Hello friends!
For those of you who don’t know, I have been in Haiti for the past 7 days and will be here until Sunday. My time in Haiti has been an amazing journey for me for many reasons. This is going to be a long post, I apologize, but I have so much to share! I hope you will take the time to read about what God is doing here as well as what He has been doing in me while I have been here.
First, I would like to explain the organization I am here with. The name is The Global Orphan Project and they are an organization that is dedicated to orphan care and prevention. They partner with local churches who have taken it upon themselves to serve God through providing for his children who have lost their parents or who have been abandoned. GO Project operates in many countries all around the world including: Haiti, Chad, The Dominican Republic, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, India, Cambodia, Thailand, Philippines, Trinidad, Malawi, South Africa, South Sudan, Honduras, and Cote D’lvoire.
My friend Stephanie Mutert works for GO Project in Haiti as a trip coordinator. She is the reason I have found myself here for these two weeks! I came down with a team from Kansas City. I had traveled to Haiti with Stephanie and another member of the team to Haiti 2 years ago and some of the team had come to Haiti last year. We all wanted to come down to see what Stephanie has been doing and experience a week in her shoes. I have to say, her job is awesome.
As I said earlier, GO Project focuses on orphan care. Pastors from local churches house the kids on church property and GOP helps them provide food, water, education, health care, etc. for the kids. Some of the kids are left at the villages by parents because they know that their child will be better cared for there than at home. There are many, many single mothers here in Haiti and a lot of times they cannot afford to provide for their kids in the they ways they need to so they bring them to the orphanages. Other kids lost parents in the earthquake in 2010. Others have lost parents to other causes and some kids are abandoned because their parents cannot take care of them. This is where the teams come in.
GOP and the churches provide everything they can for the kids but with only 7 mamas for 70 kids, it is hard for them to spend time with each kid and give them the love and attention they need. So that is why we come to Haiti! I spent 4 beautiful days just loving on the kids in the different orphanages. Now, I have gotten a lot of resistance from people in the past when I tell them that I went to another country just to play with kids. It seems that unless there is a physical building or project that we leave behind then the trip was nor worth it. I hope that those of you who feel this way will someday come to Haiti and spend time with the kids here. I think you will change your mind.
These kids are so hungry for love. The minute our team stepped off the bus there were three or four kids grabbing your hands, reaching out to you for you to pick them up and hold them. I can’t tell you how many kids feel asleep in the arms of one of their “blancs”. They don’t get that without the teams coming down to spend time with them.
I think the best part about our time with the kids is we really didn’t bring anything with us to play with. We spent time with them in an intentional way. We got to see their personalities and be with them in their own environment on their own terms. Without all the toys and distractions we allowed God to guide our time with them. We went to a different village everyday and just hung out, and it is the most important work we could have done.
There will be more to come as a process my trip. But I hope you will shoot me a message to make time to get coffee so I can tell you more about this organization and the wonderful people of Haiti.
With love,
j.
The Patio 