Why Do We Go To Haiti?
Read: James 1:19-27
The question I’ve been asked
frequently is “Why do we go to Haiti? Why not just send money?”
This question was addressed by Rev. John Dorceley as we left his
house at the end of our mission. When we send money to Haiti, it is
appreciated. They do good things with it. They provide meals at the
school. They offer scholarships. But that is not as significant as
caring. It is not as significant as loving.
When we go to Haiti we offer
ourselves as the hands and feet of God. We are dedicated to showing
unconditional love, without preconditions or judgment. The act of
being there, being in the presence of those who are being helped is
the most important thing. Donating money is great. Donating our time,
our emotions, our engagement, is the best way to show the love of
Jesus Christ.
When we are in Haiti, we pray
together. We sing songs of worship to God every day. We attend a
Methodist church service. We provide money for the poor. But we don’t
try to change the people. We only try to help and love. That is our
mission.
We first went to Haiti in 2014.
During this trip we started working to build new classrooms in the
back of the school. We did not know how many classrooms we were
building. A previous missionary team from another congregation in
Michigan had laid a large foundation. We gave them money and worked
with workers we hired locally to create a floor and start raising the
walls for new classrooms. When we left the walls were about 3 feet
high on two classrooms.
We were unsure what would happen
when we left. Haiti has a weak banking system, and there are many
incomplete buildings throughout the country. We felt we had left a
job unfinished.
When we returned in 2016, the walls
and roofs of four new classrooms were complete. The people in the
Methodist Church in Haiti had been good stewards of our donations.
Other teams from Michigan had contributed time and money. They were
teaching students in our classrooms.
I was not the only member of our
team who was speechless with joy. The happiness of seeing our good
works continued choked me up with tears. Praise God.
The enrollment at the school has
increased from 600 to 700 in two years. I don’t know if this is
entirely because of our efforts, but it certainly didn’t hurt to
have 2 new classrooms.
When
we work in Haiti we are helpers. We are not the skilled trades. We
carry the rocks for the workers. We sift the rocks for the workers.
We carry the cement and mortar for the workers. We serve them. We pay
them. We pray for them. We laugh and joke with them. They love the
dignity of the jobs we provide them. We pay them $20 per day. The
minimum wage in Haiti is $5 per day. The workers consider these jobs
the best jobs available. We provide them food and water while they
work. All the workers love the dignity provided by these jobs. They
love the feeling of accomplishment we give them by letting them
exercise the gifts given to them by God. One worker, David, said he
liked working with us so much he would bring us a goat as a gift the
next time we visited.
We paid our interpreter, Valandia de
Fontus, the salary of $50 a day. This will help her as she plans to
go to study at a Community College in New York later this year. But
the dignity of having a job was the best blessing. At the time of our
visit, there was another mission team in Petit Goave. They were
employing 14 interpreters at the eye clinic. There were simply no
interpreters left. Valandia is a recent graduate of The College de
Harry Brakeman, the school where we were working. I don’t know if
she had any previous experience interpreting, but we certainly gave
her another line for her resume. We gave her the dignity of a highly
paid professional job, even if it was only for one week.
The Reverend Dorceley said we create
35 jobs when we are in the country on a mission. We hire drivers. We
drink water. We eat food. They hire people to complete our laundry.
We purchase souvenirs to support local artists. We support the
economy. We provide the dignity of a fair wage for a fair service.
That’s why we go to Haiti. That’s
why we went to Haiti. That’s why, with God’s assistance, if he is
willing, we will go again.
Tom Cobau
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