Long Day

Today was our earliest day in Haiti.  The day began with a 6 am weekday worship at a large Haitian church.  The service was unlike our traditional Lutheran worship service.  People came and left this three hour service as a start to their weekday routine.  While at worship the participants continuously walked the aisles and pew rows as they raised their hands to God and offered spontaneous expressions of praise.  Our team observed from the second row of pews and were inspired by the Haitians active worship style and faithful hearts.  As the service progressed more and more people came and by the time we left (about an hour into the service) the large warehouse-like worship center was buzzing with people that were “fueling” their day via an inspirational mix of music, gospel, prayer, and testimony.

We walked back to the Guest House - getting a glimpse of the waking neighborhood - for another hearty breakfast before our next activity of the day.  

Loading the “tap tap” truck with our orphanage donations and some boxes of FMSC food - we headed on an adventure to Mission of Hope.  Mission of Hope is an organization that currently distributes FMSC meal packs to over 400 Haitian schools and feeds over 90,000 children annually.  The Director at Mission of Hope gave us an overview of all the work their organization does to feed the children of Haiti; including a farmer’s program where they help around 200 farmer’s a year to seed their land, cultivate a crop, and harvest the crop to support the farmer’s family.  Each farmer in this program keeps 80% of their crop for sale or use, sets aside 10% of the crop to provide seed for next year, and donates 10% of the crop back to Mission of Hope to be used in the core feeding program.  Mission of Hope receives 80-90% of the food it distributes from FSMC.  We toured the warehouse and saw racks and racks of manna packs similar to the ones packaged at Incarnation.  At this time, there were around 5 million meals in their warehouse, and these meals will fulfill the program’s distribution through the end of 2014.  It was amazing for the group to see how what started out as bags of rice and soy powder in Minnesota were transformed into ready-to-cook meals that will feed some of the most needy children in the world.  Our group also gained additional perspective from Dave G our FMSC team leader, and Don and Martie Martin who serve on FMSC’s community advisory board as representatives of our congregation.

After a quick water and snack break on the "tap tap”, the group changed gears dramatically.  While our morning was spent in worship at a mega-church and touring a huge warehouse of manna packs, our afternoon was spent at a very small Haitian orphanage.  This orphanage was home to approximately 12 to 15 children, and 3 adult caregivers.  The orphanage had a very small gravel driveway/yard and a cinder block building with a classroom that was no more than 200 square feet.  The team spent the afternoon reading a bible story to the children, singing songs with them, doing arts and crafts, and ending with a snack.  The children of the orphanage were like many of the children in Haiti, excited to receive hugs, play games, and generally be loved by our team members.  It was amazing to see how these children who range from infant to teenager all wanted to participate, and how they took care of each other as brothers and sisters in their orphanage community.

Our night included a trip to a local pizzeria run by former missionaries.  After dinner we returned to the Guest House for devotions.  Our reading from Matthew asked: “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?”  Jesus answered: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”  This day (and our whole week) in Haiti brings these Gospel words to life, and makes our group excited to share our experience with family, friends, and the Incarnation community.

Scott & Amie Odahl