Haiti Recap
Haiti recap – Pray – Wait – Trust
When I received the call from God to return to Haiti after 5 years, a special craft that I made in Mom’s Life so many years ago caught my attention (see picture). We had not been able to go to Haiti due to the Level 4 travel ban related to the violence and instability of the country. The craft was a reminder of God’s timing, His call and that in any circumstance, we must:
PRAY – seek Him, be in a relationship with Him, converse with Him, and listen to what he has asked us to do for His kingdom.
WAIT – on His timing, His provision, and His activation. God activates us when he needs us to help Him execute His will, when He needs us to be his hands, feet, and mouthpiece.
TRUST – in Him and be obedient to His call – even in the darkest of situations, knowing that He is sovereign.
God has given us all extremely specific assignments but often we miss it and miss the opportunity for God to call us, send us, bless us and bless others by sending us. In preparation for the trip, I spent a lot of time in the book Isaiah. “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” (Isaiah 6:8). We need to be the answer to the Lord’s question…. BUT only after we have done the things listed above. For the Haiti mission trip, God needed time to prepare my heart. He needed time for me to be emptied so that I could be filled and infused with His Spirit for the people in northern Haiti. He needed time to train me to be laser focused on His assignment and to be able to push out all distractions. He needed time to prepare me to obediently walk in love, be the light in the darkness, and gain wisdom and insight into the mission for what He needed me to do in Northern Haiti. During this time, God assembled an army of over 50 prayer warriors, three financial supporters and the support of our church leadership to “join me” in Haiti. This is so important for any mission trip and would not have happened if I sent myself based upon my flesh versus waiting for God to send me. “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them in to the world” (John 17:18).
Once in Haiti, I was able to move and pivot to exactly where our God needed me to be, to be a vessel to do his will in Northern Haiti. Each day, our physical team of three would be asked “what is on the agenda today?” And my response would be “whatever God needs us to do today.” We had a tentative agenda, of course, but God has the much bigger plan. While in Haiti, we learned so much more about the Haitian culture, their needs, and how we could work in unity for the kingdom of God.
Our team was in Haiti for seven days and it was very clear that each moment was a valuable opportunity to execute God’s will. On the day that we landed, we found Pastor Bob (the lead pastor in Haiti) to be extremely sick for some time, we quickly recognized that he needed immediate intervention. Luckily, God sent two emergency room nurses to Pastor Bob to be able to identify this and treat him and subsequently help him to get to the Dominican Republic to get the tests that he needed as medical care is limited in Haiti.
Throughout the week, we prayed with every pastor of the seven church plants, the medical clinic staff, and staff members of the three schools. We encouraged them, supported them, and heard their hearts for their people. We served and loved their people, our people. God used us to meet with the Haitian Board of Health and three other physicians to obtain the information that we needed to implement maternity services in the communities that we serve. This is something that was needed for over 40 years because approximately 65% of women in Haiti deliver their babies at home (without appropriate prenatal care) with random wise women but often have negative outcomes for moms and babies.
God used us to provide leadership education to high school and college students and provide hope to them for their future. God brought 16 potential college students to us to be able help them to potentially be able to go to college by implementing a college sponsorship program (only 5% of graduates in Haiti get the opportunity to attend college due to finances and lack of scholarships in Haiti). Education in Haiti is rare as most children do not have the opportunity to attend school, but in Haiti, education breaks the cycle of poverty and violence and is so essential to changing the impoverished nation. God used us to connect with, discuss the important of education and bring joy to the smaller children at the three schools and in return their joy filled out hearts. At the 40th anniversary celebration of Haitian Christian Ministries, God gave us the opportunity to fellowship and share Christ with over 600 Haitian church and community members, and provide messages of hope, gratitude, encouraging words, biblical truth, and prayer from the stage. We heard repeatedly that it was such a blessing to them that we came to Haiti despite their reality of what is happening in their country. We reminded them that God brought us to them.
To those who were on my mission team, we magnified and multiplied the kingdom of God in Haiti and for that I want to thank you for your obedience. The testimony above is what we accomplished together for the kingdom.
Becky Haas
