Haitian Thank You's :)

From the women in the beading program to YOU - for all your support, providing supplies and for being willing to host parties to sell their beads and give them a future...

From the kids in the feeding program.  Their singing, "Read your Bible, pray everyday and you'll grow, grow, grow" :)

And from the Abraham Association singing group - these men are CRAZY talented and this is my favorite song they sing.  I jam out every time and sing it often back in the states.  ENJOY!!!

From Haiti to you - THANK YOU for loving, for caring, for being part of what God is doing in Haiti.

Tension: Hope and Redemption

***First I have to apologize for the lack of posting on our Haiti trip - we had some trouble with the internet (not a surprise in a 3rd world country) and were unable to get the blog to open on the iPhone we had.  Hopefully our facebook pictures and updates somehow made it to your world these last few weeks.

Here's the thing about Haiti... you always leave with tension.  People there live in the tension day after day.  This time feels like more struggle and more tension than I've experienced on most of my other trips.  Tension between being overwhelmed with hope at what God is doing there and consumed with a longing for God's redemption of humanity in a desperate culture.  

There is so much darkness about Haiti - the people are beat down, broken, tainted and enslaved to a cycle of poverty that's worse than anywhere I've been.  Because of this cycle and such government corruption, it is INCREDIBLY difficult to bring about change.  We can try our "American" systems of change, but what works here is never going to work the same there.  Everything is different.

I found myself frustrated by the systems we've spent the approximately 4 years trying to implement falling apart.  We've discovered that what we thought was a marketable, sustainable model went awry when the supply could not meet the demand - or when the Haitian people turned on the system and on each other and tried to do it their way because loyalty, trust and perseverance are not virtues in a culture where survival is key.  You do what you need to do get ahead.  Period.  Change must start on the inside - your character has to be made and re-made.  Deflated, I cry out, "Come, Lord Jesus - redeem your people."

Our American partners there can get easily beat down by the darkness, the frustration, the tension, the hopelessness.  It's hot.  It's humid.  The power is rarely on.  Pumping water gets old.  Resources are incredibly expensive.  Things take about 20 times as much effort as they do here.  There's no respite.  Yet the commitment and calling of these people keeps them in these communities.  Life is hard in Haiti regardless of our nationality.  Deflated, I cry out, "Come, Lord Jesus - redeem your people."

The education system is broken - kids are in school for a mere 3-4 hours a day and are functioning at a grade level much below their age.  How do people get ahead without quality education?  The expectation of these kids is that they will get a Haitian high school diploma (the equivalent of an American 8th grade education) and then be put back into a society filled with unemployment, infidelity, and dependence on foreign aid.  Something's gotta give.  Deflated, I cry out, "Come, Lord Jesus - redeem your people."

But God is faithful.  He is alive and working in Haiti.  There is HOPE.  

I see HOPE in a bead program where 12 women are learning a marketable skill that could provide them with a job, a future, a way out of the poverty cycle.  I see them working on their own time - carefully cutting paper and rolling into beautiful beads - glazing it and letting it dry.  They are trusting the process and believing that this work will ultimately pay off.  Because Kelsea and our partners there love and believe in these women, they've created a potentially sustainable way to bring hope to 12 broken women.

I see HOPE in people like the Cowley's, the Hatten's, the Byxbe's and Kelsea giving up their entire lives and choosing to serve in Haiti - choosing to empower, to educate, to love, to walk with these beautiful people.  We had the gift and privilege of getting to spend some real time with Kelsea who is undoubtedly living out the gospel in Montrouis.  (We also got to surprise her by bringing her dad!)
She is loving as Jesus loved and serving as Jesus served. She literally moved into the neighborhood - into a house with water she has to pump, no electricity and mosquito nets to be able to minister to, love and understand the Haitian people.  I dare say nothing communicates love more than that.

 

(Kelsea and her dad, then Kelsea & her roommate Kourtney at their house)

Kelsea runs a Bible study with the women in the village and she and Wesner run an English program for the men and women of the fishing village.  They are truly servants who are empowering the people of Montrouis.  Here's a video of Kelsea & Wesner's English class (that is outgrowing the space!)

We also had the amazing opportunity to be witness to her engagement to Philipson - a mighty man of God who has done more for Haiti than most people I've met.  He loves his country and desires to see lives changed - he's pioneered a prison ministry where hundreds have come to Christ & worship still happens every Sunday, he started a brothel ministry where entire brothels have been shut down because the women met the Lord and were given a new sense of purpose for their lives.  As Kelsea and Philipson begin their life together in Haiti, I cannot help but well up with HOPE and excitement for how God will use them to change that country.

(Vernon - Kelsea's dad and the soon-to-be newlyweds!)

I see HOPE in what Pastor Caesar is doing with feeding and educating over 1500 kids a day.  This man has a heart for his country - for bringing about change and doing his part to give kids a future.  I'm inspired by his humility, his trust in God's provision and his perseverance.  His hope is to continue to expand this amazing ministry.

(Just one of the six education/nutrition sites that runs each day)

I see HOPE in the 14 kids that live at the Mission (the children's home).  We are discovering that the best skill we can give those kids is to teach them English.  If they have an American high school diploma and know English, they have a skill that no one can ever take away from them, they are incredibly employable and they have an immeasurable sense of self-worth.  In the fall, all 14 of these kids ranging from 3-14 will leave the Haitian school system and begin an education in English and French.  This will change everything for them.  Life will look differently because our partners have a vision to give them a hope and a future.  It will not be easy, but I cannot wait to go back and see the progress these kids are making and the pride they have as they learn a skill not many possess in Haiti.

(Elise - who lived in Haiti for 9 months & Kimberli - one of the mission kids, a joyous reunion)

Anyone that lives in Haiti must be resilient - it's a hard life and it's not always easy to find the good in things or to see God at work.  We are thankful for our American partners and the Haitian staff that have so much to teach us.

(Wesner, NVM Haitian staff and Parkher - a member of our IMPACT team)

We are grateful that you've joined us on this journey and want to give you a few ways that you can practically help these people change their future...

1) Keep your feelers out for teachers... we have a need for 2-3 teachers in different age ranges starting in September. Click here to email us if you or someone you know is interested.

2) Get on board to help us start "bead parties" here in the states.  Offer to host a party at your home where you'll take the Haitian beads, have people at your house and make jewelry together.  When we're up and running, we'll provide you with a kit (a promo video, some materials, beads, etc).  Email us to sign up now and we'll get you details once that is up and running.

3) Help us expand the feeding/education program that Pastor Caesar is doing.  He has 1500 kids involved now and is needing a roof for one of his buildings before the rainy season.  Email us if you're interested in helping with that project in any way.

4) Sponsor a kid - some kids we are in relationship are in need of sponsors for school as there is no such thing as free public education in Haiti.  Click here to start sponsoring a kid in Montrouis.

5) Sign up to come on our January trip and catch the vision for yourself.  Click here to fill out an application.

We are so thankful for your part in this Haitian journey.  We are thrilled to get to live in the tension with these people where we long for redemption, but yet we are filled with hope.  We join in one voice and cry out, "Come, Lord Jesus."  

***More to come on trip details - medical/dental clinics, time with the mission kids, ways you can pray, etc.

Surrender

We leave tomorrow for Haiti and what feels weird and different this time is packing.  I'm not sure why. I think a big part of it is that we just moved into our new house a week ago and we are leaving - the unsettled kind of leaving and maybe that feels weird.

There are so many thoughts going through my mind... this being my 5th or 6th time to Haiti, I don't feel anxious about what to expect or how our day to day lives are going to unfold because I've learned that Bree Time does not equal Island Time :)  Life is different there and part of me really looks forward to the slower pace, the "you don't need a watch" mentality, the "pa gen pwoblem" (no problem) lifestyle.  I like the forced slowdown.  Our pace here is FAST and exhausting.  Haiti's pace is not.  I'm thankful for that yet get frustrated by that all at the same time.

I think what feels different about this trip is that it's been a while and it might again be a while until we are able to go back.  The gap feels greater.  I know nothing will have changed and everything will have changed all at the same time.  One thing I am certain of - this snuggly, ornery little soon-to-be niece of mine will be getting LOADS of quality auntie time.

I know that my expectations for how the trip will go are in reality NOTHING like how the trip will go, so tonight I commit to surrender my expectations and allow God to start with a clean slate on this journey - to do whatever work HE would like to do in the community of Montrouis and in the hearts of our team members, myself included.  There is a surrender that is happening even now that will transform us in the moments when we need him most and I am thankful for that call to "let it go" even before we arrive.  I know that He WILL surprise us by making beautiful things out of the brokenness.

Gungor - "Beautiful Things" 

All this pain

I wonder if I'll ever find my way

I wonder if my life could really change at all 

All this earth

Could all that is lost ever be found

Could a garden come up from this ground at all

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of the dust

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of us 

All around

Hope is springing up from this old ground

Out of chaos, life is being found in You

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of the dust

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of us

*photo cred: Todd Pulliam (Haiti 2011)

Please pray for us... we will update here as often as possible.

We say Mesi Senye (Thank you Lord) for the chance to do this & be part of God's work across the globe.

So grateful,

Bree - (Jarred, Elise, Jenny, Melba, Tiffany & Parkher)

Giving Our Best Away

"Honor the Lord with your wealth and all the first fruits of all your produce."  - Proverbs 3:9

The way I have come to understand "first fruits" in scripture is that God blesses his people with things - a harvest, relationships, wealth (spiritually and materially), health, etc.  All gifts come from God and there are benefits that we reap from these gifts; we are to give the first of those back to the One who chose to first give them to us.

Here at IMPACT, God has gifted us with much - rich relationships across the globe, a budget that seems to somehow barely squeak by every year (with much help from the Presbytery), incredible teaching pastors to guide us, a wise and Godly council to direct this ministry and willing and eager participants and interns who serve relentlessly. We are so rich.  

We want you to know that one of our goals is to give our best away.  We don't want to hoard people's gifts or try to hold people back from what they have the potential to do because "IMPACT needs them."  We don't.  We get to be blessed with a season of their lives.  And I write this today because we are in the process of giving three of our VERY BEST away and we could not be more thrilled about it.

We have an IMPACT intern program which consists of college-age students who are willing to give their time unpaid to serve with IMPACT, both on the central coast of California and overseas.  Two of our interns are ripping our hearts out being called by God to serve in other countries as a result of the experiences of their internships.

Kelsea (click on her name to read her blog)

was and IMPACT intern, went to Uganda for a month and was one of our Haiti interns last year.  She felt a strong calling to go back indefinitely and serve the people of Montrouis, Haiti through New Vision Ministries. We prayed over her, helped her fundraise and got her back there as quickly as possible.  She's been on the ground in Haiti since late October and is doing INCREDIBLE things.

Kelsea and Marina in Haiti

Marina

(click on her name to read her blog) was an intern with Kelsea her senior year at Westmont, came on part-time staff with IMPACT after graduation and has recently accepted a position as the production manager with Krochet Kids in Lima, Peru.  Marina's dream has always been do microfinance in Latin America - she told me that during her internship interview.  God has provided an open door for her to do just that.  While Marina's departure leaves a HUGE hole in our ministry, we are confident that gifting her to Peru is the absolute best thing we can do for her and for the women she will impact.  She will leave in late December - Godspeed sweet friend!

Susan

has been a faithful prayer warrior and council member with IMPACT.  She and her husband serve in Mexico regularly and led our Turkey trip in 2011. They have been a pivotal part of decision-making and prayer over this ministry and we are delighted that the Lord has called them to a 6-month stint to oversee the ministry in Mexico.

We truly believe that giving away our best is the way to go.  So ladies - we love you!  You are our cream of the crop and God has chosen to plant you elsewhere for a season.  We say "Vaya con Dios - Go with God."  Our prayers cover you, our gatherings will miss you, our lives will be changed for the better because you've chosen to give yours away. 

Pay Day

All of our Haiti interns & summer teams are home!  We will blog more about summer trips soon, but for now...

As IMPACT, we sent 6 gals to Haiti about a year ago and for the last year I haven't really found the words to describe what the experience has been for us as an organization.  I still can't tell you where I land on that because there's 6 girls and some IMPACT staff still processing on this end.

But what I can tell you is that relationships are ALWAYS, ALWAYS worth it.  The reasons I felt like God was calling us to run the program in the first place were 1) Kerry and Joy (our partners there in Haiti) needed more workers for the harvest and 2) I believe relationships are what change lives - deep, invested and intentional relationships that you can't get on short-term trips.  Unless you go back frequently, the only way to do that is to live among the people.  I mean that's the gospel, right?  That's what ultimately changed each of our lives - a God who was willing to step into our world and enter into a relationship with us.  He reaches out and gives everything and we choose the degree to which we enter into a trusting and intimate relationship with him.  

We had one intern who gave her entire life to the people of Montrouis, particularly the women in the fishing village.  Kelsea immediately had a heart for these women and invested in them 100% from September until July - almost a full year of breaking down walls and building trust.  She's even learned Creole.  The return on her investment is incredible.  She came home just in time for our wedding and told me the day before the wedding, "Bree, I feel like God is calling me to go back to Haiti - no return ticket, just to go and be a full time missionary and love on those women.  They've captured my heart and Haiti is my other home.  What do I need to do?"

I wept.  This is pay day for a year of wondering why we rolled out the program and questioning if it really was the best thing.  I asked Kelsea for a bit of her story & a few photos for our newsletter and these are the ones she sent today.  I wept again.  This is Kelsea and Necillia - this is my pay day and Kelsea's - you can see the depth of their relationship in this picture, you can see the investment and the sacrifice paying off.  You can see the gospel being lived out.  How beautiful is that!

This is Kelsea with Climaco.  His mother, Natalie passed away in July and had become one of Kelsea's dearest friends.  Kelsea cared for her in the last weeks of her life - took her to all her doctors appointments, walked with her through her dark sickness and helped her family with the funeral.  Her two children moved into the Mission when she died and Kelsea cared for them until she left to come home.  Climaco and his sister are one of the main reasons Kelsea feels called to go back full-time.  

I am ridiculously proud of this woman who started out as a sheltered, sweet 21-year-old Westmont student who had never left the country but wanted to intern for us two years ago.  Here she is today: giving her life to move to Haiti and be the hands and feet of Jesus in the community of Montrouis.  God is so good and so faithful.  

We are currently working out the plan for Kelsea's "next steps" and will let you know as soon as we have one.  We know she will go back and her funding will be raised through IMPACT, tax-deductible.  When and how and all of those things?  Only the Lord knows.  Please be praying for Kelsea in this season of "preparation" for her ministry in Haiti.  

In the meantime, you can check here for updates: kelsea's blog

Loving Our Neighbor

by Sarah Morris (IMPACT Intern)

Perhaps one of the most beautiful things about the Gospel is that it is so simple. Jesus never actually called us to change the world, He asked us to love our neighbor. We look at the world, at the enormity of death, starvation, slavery, and feel overwhelmed and crippled. We feel as though there’s nothing we could do that could even begin to touch these problems, so we’re tempted to instead ignore them or protect ourselves with all the reasons we can’t help. 

Jesus’ ministry was about relationships, about people. And while we all claim to know this, we fail to truly appreciate what this means for our own lives. It doesn’t matter who you are or what your skills are, He’s inviting you to be a part of His story. If you can hold the hand of a child, you are needed. If you can look someone in the eye and smile, you are needed. IMPACT’s most recent trip to Haiti was a powerful picture of the breathtaking simplicity of the Gospel.  EMTs, PA’s, nurses and physicians who went expecting to work in difficult and incredibly busy clinics did do some clinics but also spent time rocking children to sleep or teaching a spelling class. 

This argument may be old news, but the value of short term missions goes beyond whatever encouragement or assistance may be offered to resident brothers and sisters.  Short term trips open the door for one of life’s greatest miracles – to look through another’s eyes for an instant.  Until you go, statistics are just statistics and not people with faces and families and stories. It’s hard to change your life for statistics. It’s hard to live drastically different than your neighbors in order to help change 26,001 starving to 26,000. But if you can choose not to sacrifice the American dream so that Johnny and Wilna and Abigail, precious faces whom you’ve kissed, have enough to eat….well now that just might actually happen. Perhaps short-term trips are not “short term” at all, but simply the catalyst for lifelong mission, wherever one chooses to live. They create the habit of loving your neighbor, of opening our eyes to the truth that anyone and everyone is our neighbor. 

Break it Down

I received this picture shortly after we returned from Haiti two weeks ago.  What happened in me is that I read each of these and as I was reading them, I realized that I knew the names and stories of and had interacted with people in Haiti that live in extreme poverty, malnutrition, illness and suffering.  In my head, I broke down each of these things and pictures flashed through my mind of stories and people I'd interacted with just days before.  I'll do my best to give you a taste...

"If you have food in your fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the world." 

Meet Madame Raymon (a.k.a. Mama).  This selfless woman feeds over 25 people per day in a TINY little kitchen in Montrouis, Haiti - you don't go hungry when she's in the kitchen.  She manages an orphanage and her own family lives almost 2 hours away in Port-Au-Prince.  For years, she's not had anywhere to store her pantry goods.  Two weeks ago, these two (Andy & Stephen) built her shelves.  This, my friends is her happy dance.  And this, my friends is incredible that because of the work New Vision is doing, 15 orphans have food on the table, clothes on their back, a roof over their head and a place to sleep.  

They are richer than over 75% of people in their own country - their own neighborhood and we see them as poor.  

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"If you have money in the bank, your wallet and some spare change, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy."

Meet Roodley (pronounced Woodley).  He is one of the fisherman in the program New Vision has running in Montrouis.  The goal for these men is to create for them a sustainable business by using their skills as fisherman to catch as many fish as possible.  New Vision buys the fish from them and either feeds their own community with it (through local refugee women/former prostitutes being paid to cook for the elderly in the village or through selling it to other local missions organizations and businesses).  This will create enough income for these men to provide for their families and eventually open bank accounts.  Some of these men were ready to open bank accounts and then Dr. Kerry realized that there was a problem - none of them could read or write; therefore, they can't sign their name at the bank.  Back to square one.  Roodley is learning how to read and write (you can see his name across the top of the page).  

Roodley is entering into the 8% of the world's wealthy and overcoming the cycle of poverty in Haiti.

(Click here to read more about what one of our interns is learning about poverty, teaching and living in community)

______________________________________________________________

"If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million people who will not survive this week." 

Meet the people in the village of Montrouis.  We did medical clinics here and in a few other villages.  A grandmother, desperate for hope and desperate for help brought her infant granddaughter to our clinic.  Time kept passing, none of our doctors or nurses could find a vein - her veins were collapsed from such severe dehydration and malnutrition.  There was nothing we could do and so we simply pleaded with her Creator to heal her little body and we sent them home knowing that without a miracle, this precious one wouldn't make it more than a few more weeks.

  

 Most people in Montrouis have no source of clean water.  It's such a simple thing that we don't even think twice about - drinkable water pours from our faucets and hoses, even when we are only using it to hydrate our plants.  This is where many families get their water.  Around this water source you'll find human waste and often you'll see animals using this as their urinal.  New Vision's long-term goal is to have filtered water, a deep latrine and a gas stove in each home in Montrouis. 

 This will certainly bring more health than illness and decrease the chances of these people being included in that statistic.

_____________________________________________________________

"If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the agony of imprisonment or torture or the horrible pangs of starvation, you are luckier than 500 million people alive and suffering." 

Meet Jean Patrick (a.k.a. JP).  He is living with and being adopted by an American family who resides in Haiti. Why? Because he is the product of experiencing danger and witnessing torture - because of these things, JP is now an orphan.  His mother died when he was very young.  His father got remarried to a woman who sold bananas and was involved in witchcraft.  Essentially, because of his step-mother being involved in murder, his father was drug into the street, a tire thrown over his head and burned... JP watched this happen.  

This is one of the girls in our child sponsorship program and a few children in the local village - these precious ones have yet to experience relief from the pangs of starvation.  The lighter-colored hair is a symptom of severe malnutrition.  The distended bellies and flesh and bones - starvation.  With help, New Vision currently feeds 1500 kids, one meal per day in surrounding villages.  

Pray that this number can increase so that Montrouis will no longer be part of that 500 million.

 ________________________________________________________________

"If you can read this message, you are more fortunate than 3 billion people in the world who cannot read at all." 

 Meet the women of the feeding program.  (Click here to read more from one of our interns about her relationship with these women) These 12 women and the 12 men of the fishing program are part of New Vision's ministry mentioned a few paragraphs above.  They are provided jobs where they are paid in a "voucher system" (click to read more from one of our interns), they are provided an income, a discipleship program in Creole where they are being taught about Jesus and why he matters to them, and they are being taught to read and write in Creole and in English.  Our interns are VERY involved in this program and are starting with things they use everyday or words they know.

Being literate people will change everything for them - it provides them with a job, a future, opportunities for their family and hope.  (Click here to read more about our interns' running the literacy program) 

We are thankful that New Vision has a heart for these people and that literacy is on the top of the list of life skills for people in their program. 

As an organization, IMPACT is blessed to be part of what New Vision is doing in Haiti.  While we recognize how much we have, we also see with our own eyes what our neighbor does not.  We pray that we will continue to be part of the solution.  Pray for Haiti.  Pray for our 6 interns living there.  Life there is not easy. Pray for the New Vision staff.  Pray about how you might be involved.  Pray that IMPACT may continue to be agents of "eswpa" HOPE both in Haiti and across the globe.