A story from Haiti

The reports from our teams who have gone to Haiti have been both heart-breaking and inspiring. Today on the blog, I asked April Lambiotte if we could post her recap from a recent trip. It is a great reminder to continue to pray for and give to the Haiti relief efforts.

Jeff

Friends and family,

Well, I’ve been home from Haiti for a few days now and slowly but surely I’m adjusting to life back at home. After a week in Haiti it felt like being there was all I’d ever known and it broke my heart to leave. I had an incredible experience and am so grateful that you were all a part of it in different ways!

Haiti is a broken country. It was broken before the earthquake and many Haitians would tell you that the devastation of the earthquake is not the biggest problem for the country. I want to be real in telling you that there is pain and darkness in Haiti, but I found a hope, too. It took a while- but the hope’s there. It was our third day of work in Port-au-Prince and I was sitting on the foundation of a house being built for widows when I found it. In the midst of physical exhaustion I sat down and looked up at the hills, packed with huts and tents, littered with trash, and I wondered where the hope was. I had never seen so much devastation in my life. Then I remembered that I serve a big God. A God that lays plans we can’t dream of and a God who is capable of lifting Haiti up. Our God is big enough for Haiti. We’re only a small part of what He’s doing. I consider it a privilege to have served the people of God in Haiti.

Since so many of you helped in getting me there, I’d love to share with you what we did on our journey. First and foremost I had the privilege to work with the most amazing group of people and I love each one of my teammates with my whole heart. Our travel went smoothly and after our arrival at the Port-au-Prince airport (which sort of resembles a large warehouse) we made our way through the city and to the Bethel Guest House, our home for the week. It’s about 45 minutes from the city but takes an hour and a half to get to. Traffic in third world countries makes 285 on a Friday at 5pm look like fun. The guest house is run by Dr. Bernard and his wife Claudette, a Haitian couple with an incredible story that I would love to share with you anytime. Sunday we went to church and while we spent over three hours listening to a service in Creole, it’s amazing to experience worship and communion in another language. On Sunday we were also able to see a bit more of Port-au-Prince. Seeing all that devastation first hand is surreal and took a while to set in. To be honest, I’m still doing a lot of processing.

On Monday our work began. On day one myself and four other women from our team worked on the handbag project. 410 Bridge (the ministry North Point/globalx went to Haiti through) set up a project for Haitian women to make bags that would be sold in the U.S. and the women got paid for each day of work. The bags are currently being sold at BigStuf camps and will soon be available on the 410 website. I highly encourage you to check it out. You might even end up with one of the bags I worked on!

For the rest of the week I worked on one of the two construction projects. We were split between the ‘big’ and ‘small’ houses, just a couple blocks from one another. At the big house the foundation was already in place, so we worked on moving a large pile of dirt and rubble that was in the way of the project. We moved it from its current place, through a small alley, and onto the street. Bucket by bucket, from point A to point B. Talk about a humbling experience. This is work we could have done in America in a matter of minutes with the proper equipment- but it took approximately 12 people, 4 days, lots of sweat, and even a few tears to get it done. God had a purpose in our work though and He showed up in a big way.

I learned so much about the body of Christ on that project and I wouldn’t trade any bucket lifted. We also met a lot of precious children who ended up helping us, they showed us that the future of Haiti is a bright one.

Friday morning marked the end of our journey in Haiti as we packed up our things and headed to the airport. Dr. Bernard prayed over us before we left and despite my longing for a few comforts of home, I had no real desire to leave Haiti. It was then that I remembered something pretty simple but profound Dr. Bernard said on our first night in Haiti, “God doesn’t always work as fast as we want Him to…but He is never late.” God knows what He is doing. In my life and yours. I know I’ll go back to Haiti and it will be on God’s timing alone. He is never late. God knows what He’s doing in our lives and He is big enough for Haiti. Keep Haiti in your prayers.

If you have any questions at all, feel free to email me and I would love to talk to you more. I also encourage you to check out the 410 Bridge website: http://www.410bridge.org/. I’ve added some pictures below, feel free to email me at a.m.lambiotte@gmail.com if you’d like to see more!!!

Thank you for being part of my journey. God bless!

All my love,

April

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