Catching up and coming home

We have all arrived safely home. What a rewarding week--filled with challenges, smiles, stories, laughter and sighs too deep for tears. 

Wednesday morning we met with the MPP leadership once again to clarify and contemplate and learn and consider. It was a good meeting. We have great partners and we all are working together for this project to be successful and the school to be sustainable. 

After the meeting we loaded all our gear and made the long trip back to the city. The roads offer great challenges and the trip was not "fun", but we were safe and we arrived intact. In Haiti, this is a triumph!

Thursday morning we reflected on our many varied gifts, how the range of those gifts worked for the good of our tasks, and how we will move forward. How will we answer the question "How was your trip?" Give us time if you ask that question!

And now we are home. It is good to be home. It is good to have hearts filled with the joy of sharing this week with each other and with our dear friends in Haiti. It is good to have minds filled with questions, so many questions. And it is so good to feel the Spirit moving wherever we go. 

  

Some assembly required

On Monday morning we split in two groups. Chris and Pat took the boxed up sewing machine to the community center in Village 1 and reassembled it with expert assistance from the instructor of the sewing class. Mike and Scott were there to observe and document. The last photo shows the presentation to the assembled members of the sewing class.

Notes on Day 2 from David

Well it is officially day 2 of Haiti.   We came in through the busy airport at Port-Au-Prince.   It has been a adventure to say the least.  This whole trip has been like drinking water through a fire hose.  I want to soak in every moment but they are coming fast and furious.   I went to sleep to the locals playing drums on a Friday night and woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the central Haiti.   With the sun grazing the topography with this wonderful warm light.  I shared this moment with my new friend as we both looked at God’s work.

While I have been here, I have not felt more blessed.  It will not be for the reasons a lot of you may be thinking.  I have not felt blessed with worldly possessions but truly blessed with some great people that have come into my life.  If it was not for this trip, I would not have meet some of the uniquely talented people I have ever come in to contact with.  I don’t even know where to start so let us start with first people who brought the idea of the eco-village to me Chris Calia and his wonderful wife Janine.  They have a deep faith in God and passion for service.   There is Mike Thurmond and his wife Loida who are great photographers and always on mission trips all over the world helping others.  There is Scott Grosse whose wisdom, insight and wry sense of humor is always appreciated in Creole and English!  There is  Patrick Murphy who every time I am around him, he shares some amazing story in his life and that adventuring man is amazing!  This passion for life and people is endless.  There is also Kristy Gordon who is my medical buddy and my wise and patient teammate and my partner in our art.  Then there is Mark our interpreter who is so patient with the blancs and has one of the most kind souls.  Then there is Nixon our driver who been driving his vehicle over the rough roads of this area and even getting his truck stuck on our first night trying to get our bags closer to where we are staying.  Then there is last but certainly not least Gordon French and his wife Carolyn.  They have such a deep conviction for the country and people of Haiti.  They are the ones with the vision for brighter future and making a corner of the world better.  Who could ask for more?

So yes I am tired and worn out but I am truly blessed with these people coming in my life.  I know at the end of the week I am going to go back to the love of my life my with Daphne and my great kids Dylan and Dan but I will come back a better person for knowing these people and sharing some time together.

I am looking forward to tomorrow and what it brings.  I am looking forward to worshiping with the people at the Haitian church.  I am looking forward to meeting the people in the eco-village.  I am looking forward to the seeing the ingenuity of the Haitian people.  Their passion for life and love they share with others.  I am looking forward to new experiences tomorrow will bring.

Reflections in flight to Haiti

Reflections during trip to Haiti, April 7, 2017

I’ve been spending time this past week listening to videos and reading about the Haitian Creole (or Kreyol) language. I’ve been memorizing word lists and phrases, hoping to be able to engage people in at least brief convesation. Why? What are my motives? How much is it a desire to connect with people and to show them that I care enough to try to learn their language? To what extent is it a function of my idyll curiosity and hobby of learning to speak a little bit of lots of different languages? Or, is it a matter of showing off my language-learning ability? Can we ever have pure motives, or do we always mix care for others with serving our own sense of self?

 

 

I am grateful for Chris and Gordon, who have organized this trip, and all ten people in our travel group who have committed to this week-long adventure. Jeannine organized the purchase and packing of gift packages for the women and children of the Eco Villages. We look forward to seeing the excitement on the faces of the moms and kids when they open their gift boxes. I also appreciate the folks who packed and figured out how to check large, heavy boxes containing a disassembled pedal-powered sewing machine. I trust that this machine will be put to good use to make school uniforms for the children and also as a source of livelihood for women in the villages.

Sitting alone in row 1, with a view out the window to my left as we fly over Georgia, looking down on the countryside and highways I feel detached. I read, then nap, then read and I listen to music, a video by a West African singer, Sona Jobarteh, and her ensemble playing traditional instruments. I read from the book, The Soloist, by Steven Lopez, and reflected on compassion. Lopez learned to develop compassion and understanding of mental illness and homelessness by befriending a street musician in LA. How can I, how can we, develop compassion and understanding of people in the countryside of Haiti who live their lives so close and yet so far from our privileged lives as affluent white people in Atlanta? Can we connect meaningfully with individuals in Haiti and help to share their stories with friends and family back home?

Scott Grosse

Last minute adjustments

Returning to Haiti conjures memories, images, concerns, excitement. Will the traffic really be worse than in Atlanta right now? Will it rain every day? Will we be able to communicate well enough to inspire children to create? Will the faces be as full of hope and resiliency as I remember? Will we make friends and build bridges? 

Hold us in your hearts as we discover questions and recognize answers and learn new ways of accepting Grace. 

Bridging worlds with art

Art is such an exciting and accessible way for people of all cultures and backgrounds to share their stories.  We are now in the process of implementing a very creative art project in our Atlanta churches and schools.  This project aims to allow young people in Atlanta and Haiti to share information about their lives, struggles, and dreams through drawing and conversation.  The work is now underway in Atlanta!  What an honor to be present as our young people in Atlanta tell their stories through art!  When we watch the children work on their art, and talk with them about their gifts and talents, we see the start of a bridge between these young people and their new friends in Haiti.  Thus far I have already heard stories about the significance of family connections, dreams fostered by a supportive adult's love, and how God brings happiness to those who love others.  It is our hope that these art pieces and heartfelt conversations will become the basis for a fresh experience of compassion across Atlanta and Haiti.  However, the work has just begun.  We can't wait to see what else God has in store! 

Kristy Gordon

Wondering about Palm Sunday in Haiti

Three weeks from today our group of 10 will worship together with Haitians in a church near Hinche. We will have been in country about 48 hours when we arrive at church. Tho we are learning some Kreyol and we are eager to absorb the resiliency and strength of the Haitian people, we are also aware we will be guests--strangers in a land with many reasons to distrust and be wary of Americans.  We will all be Christians and we will sing Hosannas in different languages and we hope they will know us by our steadfast love for each other.

Follow us as we blog from the EcoVillages. Pray for us and for the families we visit.

Looking Forward to Building a Bridge to Haiti

Hi, my name is David Diener. I am a Atlanta wedding photographer at www.atlantaartisticweddings.com.  Over the years I have heard about mission trips to Haiti.  My sister and my cousins who are ministers have been there on mission trips.  I was enthralled when they shared stories of the country and how different Haiti is from the rest of the world. For some reason I could always find a reason that I could not go.  The excuses that everyone else has--I have other obligations, I can’t get away from work, so you get the idea.

My church, Good Shepherd Presbyterian, has had people volunteer and work on mission trips to Haiti.  When they came back, they shared slide shows of the country and the people, and I could see that they had changed from the person they were before the trip.  Chris Calia, our neighbor, great friend, and leader in our church, did a minute for mission on Haiti.  I listened as he shared his experiences in Haiti and told us The Atlanta Church Group was organizing another mission trip to Haiti.  He also said they were looking for photographers to document their mission trip.  Well, when he said that, it was like a sign from God for me to go on this trip.   I looked at my calendar: the only free time I had was during the specific mission trip dates--another sign calling for me to go on this trip.  

I talked to Chris, and he knew I had an interest in the trip so he invited me to an informational and planning meeting.  I was so in awe of everyone there.  They came from many diverse backgrounds but shared a common passion for the people in Haiti.  They welcomed me and instantly I felt like I was part of a great team on a mission. 

I am going to do my best to bring a voice to the mission trip.  Hopefully this trip will build a bridge from Atlanta to Haiti to plant seeds of hope and a better future for the people there.

Now I need to ask everyone who reads this post for a favor. Please pray for our group and our mission trip.  Please say a prayer for the people we are going to see.  Thank you so much for your support which is essential for a successful mission!

 
100% of your donation is tax-deductible and 100% goes directly to build and support the school. This PayPal link is provided by North Decatur Presbyterian Church, which acts as our banker.