Haiti a year after

   I came to Haiti last year 4 weeks after the earthquake.  The country was in panic and survival mode.  NGO’s (Non Government Organizations) had poured in relief efforts in order to try to stabilize a country on the brink of starvation and social chaos. I participated in relief efforts in the city of Petionville and surrounding areas. I saw desperate poverty and dreams of a hopeful future now buried under the rubble of a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that in 1.2 minutes threw a whole entire country into the middle ages, left 316,000 people dead, 300,000 more injured and left over 1 million people homeless. Parks, city centers, and golf courses now gave way to make shift tent cities that would have to weather, rain, disease, crime, and lack of food.  Now a year later I find Haiti in a recovery stage.  You see signs like desk and chairs in airport immigration and advertising for cell phone companies. The rubble in the streets has been replaced with street vendors.  At the moment, the street vendors, are people’s main source of income.  You see row after row, on make shift sidewalks, of stores even in back alleys and neighborhood roads.  There are local woman selling everything from charcoal for cooking to small bags of rice. 

   While there are sure signs of progress, make no mistake Haiti is the poorest of the poor. Only a two hour flight from the over abundance of America, Haiti is a country still fighting the slave colony stigma and generational curses left by the french West India company who shipped hundreds of thousands of slaves from Africa between 1764 - 1771. Haiti has suffered at the hands of dictators and corruption lead governments who historically have plundered the countries resources and aide given by a multitude of countries and NGO’s over the past 20 decades. It has left Haiti in this perpetual cycle of a hand out lifestyle.  People now live off the generosity of NGO’s, churches and mission groups. Most groups who minister here are wrestling with these issues of relief versus development and how to make programs work. In order to create true change, Haiti must move into a “teach a man to fish” mode to replace “handing out the fish”. 

   On this trip I tricked my great friends who went with us to Africa last year into coming along to Haiti.  We stayed in a guest house of a ministry called Child Hope International. Child Hope is a boys and girls orphanage in Delmas 75, run by the Manassaero family. In 2004 they were urged on by their daughter Ariana (I know another story of girl who urged her family to start a run for Africa) to visit Haiti then came back to California and sold all they had to begin their home for abandoned children.  Seven years later the ministry has expanded into a feeding program for local street kids and mercy health clinic for the community they serve.

  Now you just read that paragraph and thought to yourself “what a neat story” and “wow those people are awesome”. There is so much more to this ministry that my poorly written blog won’t really do it much justice. The thing about a trip like this is you spend the first few days fighting with my American self over my abundant lazy heart.  My head complains of the heat and sweat, fear and doubt work overtime to confuse grace, mercy and purpose. Once stripped of your normal life comforts, you go through healthy withdraws, but everyday your heart beats bigger and God’s presence seems more abundant. You replace your iPad with scripture and DVR with conversation. Child hope is propped up by long term missionaries who commit 6 months to a year of their life to serve this group of kids and the surrounding community. They all have different backgrounds, gifts, and denominations of faith. But all were called and took time out of the race to serve people one on one.  It’s both inspiring and damning of my own selfishness and laziness.

  I worked in two areas while at the orphanage, the transition home and the feeding camp. They have started a transition home for kids who are about to graduate out of the orphanage homes.  In Haiti once a child is 18 they must leave and start their life out in the cruel world and I would dare say Haiti’s version of the cruel world versus the American version can not be compared on any level. This transition program is a vital last stop safety net to the future of these children who have been raised by the Mannassero family and staff who have loved these kids through abandonment, loss and pain. The transition program was donated screen print equipment the day I arrived, which was a good use of my knowledge and talent. While I’m glad someone donated the equipment I’m always so frustrated by people who send their broken down equipment and computer leftovers as donations to places like Africa and Haiti, especially when what is being sent is not good quality stuff that’s old and rundown. The idea of someone sending over a PC with windows 92 on it just makes me mad, hey pony up and by them a brand new iMac, give them something they can actually use and will last them through the next generation of kids who need to learn important skills. Back to the point, the transition program is a needed tool to help these kids get a fighting chance of life out side the protection and love of the orphanage.

  On the last day I participated in the feeding program that Child Hope organizes and produces every week three times a week. The mission is to allow the street kids outside the walls of the orphanage a solid meal. What moved me and broke me down the most was this is 100% run by the Child Hope orphans and managed by the staff and family. It’s one thing for me to bring donations and help for the orphans themselves;  it’s a whole other thing to watch these kids serve the street kids who suffer with a whole other level of need and desperation. Bill Mannassero introduced me to a girl who was a twin and her twin died of malnutrition and she herself has mental disabilities and has a hard time walking because she was mistreated and underfed.  She knows the staff and family members well and I fought tears as the feeding program ended that day and these street kids were sent back out into the tent camps for an uncertain tomorrow. 

  I was so blessed to be around the long term staff members, to watch the whole Mannassero family do God’s work with obedience and great humility. I think as Americans we are so busy with our lives we have missed the calling. Seems easy for me to say, but it’s so obvious once you’re around people who serve daily.  To see it in practice is so intoxicating. We live daily without a real need for God, we think if we punch our time clocks at church on Sunday and help support the local food drive at Christmas we have fulfilled Jesus’ call. To paraphrase David Platt from the book “Radical” we as American Christians have compartmentalized our walk.  We have reserved ministry into electable sub cultures. We say things like “I’m not called to missions so I will support those that are”, “I’m not called to feeding people I will cut a check for those that are”. But, if you read the Bible and then go the next step as to profess that what it says is true then Jesus said “go to all nations and spread God’s word” or even deeper go look up how many times Jesus called us to feed the poor. It was never given with the condition “if your called to do it” or more in our language if your good at that kind of thing.  Jesus said “do it”, think about what that means to our walk it’s not “if we get time”, or “if we can once a year” he called us to all nations and all people. 

  My current challenge in my life right now (and you may share my same struggle), is one of my hands is chained to my house payment while my other hand is chained to my bills. I have built a jail cell of debt that I now serve a sentence in and it runs my life, makes my decisions for me and has completely severed me from hearing God’s voice. On top of that I have built up a kingdom around myself of comforts and false traditions that don’t have anything to do with the God I profess to serve. Andy Stanley said “you can judge a man’s heart by his bank statement and how he gives and where”. What if that was a practice of the church to one by one show our personal bank statement on a screen for all to see?  I would be mortified because anyone could see my life for what it really is in about 10 seconds. I am a mess!! Think about it this way, when your life on this planet ends and you go have a conversation in that coffee shop in the sky and you sit face to face with Jesus the Savior, will he recant how great I did building up my business, will he recite the many awards and degree’s I earned in my short time on earth, will he shake my hand and thank me for my hard work building up my 401K and stock portfolio? I know right now as I breath air I have failed my mission and Jesus’ call to my life. I have betrayed Jesus. I have traded the free gift of salvation for a nice neighborhood and a car payment. I have stored up my kingdom on earth with both my time and my money and at the end of the day these things I have worked for and fought to have are meaningless and shallow and will not hold up to the test of time.  Do we recall historically of what the disciples owned or where they lived? You already know the answer I don’t even have to type it out in this blog. 

-Michael Lewis