A New Year

A year has passed, but what a year!  It started with the earthquake and ended with an uprising.  Our first volunteer in mission trip for 2010 was planned for a group of 10 women and two men.  Three of us went a little early.  I went to Port au Prince for a conference in Petionville.  Mike Stanford and Hal Shinn went directly to Cap Haitien on the northern end of the island to prepare supplies and makes things ready for the group of ladies coming on Wednesday.  The plan was that when my conference ended about midday Wednesday I was going to take an uneventful 35 minute plane ride up to Cap where we would all meet up.  The women joining us would fly in that day.  This was going to be the Women on a Mission trip, and Mike and Hal were there to shepherd the group in a work project.

But the Wednesday we were all supposed to meet up in Cap Haitien was Jan. 13, 2010 and of course the earthquake of Jan. 12, 2010 changed all of that.  I stood in a second floor doorway and shook for 35 seconds - violently.  That was 4:53pm on Tuesday, Jan. 12.  Hal (in Cap Haitien and 90 miles away) was on the patio of the Mont Joli Hotel and felt it.  Mike was in his hotel room there and made his way outside in record time.  

Back home my husband heard the news when a member called on his cell phone on the way home from the church at the end of the day.  Others in Charlotte saw the breaking news bulletins on the TV.   I was able to send email within a couple of hours that I was okay, Mike and Hal could do the same.  By Friday noon I was home and unharmed.  Hal and Mike made it home on Saturday having spent the week there making real progress on the work we had hoped to see finished.  

The Women on a Mission rightly decided not to fly into Haiti that Wednesday.  Instead they banded together in a colossal food and water collection for those affected by the quake.  This took over a week or more, and two semis were filled to capacity.

4:53 changed our plans, but thankfully it did not end our lives.  And it certainly did not squash our sense of mission. 

2010 was an eventful year in our Haiti ministry.  It began with an earthquake and ended with that group, the Women on a Mission eventually travelling to Cap Haitien to fulfill the longing of their hearts, only to be caught up in a political uprising.  Again we returned home unharmed and undeterred.  You could bookend our year in ministry this way - an earthquake and an uprising.  

Then again you could look at things another way.  It began with two men who brought water and electricity to a rural mountain community school and ended with the Women on a Mission teaching the children English, and Dr. Eugene receiving a gift of over $400 to fight the battle with cholera.    

This past year has been awful and wonderful, devastating and fruitful, full of grief, full of joy.

This blog will be a way for us all to document the ongoing ministry in Haiti that God calls us to.  And it will be about how God's grace has been sufficient to every task and experience we have encountered along the way.  There is always grace in the midst of suffering, and that is because when God's people hurt God shows up.  If we are doing God's will and are in the places he wants us to be, there will be need and hurt that calls us there.

I look forward to reading about the experience of others.  2011 is now before us.  My prayer is that these posts will show how our lives are changed, how the lives of those we serve are changed. The posts will be like snapshots of changed lives.   In the midst of it all is a God who wants to transform us all.  

Godspeed Providence Haiti Missions in 2011!