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!!!
Monday, March 2, 2009
haiti yay!
Once again I’ve been inconsistent in my chronicling of my time in Haiti, and once again I apologize! It passing day I’m here it gets harder and harder to do this! The reason it’s so difficult is not from laziness (I’m serious!), but because of the amazing relationships I’ve formed with people here. I have Mike my Canadian friend who I spend the most time with. I hope to keep ties with him and definitely invite him to the wedding. There is Mark my roommate from Missouri who I talk with about his love for a Haitian here on base, and we support each other so well in everything going on. Then there are the Haitians on base: Steve, Junior, Patrick, Anasias, Jude, Ronald, Peterson, Philipson, Yvenel, Bo and his wife Merline, Carline, Jonathon, Roberteau, Elage (Eddie Murphy), Alain, and many more I don’t have the time to mention. I love them all sooooo much I can’t put it into words. I truly have a unique relationship with each of them, and I cherish learning about their lives and their testimonies.
It is people like them that give me hope for Haiti. They are the new generation and their visions for the future have already brought me to tears. Speaking of the future, I must also mention all of my students that I teach in gym. I can’t come close to mentioning them all because there are so many of them with diverse personalities but I have to highlight some. There is Nathaniel the fat and pudgy goofball. He is the purest, most innocent child I have ever known. He loves to tell me I’m the best gym teacher EVER hahaha! Then there are the girls Dawna, Taloney, Mikaela, Krystal, Nora and on and on. They love affection and to be thrown in the air or hold hands. They can be divas but they’ll listen when they’re being wrong. Then there are the boys who love to act tough like Aaron, Davie, Harry, Geoff, Eli, and others but who are big sweeties on the inside. I’ll never forget how their toughness completely fled them when we had swimming lessons. I’ve never been clung to for dear life as when I was helping them swim across. They were nearly in tears as I was helping them along, but by the end they were loving it and they always look forward to swimming lessons.
I feel so truly blessed right now. Lately I’ve been feeling sorry for myself about various things and tonight I truly was lifted it. I am in my favorite place in the planet, my soon-to-be wife is joining me here in two days, and I can ride around the city on motorcycle taxies for 40 cents. That is Mike and my favorite thing to do. It’s fun because you never know if you are going to get a driver that is friendly, and likes to talk about his faith, or if you’ll get one that will see an opportunity to scam some money. It sometimes feels like that is the microcosm of the country, people seem to be opportunistic or exploitative, or open, loving, and hospitable beyond any United States measure. Then I realize that is too oversimplified and dangerous to assume about any sort of people group. The whole time here I’ve been trying to formulate in my mind what it is to be “Haitian”. Whenever I think I’m getting somewhere close to an answer, new Haitian people just destroy the mold. I love that though. I really really do! It means you need to take the time to know people and form relationships. That’s true of any place, anywhere. I had no idea where my ramblings this time around would go, but I think this is it. I love making relationships. The deeper they go the more rewarding they are, but more than that, that is how progress in any arena will be made. Change comes vertically; from people to people to people, not from the top down.
It’s pretty awesome how Jesus is like that too. In the book of Isaiah it prophesized that Jesus would suffer and be bruised and beaten for the world. He didn’t come to a thrown and rule by some “trick-down” scheme. He formed relationships with his disciples. These disciples after much learning and many mistakes and grown then went town to town not conquering, but conversing and healing. They showed compassion, they influenced people through perseverance in their actions, and strength in their character. I want my wife and I to do that for the rest of our lives. I want every meaningful relationship in my life; family and friends, to join me in this directly or indirectly. This is my prayer.
I spoke on Facebook with somebody that I haven’t talked to in basically a couple of years, and we’d barely consider ourselves acquaintances. There was by no means any bad blood, we just don’t really have a relationship. I started talking to her about a show that we both liked, but it ended up that I was lifted up more than I can explain here. She said she had read my blog (which means so much to me for ANYBODY who reads this silly thing) and she said in short that she was inspired by Taylor and my love for the nations, and passion for justice. This girl is mending and growing in her relationship in Christ, and she has been learning about inequalities and injustices throughout the world. I was so overjoyed, not for the boost to the ego she supplied (that is if I allow it to come to that), but because she is becoming impassioned as well. I was more overcome than I can explain, and I shared it with Taylor and we were overjoyed so deeply! So for all of you who have given us encouragements, or have mentioned you are praying for us, or praying for us without mentioning it, I want you to know that they mean more than anything in the world. Its so easy to feel bitter for the amount of wrong that is allowed in the world. I have a hard time deciding which is worse, having no clue what goes on in the world, or knowing it and perpetuating it or not doing a thing. I get renewed so quickly first of all from God, but also from the relationships here in Haiti, the relationship with my partner in crime, Tay, and from everybody back at home. Thank you all so much, thanks for reading my bliggity blogs, and thank you all for being you. I look forward to catching up and going deeper in our friendships and in the Lord! I love you all!!!
It is people like them that give me hope for Haiti. They are the new generation and their visions for the future have already brought me to tears. Speaking of the future, I must also mention all of my students that I teach in gym. I can’t come close to mentioning them all because there are so many of them with diverse personalities but I have to highlight some. There is Nathaniel the fat and pudgy goofball. He is the purest, most innocent child I have ever known. He loves to tell me I’m the best gym teacher EVER hahaha! Then there are the girls Dawna, Taloney, Mikaela, Krystal, Nora and on and on. They love affection and to be thrown in the air or hold hands. They can be divas but they’ll listen when they’re being wrong. Then there are the boys who love to act tough like Aaron, Davie, Harry, Geoff, Eli, and others but who are big sweeties on the inside. I’ll never forget how their toughness completely fled them when we had swimming lessons. I’ve never been clung to for dear life as when I was helping them swim across. They were nearly in tears as I was helping them along, but by the end they were loving it and they always look forward to swimming lessons.
I feel so truly blessed right now. Lately I’ve been feeling sorry for myself about various things and tonight I truly was lifted it. I am in my favorite place in the planet, my soon-to-be wife is joining me here in two days, and I can ride around the city on motorcycle taxies for 40 cents. That is Mike and my favorite thing to do. It’s fun because you never know if you are going to get a driver that is friendly, and likes to talk about his faith, or if you’ll get one that will see an opportunity to scam some money. It sometimes feels like that is the microcosm of the country, people seem to be opportunistic or exploitative, or open, loving, and hospitable beyond any United States measure. Then I realize that is too oversimplified and dangerous to assume about any sort of people group. The whole time here I’ve been trying to formulate in my mind what it is to be “Haitian”. Whenever I think I’m getting somewhere close to an answer, new Haitian people just destroy the mold. I love that though. I really really do! It means you need to take the time to know people and form relationships. That’s true of any place, anywhere. I had no idea where my ramblings this time around would go, but I think this is it. I love making relationships. The deeper they go the more rewarding they are, but more than that, that is how progress in any arena will be made. Change comes vertically; from people to people to people, not from the top down.
It’s pretty awesome how Jesus is like that too. In the book of Isaiah it prophesized that Jesus would suffer and be bruised and beaten for the world. He didn’t come to a thrown and rule by some “trick-down” scheme. He formed relationships with his disciples. These disciples after much learning and many mistakes and grown then went town to town not conquering, but conversing and healing. They showed compassion, they influenced people through perseverance in their actions, and strength in their character. I want my wife and I to do that for the rest of our lives. I want every meaningful relationship in my life; family and friends, to join me in this directly or indirectly. This is my prayer.
I spoke on Facebook with somebody that I haven’t talked to in basically a couple of years, and we’d barely consider ourselves acquaintances. There was by no means any bad blood, we just don’t really have a relationship. I started talking to her about a show that we both liked, but it ended up that I was lifted up more than I can explain here. She said she had read my blog (which means so much to me for ANYBODY who reads this silly thing) and she said in short that she was inspired by Taylor and my love for the nations, and passion for justice. This girl is mending and growing in her relationship in Christ, and she has been learning about inequalities and injustices throughout the world. I was so overjoyed, not for the boost to the ego she supplied (that is if I allow it to come to that), but because she is becoming impassioned as well. I was more overcome than I can explain, and I shared it with Taylor and we were overjoyed so deeply! So for all of you who have given us encouragements, or have mentioned you are praying for us, or praying for us without mentioning it, I want you to know that they mean more than anything in the world. Its so easy to feel bitter for the amount of wrong that is allowed in the world. I have a hard time deciding which is worse, having no clue what goes on in the world, or knowing it and perpetuating it or not doing a thing. I get renewed so quickly first of all from God, but also from the relationships here in Haiti, the relationship with my partner in crime, Tay, and from everybody back at home. Thank you all so much, thanks for reading my bliggity blogs, and thank you all for being you. I look forward to catching up and going deeper in our friendships and in the Lord! I love you all!!!
Monday, February 23, 2009
beach blog!
Wow it has been a week since I’ve updated this! My deepest apologies! I have been busy with many things and it’s very difficult for me to want to sit still long enough to write about my experiences! Before diving more into this I want to forewarn any reader of this that I’ve experienced so much this week, and I’m not sure the best way to go about explaining it. If it is scatter-brained or long, once again I apologize for that. I’ll appreciate anybody that bears with me through this blog! Having said that I wish that everybody could experience Haiti, or at least one of the thousands of poor microcosms of it that can be found in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Mexico, the slums of Europe, Chicago, Philly, ANYWHERE. I wish I could also explain my experiences more vividly or devote more time to explaining about my time here. Then I think about how even Shakespeare or Dostoevsky or Hemingway in all their brilliance would sell places like this short. They have to be experienced rather than read.
This has been such a strange week for me I’m still not sure how to process it. I can the week as an out-and-out tourist. We walked down our Maurepas Avenue, through some houses of people doing laundry (I feel so stupid and blatantly American about that still) along some beautiful cliffs of fossilized coral reef, and to a very cheap, but gorgeous beach. The sand was so powdery and white that even though 90 degree Caribbean sun could not make the sand scorch our feet. The water was so predictably translucent and dazzling blue that it felt like it the newest HD/plasma/whatever TV screen would sell this picture miles short. The water predictably was the perfect temperature, and the people working at the beach were predictably over-the-top friendly and complimentary. My white Iowan skin got predictably scorched, and I was (and am) predictably proud of that fact. It was predictably an island paradise that every middle-class American conjures up in their mind. It was predictably a perfect day in Haiti. I, however, predictably found so many things that broke my heart. The whole walk to the beach was predictably strewn with heaps and heaps and trash (as is the landscape of all of Haiti). The shallows were predictably filled with makeshift sale boats desperately trying to make a living. The beach was predictably void of any Haitians allowed to be enjoying the beauty of their own country. It was all predictable. I hate being predictably cynical in all of my blogs. It just makes me so upset that Haiti truly should be a tropical paradise. There are so many glimpses of it in the animals, the plants, the terrain, the people! It is truly evidence of the destruction that greed and selfishness that people can display. Whether it is slavery, dictatorship, or oppressive U.S. economic policies it can all be traced back to greed and lack of empathy. It makes me sick to be able to simultaneously witness the evil and beauty of the island. There is so much potential for all beauty. That is what heaven will look like.
Anybody that knows me knows how fun-loving and even optimistic I am. Seeing these things, and reading about the route causes of these, however, does something to you deep inside. I realize this sounds cheesy and predictable, but it’s true. It does something deep inside you, it’s an emotion I haven’t really put my finger on. I think it’s an emotion that I think the individual has the choice to shape and sculpt. It can turned to bitterness. It can turn to outright cynicism. Or it can turn to true compassion-which forms into love of people. If you are free of apathy you cannot help but experience some degree of zealousness when you over and over again see injustices and suffering. This zealousness so often can turn to violent zealousness, which only perpetuates the cycle of suffering. Or you can strive for a zealousness of love. This fervor can be used as fuel to devote everything you can to the outcast, to the voiceless, to the suffering, to the exhausted, to the defeated.
Please, please, please don’t get the wrong impression. I’ll admit I have felt bitterness, I have felt defeated in a lot of causes, I have felt cynical, but with every relationship I form those sentiments are defeated. Haiti can be transformed. The Kingdom of Heaven can come to Earth. Please pray that I can stay energized; that I am filled with love rather than anger. Please pray this prayer for yourselves as well. I promise you that if everybody first A) exposed themselves to these injustices and B) responded with compassion as Jesus did then we will see beautiful transformations around the world. I know it. In the glimpses of Heaven I have seen in people I know that it can be contagious. Wow, I went from pissed off to excited! I’m not even sure who I am writing this to, but whoever it is please join me! As disciples, as new believers, as Christians, as curious people who have no idea what to think of Christianity, please please find human suffering and share in it, and overcome it together. Amen?
(I just started typing this prayer without even realizing it. I can’t explain it very well, but it was one of the most sincere prayers I’ve ever experienced. Normally I’m not so public about my prayers but yeah I thought I would end this blog with the prayer that I spontaneously started writing in the middle of this essay).
Oh God please give me strength, the energy, the perseverance, the support to do this all of my life. Lord please free me from anger at the oppressors, but rather fill me with your zeal against the systems of oppression. Jesus please give me knowledge how to do this. Please continue to fill my heart for these children, for these villages, for “the least of these”. Please let me know what compassion truly is, and let me feel it and act upon it. Make me a leader please Father so I am not alone with this, but can form communities who love you and love others. Thank you Jesus for giving me the love I already have. I didn’t know I could love this much or this hard, thank you God so much for filling me with this.
This has been such a strange week for me I’m still not sure how to process it. I can the week as an out-and-out tourist. We walked down our Maurepas Avenue, through some houses of people doing laundry (I feel so stupid and blatantly American about that still) along some beautiful cliffs of fossilized coral reef, and to a very cheap, but gorgeous beach. The sand was so powdery and white that even though 90 degree Caribbean sun could not make the sand scorch our feet. The water was so predictably translucent and dazzling blue that it felt like it the newest HD/plasma/whatever TV screen would sell this picture miles short. The water predictably was the perfect temperature, and the people working at the beach were predictably over-the-top friendly and complimentary. My white Iowan skin got predictably scorched, and I was (and am) predictably proud of that fact. It was predictably an island paradise that every middle-class American conjures up in their mind. It was predictably a perfect day in Haiti. I, however, predictably found so many things that broke my heart. The whole walk to the beach was predictably strewn with heaps and heaps and trash (as is the landscape of all of Haiti). The shallows were predictably filled with makeshift sale boats desperately trying to make a living. The beach was predictably void of any Haitians allowed to be enjoying the beauty of their own country. It was all predictable. I hate being predictably cynical in all of my blogs. It just makes me so upset that Haiti truly should be a tropical paradise. There are so many glimpses of it in the animals, the plants, the terrain, the people! It is truly evidence of the destruction that greed and selfishness that people can display. Whether it is slavery, dictatorship, or oppressive U.S. economic policies it can all be traced back to greed and lack of empathy. It makes me sick to be able to simultaneously witness the evil and beauty of the island. There is so much potential for all beauty. That is what heaven will look like.
Anybody that knows me knows how fun-loving and even optimistic I am. Seeing these things, and reading about the route causes of these, however, does something to you deep inside. I realize this sounds cheesy and predictable, but it’s true. It does something deep inside you, it’s an emotion I haven’t really put my finger on. I think it’s an emotion that I think the individual has the choice to shape and sculpt. It can turned to bitterness. It can turn to outright cynicism. Or it can turn to true compassion-which forms into love of people. If you are free of apathy you cannot help but experience some degree of zealousness when you over and over again see injustices and suffering. This zealousness so often can turn to violent zealousness, which only perpetuates the cycle of suffering. Or you can strive for a zealousness of love. This fervor can be used as fuel to devote everything you can to the outcast, to the voiceless, to the suffering, to the exhausted, to the defeated.
Please, please, please don’t get the wrong impression. I’ll admit I have felt bitterness, I have felt defeated in a lot of causes, I have felt cynical, but with every relationship I form those sentiments are defeated. Haiti can be transformed. The Kingdom of Heaven can come to Earth. Please pray that I can stay energized; that I am filled with love rather than anger. Please pray this prayer for yourselves as well. I promise you that if everybody first A) exposed themselves to these injustices and B) responded with compassion as Jesus did then we will see beautiful transformations around the world. I know it. In the glimpses of Heaven I have seen in people I know that it can be contagious. Wow, I went from pissed off to excited! I’m not even sure who I am writing this to, but whoever it is please join me! As disciples, as new believers, as Christians, as curious people who have no idea what to think of Christianity, please please find human suffering and share in it, and overcome it together. Amen?
(I just started typing this prayer without even realizing it. I can’t explain it very well, but it was one of the most sincere prayers I’ve ever experienced. Normally I’m not so public about my prayers but yeah I thought I would end this blog with the prayer that I spontaneously started writing in the middle of this essay).
Oh God please give me strength, the energy, the perseverance, the support to do this all of my life. Lord please free me from anger at the oppressors, but rather fill me with your zeal against the systems of oppression. Jesus please give me knowledge how to do this. Please continue to fill my heart for these children, for these villages, for “the least of these”. Please let me know what compassion truly is, and let me feel it and act upon it. Make me a leader please Father so I am not alone with this, but can form communities who love you and love others. Thank you Jesus for giving me the love I already have. I didn’t know I could love this much or this hard, thank you God so much for filling me with this.
Friday, February 20, 2009
ballin'
Just so you all know... Operation: Ratty Mustache is in full effect and going strong. When i get back you will all be blown away if you've been blessed with the chance to lay eyes upon it. Be forewarned, the Truth of the 'stache is coming.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
another clayton rant. read at your own risk.
i know people hate getting preached at. i'm always so self-conscious about because whenever you implore people to do something or not do something there is almost always at least an implied self-righteousness undertone to it. i'm not exactly sure how to avoid that and i want to truly apologize if i send an "i'm better than you vibe". i include myself in anything i'm about to write in this post. i have absolutely no idea how many people reads this silly blog. i hope you realize that i'm not special. anybody can do anything to help. even if it means giving money at the very least. it can help so much.
i was just reflecting on my time in the villages of the 5th Section today and i have this image going through my head over and over and over and over again. This women in the poorest, most ecologically and physically poor village i will most likely ever see had this strange mechanical contraption protruding through her arm. she had her forearm crushed in some sort of rice production machinery. this happened in JUNE. she is still wearing this thing. what hospital would put this on somebody's body? obviously a hospital with improper medical knowledge, improper funding, improper care from a corrupt government.
then i got to thinking. why are so people poor? i HATE over simplified answers but i cant get this one out of my head. it is because we are rich. i understand it is very easy for me to feel this way when i see poverty and suffering all day and everyday. but it only makes it clear. how can we as a Christian whole--the richest broad people group on the planet-- not take care of each other. when there is suffering does anything else matter? it only takes a thought exercise of any sort. do you know how crappy you feel when you are sick with the flu? when you're strapped for cash? when you're love sick? the poor feel these emotions 23984797 fold compared to us. they cant seek help other than friends and family who are suffering too.
i HATE this. i hate being so angry. i'm seriously crying right now because i cant understand how the world has completely lost the point. everybody pursues what makes them "happy" in life. and that is considered "virtuous". have you ever helped somebody out? like truly had compassion and been there for them? this doesnt have to be in a poor nation, i'm talking about helping friend family stranger ANYBODY. is there any happier feeling? it truly feels like you're in heaven when you know you shared in and eased the suffering of another. dont believe me? try it.
gosh i'm sorry i'm saying the same things over and over and over again. i cant think about anything else though. i just cant. i just hate it that people suffer and die and they feel like they are suffering alone because people in the world are so rich and will never know this kind of pain. i cant get over the sense that nearly the whole world has missed the point. people dont have to suffer. PERIOD. once again that's over simplified but the world has enough for our needs but not enough for our greed. please please please please dont wait for somebody else to do these good things for you. too many people have had that mindset and that's why things dont get done. oh my goodness i hope this makes some kind of sense. i hope we can help support each other to give all of ourselves to "something bigger than ourselves" as my wonderful and beautiful fiance loves to say. it's the most heavenly feeling in the world. knowing you shared in somebody's suffering and lifted them up. Godbless you all. thank you if you read through all of my ranting and raving again. sorry if i'm too harsh but i always feel like i wasnt quite harsh enough. Thank God that God is so much better at this than i am and that i can draw strength from Him. Goodnight!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
another day in paradise
I suppose it’s another time for an update! This gets harder and harder for me to do because there is always so much I can learn, so many people I could spend time with and get to know, so much I can read! Then I think about how many people have mentioned that they’re reading my blog and how much that means to me, and how much of a monster I’d be to keep all of the goodness from Haiti to myself!
The daily routine has changed for me a bit. Instead of helping teach preschoolers I am working with the computerized identification system used to streamline distributions to the villages of the 5th Section. This has been a challenge for many reasons. I am once again being shown how difficult and adaptive a life of a missionary MUST be. Terry, the leader of the base, one morning told me I was going to be doing this. He, however, is an extremely busy man and can’t take the time to properly orient me on the system. He has told me vague ideas of what he wants done and I go to town on them. The system is on Microsoft Access, which is a database system similar to Microsoft Excel. Each household in the 5th Section is given an identification card. On this card has a picture of one person from the family. They are given an ID number, and it is recorded how many people are in their family, what sicknesses they may have, what damage their houses endured from the hurricanes, what specific village they are from, and what supplies they have already received.
Like I said I have been thrown in on my for the most part to feel around. It has taken me a while, but I’ve for the most part mastered the program! My task has been to clean the system up. Many groups have come and blessed this place with their help but it is hard to always stay on the same page with new people cycling in and out. Because of this, many of the information is very scattered. Villages are spelled differently, supplies are called different things, etc. I have been consolidating as much of this information so we can exact information from the system much faster. It’s been cool because I’ve actually figured some stuff out that Terry and Rodney weren’t aware of and we’ve really been able to improve the system!
I love doing this work because it truly is important, and truly works, I’ve experienced it the second day I was here! If we just showed up with food and supplies it would be chaos. The strong and clever will make out with a lot and the weaker or just unlucky will be left starving and dying. It’s awesome that I’m able to experience this because I KNOW I will be doing lots more of this later in life and so I’m trying to be a sponge and soak it all in baby! It’s also challenging work and allows me to be independent and somewhat inventive.
I’m excited because tomorrow morning I’m going to be blessed with the opportunity to go back out to the beloved 5th Section! Rodney and I and a Haitian brother are driving out there in order to make measurements on the road and canal. We are doing this because this spot near the village of Lubin is pretty treacherous and damaged and we need to find a way to be able to bring equipment and trucks out here. Ahhhhhh I seriously am sooooo happy that I am able to work with this aspect of the ministry. This is best-case-scenario for me. If only more money would pour into this place so more love and compassion could be poured into the 5th Section!
Oh and also, just for the record it is confirmed today that I indeed have Dengue Fever. After another day battle the incessant loosening of the stool, or what I like to call Duvalier’s Revenge, I broke out into a rash on my arms. That is the other tell-tale symptom of Dengue Fever. Hahahaha how cool is it that I came to a “tropical” island and picked up a “tropical” disease from mosquitoes! It’s been a huge hassle and pretty exhausting and dehydrating at times, but booya for me for the story I can tell haha!
Thus ends another entry from “Mista Clai-Tone” as my PE students pronounce my name. Thanks for reading! I love you and miss you all!
The daily routine has changed for me a bit. Instead of helping teach preschoolers I am working with the computerized identification system used to streamline distributions to the villages of the 5th Section. This has been a challenge for many reasons. I am once again being shown how difficult and adaptive a life of a missionary MUST be. Terry, the leader of the base, one morning told me I was going to be doing this. He, however, is an extremely busy man and can’t take the time to properly orient me on the system. He has told me vague ideas of what he wants done and I go to town on them. The system is on Microsoft Access, which is a database system similar to Microsoft Excel. Each household in the 5th Section is given an identification card. On this card has a picture of one person from the family. They are given an ID number, and it is recorded how many people are in their family, what sicknesses they may have, what damage their houses endured from the hurricanes, what specific village they are from, and what supplies they have already received.
Like I said I have been thrown in on my for the most part to feel around. It has taken me a while, but I’ve for the most part mastered the program! My task has been to clean the system up. Many groups have come and blessed this place with their help but it is hard to always stay on the same page with new people cycling in and out. Because of this, many of the information is very scattered. Villages are spelled differently, supplies are called different things, etc. I have been consolidating as much of this information so we can exact information from the system much faster. It’s been cool because I’ve actually figured some stuff out that Terry and Rodney weren’t aware of and we’ve really been able to improve the system!
I love doing this work because it truly is important, and truly works, I’ve experienced it the second day I was here! If we just showed up with food and supplies it would be chaos. The strong and clever will make out with a lot and the weaker or just unlucky will be left starving and dying. It’s awesome that I’m able to experience this because I KNOW I will be doing lots more of this later in life and so I’m trying to be a sponge and soak it all in baby! It’s also challenging work and allows me to be independent and somewhat inventive.
I’m excited because tomorrow morning I’m going to be blessed with the opportunity to go back out to the beloved 5th Section! Rodney and I and a Haitian brother are driving out there in order to make measurements on the road and canal. We are doing this because this spot near the village of Lubin is pretty treacherous and damaged and we need to find a way to be able to bring equipment and trucks out here. Ahhhhhh I seriously am sooooo happy that I am able to work with this aspect of the ministry. This is best-case-scenario for me. If only more money would pour into this place so more love and compassion could be poured into the 5th Section!
Oh and also, just for the record it is confirmed today that I indeed have Dengue Fever. After another day battle the incessant loosening of the stool, or what I like to call Duvalier’s Revenge, I broke out into a rash on my arms. That is the other tell-tale symptom of Dengue Fever. Hahahaha how cool is it that I came to a “tropical” island and picked up a “tropical” disease from mosquitoes! It’s been a huge hassle and pretty exhausting and dehydrating at times, but booya for me for the story I can tell haha!
Thus ends another entry from “Mista Clai-Tone” as my PE students pronounce my name. Thanks for reading! I love you and miss you all!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
i get worked up way to easily
Injustice. Oh my. I know I will leave this selected writing utterly exhausted, because it is so pervasive, so bleak, and so heartbreaking. Injustice, suffering, Hell, whatever you want to call it, it’s here in abundance. I’ve read scholarly peer-reviewed journals on the strife of Haiti, written papers for class about it, and seen documentaries. Some deep switch inside of you turns on when you see childrens’ hearts beating through their bloated ribs, or feel the same scorching sun that destroyed the rice patties that gave the villages life, or when you smell the garbage throughout the city that the corrupt mayor of St. Marc will not let us clean for free. Experiencing this myself does not make me special, or empowered, and definitely not “super-Christian”. It merely makes me responsible and accountable to do something about it. If I don’t have compassion after seeing all of this, if ANYBODY experiences this and doesn’t have compassion that moves them into action then I won’t apologize for saying this, but you’ve missed the entire commission of being a Christian.
Injustice is more part of Haiti’s identity than “freedom” is part of the United State’s “fabled tradition”. When we get a mild sense of nostalgic annoyance that the bloody redcoats would dare to tax us without representation, the Haitians must be consumed with revulsion when they look back and see that their nation was birthed by the labor of slaves from the west coast of Africa. Going even further back, there is no voice for the injustice and suffering of the indigenous people, the Arawak, because they have been long dead by disease or slaughter. Thanks Chris Columbus! Fast forward to the 1950s through the 1980s. As the United States is being propelled to the most powerful and influential state in the world, they were also filling Haiti’s brutal dictators’ corrupt pockets and even training its personal military. From the beginning Haiti has never had a chance. A vibrant beautiful Caribbean island laid baron by colonial deforestation; a vibrant and beautiful group of people who have never had the chance to elect their own leaders who will serve their humble wellbeing. I do apologize if I sound disgruntled and cynical, but the truth of what has happened and is happening must be heard and seen for justice to come. Just as Moses and the Israelites’ moans had to be heard by God before they could be liberated. We are asked, pleaded, begged to be the hands and feet of Jesus, Jezi, in this broken world today.
Enough macro-historical information, entire books have been written on that. I’ll get into what I have personally experienced. You can’t avoid injustice in this country. In the villages, the cities, the mountains, everywhere. Even seeing the rich houses of the foreigners or wealthy elite class only starkly accentuates how big of a gap there is. My second day here I got to spend a day seeing how poor our world can allow people can get. The base I live at does an outreach in a place outside of St. Marc known as the 5th Section. This is an area of about 6 or 7 villages that are sustained only by the literal fruit of their labor from mangos, bananas, rice patties, and also from anything that an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) has at its disposal to give. Unfortunately the canal system going out to these parts was destroyed during the storms of September. The government is rebuilding this, but at a snails pace. Funding is few and far between, and motivated and well-paid workers is difficult as well. Because of this lack of efficiency people are starving. Rice patties, which depend on standing water, have dried up and a baron wasteland is what is left. Some villages had up to 60% of its houses destroyed by the hurricanes. One village was not even known to exist by the NGOs until after much cajoling our base proved it to them.
The government does nothing. One village I went to had the concrete skeleton of a school completed, but it dormantly waits for funds from the school… for years. The government is more concerned with lining it’s pockets with cash, then providing the one feasible outlet for upward mobility: education. This is injustice. Most of the people have no records of citizenship or property or anything resembling anything official. What the YWAM base has done is come in and computerized the households of each small village and kept records of sicknesses, property damage, and established a sufficient way of handing out food. This was no small feat considering the obliterated infrastructure out here after the hurricanes. As Christians they had enough to do cleaning their own base, and reaching out to the city, but seeing this suffering they had compassion and had no choice but to give themselves. Can we not all do the same?
Yes I’ve felt anger throughout writing this bit about injustice. I’m angry when my friend Philipson tells me about the prison system here in Haiti. How they are not corrected when they are brought to prison they are destroyed. No sanitation, no communication with their families, no dignity, and no justice. I’m angry that the YWAM Haiti team has the resources and the drive to clean up the city and bring dignity but the politicians of the city will not allow it. I’m angry that there is literally no word in Creole for the word “sorry”, and that wrongs are revenged with more wrongs. Whether on the playground between children, or among the masses of a coup d’etat, there are only reactionary violent movements because that is all that has been presented to them. If, however, our anger does not end in love then the deeply entrenched cycle of wrongdoing will only be repeated. It’s a constant struggle for us all, but it’s why our Lord and Savior died alone on the cross. How bout we take up the cross with him, and follow him, and where we see the wrong—because it’s all around—lets spread some love. Amen?? Wow i'm exhausted.
Injustice is more part of Haiti’s identity than “freedom” is part of the United State’s “fabled tradition”. When we get a mild sense of nostalgic annoyance that the bloody redcoats would dare to tax us without representation, the Haitians must be consumed with revulsion when they look back and see that their nation was birthed by the labor of slaves from the west coast of Africa. Going even further back, there is no voice for the injustice and suffering of the indigenous people, the Arawak, because they have been long dead by disease or slaughter. Thanks Chris Columbus! Fast forward to the 1950s through the 1980s. As the United States is being propelled to the most powerful and influential state in the world, they were also filling Haiti’s brutal dictators’ corrupt pockets and even training its personal military. From the beginning Haiti has never had a chance. A vibrant beautiful Caribbean island laid baron by colonial deforestation; a vibrant and beautiful group of people who have never had the chance to elect their own leaders who will serve their humble wellbeing. I do apologize if I sound disgruntled and cynical, but the truth of what has happened and is happening must be heard and seen for justice to come. Just as Moses and the Israelites’ moans had to be heard by God before they could be liberated. We are asked, pleaded, begged to be the hands and feet of Jesus, Jezi, in this broken world today.
Enough macro-historical information, entire books have been written on that. I’ll get into what I have personally experienced. You can’t avoid injustice in this country. In the villages, the cities, the mountains, everywhere. Even seeing the rich houses of the foreigners or wealthy elite class only starkly accentuates how big of a gap there is. My second day here I got to spend a day seeing how poor our world can allow people can get. The base I live at does an outreach in a place outside of St. Marc known as the 5th Section. This is an area of about 6 or 7 villages that are sustained only by the literal fruit of their labor from mangos, bananas, rice patties, and also from anything that an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) has at its disposal to give. Unfortunately the canal system going out to these parts was destroyed during the storms of September. The government is rebuilding this, but at a snails pace. Funding is few and far between, and motivated and well-paid workers is difficult as well. Because of this lack of efficiency people are starving. Rice patties, which depend on standing water, have dried up and a baron wasteland is what is left. Some villages had up to 60% of its houses destroyed by the hurricanes. One village was not even known to exist by the NGOs until after much cajoling our base proved it to them.
The government does nothing. One village I went to had the concrete skeleton of a school completed, but it dormantly waits for funds from the school… for years. The government is more concerned with lining it’s pockets with cash, then providing the one feasible outlet for upward mobility: education. This is injustice. Most of the people have no records of citizenship or property or anything resembling anything official. What the YWAM base has done is come in and computerized the households of each small village and kept records of sicknesses, property damage, and established a sufficient way of handing out food. This was no small feat considering the obliterated infrastructure out here after the hurricanes. As Christians they had enough to do cleaning their own base, and reaching out to the city, but seeing this suffering they had compassion and had no choice but to give themselves. Can we not all do the same?
Yes I’ve felt anger throughout writing this bit about injustice. I’m angry when my friend Philipson tells me about the prison system here in Haiti. How they are not corrected when they are brought to prison they are destroyed. No sanitation, no communication with their families, no dignity, and no justice. I’m angry that the YWAM Haiti team has the resources and the drive to clean up the city and bring dignity but the politicians of the city will not allow it. I’m angry that there is literally no word in Creole for the word “sorry”, and that wrongs are revenged with more wrongs. Whether on the playground between children, or among the masses of a coup d’etat, there are only reactionary violent movements because that is all that has been presented to them. If, however, our anger does not end in love then the deeply entrenched cycle of wrongdoing will only be repeated. It’s a constant struggle for us all, but it’s why our Lord and Savior died alone on the cross. How bout we take up the cross with him, and follow him, and where we see the wrong—because it’s all around—lets spread some love. Amen?? Wow i'm exhausted.
Friday, February 13, 2009
dengue fever
I’ve been told this many times, and always suspected it to be true, but the life of a missionary is very difficult. I’m starting to grasp it in a few ways myself. The past few days I have felt some pretty extreme bloating. My stomach was ballooning out and I could not go number 2 for the life of me. It all came to a pinnacle last night when I had diarrhea for the majority of the night. I apologize if this is too graphic, I had to go in such loose volume that it eventually came out as a clear liquid and barely carried a smell with it. It left me drained physically and emotionally. This morning I woke up utterly drained and had a deep headache behind my eyes. I found out from some Haitian friends that I have what is most likely called Dengue Fever. This is a condition that you get from mosquitoes (which I have had in abundance). I am not complaining because I am on the mend now.
What has been far more challenging and draining than the Dengue are things largely out of my control. My favorite person on the planet, Taylor my fiancé, is going through Hell on earth in Morocco. She feels isolated, lonely, physically sick, and just all around depressed. I miss her so much and that makes having amazing experiences here so hard. I want to be with her and help her and I am here helping others who I don’t really even know. It’s just interesting how everything works sometimes. She would probably be mad that I feel this way because she would want me to focus my everything on the people here rather than herself, that’s just how she is. We’ll get through it and be renewed, but it’s so easy to be overwhelmed by the present. We all know how it goes.
I do have good news though! Rodiz the preschool teacher heard some amazing news today! Her husband with Lyme’s disease was believed to need surgery on his shoulder due to a rotator cuff injury. It turns out that the pain in his shoulder is attributed to the Lyme disease and doesn’t need surgery so he will be joining us on Saturday! I am so happy for Rodiz and her children Ky, Lilliana, and Levi! This is good news for me too because I don’t have to take over the preschool class! I hope and pray this means that I can live my dream and give myself to the 5th Section (the poor rural villages). I’ll let ya know what becomes of that! Thanks for staying in tuned to what’s up in Clay’s world!!!
What has been far more challenging and draining than the Dengue are things largely out of my control. My favorite person on the planet, Taylor my fiancé, is going through Hell on earth in Morocco. She feels isolated, lonely, physically sick, and just all around depressed. I miss her so much and that makes having amazing experiences here so hard. I want to be with her and help her and I am here helping others who I don’t really even know. It’s just interesting how everything works sometimes. She would probably be mad that I feel this way because she would want me to focus my everything on the people here rather than herself, that’s just how she is. We’ll get through it and be renewed, but it’s so easy to be overwhelmed by the present. We all know how it goes.
I do have good news though! Rodiz the preschool teacher heard some amazing news today! Her husband with Lyme’s disease was believed to need surgery on his shoulder due to a rotator cuff injury. It turns out that the pain in his shoulder is attributed to the Lyme disease and doesn’t need surgery so he will be joining us on Saturday! I am so happy for Rodiz and her children Ky, Lilliana, and Levi! This is good news for me too because I don’t have to take over the preschool class! I hope and pray this means that I can live my dream and give myself to the 5th Section (the poor rural villages). I’ll let ya know what becomes of that! Thanks for staying in tuned to what’s up in Clay’s world!!!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
eh..
i was going to blog tonight but i'm weak and dehydrated and missing my fiance. i'll blog about it all tomorrow. kthankssweetbyeee!
stuffity stuffy stuffington stuff
Two things: culture is a very, very strange thing, and language barriers SUCK. Let’s give some snippets of what I’ve learned. Don’t walk down the street eating food because people think you live on the streets. People will look down upon you in the cities if you are wearing anything less than nice suit pants, a button-down shirt, a tie, and some nice shiny loafers. I can’t say I’ve ever worn that in my life…oops! Things you take for granted in our culture are different here, as with any new country. People are aggressive and assertive and it’s not uncommon to see little kids fighting or throwing rocks at each other. Also, it is not uncommon to find men walking down the street hand in hand. This is not a form of homosexuality just part of the culture. They are just friends! I can’t even think of other aspects that I am forgetting now. The differences are too numerous to count!
Haitians are officially my favorite people group on the planet. They are vibrant, animated, over-the-top, but at their core (if you find the right ones) caring, eager to help, and servant-hearted. Luckily on my base the Haitian brothers on staff and going through Discipleship Training School know English very well so I can be great friends with them. However, in dealing with any local people I feel nothing more than a dumb tourist. Wherever I go the children yell “blan blan blan!” (pronounced blah blah blah) which means “white white white!”. I can say so little back to them. I discovered just how much I hate the language barrier this morning when I was teaching Preschool. I know little Creole and they know little English. Needless to say not a good combination. They are little children and have no attention spans and it is so difficult to maintain order. I really didn't not come here wanting to teach such small children, and have to pray each morning to not in a way dread coming, but it is truly where i'm most needed her. The present teacher Rodiz who is from the Dominican Republic, her husband is in the U.S. waiting on surgery. He has Lyme disease and is not doing well. Rodiz and her 3 children are living on base. She is sooooo stressed from the preschool children as well as thinking about her husband. I am truly happy that I can help her out because she needs it a lot. Any day now she will be called to her husband to take care of him. In that event I will be in charge of the class. Please pray for me because I am pretty worried about this. It'll be fine I'm sure, but I want to do a good job!
I do like the teaching staff here though, three young ladies from Pennsylvania, because they are earnestly trying to learn the culture and language. In Mexico I helped teach for a day at a school run by Americans. I was frustrated because the retired ladies who were teaching (God bless them for giving their time though!) made no attempt to understand the culture or the language. They were forcing American English down their throats and it made me so sad. This is no joke they called a boy Jose (obviously pronounced hoe-zay) joe-see. I could not believe it. There was no reciprocity. I truly believe that to truly be able to teach, you have to learn equally from your students if not more.
That brings me to my dear friend here Estime Elage. He is 38 years old going through the Discipleship Training in order to start a church and feeding program. He is graciously (and doing a great job) teaching me Creole. In exchange I am teaching him how to type quickly and efficiently and how to use a computer. I’ve only been here for 4 days and our friendship only grows and grows and grows. He loves to have fun and I value his friendship so much. I must also mention that he looks EXACTLY like Eddie Murphy. I’ll supply pictures to prove it.
That’s it for this post, I’m ready for bed! Goodnight and Godbless!
Haitians are officially my favorite people group on the planet. They are vibrant, animated, over-the-top, but at their core (if you find the right ones) caring, eager to help, and servant-hearted. Luckily on my base the Haitian brothers on staff and going through Discipleship Training School know English very well so I can be great friends with them. However, in dealing with any local people I feel nothing more than a dumb tourist. Wherever I go the children yell “blan blan blan!” (pronounced blah blah blah) which means “white white white!”. I can say so little back to them. I discovered just how much I hate the language barrier this morning when I was teaching Preschool. I know little Creole and they know little English. Needless to say not a good combination. They are little children and have no attention spans and it is so difficult to maintain order. I really didn't not come here wanting to teach such small children, and have to pray each morning to not in a way dread coming, but it is truly where i'm most needed her. The present teacher Rodiz who is from the Dominican Republic, her husband is in the U.S. waiting on surgery. He has Lyme disease and is not doing well. Rodiz and her 3 children are living on base. She is sooooo stressed from the preschool children as well as thinking about her husband. I am truly happy that I can help her out because she needs it a lot. Any day now she will be called to her husband to take care of him. In that event I will be in charge of the class. Please pray for me because I am pretty worried about this. It'll be fine I'm sure, but I want to do a good job!
I do like the teaching staff here though, three young ladies from Pennsylvania, because they are earnestly trying to learn the culture and language. In Mexico I helped teach for a day at a school run by Americans. I was frustrated because the retired ladies who were teaching (God bless them for giving their time though!) made no attempt to understand the culture or the language. They were forcing American English down their throats and it made me so sad. This is no joke they called a boy Jose (obviously pronounced hoe-zay) joe-see. I could not believe it. There was no reciprocity. I truly believe that to truly be able to teach, you have to learn equally from your students if not more.
That brings me to my dear friend here Estime Elage. He is 38 years old going through the Discipleship Training in order to start a church and feeding program. He is graciously (and doing a great job) teaching me Creole. In exchange I am teaching him how to type quickly and efficiently and how to use a computer. I’ve only been here for 4 days and our friendship only grows and grows and grows. He loves to have fun and I value his friendship so much. I must also mention that he looks EXACTLY like Eddie Murphy. I’ll supply pictures to prove it.
That’s it for this post, I’m ready for bed! Goodnight and Godbless!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
more about what's going on
Well it was my first full day here and it was a doozy, but so was my first day of travel into a developing nation all by myself. I’ll talk about that first. I flew from Kansas City to Chicago to Miami. All of that was fine and went without a hitch. Then I flew into Port-au-Prince. Despite the 80 degree weather, there was a distinct aura of difference when I landed. I could feel it and it was all I could think and pray about. I didn’t have the number of the base I was going to or of who was going to pick up. That didn’t matter because my phone didn’t work anyway. I didn’t have a description of who was picking me up, I had no idea what was going on. Going through customs was an adventure as well. I went through the line and the lady gave me a funny look and in broken English told me to go to a back room. Great this is the part where I get interrogated, robbed and deported. Notsomuch. I just had to refill some paperwork, but I still have no idea why. I got through that but I still didn’t know how I was going to my destination of St. Marc. I wandered around second guessing every step I took, and I was walking to the street when a strange fat Haitian man asked for my name. I said Clayton Boeyink and he stared blankly at me. My glimmer of hope was diminished. Then I said YWAM and his eyes lit up. Booya, found my guy. He lead me to an American named Freeman. Freeman is the craziest driver I’ve ever experienced, and I got 2 hours of it.
I got to base during worship and went to bed. I woke up at 6AM which is not my forte, and had breakfast. Today I was heading out to the 5th section which are the poorest rural areas surrounding St. Marc. If you haven’t left the country, you haven’t come close to seeing poverty like this. These places were DEVASTATED by the hurricanes that hit in September, by a government that stuffs its pockets long before it even gives it’s neglect for the needy even a second look. We distributed food and continued on a computerized cataloguing system for peoples’ needs. It’s a simple system where we go door to door assessing needs of people, and give them a card which allows them to get food without taking advantage of the distribution. It was incredible, hundreds of people who have no access to electricity know the name TERRY (the leader of my base) because of his love and help he has given out. He brings out more song and dance in people than any pop artist in the world. It’s so heartwarming. I want that to be me. Not for the fame as an end unto itself, but purely because I have effected that many people!
I have learned so much about the “third world” already. That’s the last time I use that term because it’s politically incorrect (in my opinion) the term came about during the Cold War because the West was considered the First World, the Communists were the Second World, and all the poor non-aligned nations were the Third World. I learned that order is hard to come by. The traffic has no order, food distribution would have no order, if the base didn’t do such a good job at maintaining it, and the government only adds to the disorder with it’s me-first attitude. It’s going to take some getting to used to but I like it. Not at the expense of the people at its mercy on a daily basis, but I like it because I feel like I can see myself at places like this for the rest of my life. [enter idealistic music here] my vision of what I can do has not diminished by the daunting scale of suffering but only increased because of people like Terry. There is so much to do, and that means I won’t ever be out of work! I’ve been sitting at this computer for way too long, I’m going to pray for people I’ve met today. Over and out.
I got to base during worship and went to bed. I woke up at 6AM which is not my forte, and had breakfast. Today I was heading out to the 5th section which are the poorest rural areas surrounding St. Marc. If you haven’t left the country, you haven’t come close to seeing poverty like this. These places were DEVASTATED by the hurricanes that hit in September, by a government that stuffs its pockets long before it even gives it’s neglect for the needy even a second look. We distributed food and continued on a computerized cataloguing system for peoples’ needs. It’s a simple system where we go door to door assessing needs of people, and give them a card which allows them to get food without taking advantage of the distribution. It was incredible, hundreds of people who have no access to electricity know the name TERRY (the leader of my base) because of his love and help he has given out. He brings out more song and dance in people than any pop artist in the world. It’s so heartwarming. I want that to be me. Not for the fame as an end unto itself, but purely because I have effected that many people!
I have learned so much about the “third world” already. That’s the last time I use that term because it’s politically incorrect (in my opinion) the term came about during the Cold War because the West was considered the First World, the Communists were the Second World, and all the poor non-aligned nations were the Third World. I learned that order is hard to come by. The traffic has no order, food distribution would have no order, if the base didn’t do such a good job at maintaining it, and the government only adds to the disorder with it’s me-first attitude. It’s going to take some getting to used to but I like it. Not at the expense of the people at its mercy on a daily basis, but I like it because I feel like I can see myself at places like this for the rest of my life. [enter idealistic music here] my vision of what I can do has not diminished by the daunting scale of suffering but only increased because of people like Terry. There is so much to do, and that means I won’t ever be out of work! I’ve been sitting at this computer for way too long, I’m going to pray for people I’ve met today. Over and out.
Friday, February 6, 2009
i'm heeeeeerrrrrreeeee!!!!
well i made it all by myself through the scary port-au-prince airport and i'm here! i feel at home. this place is sweet. haitians are crazy but beautiful. on my first day here i had one of the coolest days of my life. i'll go into all of this in more detail, but i dont have the time. Godbless you all!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
heeeeere it goes!
well folks i'm finally heading out on this adventure. i'm not exactly sure what this farewell post should all entail so i'll just ramble i suppose. I'm really really really excited though. i really don't exactly know what i'll be doing there, or even how i'll get from the airport in Port-Au-Prince to Saint-Marc where i'll be staying, but that's what i'm most excited about.
i hope i see stuff i'd never imagine i'd see. i hope to learn more about prayer, learn more about what dependence on God really means. I hope that God increases my capacity for true compassion and how to love people well. I hope that i can come to find and embrace what life apart from American affluence and prosperity is, and why God is not shut out so easily in that environment. I hope to gain vast amounts of "missionary" experience, because i do want to do this for the rest of my life. i hope that my desire for "missions" only grows. i hope i come back and people notice something different about me. i really can't describe how excited for this experience i am.
and i really can't describe how excited i am to be with my fiance again for 2 weeks!
what else should i say? i have this unreal feeling about this. i have this anticipation of God's work in me. i hate saying me, me, me, I, I, I, but i dont know, i'm excited to share with urrrybody what goes on. feel free to facebook me or email me anytime at boeyinkc1@central.edu i have no idea how much i'll be able to communicate but yeah!
Godbless you all and my next post will be from St. Marc! booya!!
i hope i see stuff i'd never imagine i'd see. i hope to learn more about prayer, learn more about what dependence on God really means. I hope that God increases my capacity for true compassion and how to love people well. I hope that i can come to find and embrace what life apart from American affluence and prosperity is, and why God is not shut out so easily in that environment. I hope to gain vast amounts of "missionary" experience, because i do want to do this for the rest of my life. i hope that my desire for "missions" only grows. i hope i come back and people notice something different about me. i really can't describe how excited for this experience i am.
and i really can't describe how excited i am to be with my fiance again for 2 weeks!
what else should i say? i have this unreal feeling about this. i have this anticipation of God's work in me. i hate saying me, me, me, I, I, I, but i dont know, i'm excited to share with urrrybody what goes on. feel free to facebook me or email me anytime at boeyinkc1@central.edu i have no idea how much i'll be able to communicate but yeah!
Godbless you all and my next post will be from St. Marc! booya!!
Monday, February 2, 2009
what i feel about "justice"
i wrote this bit for the justice team for campus ministries at Central. i wrote it up real quick so it's not scrupulously edited or a masterpiece by any means. i also hope i'm not considered an expert on justice, but i've been learning about it a lot and feel very strongly about it!
If you have more than enough food to eat, don’t you dare pray for the hungry when there is something you can do about it. If you are a Christian then caring for the poor, oppressed, or slaves to injustice is not an option and the Bible is clear of often overlooked imperative. When the Bible has over 2000 passages in it referring to the poor and downtrodden, we must pay attention. 1 John: 3:17 says: “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?” James 2: 15-17 says: “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
What is justice anyway? It’s a word thrown around so much, but once I started to think about it I hardly knew how to explain it myself. After learning about it more, I think it is truly the ultimate act of being human. Allow me to explain a bit. I think that every human being under ideal circumstances know what is right and wrong. I think we know that, because deep inside us we as humans have an inkling of knowing what the Kingdom of God is and should look like. This is not exclusive to just Christians, and does not leave out Muslims, Jews, Atheists, or anybody. Right away you may think, hm, people like Adolph Hitler or Charles Manson had no notion whatsoever this right and wrong. However, I think that they give more evidence of a sense of right and wrong than anything because their perversion and megalomania is so blatantly displayed that they are so far outside the wide range of “normality” that humans display that they could not possibly grasp right and wrong. Jesus’ life and teachings and the character of God that is revealed through such, I believe, is the pinnacle of justice. The closer we can come in relationship and knowledge of our Savior, I believe are acute understanding of justice will only grow. From this relationship and study of the Word, if we invite Christ into our hearts we will not be able to help, have compassion and try to right the wrongs of injustice through love as Christ was crucified for. The spirit of God will overflow from within us, to all people.
Injustice is everywhere. The famous 20th Century theologian, Karl Barth famously said “We must read the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other”. The two aforementioned passages bear even more weight for us today. Never in the history of humanity has the world been smaller: communications technology is growing exponentially, transportation is becoming more and more sophisticated and efficient, and even us—wherever you are in the American middle class—are richer than the average human being in history. We literally can “be the change we wish to see in the world” now unlike ever before. We cannot hide behind the guise of ignorance any longer when millions suffer die by PREVENTABLE causes.
So many people ask God why He could let so much hurt and evil run rampant in the world, but upon reflection I think God wants to ask us with tear-filled eyes why WE would allow so much suffering to take place. What if Jesus was really serious about telling the Rich Young Ruler to give away all he has, what if Zaccheus really gained salvation for repenting of his exploitative ways toward the poor, what if how we treat “the least of these” was really how we treated Jesus our piously exalted LORD AND SAVIOR?
I don’t want to say we have it all wrong; we do nice activities that help out people in need, but are activities enough? When Jesus was spreading the Good News throughout Judea he rarely visited a town with the intention of healing the sick, def, blind, and lame. When he was spreading the Word, he saw these people (who are EVERYWHERE) and had compassion for them. We believe, or should believe, that because Jesus is God-incarnate, His words and actions are the clearest path to knowing the Heart and Character of God our Father. Perhaps we should read the Gospels again and see what serving God really means. It must be said again, people are SUFFERING and DYING of causes that are preventable and are often indirectly caused by our actions. With this knowledge and with an interconnected and interdependently globalized world, we as Christians need to wake up because our neighbors are closer and in more need than ever before.
What is justice anyway? It’s a word thrown around so much, but once I started to think about it I hardly knew how to explain it myself. After learning about it more, I think it is truly the ultimate act of being human. Allow me to explain a bit. I think that every human being under ideal circumstances know what is right and wrong. I think we know that, because deep inside us we as humans have an inkling of knowing what the Kingdom of God is and should look like. This is not exclusive to just Christians, and does not leave out Muslims, Jews, Atheists, or anybody. Right away you may think, hm, people like Adolph Hitler or Charles Manson had no notion whatsoever this right and wrong. However, I think that they give more evidence of a sense of right and wrong than anything because their perversion and megalomania is so blatantly displayed that they are so far outside the wide range of “normality” that humans display that they could not possibly grasp right and wrong. Jesus’ life and teachings and the character of God that is revealed through such, I believe, is the pinnacle of justice. The closer we can come in relationship and knowledge of our Savior, I believe are acute understanding of justice will only grow. From this relationship and study of the Word, if we invite Christ into our hearts we will not be able to help, have compassion and try to right the wrongs of injustice through love as Christ was crucified for. The spirit of God will overflow from within us, to all people.
Injustice is everywhere. The famous 20th Century theologian, Karl Barth famously said “We must read the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other”. The two aforementioned passages bear even more weight for us today. Never in the history of humanity has the world been smaller: communications technology is growing exponentially, transportation is becoming more and more sophisticated and efficient, and even us—wherever you are in the American middle class—are richer than the average human being in history. We literally can “be the change we wish to see in the world” now unlike ever before. We cannot hide behind the guise of ignorance any longer when millions suffer die by PREVENTABLE causes.
So many people ask God why He could let so much hurt and evil run rampant in the world, but upon reflection I think God wants to ask us with tear-filled eyes why WE would allow so much suffering to take place. What if Jesus was really serious about telling the Rich Young Ruler to give away all he has, what if Zaccheus really gained salvation for repenting of his exploitative ways toward the poor, what if how we treat “the least of these” was really how we treated Jesus our piously exalted LORD AND SAVIOR?
I don’t want to say we have it all wrong; we do nice activities that help out people in need, but are activities enough? When Jesus was spreading the Good News throughout Judea he rarely visited a town with the intention of healing the sick, def, blind, and lame. When he was spreading the Word, he saw these people (who are EVERYWHERE) and had compassion for them. We believe, or should believe, that because Jesus is God-incarnate, His words and actions are the clearest path to knowing the Heart and Character of God our Father. Perhaps we should read the Gospels again and see what serving God really means. It must be said again, people are SUFFERING and DYING of causes that are preventable and are often indirectly caused by our actions. With this knowledge and with an interconnected and interdependently globalized world, we as Christians need to wake up because our neighbors are closer and in more need than ever before.
a short reason why i'm going to haiti
this is the letter i sent out to raise money for this trip, you can disregard the pleas for money because with the generosity of many i raised more than enough (yay praise God!)
When the Bible has over 2,000 passages in it referring to the poor and downtrodden, we must pay attention. 1 John: 3:17 says: “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?” James 2: 15-17 says: “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” It is passages like these that really convict me to give more of myself, and so often I fall short.
Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, and if our financial woes seem bad then imagine living in a country with roughly 80% of the population in abject poverty. Late into this summer, within a month’s time, this small Caribbean country was struck by four successive hurricanes and tropical storms. In a country with no control over erosion and no competent infrastructure to speak of, the only word to describe what happened is devastation. It is estimated that around 1 million people who once had homes no longer do because of these storms. With a total population of only 8.5 million people this number’s significance cannot be ignored.
In Spring of 2006 I fortunate enough to take a mission trip to Haiti for a week. This has been a huge blessing in my life, and has been one significant event of many that has compelled me to devote myself to the poorest of poor. I followed the aforementioned events from the comfort of my dormitory, and something about that just didn’t seem right. I could not stop thinking about what was going on in Haiti. Through much prayer, and also, affirming prayer from others, I found my call to come back to Haiti to offer myself to those who doubtlessly need it.
I have decided to take my next semester at Central College off and spend a little over two months in the coastal city of St. Marc from January 29 to April 2 (my birthday!). Through much searching and prayer, I found the missional organization Youth With a Mission (YWAM) as the group I will go with. I will be teaching school for middle school age children, distributing much needed food, and helping with hurricane disaster relief that is still in need across the country. I have a few general goals for this trip. I want to go into this situation under the assumption that I know nothing. Because I want to do this for the rest of, I want to use this opportunity to be a sponge to soak up as much knowledge and experience as possible. Most of all I want to offer hope to people, the hope that we have in Jesus Christ, and the hope that people I come into contact with genuinely know that people like you and I care about them.
This is the part I am so scared and reluctant to do in times such as these. I am asking that you enable me to bring hope to these people in need by making a contribution for me to fly there and stay there. At the very least (which is often the most we can do) I ask that you keep this Caribbean nation (or any people in need) in your prayers. Feel free to ask me any questions about Haiti, YWAM, or myself and my passions for the poor. My phone number is: (641)629-0167 and my email address is boeyinkc1@central.edu. If you feel you are able to make a contribution to not my cause, but God’s cause, please make checks payable to Clayton Boeyink and send to the following address:
Clayton Boeyink
407 E. 8th St.
Pella, Iowa 50219
Thank you so much for the consideration. Sincerely, I just want to help those who need it.
Your brother in Christ,
Clayton T. Boeyink
Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, and if our financial woes seem bad then imagine living in a country with roughly 80% of the population in abject poverty. Late into this summer, within a month’s time, this small Caribbean country was struck by four successive hurricanes and tropical storms. In a country with no control over erosion and no competent infrastructure to speak of, the only word to describe what happened is devastation. It is estimated that around 1 million people who once had homes no longer do because of these storms. With a total population of only 8.5 million people this number’s significance cannot be ignored.
In Spring of 2006 I fortunate enough to take a mission trip to Haiti for a week. This has been a huge blessing in my life, and has been one significant event of many that has compelled me to devote myself to the poorest of poor. I followed the aforementioned events from the comfort of my dormitory, and something about that just didn’t seem right. I could not stop thinking about what was going on in Haiti. Through much prayer, and also, affirming prayer from others, I found my call to come back to Haiti to offer myself to those who doubtlessly need it.
I have decided to take my next semester at Central College off and spend a little over two months in the coastal city of St. Marc from January 29 to April 2 (my birthday!). Through much searching and prayer, I found the missional organization Youth With a Mission (YWAM) as the group I will go with. I will be teaching school for middle school age children, distributing much needed food, and helping with hurricane disaster relief that is still in need across the country. I have a few general goals for this trip. I want to go into this situation under the assumption that I know nothing. Because I want to do this for the rest of, I want to use this opportunity to be a sponge to soak up as much knowledge and experience as possible. Most of all I want to offer hope to people, the hope that we have in Jesus Christ, and the hope that people I come into contact with genuinely know that people like you and I care about them.
This is the part I am so scared and reluctant to do in times such as these. I am asking that you enable me to bring hope to these people in need by making a contribution for me to fly there and stay there. At the very least (which is often the most we can do) I ask that you keep this Caribbean nation (or any people in need) in your prayers. Feel free to ask me any questions about Haiti, YWAM, or myself and my passions for the poor. My phone number is: (641)629-0167 and my email address is boeyinkc1@central.edu. If you feel you are able to make a contribution to not my cause, but God’s cause, please make checks payable to Clayton Boeyink and send to the following address:
Clayton Boeyink
407 E. 8th St.
Pella, Iowa 50219
Thank you so much for the consideration. Sincerely, I just want to help those who need it.
Your brother in Christ,
Clayton T. Boeyink
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