Ministries

Haiti Mission Trip

My Missions Trip to Haiti 

  On January 12, 2010, Haiti suffered a devastating 7.0 earthquake. An estimated 316,000 people died as the country’s economy and government infrastructure collapsed. Port-au-Prince morgues were quickly overwhelmed with many tens of thousands of bodies having to be buried quickly in mass graves.

  With so many casualties, 300,000 more children were orphaned. More than a year later, close to a million people still live in tents or under tarps because they have no homes to return to.

 

Some of the homeless live in cholera camps established by UNICEF. According to a recent article in the Washington Post, the cholera outbreak has now sickened 250,000 people in Haiti and killed nearly 5,000.

   Within hours after the tragedy became national news, God put it on my heart to help. Since we have 233 congregations of the Church of God there, our church gave an initial offering through Church of God Ministries that would go directly to our missionaries living in Haiti. They would know where help was needed the most.

  My next step was to organize a mission’s trip to that hurting nation. After months of planning, preparation, recruiting and coordinating this effort with Church of God Ministries, at 4:00 a.m. on Thursday, April 14, 2011, fifteen short term missionaries from four Texas Church of God congregations met at IAH. After a brief stop in Miami, we landed in Port au Prince early that afternoon (the picture includes our team of 15 plus some of the Haitians we worked with). The airport is still damaged from the quake.
 
 
Church of God missionary Art Clawson met us at the airport. After loading our luggage, we all piled into the back of his big truck. What an adventure!
 
 
Our final destination would be the Haitian village of Prospere, home to some 6,000 needy and hurting people. Prospere is about a two hour ride from Port au Prince. As Ambassadors for Christ, our primary purpose in going was to build relationships. And that we did, as we also worked on the construction of eight homes.   These one room homes are approx 200 square feet – about the same size as my office! Because there is no indoor plumbing and no electricity, the homes have no need for bathrooms or kitchens!
 


Near the church in the village there is a common outhouse – but the smell drove some from our team into the woods to take care of business!
 
 
The Haitians cook outside, using homemade charcoal for fuel. There are no streets in the village – only one very rough road that leads to the church. From there, rocky trails lead to the hundreds of tiny homes tucked away in the foothills of a beautiful but barren mountain range – barren because of years of uncontrolled deforestation.

  We met so many hurting people who have suffered so much loss. Yet, these were also some of the most joy filled people that we had ever met! Chrislin, a young lady from the village, was working in Port au Prince as a maid when the quake hit. The home she was in collapsed, trapping her for 5 days!  

  She spent those long hours praying, hoping someone would find her before it was too late. She was eventually rescued, but lost her left leg just above the knee. Today she is back in the village and wears a prosthetic leg. She sings almost all of the time – including a special song that she sang in church on Sunday morning. No bitterness, no self-pity – just joy in the fact that she is still alive.
 
 

Church of God Ministries has employed Haitians from area churches to help construct the homes. They earn a salary of $10 per day – a great wage by Haitian standards! We built relationships with these young men – and continue to pray for their future. 

  On Sunday of our week in Haiti we attended the Prospere Church of God. I was asked to preach. Steve, a young educated Haitian, was my translator. Apparently my sermon was too short – because the pastor preached another one after I sat down. The service was long – and it was very hot inside the church building (remember, no electricity, so no A/C)!  This pastor is 75 years young and still serves the Lord (pictured here with his wife). Apparently he’s never owned a car and never lived in a home with running water or electricity! I’m convinced that his reward in heaven will be great!
 
 
It got dark by 7:00 p.m. each day. Since there are no lights (and no TV), some of us would just go and lie down on top of our sleeping bags – and pray for a breeze!  Did I mention that it’s hot in Haiti?  Even though the breeze usually failed to materialize, we were tired enough from a long day of construction in the sun that we would eventually fall asleep.

  By 2:00 a.m. the roosters would begin to crow – followed by the eeeeeeee-aaaaaaww of all the donkeys!  By 4:00 a.m. it was getting light – so most of us just got up to read our Bibles and pray.  


 
When we got ready to leave (we returned to IAH on Apr 21) there were many tears! Our team had become attached to so many of the Haitians – especially to all the children! Several of our women were trying to figure out how they could smuggle a few babies home – but I guess that was already tried last year!
 
 
Several from our team are sensing a call to full time missions – and every team member is ready to go with me on my next adventure!

  To date Church of God Ministries Global Disaster Committee and the Church of God House of Blessings Orphanage in Haiti have built more than 300 homes in Haiti.

  Our team came home – committed to raising another $3,000 for another home! Our elders have already promised to give half of that through our own Disaster Relief fund.  If you would like to help our team raise the other $1,500, please let me know! No gift is too small, and no gift is too large!  Two homes would even be better!   

  A few days ago I talked to our elders about sending a team to AL for tornado recovery. I will also be talking with our TX Church of God leaders about this next week. If you are willing and able to go to AL, please let me know!

  Thanks for your prayers as we traveled to and from Haiti.  God was with us, hearts were touched and lives were definitely changed!

 

            Don Bergstrom