Monday, April 13, 2009
wow wow i almost forgot!
Oh my goodness I nearly forgot to mention the craziest part of my time in the 5th Section (at least in my opinion)! The leader of the village, Maxico, his oldest daughter has a two month old child and they named him after me! When my friend and brother Devenson kept telling me he wanted to show me his nephew I couldn’t for the life of me understand why. Finally I took a break from working to go see him and they told me it was little Clayton! Note earlier how I said he was 2 months old… I hadn’t been in Lubin 2 months ago. That’s the funniest thing. They literally RENAMED him after me! I really hope I get the chance to visit him intermittently and see different stages in the little boy’s life! Goodness gracious only in Haiti!!!
mesi Bondye pou senkeme seksyon (thank God for 5th Section)
Wow this is an extremely daunting task to try to describe my past week, truly the most amazing week I’ve ever experienced. It’s hard to describe what it’s like walking through villages where, I’m not exaggerating, every single person knows and exclaims your name when you walk by. They’ll almost always have something to say or a handshake to give you whether they’re a two-year-old or the 70 year-old woman of the village. My Haitian friends that were staff on base when they would walk with me through the village would always joke with me that I was going to be the next President of Haiti because of the reception I got from the people!
It is such a surreal experience to be outwardly loved by that many amounts of people. When a white person or “blan” comes into a village such as these it’s difficult to see whether the affection they give is truly out of love or just mere amusement at the white oddity in their presence. I truly believe with all of my heart, after spending nearly every day of the past 3 weeks in this village that I can discern their warmth to be love. The reason I can claim such discernment is because of the reciprocity of the love between them and I. I know that I poured out all I could there. Sweat, blood, joy, prayers, every once of Creole I could wring out of my language reservoir, and all of my time were truly donated to them.
The thing that makes my emotions so rosy for the people is that they gave it all back to me. I really think that is a vital component of mission or humanitarian work that is missing. So often people will come in and dump clothes or food off to the needy, or bring in water filters and barely, if at all, show them how to utilize it. They’ll call this love or compassion. In a way it is, but not nearly to the fullest. In a society where much of people’s days are spent tilling their rice or corn gardens, or simply trying to stay out of the blistering heat, it is difficult to muster love for one another. When marriage infidelity and abuse run rampant, it’s hard to love and trust those around you. There are a million reasons why places like these lack an easily accessible joy and compassion for one another. If people are spending the time and the resources to “help” the people, can’t they supply an intangible and perhaps equally important commodity to the people? I’ll never, ever forget Chaplain Joe Brummel’s phrase, “people are more important than projects”, I see Christ in that, just as much if not more than actually putting up a church or food in their bellies.
Wow wow! I didn’t mean to through in a life lesson so soon, I still have to throw in the day-to-day stuff! I won’t bore ya with the details. Each day we (we= a YWAM School of Evangelism team from Tyler, Texas, and the Haiti Discipleship Training School, and some more Haitian staff) would work on building the church. The church was 20ft by 56ft and about 20 ft tall. This is a MAMMOTH structure out in a village such as this. The first couple days were spend using a skid-loader to lift up the cement columns that we had filled the week before the work teams got here. After we had those completed we did the foundation with the help of some local Haitian masons (which has a cool separate story which I’d write about a different time for brevity’s sake). Once that was finished the masons continued on along the concrete block wall while we started laying the tin on the roof. This lasted work lasted about 5 days, we’d work from about 8 AM till 5 PM more or less in the hot Haitian sun.
Then at about 6 each night would be the Bondye-beni-ou-sade (read my previous posts of that makes no sense), and this is where the good-times rolled. If none of you ever experience Haitian worship, or Haitian music then you’ll have lived a deprived life. They get everybody going, and peoples’ body’s, heart’s, and souls are involved. Especially with my friends Jude and Philipson leading worship! Most of the night would be worship, and then Terry or somebody else would deliver a message, and the DTS or SOE from Texas would perform a drama with a specific message to it. It was an amazing time, it had such a feel good block-party attitude to it, and people were truly worshipping. I love to dance (whether I’m good or not is another question), and I did get into a couple dance-offs with some Haitian friends, it got pretty crazy!
My favorite experience, however, was just the downtime in the village. Whether it was teaching the kids English, telling the same old Haitian goofball everyday that my name was CLAYton not Bill CLINTon, getting my hair braided and corn-rowed, bathing in the Artibonite River, joining the big circle of men watching cockfights, or playing soccer with the older boys, I loved it. I was also blessed enough to stay in one of the villager’s houses. They cleared out and opened up about 10 houses for each of the teams to sleep in while they were out here. I was fortunate enough that I could stay by myself in the house of the Maxico, the leader of the village’s house with his sons Mackinson, Francisco, and Devenson (my best friend in all the village). They new not a lick of English other than “I love you brother” and “give me t-shirt), but luckily I had been utterly blessed with picking up Creole quickly. Before falling asleep we would talk for hours where I would ask them questions and they would ask me questions. They mostly asked about my family and fiancé, Taylor, and told me which white girls in the Tyler group they had crushes on. The last night there we even took a midnight dip in the river! Good golly I could never forget these memories even if I had Alzheimer’s disease!!!
Perhaps the most meaningful adventure of the entire trip, however, happened just yesterday on Easter Sunday. I can never stop thinking about the people out there, and with it being my last week I had no idea if I’d get a chance to see them again. I wanted to be a part of their first Easter more than anything. So my roommate and I, Marc (who doesn’t speak a lick of Creole), decided to take some motorcycle taxis out to Lubin, WITHOUT a Haitian translator. This would be the ultimate test to see how well my Creole had come along. We did make it out there (with a sore behind from the bumpy trip) and came during their service. I was so overwhelmed because they were so surprised and overjoyed to see us, and this was when I knew our mutual love for each other was genuine. They invited me to speak and so I timidly got up and read a passage to them from a Creole Bible, and spoke a sermon all in Creole. I had never given a sermon to any sort of congregation big or small, let alone in ANOTHER LANGUAGE. It was incredible though, they were completely understanding of my limitations in my Creole, but I knew they understood my message because throughout the message I would ask “ou kompran (do you understand)?” and they would yell AMEN! My friend Marc said they paid so much more attention than they even did to the pastors when they spoke. I didn’t think it was possible, but that day my love for them and desire for them to know the Hope of Jesus grew ten-fold. I know if I didn’t have so many obligations I would without a doubt live with them and try to disciple them.
Unfortunately the taxi-drivers were impatient and we couldn’t spend a lot of time with them, but it warmed my heart so deeply, I know I’ll never be the same because of it. This new week I’m going to spend a day up in the mountains doing some ministry there (which I hear is the most beautiful part of Haiti), but if I could I would just go back to Lubin. I told them so many times that I would never forget them and always pray for them, but even that seems like an understatement. What a blessing to me these people have been. I really hope everybody can find this much joy in a group of people, I don’t care what it looks like, whether it’s friends, children you teach in class, a place similar to Haiti, anybody, I hope you find it and embrace it and lift each other up in love and reverence. That’s what the body of the Church, to me, needs to look like. Thanks again for reading this blog (wow this one’s a mighty long one), I’ll be home soon to share anything, or everything, or nothing with y’all, I’m just excited to see everybody! Give me a call, a text, a smoke signal, anything, because I’m gonna need a lot of things to distract me from longing for the Lubinites! Godbless urrrrrrrybody!
It is such a surreal experience to be outwardly loved by that many amounts of people. When a white person or “blan” comes into a village such as these it’s difficult to see whether the affection they give is truly out of love or just mere amusement at the white oddity in their presence. I truly believe with all of my heart, after spending nearly every day of the past 3 weeks in this village that I can discern their warmth to be love. The reason I can claim such discernment is because of the reciprocity of the love between them and I. I know that I poured out all I could there. Sweat, blood, joy, prayers, every once of Creole I could wring out of my language reservoir, and all of my time were truly donated to them.
The thing that makes my emotions so rosy for the people is that they gave it all back to me. I really think that is a vital component of mission or humanitarian work that is missing. So often people will come in and dump clothes or food off to the needy, or bring in water filters and barely, if at all, show them how to utilize it. They’ll call this love or compassion. In a way it is, but not nearly to the fullest. In a society where much of people’s days are spent tilling their rice or corn gardens, or simply trying to stay out of the blistering heat, it is difficult to muster love for one another. When marriage infidelity and abuse run rampant, it’s hard to love and trust those around you. There are a million reasons why places like these lack an easily accessible joy and compassion for one another. If people are spending the time and the resources to “help” the people, can’t they supply an intangible and perhaps equally important commodity to the people? I’ll never, ever forget Chaplain Joe Brummel’s phrase, “people are more important than projects”, I see Christ in that, just as much if not more than actually putting up a church or food in their bellies.
Wow wow! I didn’t mean to through in a life lesson so soon, I still have to throw in the day-to-day stuff! I won’t bore ya with the details. Each day we (we= a YWAM School of Evangelism team from Tyler, Texas, and the Haiti Discipleship Training School, and some more Haitian staff) would work on building the church. The church was 20ft by 56ft and about 20 ft tall. This is a MAMMOTH structure out in a village such as this. The first couple days were spend using a skid-loader to lift up the cement columns that we had filled the week before the work teams got here. After we had those completed we did the foundation with the help of some local Haitian masons (which has a cool separate story which I’d write about a different time for brevity’s sake). Once that was finished the masons continued on along the concrete block wall while we started laying the tin on the roof. This lasted work lasted about 5 days, we’d work from about 8 AM till 5 PM more or less in the hot Haitian sun.
Then at about 6 each night would be the Bondye-beni-ou-sade (read my previous posts of that makes no sense), and this is where the good-times rolled. If none of you ever experience Haitian worship, or Haitian music then you’ll have lived a deprived life. They get everybody going, and peoples’ body’s, heart’s, and souls are involved. Especially with my friends Jude and Philipson leading worship! Most of the night would be worship, and then Terry or somebody else would deliver a message, and the DTS or SOE from Texas would perform a drama with a specific message to it. It was an amazing time, it had such a feel good block-party attitude to it, and people were truly worshipping. I love to dance (whether I’m good or not is another question), and I did get into a couple dance-offs with some Haitian friends, it got pretty crazy!
My favorite experience, however, was just the downtime in the village. Whether it was teaching the kids English, telling the same old Haitian goofball everyday that my name was CLAYton not Bill CLINTon, getting my hair braided and corn-rowed, bathing in the Artibonite River, joining the big circle of men watching cockfights, or playing soccer with the older boys, I loved it. I was also blessed enough to stay in one of the villager’s houses. They cleared out and opened up about 10 houses for each of the teams to sleep in while they were out here. I was fortunate enough that I could stay by myself in the house of the Maxico, the leader of the village’s house with his sons Mackinson, Francisco, and Devenson (my best friend in all the village). They new not a lick of English other than “I love you brother” and “give me t-shirt), but luckily I had been utterly blessed with picking up Creole quickly. Before falling asleep we would talk for hours where I would ask them questions and they would ask me questions. They mostly asked about my family and fiancé, Taylor, and told me which white girls in the Tyler group they had crushes on. The last night there we even took a midnight dip in the river! Good golly I could never forget these memories even if I had Alzheimer’s disease!!!
Perhaps the most meaningful adventure of the entire trip, however, happened just yesterday on Easter Sunday. I can never stop thinking about the people out there, and with it being my last week I had no idea if I’d get a chance to see them again. I wanted to be a part of their first Easter more than anything. So my roommate and I, Marc (who doesn’t speak a lick of Creole), decided to take some motorcycle taxis out to Lubin, WITHOUT a Haitian translator. This would be the ultimate test to see how well my Creole had come along. We did make it out there (with a sore behind from the bumpy trip) and came during their service. I was so overwhelmed because they were so surprised and overjoyed to see us, and this was when I knew our mutual love for each other was genuine. They invited me to speak and so I timidly got up and read a passage to them from a Creole Bible, and spoke a sermon all in Creole. I had never given a sermon to any sort of congregation big or small, let alone in ANOTHER LANGUAGE. It was incredible though, they were completely understanding of my limitations in my Creole, but I knew they understood my message because throughout the message I would ask “ou kompran (do you understand)?” and they would yell AMEN! My friend Marc said they paid so much more attention than they even did to the pastors when they spoke. I didn’t think it was possible, but that day my love for them and desire for them to know the Hope of Jesus grew ten-fold. I know if I didn’t have so many obligations I would without a doubt live with them and try to disciple them.
Unfortunately the taxi-drivers were impatient and we couldn’t spend a lot of time with them, but it warmed my heart so deeply, I know I’ll never be the same because of it. This new week I’m going to spend a day up in the mountains doing some ministry there (which I hear is the most beautiful part of Haiti), but if I could I would just go back to Lubin. I told them so many times that I would never forget them and always pray for them, but even that seems like an understatement. What a blessing to me these people have been. I really hope everybody can find this much joy in a group of people, I don’t care what it looks like, whether it’s friends, children you teach in class, a place similar to Haiti, anybody, I hope you find it and embrace it and lift each other up in love and reverence. That’s what the body of the Church, to me, needs to look like. Thanks again for reading this blog (wow this one’s a mighty long one), I’ll be home soon to share anything, or everything, or nothing with y’all, I’m just excited to see everybody! Give me a call, a text, a smoke signal, anything, because I’m gonna need a lot of things to distract me from longing for the Lubinites! Godbless urrrrrrrybody!
Saturday, April 11, 2009
finally another post
this is a post that i wrote the day before the bondye-beni-ou-sade. i'll write about it all when i have the time and energy, hope this will do for now!
It’s been a while again since I’ve updated but I have excuses again! I have been unreal busy with building the church out in the 5th Section, and preparing for the Bondye-beni-ou-sade (a big worship and evangelism event out in the 5th Section with music dramas, preaching, prayer, worship, anything you can imagine. But anyway I’m up and blogging again.
I am very happy and I have God and the 5th Section to thank for it. For a lot of different reasons I have been very stressed out, very discouraged, and even moody at times to people I would never be moody with. On top of that I have not been able to sleep well at nights, and there has been a huge surge in mosquitoes and the bites that accompany them.
God has made it so clear to me that I am exactly where I belong, do exactly what I should be doing. I have been praying for renewal and rejuvenation. Each day I go out to the 5th Section groggy, tired, not enough breakfast in my stomach, and sunburnt from the hours I spend unprotected from the 90 degree Haitian sun. The beautiful thing about it is the second I get to Lubin (the village we’ve been building the church) I am re-energized almost instantly. I don’t know how well of a job I can do at describing it, but I’ve had dehydration and exertion headaches vanish instantly, I’ve had just as much energy as the little naked Haitian children, and I have a joy that makes hours out there melt butter in the Haitian sun. This joy is truly transcendent, and when I say it feels like Heaven, I really mean for me, I’m surely getting glimpses of Heaven on Earth (you can talk about that with me theologically later sometime if you desire).
The children. Oooooooh the beautiful children. They stare at you for minutes at a time, starved for an attention that I’m so willing to give but unfortunately insufficient for the amount of struggle they’ve had in their lives. The kids who love to learn absolutely any words in English so they can ask you to give that to them later. The kids who have done more of the manual labor than anybody by shoveling sand and rock, moving concrete blocks, moving materials, and by keeping an indescribable jovial atmosphere during the hard work in the Haitian sun.
The men. Many fit the Haitian stereotype of being lazy, but others, and a large number blow the stereotype away. They are willing to follow any command you give them, which is hard for any men’s ego to cope with. Many of them like to call me Bill Clinton because it’s easy to pronounce Clayton like Clinton. One in particular, the leader of the village, Maxico will always stand out to me. Father of 10 children, I can see the pride in his eyes when he talks about them. He is the example of a servant-hearted leader. He offers his help more than any other in the village, he has opened his house for us to store supplies, and he is always around the worksite ready for any sort of assistance.
The women. Hahahahaha I can’t help but laugh before I even talk about them. Women in Haitian culture truly keep society running. They take care of the gardens, the children, the cooking, the cleaning, and the sense of humor. They joke around more than anybody else. There have been more than one instance where I’d be having so much fun with my favorite women (trust me there are a lot of them), and I will make a joke and they will laugh so hard that they have to grab my waste and hug me just to keep from falling over. They have such ornery smiles (that’s right I said ornery, easily one of my own grandmother’s favorite adjectives), when they know they’re being ridiculous. There’s this one women, Roselyn (I’m not exactly sure on the spelling, but that’s how it’s pronounced), and she is a straight up workaholic. She is always around us helping us, or helping somebody else in the community. She, like Maxico, also opened her house for us to use for supplies and people to sleep in when the evangelism teams come in. For all the work she has done she has just asked me for one thing. Not money, not nice clothes or shoes like a lot of people, but a box of Cornflakes for her children to eat. I’m definitely going to try to find some, I think the supermarket has them, so if any of you talk to me on Facebook make sure you remind me to pick those up for her if I haven’t!
We start the heavy building tomorrow. I’m excited to complete this for them. I think of Pella, a town of 12,000 or something like that I once heard. I think we have 40 some churches, I don’t remember, and one of the best education communities in the nation. This village has never had either a school or a church. Wow, that is so crazy to me. I can’t wait to finish it and then come back to visit in a year or two, and visit a service for it!
I love the 5th Section. I have known for some time now that a place like this is exactly where God wants me to help. I haven’t known however, how much of an impact being able to spend tangible amounts of time and outreach in a place like this would do to me. I love it. I love it so much. I’m ready to be home with all of the people I love, but I know it’s going to be a rare day when I don’t think about this place and these people. I hope everybody finds a place like that. I’d be ignorant to think everybody’s “place” is a third world country, but please search for a place for you to serve and after a day where you’ve given all of yourself you felt like you just spend a day working in Heaven. How bout it eh?
It’s been a while again since I’ve updated but I have excuses again! I have been unreal busy with building the church out in the 5th Section, and preparing for the Bondye-beni-ou-sade (a big worship and evangelism event out in the 5th Section with music dramas, preaching, prayer, worship, anything you can imagine. But anyway I’m up and blogging again.
I am very happy and I have God and the 5th Section to thank for it. For a lot of different reasons I have been very stressed out, very discouraged, and even moody at times to people I would never be moody with. On top of that I have not been able to sleep well at nights, and there has been a huge surge in mosquitoes and the bites that accompany them.
God has made it so clear to me that I am exactly where I belong, do exactly what I should be doing. I have been praying for renewal and rejuvenation. Each day I go out to the 5th Section groggy, tired, not enough breakfast in my stomach, and sunburnt from the hours I spend unprotected from the 90 degree Haitian sun. The beautiful thing about it is the second I get to Lubin (the village we’ve been building the church) I am re-energized almost instantly. I don’t know how well of a job I can do at describing it, but I’ve had dehydration and exertion headaches vanish instantly, I’ve had just as much energy as the little naked Haitian children, and I have a joy that makes hours out there melt butter in the Haitian sun. This joy is truly transcendent, and when I say it feels like Heaven, I really mean for me, I’m surely getting glimpses of Heaven on Earth (you can talk about that with me theologically later sometime if you desire).
The children. Oooooooh the beautiful children. They stare at you for minutes at a time, starved for an attention that I’m so willing to give but unfortunately insufficient for the amount of struggle they’ve had in their lives. The kids who love to learn absolutely any words in English so they can ask you to give that to them later. The kids who have done more of the manual labor than anybody by shoveling sand and rock, moving concrete blocks, moving materials, and by keeping an indescribable jovial atmosphere during the hard work in the Haitian sun.
The men. Many fit the Haitian stereotype of being lazy, but others, and a large number blow the stereotype away. They are willing to follow any command you give them, which is hard for any men’s ego to cope with. Many of them like to call me Bill Clinton because it’s easy to pronounce Clayton like Clinton. One in particular, the leader of the village, Maxico will always stand out to me. Father of 10 children, I can see the pride in his eyes when he talks about them. He is the example of a servant-hearted leader. He offers his help more than any other in the village, he has opened his house for us to store supplies, and he is always around the worksite ready for any sort of assistance.
The women. Hahahahaha I can’t help but laugh before I even talk about them. Women in Haitian culture truly keep society running. They take care of the gardens, the children, the cooking, the cleaning, and the sense of humor. They joke around more than anybody else. There have been more than one instance where I’d be having so much fun with my favorite women (trust me there are a lot of them), and I will make a joke and they will laugh so hard that they have to grab my waste and hug me just to keep from falling over. They have such ornery smiles (that’s right I said ornery, easily one of my own grandmother’s favorite adjectives), when they know they’re being ridiculous. There’s this one women, Roselyn (I’m not exactly sure on the spelling, but that’s how it’s pronounced), and she is a straight up workaholic. She is always around us helping us, or helping somebody else in the community. She, like Maxico, also opened her house for us to use for supplies and people to sleep in when the evangelism teams come in. For all the work she has done she has just asked me for one thing. Not money, not nice clothes or shoes like a lot of people, but a box of Cornflakes for her children to eat. I’m definitely going to try to find some, I think the supermarket has them, so if any of you talk to me on Facebook make sure you remind me to pick those up for her if I haven’t!
We start the heavy building tomorrow. I’m excited to complete this for them. I think of Pella, a town of 12,000 or something like that I once heard. I think we have 40 some churches, I don’t remember, and one of the best education communities in the nation. This village has never had either a school or a church. Wow, that is so crazy to me. I can’t wait to finish it and then come back to visit in a year or two, and visit a service for it!
I love the 5th Section. I have known for some time now that a place like this is exactly where God wants me to help. I haven’t known however, how much of an impact being able to spend tangible amounts of time and outreach in a place like this would do to me. I love it. I love it so much. I’m ready to be home with all of the people I love, but I know it’s going to be a rare day when I don’t think about this place and these people. I hope everybody finds a place like that. I’d be ignorant to think everybody’s “place” is a third world country, but please search for a place for you to serve and after a day where you’ve given all of yourself you felt like you just spend a day working in Heaven. How bout it eh?
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
i miss ya'll!
hey! i've been in the 5th section everyday and even spending the night here. i promise i'll update real real good when i get back. i cant stress how busy and tired and worn out i am! you'll hear from me soon! Godbless!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
a little booya action
I have had one of the worst headaches of my life all day today, and I know I have never been more exhausted in all of my existence—and it’s been a great day. I’ll explain why in a bit, but before I do I want to express that I am completely re-inspired to keep up with my journaling and bloggification. In the past couple weeks I have heard from so many people who I would not expect in a million years to read my blog, and have gotten so many compliments that I have been really blown away, and want to give more accounts of what’s going on!
I’ll give you the overview of what I’ve been working toward. The focus has been in the 5th Section, a region outside of the city of Saint Marc where a few thousands of people live in poverty you can only grasp when you see it yourself. We have been working on preparing for two things: a school/church in a village called Lubin (which has never had a school or a church before), and we’re preparing for a four day “Crusade”. On a side note, it makes me feel very uncomfortable calling it a Crusade considering all the corruption, and death, and shenanigans that happened during those middle ages. During this—we’ll call it a Bondye-beni-ou-sade (Creole for Godbless you-sade, its all I could come up with)—during this Bondye-beni-ou-sade we will be evangelizing, and preaching, and putting on skits and dances, and giving gifts, and my favorite aspect of it all- staying out there under the stars all four nights! I have spent many moments here daydreaming of staying out in the 5th Section for longer than just an afternoon. I wish I could express better how beautiful this place is, and how much I love these people. siiiiighhhh. I forgot to mention that this Bondye-beni-ou-sade is happening April 5-9 and my flight is scheduled for April 4. BUT… I’m one step ahead of you, I change my flight so I Claiti will be extended till April 17. Booya!
Back to my day today. It started off so awful. I woke up and was ready for work at 8 and right away we were gearing all our trucks and vehicles to go out to the 5th Section. We were bringing out cement and supplies to pour the supports for the church. Unfortunately, the truck pulling the trailer with the skid loader and concrete mixer had a crack in the frame on the bottom. So I went with Terry to go get that welded. Right when he gets there he drops the truck off and leaves to go to the bank and tells me to watch over the stuff in the bank. No problem right? It wouldn’t be a problem if he returned promptly, but you learn that nothing happens promptly in Haiti. He didn’t come back until an hour and a half later, I had nobody to talk to, nothing to do, and no shade in sight on a 90 degree day. He finally came back and we set off for the 5th Section… for two minutes and we got a flat tire. Luckily we were still in town when it happened so we could get it fixed at the local tire shop. Again I had to wait out in the sun, and we had to set off at least three hours later than we wanted to.
I then was lucky enough to have more heavy dosage of the sun! I had to stand on the back of the flatbed truck to make sure that the shovels, concrete, gasoline, and water pump all stayed on. This is no easy task when the roads are worse than any B level road you could possibly find in the Iowa countryside. The drive out to Lubin takes about a half hour on motorcycles, but with carrying 30 bags of concrete, a skid loader, and concrete mixer it takes an hour and a half… under the sun (hahaha I sound like Solomon writing Ecclesiastes—please tell me somebody understands that lame bible joke).
We finally got there, but by this time my small pint water bottle was baron two hours ago, I had developed a debilitating headache, and I had sunburns on top of sunburns. I swear though, if each person has a Heaven on Earth I know that mine is Lubin. Right before I got there I prayed that God would somehow rejuvenate me so I could give my all in the ministry to the beautiful people of Lubin. Within five minutes of getting there the leader of the village could tell I was not doing so well and insisted on bringing me not one but three liters full of filtered water. In addition to the water they later gave me milk (which I have missed soooo much), a mango, and more water. Thanks leader of Lubin, but thanks more God!
Have I mentioned I have an extreme fondness of Lubin? The instant I ever enter the village any villager child or adult while yell “Clay-tone!” My friend Jude and I have gone there enough times that they have picked up on my name, Jude says they’ll remember it forever, and whenever he goes out there without me they always ask about me. Can I be honest and vulnerable for a minute? I may not always outwardly show it, but I struggle with being overly prideful. Let me tell you, when you are greeted like a returning king anytime you are seen even near certain villages then it is an instant shot into the ego-veins. I really can’t describe the feeling and how amazing it is. I truly know though that I don’t find all of this joy in coming here for the adoration I feel. As much pride as I have I promise that’s not why I love it. I am filled with joy for Lubin because the adoration is met with full reciprocity from me. I love them so much, I want to live among them and pull together any resource I could possibly muster in order to make life easier for them. I’m not going to try to describe why I love them so much, give some time and energy to people who make the projects of New York look like the Hamptoms sometime, and I have no doubt you’ll know exactly how I feel.
I have a bad habit of abandoning work to love on people. I blame my college chaplain Joe Brummel for this. On all mission trips he always talks about people before projects. I’ve taken that to heart and I always spend my time with the children, or hilarious mothers of the village. Today was no different and I can say in all honesty that I didn’t poor a single bucket of cement today. Luckily there was an abundance of help! It was great though, I am so pleased with how my Creole is coming along. Children find the funniest things to talk about. Today I talked about why my armpit hair is longer than theirs, why I want to wait a few years before I have children, and how to say fingernail-clipper in English. That’s not even close to all we talked about though! My favorite part was when I taught them the two songs I know in Creole and they sang some different songs in Creole for me. I think tomorrow I’ll ask them to teach me them.
Am I painting an even somewhat clear picture? When I reflect back on my times in places like this I really feel like I’m in Heaven. I think it might be true. These people who have “nothing” materially have so much in their community, have such an unhindered pathway to God, and a more acute sense of true happiness and true pain. I’m sorry for the cheesy paradoxical phraseology, but these people seem so “real” in that they make their survival happen themselves, that it is “surreal”. Does that make any sense? Ask me sometime to explain it to ya if you want. I can’t wait to come back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, and then the Bondye-beni-ou-sade. Please pray for these people, pray that people will be placed in their lives to disciple them, pray that the canal will be completed so their rice patties won’t look like the Serengeti, pray that the fear of Voodoo will leave the land, pray for anything for the 5th Section or any place you know of like it. The Bible makes it clear the poor are so very close to His heart, what kind of Christians are we if they’re not close to ours as well?
I’ll give you the overview of what I’ve been working toward. The focus has been in the 5th Section, a region outside of the city of Saint Marc where a few thousands of people live in poverty you can only grasp when you see it yourself. We have been working on preparing for two things: a school/church in a village called Lubin (which has never had a school or a church before), and we’re preparing for a four day “Crusade”. On a side note, it makes me feel very uncomfortable calling it a Crusade considering all the corruption, and death, and shenanigans that happened during those middle ages. During this—we’ll call it a Bondye-beni-ou-sade (Creole for Godbless you-sade, its all I could come up with)—during this Bondye-beni-ou-sade we will be evangelizing, and preaching, and putting on skits and dances, and giving gifts, and my favorite aspect of it all- staying out there under the stars all four nights! I have spent many moments here daydreaming of staying out in the 5th Section for longer than just an afternoon. I wish I could express better how beautiful this place is, and how much I love these people. siiiiighhhh. I forgot to mention that this Bondye-beni-ou-sade is happening April 5-9 and my flight is scheduled for April 4. BUT… I’m one step ahead of you, I change my flight so I Claiti will be extended till April 17. Booya!
Back to my day today. It started off so awful. I woke up and was ready for work at 8 and right away we were gearing all our trucks and vehicles to go out to the 5th Section. We were bringing out cement and supplies to pour the supports for the church. Unfortunately, the truck pulling the trailer with the skid loader and concrete mixer had a crack in the frame on the bottom. So I went with Terry to go get that welded. Right when he gets there he drops the truck off and leaves to go to the bank and tells me to watch over the stuff in the bank. No problem right? It wouldn’t be a problem if he returned promptly, but you learn that nothing happens promptly in Haiti. He didn’t come back until an hour and a half later, I had nobody to talk to, nothing to do, and no shade in sight on a 90 degree day. He finally came back and we set off for the 5th Section… for two minutes and we got a flat tire. Luckily we were still in town when it happened so we could get it fixed at the local tire shop. Again I had to wait out in the sun, and we had to set off at least three hours later than we wanted to.
I then was lucky enough to have more heavy dosage of the sun! I had to stand on the back of the flatbed truck to make sure that the shovels, concrete, gasoline, and water pump all stayed on. This is no easy task when the roads are worse than any B level road you could possibly find in the Iowa countryside. The drive out to Lubin takes about a half hour on motorcycles, but with carrying 30 bags of concrete, a skid loader, and concrete mixer it takes an hour and a half… under the sun (hahaha I sound like Solomon writing Ecclesiastes—please tell me somebody understands that lame bible joke).
We finally got there, but by this time my small pint water bottle was baron two hours ago, I had developed a debilitating headache, and I had sunburns on top of sunburns. I swear though, if each person has a Heaven on Earth I know that mine is Lubin. Right before I got there I prayed that God would somehow rejuvenate me so I could give my all in the ministry to the beautiful people of Lubin. Within five minutes of getting there the leader of the village could tell I was not doing so well and insisted on bringing me not one but three liters full of filtered water. In addition to the water they later gave me milk (which I have missed soooo much), a mango, and more water. Thanks leader of Lubin, but thanks more God!
Have I mentioned I have an extreme fondness of Lubin? The instant I ever enter the village any villager child or adult while yell “Clay-tone!” My friend Jude and I have gone there enough times that they have picked up on my name, Jude says they’ll remember it forever, and whenever he goes out there without me they always ask about me. Can I be honest and vulnerable for a minute? I may not always outwardly show it, but I struggle with being overly prideful. Let me tell you, when you are greeted like a returning king anytime you are seen even near certain villages then it is an instant shot into the ego-veins. I really can’t describe the feeling and how amazing it is. I truly know though that I don’t find all of this joy in coming here for the adoration I feel. As much pride as I have I promise that’s not why I love it. I am filled with joy for Lubin because the adoration is met with full reciprocity from me. I love them so much, I want to live among them and pull together any resource I could possibly muster in order to make life easier for them. I’m not going to try to describe why I love them so much, give some time and energy to people who make the projects of New York look like the Hamptoms sometime, and I have no doubt you’ll know exactly how I feel.
I have a bad habit of abandoning work to love on people. I blame my college chaplain Joe Brummel for this. On all mission trips he always talks about people before projects. I’ve taken that to heart and I always spend my time with the children, or hilarious mothers of the village. Today was no different and I can say in all honesty that I didn’t poor a single bucket of cement today. Luckily there was an abundance of help! It was great though, I am so pleased with how my Creole is coming along. Children find the funniest things to talk about. Today I talked about why my armpit hair is longer than theirs, why I want to wait a few years before I have children, and how to say fingernail-clipper in English. That’s not even close to all we talked about though! My favorite part was when I taught them the two songs I know in Creole and they sang some different songs in Creole for me. I think tomorrow I’ll ask them to teach me them.
Am I painting an even somewhat clear picture? When I reflect back on my times in places like this I really feel like I’m in Heaven. I think it might be true. These people who have “nothing” materially have so much in their community, have such an unhindered pathway to God, and a more acute sense of true happiness and true pain. I’m sorry for the cheesy paradoxical phraseology, but these people seem so “real” in that they make their survival happen themselves, that it is “surreal”. Does that make any sense? Ask me sometime to explain it to ya if you want. I can’t wait to come back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, and then the Bondye-beni-ou-sade. Please pray for these people, pray that people will be placed in their lives to disciple them, pray that the canal will be completed so their rice patties won’t look like the Serengeti, pray that the fear of Voodoo will leave the land, pray for anything for the 5th Section or any place you know of like it. The Bible makes it clear the poor are so very close to His heart, what kind of Christians are we if they’re not close to ours as well?
Friday, March 20, 2009
I AM STILL ALIVE!
Yes, it has been two weeks since I have posted anything… but I can explain! Try putting yourself in my size 11.5 (although I often wear size 12) shoes: Your best friend in the whole wide world; the person who knows you better than anybody else in the whole wide world; the person who you have the most fun with in the whole wide world; but who you would trust more than anybody in the whole wide world with all of your secrets, fears, and worries big and small; the person who you knew within a couple of months of dating you wanted to be married with and travel with all over the whole wide world; this person, who has been away from you for six months to serve God across the whole wide world; when this person, my fiancé, Taylor gives up the best comforts in the whole wide world (Pella, Iowa home cookin’) to be with me in Haiti, writing a journal is the very last thing on my mind. I hope you can understand my absence, but I look forward to filling you in, come join me!
The last two weeks have been a rollercoaster to say the very least. Things started off so perfectly. Tay and I picked up right where we had left off in our relationship, and there was no awkward, “getting reacquainted stage” from being apart so long. We were among the poor, serving in ministry together where we belong. She loved everybody on base and everybody on the base loved her (obviously). The two weeks she was here she taught pre-school in the mornings and either helped out with the 3rd graders or hung out with me. She experienced the wrath of those 4-year-olds just as I did, but they were so cute it was rewarding as well.
At the pinnacle of her falling in love with this place, the place we love didn’t return the favor. With about four days left in her trip she came down with the wretched Dengue Fever. One night she came to my apartment at about 3 AM telling me she had diarrhea and nausea throughout the night. The next day she had the cold shakes, and a very high fever with continued diarrhea. Her joints were also very swollen and achy, and it hurt her so much just to walk from place to place. She even developed the rash that comes at the end of the tropical disease. Wikipedia Dengue Fever and you’ll get the exact same symptoms so we can’t help but conclude on that!
I did my best to take care of her and keep her in good spirits, but on the last night together I got a very high fever and cold shakes come on me very suddenly as well. I had a relapse of the froozin’ Dengue too. I had headaches a few days before, but couldn’t have imagined I’d get it again. The funny thing about it though, we were both physically miserable and had to take turns attempting to destroy the toilets from the inside out, but despite these setbacks we still had a great time together as only we could. We had a ridiculous photo op, cheered each other on during our battles in the bathroom, and even did some dancing at a pizza party (even though our bodies were very angry with us for doing that). To make things worse Tay’s flight from Port-au-Prince was delayed 4 hours and she wasn’t able to catch any connecting flights from Miami to Chicago and had to spend the night in Miami all by herself. What a terrible end to an awesome trip. I wish I could have had double the Dengue in order for her to not have it at all. Shoot dang if only it worked that way.
She’s been gone four days now and it’s so hard being apart. I’m here in my new favorite place on the planet, and she’s in the town she’s lived in for the past six years having to soon get back to work. It doesn’t seem fair, and this is one of the many times where I wish there were two of me so one of me could be with her in Pella. Once again it doesn’t work out that way so we’re going to have to do our best to get through this.
It’s been a busy new week though. We our preparing to build a church/school/community center in the 5th Section in a village called Lubin 4. This is in my top 2 of favorite villages in the world. It’s been so difficult for me being sick still because this week there is actually an abundance of work for me personally to do which isn’t always the case. I’m still having extreme exhaustion and diarrhea and the mornings are really hard for me. It’s getting better daily, but it’s still a setback to get through. Today we went to Lubin 4 to bring out supplies for the church and I didn’t realize how much I missed the 5th Section until being back. Lubin 4 is where my friend Jude and I go each Sunday to do ministry with them, and I hadn’t been in two weeks due to sicknesses. I was so blown away when all of the children remembered my name and were so eager to talk with me and hold my hand. I even got a cut on my leg and some of the villages ladies insisted on cleaning it with me. It’s days like this where I seriously feel like I’m in Heaven.
We then had a surprise and went to the village of Bas Lalle (pronounced Ball Luh-Lay) my other favorite village. This is the village I’ve talked about before that has no rice crop to speak of because of the broken canal, and had 60% of its houses destroyed. This village is time after time where I see the most joy when we come. We brought some digging equipment for when we build an irrigation system for them. Two of the village leaders are these sisters who love giving hugs so much. Ahhhhh I love going there! One of them told me that next time we come out she is going to provide me with milk. I almost started to cry that she would offer such a thing when they have so little. Not to mention the fact that I haven’t had real milk in almost three months! I love having ministry at these villages. The whole time today all I could think about is how amazing it would be to learn Creole fluently (I am coming along better with it) and spend time living with them and sharing community and sharing the Good News with them, while providing as much aid as I can. Who knows maybe someday this could be a reality for Taylor and I! I’ll certainly be open to it! Well time for this little boy in the candy shop to go to bed. Again I apologize for not updating the blog sooner, well actually I don’t apologize because my time was better spent with my favorite person ever! I’ll make sure to be more prompt with my updates from now on! Godbless!
The last two weeks have been a rollercoaster to say the very least. Things started off so perfectly. Tay and I picked up right where we had left off in our relationship, and there was no awkward, “getting reacquainted stage” from being apart so long. We were among the poor, serving in ministry together where we belong. She loved everybody on base and everybody on the base loved her (obviously). The two weeks she was here she taught pre-school in the mornings and either helped out with the 3rd graders or hung out with me. She experienced the wrath of those 4-year-olds just as I did, but they were so cute it was rewarding as well.
At the pinnacle of her falling in love with this place, the place we love didn’t return the favor. With about four days left in her trip she came down with the wretched Dengue Fever. One night she came to my apartment at about 3 AM telling me she had diarrhea and nausea throughout the night. The next day she had the cold shakes, and a very high fever with continued diarrhea. Her joints were also very swollen and achy, and it hurt her so much just to walk from place to place. She even developed the rash that comes at the end of the tropical disease. Wikipedia Dengue Fever and you’ll get the exact same symptoms so we can’t help but conclude on that!
I did my best to take care of her and keep her in good spirits, but on the last night together I got a very high fever and cold shakes come on me very suddenly as well. I had a relapse of the froozin’ Dengue too. I had headaches a few days before, but couldn’t have imagined I’d get it again. The funny thing about it though, we were both physically miserable and had to take turns attempting to destroy the toilets from the inside out, but despite these setbacks we still had a great time together as only we could. We had a ridiculous photo op, cheered each other on during our battles in the bathroom, and even did some dancing at a pizza party (even though our bodies were very angry with us for doing that). To make things worse Tay’s flight from Port-au-Prince was delayed 4 hours and she wasn’t able to catch any connecting flights from Miami to Chicago and had to spend the night in Miami all by herself. What a terrible end to an awesome trip. I wish I could have had double the Dengue in order for her to not have it at all. Shoot dang if only it worked that way.
She’s been gone four days now and it’s so hard being apart. I’m here in my new favorite place on the planet, and she’s in the town she’s lived in for the past six years having to soon get back to work. It doesn’t seem fair, and this is one of the many times where I wish there were two of me so one of me could be with her in Pella. Once again it doesn’t work out that way so we’re going to have to do our best to get through this.
It’s been a busy new week though. We our preparing to build a church/school/community center in the 5th Section in a village called Lubin 4. This is in my top 2 of favorite villages in the world. It’s been so difficult for me being sick still because this week there is actually an abundance of work for me personally to do which isn’t always the case. I’m still having extreme exhaustion and diarrhea and the mornings are really hard for me. It’s getting better daily, but it’s still a setback to get through. Today we went to Lubin 4 to bring out supplies for the church and I didn’t realize how much I missed the 5th Section until being back. Lubin 4 is where my friend Jude and I go each Sunday to do ministry with them, and I hadn’t been in two weeks due to sicknesses. I was so blown away when all of the children remembered my name and were so eager to talk with me and hold my hand. I even got a cut on my leg and some of the villages ladies insisted on cleaning it with me. It’s days like this where I seriously feel like I’m in Heaven.
We then had a surprise and went to the village of Bas Lalle (pronounced Ball Luh-Lay) my other favorite village. This is the village I’ve talked about before that has no rice crop to speak of because of the broken canal, and had 60% of its houses destroyed. This village is time after time where I see the most joy when we come. We brought some digging equipment for when we build an irrigation system for them. Two of the village leaders are these sisters who love giving hugs so much. Ahhhhh I love going there! One of them told me that next time we come out she is going to provide me with milk. I almost started to cry that she would offer such a thing when they have so little. Not to mention the fact that I haven’t had real milk in almost three months! I love having ministry at these villages. The whole time today all I could think about is how amazing it would be to learn Creole fluently (I am coming along better with it) and spend time living with them and sharing community and sharing the Good News with them, while providing as much aid as I can. Who knows maybe someday this could be a reality for Taylor and I! I’ll certainly be open to it! Well time for this little boy in the candy shop to go to bed. Again I apologize for not updating the blog sooner, well actually I don’t apologize because my time was better spent with my favorite person ever! I’ll make sure to be more prompt with my updates from now on! Godbless!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
oooooooh yeeeeaaahhh!!
Taylor (my fiance) just joined me in Haiti for 2 weeks. I'm not going to even try to describe how happy i am because it wont even come close to capturing the immensity of my happiness. ahhhhhhhhhhhhh yaaaaayyyy!!!
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