Why did I go the first time?? (part two)

.......Did I say CHANGE?  What a complete understatement! More like a U-Turn, a flip flop, a complete change of direction! A change of heart a change of mind a priority reversal a PARADIGM SHIFT!!!! But before I go there let me go back to the decision process.


When my family was looking for another church and before the final decision was made about where to attend, I was meeting with Pr. Mike Hall of Grace Church. If I remember correctly we were getting together once a week on Tuesdays, discussing the church, the beliefs, the ministry opportunities, etc.


One of those Tuesdays Mike told me that he wouldn't be around the following week as he and another Pastor were traveling to Haiti. They had important business there because the Haitian who oversaw the work in Port-au-Prince had passed away. I told him I'd pray for them and went on my way. 


Well on the ride home I turned the radio to WRBS, our local christian station in Baltimore. I remember very clearly that the preacher was talking about Matt 28:19...Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For the rest of the day, I'd see a green light...GO... The words of that verse kept running through my head! You know the Holy Spirit can be relentless when there is something you need to do.

I had trouble sleeping that night. The word go kept going through my head and I was trying to come up with all the reasons I shouldn't go. When I finally did go to sleep I dreampt of a place I'd never been, people I'd never met and a little girl who took my hand and lead me around. She was talking to me but I couldn't hear her, yet I knew what she was saying.

I awoke at 2 in the morning, called Mike and told him "I'm supposed to go with you". His advice, " you are welcome to go along. Call me in the morning and we'll talk about what you need to do.

Having given up, having said that I know that I am suppose to go, I finally got some sleep.

Why Haiti? ( I found this draft that I thought I posted in January! )

How I became involved in Haiti is a very long story, one that I will get to soon but it will take a few days or maybe even a week of posts to complete.


Why I'm involved is so much easier than how?


Reason #1, the people. Before  going to Haiti I thought I knew what POOR was. My definition quickly changed. As poor as they are the Haitian people that I've met on the streets of Port-au-Prince alomst always share a smile. They live in true community, helping others to get through the day. Doing what they can to help one another get through each day.


Reason #2, the country. Haiti at one time was called the Pearl of the Antilles, It was one of the most beautiful places on earth, and it can be again once the government improves the infrastructure and the peope learn how to work together to replant and take care of the island. A look at the Dominican side of the island is sure proof that Haiti can once again be the "Pearl of the Antilles"


There are many more reasons we can dicuss as we go.

Why did I go the first time?? (Part One)

Before I went to Haiti the first time in February 1999, I really had no heart for international missions. I had been Development Director for Helping Hands across the County, a Baltimore County Maryland based, help organization, founded by Pastor Jim Reilly. We collected food throughout the year and delved it out to families in need. We also had a Thanksgiving dinner for people who couldn't afford it. Some were single moms and their kids, some elderly. We did this with a lot of class. We took reservations, provided transportation, even had a host/hostess, waitresses who took their orders and bussers to clear the tables. Those three or four years that I was involved were some of the nicest Thanksgivings that I had.

I also spent 1 or 2 days a month at the Helping Up Mission in downtown Baltimore. Helping to feed the men, playing the music for the evening service and occasionally preaching a message. There are many homeless drug addicts who have gotten back on their feet and been reunited with their families thanks to the faithful service of the Helping up mission.

So what does this have to do with my first trip to Haiti? Well, in my mind there was so much work to do here! My wife at the time was involved in the international missions board at our church and I (stubborn) wanted nothing to do with that! "So much to do here at home", I would say! "What is the sense of helping outside when we can't even get our own society straightened out", was another of my tag lines!

Long story short we were called to another local church where I met Pastor Mike Hall who was the founder of Hope International, Inc. A ministry to Haiti. Little did I know that by that move, my life was about to change!

STAY TUNED!!

Why would you Choose Haiti over another country?

I was recently asked this question, "Why would you Choose Haiti over another country?"
There is no single or simple answer to this for me. Some will understand when I say, "From my first trip, God laid on my heart a calling to help in anyway I can" Others get it when I tell them that it angered me to know that the poorest country in this hemisphere can lie less than 700 miles off the southern most tip of the wealthiest country in the world. Some need to see the smiles of the hungry children as they play to keep the thoughts of their hunger at bay while others need to see their tears as they go to bed hungry. For me it took all of this and more.

 There was the moment I stepped out of the airport into a large group of men and boys all hoping to carry my bags and earn a few gourd so they can feed their families. Then there was the man who was pulling the back end of a pick-up truck, loaded with burlap bags of "something", from one warehouse to another. My thought at the time was that one day he would earn enough to buy a donkey to pull that trailer or maybe even a whole truck. Either way it was his determination that struck my heart.

Then there was the man on the street who was shoveling gravel into a bulldozer bucket. The owner of the dozer allowed him to do this so he could earn a few HD (Haitian dollars). Yeah maybe that's why I love Haiti, because of the determination of the people to get better.

Or maybe it was the little girl at the school we had at Caradeaux. The little girl who took my hand and gave me a tour of the school my first day there. It didn't matter that I spoke NO Creole and she only knew how to say hello and thank you in English. We seemed to understand one another none the less.
Or could it have been the dedication of the teachers at the school who worked for very little to improve the lives of the next generation of Haitians.

I could go on and on because there weren't many things that I saw, heard, smelled, touched or tasted on my first trip to Haiti that didn't have some effect on my decision to "Choose Haiti over another country"

Please follow my blog as I will continue to share "WHY I'm involved"