian theory and proposed that natural selection (survival of the fittest) occurs when the weak in body or mind are eliminated due to defect or to an inability to access the resources needed to survive and reproduce.

While in Miami last month, some friends took me to see the documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, with Ben Stein. Expelled contends that those who champion the subtle views of Malthus and Darwin supply the building blocks for horrific applications of hereditary improvement by genetic control. Stein illustrates how opponents of an “Intelligent Designer” court a dangerous worldview that diminishes the sanctity of life.

The 869-page, Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People 1492-1995, by Robert, Nancy and Michael Heinl, is arguably the most complete history of Haiti in print. In the introduction, the authors state, “Besides having too many people, too little land and few roads, Haiti has practically no natural resources.” Among those who visit and assess Haiti, this is the simple definition of the problem and the majority view.

Why is this significant? (more…)