This email will wrap up the 2008 NWF Haiti mission trip. I've included a few pictures to give you a better feel for the experience.
 
The days that followed the excursion into the mountain included more trips to the schools to actually distribute the gift bags to the children. Rice was also given out as well as clothing. It is amazing what this nation does with the "cast off" clothing from the United States. They are thrilled to wear what we no longer will put on! They all seem to have a "Sunday best" that they wear for church or special occasions (such as when strangers come to deliver gifts).
 
The expressions on the children were that of amazed curiosity when they received their gifts. Some of them sat quietly, almost stunned, not knowing that they needed to open the gifts.
 
They loved the dolls and cars! I did see two little girls fighting over their dolls. I thought to myself, it is amazing what stuff does to us. We provided them w/ something that neither had previously and just like us - they want something else or somehow are dissatisfied. Not a bad lesson for all of us to learn just before we go into this season of Christmas. What do you really want? What satisfies?
 
We also took a more detailed tour of the missionary compound we were visiting. There was a training conference on sight this week w/ 260 workers from Compassion International. You could hear them singing in the night. It was amazing.
 
We had our first tastes of Haiti cuisine during the week: goat! Yum! Mostly they eat beans and rice. The food was incredibly good.
 
We also took a tour of the market. People walk as much as 6 hours from high up in the mountains, carrying their materials to come to market. Everything you could want was for sale in the street market: fresh meat (I mean, REALLY fresh), dried fish, sorta fresh fish, beans, macaroni, sausage, baskets, bread, cell phones, clothing, (yes, I really did say cell phones - a new craze in Haiti. You can't buy a contract but you buy "minute cards" - and cell phones are very popular), goats, chickens, chicken feet, fresh bananas, pineapple, coconut ... and on and on. It was like stepping back in time as you meandered your way through the crowds to see the produce and wares.
 
On this last day the temperature finally cooled off a bit. Down from the 100+ days the temps dropped our last night to the low 70s. We felt like we were freezing! (Of course, you guys here in Hoptown were literally freezing!) The winds also kicked up, blowing lots of smoke and dust throughout the compound.
 
A lot of good was done on the trip. So much more is needed. But one of the really cool things was sitting around with missionaries and hearing from those on the trip about what was happening in their lives from the result of this trip ... these are my paraphrases of their thoughts ...
 
Kevin Clayton, David East, and John Hutchens had all been before. I love what John said, "Their worship was incredible. They are so into it. It made me wonder why we hold back and think so much about what others are thinking about us instead of just worshipping". David said that coming on this trip was "purely selfish. I get such a huge blessing by being here. I will always come to Haiti."
 
Troy Vowells, Alison Lee, Willis Adkins and I were all the new visitors to Haiti. Alison found her calling from God to nursing confirmed in this trip. Troy observed that their 4 hour worship service contained some of the most beautiful singing that he has ever heard in life, "and they are loud! The people really sing!"  Willis Adkins saw the fulfillment of a dream that was birthed at Catalyst two years ago as he began dreaming about how he could use the talents that God put in his life-for a greater purpose. He is completing a video of our experience that will move you-just as being in Haiti so moved each of us.
 
And what about me? I got out of the trip exactly what I went looking for. I prayed that God would disturb me on this trip. I've never wept so much in such a short period of time.
 
I prayed that God would broaden my understanding of missions. For so long "missions" was sanitized and safe for me. The easiest way to do missions is to give! (And make no mistake that is needed) ... but this time, I got to see/experience missions up close. I needed that.
 
These people have nothing. They are in such need. But in their poverty, they have the one thing that they need. So many of the people of Haiti are coming to Christ. And that is why all this work is being done there ... schools to provide an educational hope, a feeding ministry to get the elderly through another week, a burn center (the only one in the region) to care for the hurting, digging wells for the thirsty, providing gifts ... all of this in the hopes that more will be reached for Christ.
 
You had a part in that ... if you stuffed a gift bag; it went from your hand to the hand of a child. If you bought the baby doll or gave the hat or the toy car, you brought a smile to face of a child.
 
Just think, somewhere in the mountains of remote Haiti, there sits a girl and boy, in the dirt floor of their one room house. They are dirty from the soil in which they play ... but that little girl looks into the eyes of "her baby" ... the first doll she has ever had. And that little boy is making tire tracks on the floor of the hut. He's never seen a car like this one in his tiny hand, but he loves it. And perhaps this Sunday, their parents will take them back to the church that gave them toys, rice, shoes, and clothing, and they will hear the message of Jesus Christ proclaimed.
 
Joy to the world! The Lord has come!
 
And joy to you - because you had a hand in that!
 
Challenge: As I wrap us this Haiti report, let me challenge you to go next year. Haiti is not that far from us. Just 800+ miles off the coast of Florida. It is a short trip that will forever change your life. In just a few short days, missions will come alive in your life. In the words that many of us have heard at different seasons in our lives, "I double dog dare you to go."
 
You just might find what you've been looking for.
 
(More pictures have been posted to my facebook page)

 

Kevin Lee