Soma Austin

How Can I Love Haiti if I Dont Know Haiti

From the moment we hit the ground in Haiti what we already knew theoretically became a very quick, chaotic, overwhelming reality: we don't know Haiti.  And if we don't know Haiti, we can't love Haiti. Not effectively. We can have a heart for Haiti, we can grieve for Haiti and we can send money to Haiti. But we can do all those things and still not love Haiti. So I felt compelled to learn about Haiti. Not just about the earthquake but also Haiti's history, her people, their hopes and their fears.



Drive-By Learning

Our trip from the airport was a drive-by learning experience of chaos, poverty, driving anarchy in the city to high speed countrysides of tent cities. Sitting in the back of the pickup truck for the trip was a sensory overload of horns, engines, voices shouting from the side of the streets, curious smiles from children, buildings destroyed, Korean motorcycle taxis with three people on them, colorful pickup trucks carrying over 20 people, many hanging off the sides and back, pedestrians crossing streets everywhere and walking down streets inches from cars while carrying things on their heads. The ride ended at Mission of Hope, a large orphanage outside of Port au Prince. We met some great Austinites helping at the medical clinic, went to an energetic, dancing worship and hit the bed preparing for the next day in Port au Prince

Hearing Their Stories

The next morning we met with Jacques Louis of STEP Ministries and the local Haitian leader for Churches Helping Churches. This meeting was a gift of God and evidence of Gods leading our time here. During our time we met with four pastors in the greater Port au Prince area, each of them serving their people and paying the cost to see hope and renewal in their communities. We listened to stories of the people of Haiti, from the hope of the youth, the loss of family members and the caring for orphans in their communities.

Our highlight of the day was headed out to Pastor Gaetan's home in Port au Prince, seeing his church and meeting the 30 orphans he has been caring for. Sixteen of them before the quake and 14 more after the quake. Pastor Gaetan lost his brother in the quake and many in his church. His spirit was one of faith and determination in the face of tragedy and lots of mouths to feed. He broke my heart when he said, 'We have had lots of churches come here and promise help, only to get no further response after they return home.' I was deeply saddened for a brother who had latched onto hope from the body of Christ in wealthy America only to have it dashed repeatedly. Pastor Gaetan is paying the cost.

Hope from a Haitian Son

Wednesday morning we met with Junior Bataille, the son of Gerald Bataille, an influential pastor in Port au Prince for over 20 years. Junior studied public policy at Duke University and returned to Haiti in 2008 to work with his father to cultivate hope and a new future for Haiti. One where Haitians return to a sense of their rich history, and claim a future hope for Haitians helping Haitians. One of the main contributors to Haiti's problems are Haitian people in Port au Prince who had grown dependent on international aid for years. After the earthquake many waited for someone to come clean up. He said that if each Haitian would have just picked up 5 bricks and carried them away thousands of lives could have been saved while they waited for others to come to help. Also many areas waiting to be cleared four months after the quake would be cleared for new building. Junior finds hope in the youth of Haiti and is working to cultivate that hope toward a future where Haitians lay hold of their future and Haitians are helping Haitians.

While we were with Junior, a couple dozen children from their school came out for recess, had a wonderful time playing with our cameras, as all Haitian children do, and was showered with affection and laughs from the children. His heart for them was evident in their affection for him. While there I couldn't help but think of a wonderful hope that we were looking at the next generation of Haitian leaders in their neighborhoods, businesses, governments and churches.

Haitians Helping Haitians

As people in the city were waiting for help, people in the mountains and countryside were found taking initiative to rebuild their communities.  Wednesday afternoon took us to Kenscoff, a stunning mountainous region outside Port au Prince. After a winding, bumpy 90 minute 10 mile drive we entered a dirt road to the pastors community. Several times we stopped to ask for directions and were repeatedly told, 'Just keep driving.'. It became a joke for a bit, and eventually we were rewarded with a view of the community at the end of the road that opened to a 300 degree view of the stunning mountainsides full of fields growing all types of produce. On the sides of mountains that only mountain goats should traverse there were hundreds of fields carved out of the mountainside that they climbed, watered by hand and harvested year round.

 
On that mountain we met Pastor Jean (like John) who is as much a social entrepreneur as he is a pastor for his people. While we are reading books about neighbors serving neighbors and developing wholistic community, Pastor Jeans people are helping neighbors rebuild one house at a time. In this neighborhood they were clearing the debris from destroyed homes, making their own bricks out of sand, rock, water and forms, making their own mortar, digging their own foundations and building houses for one another, one house at a time. Most of them building a neighbors house while they themselves were sleeping in tents. With the bible and a godly pastor as their guide, this was a wonderful story of Haitians helping Haitians.

A Hope and A Future

The future of Haiti is in the hands of Gods people as moved by God. While there are many with a 'spirit of dependency', there are a remnant of long time Haitians who see a new hope for Haiti in Haitian sons and daughters. And they see this path being carved by gospel transformed people loving and serving others. While the ways to partner in this vary, all the Haitian pastors we've met welcome partners in the Body of Christ from the United States and abroad. There are two strategies here for us to know and follow: The body of Christ coming together as Christians helping Christians and the people of Haiti coming together as Haitians helping Haitians. As believers in Christ we are one people with a common hope and a future, both for renewal and hope realized now and for a fully renewed hope to be realized in the future. My hope is that we can look back and see how God used our obedience to share a part of this story and celebrate as it happens.

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