Whew!
What a week it has been! Seven days in the country and we have somewhere around 5,000 photos of students and classes. It has felt more like a mentally draining week than a physically draining one. The mental capacity to arrange students from 18 months old up to 20+ years old was quite high. Add in the challenge of getting each of the 2,000+ students to smile in each photo while not speaking their language - now you have quite an experience. I'm thankful for the team of very uniquely gifted people that God had assembled for this trip. We had an engineer, IT professionals, audiovisual techs and a few high-energy youth :) Our team excelled in efficiency both at each school taking photos as well as re-naming the 5,000 files back at the Mission House. God provided a strong mother-figure on our trip to make a HUGE difference when working with the students. It was just a wonderful assortment of the uniqueness of the body of Christ. Our US minds thrived on the task based nature of our trip and we feel that we have accomplished what we set out to do. It is a good feeling that so many sponsors will receive updated photos of their student, with many of them smiling :)
The reality of going home hasn't quite sunk in yet as we prepare to leave for the airport... We tried to capture some of our thoughts tonight during the beautiful sunset "Golden hour", but our memories are too fresh to process what we have seen and experienced here in Haiti. The starkness of the natural beauty in this country contrasted by the severe poverty and lack of basics was visually represented here. The idea that so many people have cell phones and Facebook accounts, yet lack access to clean drinking water and basic civil services like medical, fire, and police. The country offers high speed fiber internet, but not necessarily consistent electricity. We haven't had city provided electricity here at the Mission House since Sunday, so we have been utilizing solar power in battery backups. The lack of quality leadership in the country has led to this situation, even with billions of dollars in aid sent into the country. At times it does look hopeless - but the people here are full of hope. There is a sense of national pride, even with terrible living conditions in my eyes. As many others have said on the blog... God is here working in Haiti and I am hopeful for their future as a country. May we all pray for the leadership in Haiti, that God would raise up godly leaders who can help steer the country out of the developing world and into a self sufficient country. That the story of Haiti's recovery would be a major part of every world history book, chronicling the journey from third world poverty to a leader in humanitarian aid to other countries.
But now, our time in Haiti has come to an end. I am thankful for the time we were given to serve in the capacity of updating student photos, and to share the love of Jesus from the global body of Christ. We are tired and drained, but excited to return and share our stories. The transition back into the wealth of the US will be different for each of us, and we covet your prayers as we adapt back into US culture (and excitingly low temperatures). Pray that the national team of Haitian Mission Possible would be encouraged by our visit and energized to keep up the good work they do here. Pray for safe travels as we fly home and make our way through security, customs, and Saturday airport crowds. Pray that our families would be understanding of the mixture of exhaustion and excitement we are returning with. Pray that we would not slump back into our normal routine without being changed by the things that we have seen here.
We look forward to seeing you all and sharing our stories in person soon!
In Haiti,
Devon Roberts (and team)
Our Team Photo
The bucket head
sorting school supplies
The twin-bucket heads :)
Almost complete with the file naming!!!
Deep discussions on the meaning of life.
Translating video testimonies from Creole to English.
