Haiti’s Hope

Royal Caribbean Cruises

Every time Jay and I go to Haiti, it always reminds us of how much more is needed for this country to rise from the scourges of poverty. And there are times when the heat, the traffic and all that makes the city of Port-au-Prince come alive threatens to make us weary. And even though the actual thought of giving up has never entered our minds, it’s this sense of weariness that sometimes creeps up unexpectedly!

But that only lasts until the faces of 30 children from the Diakonos orphanage come blearing into view. We just returned from yet another trip to Haiti and had a wonderful party with the children. Our normally quiet guesthouse suddenly became alive with the sound of children! These beautiful orphans, with their huge smiles and enthusiastic laughter, quickly remind us of the time when Jesus told the disciples not to hinder the children from coming to Him because the kingdom of God belonged to them. In other words, Jesus didn’t want them to grow weary and tire of doing good because the children deserved to come ever closer to the kingdom of God.

And it’s funny that sometimes we’ll spend time working to do the good things God’s asked us to do and then…just as the blessings of God are about to be poured out…we grow weary and give up! So let’s all make it our goal not to get tired while we’re doing good. Not to grow impatient! Because at the just the right time we will reap a blessing if we don’t give up! For the next two months, Haiti’s Hope will be doing a raffle to continue our work in Haiti! The good folks at Royal Caribbean Cruises have donated a 7-night Caribbean Cruise for two people! Good through December 2012! That’s our first prize. Our second prize is an Apple Ipad II (courtesy of Best Buy)! Recommended donation: $10.00! That’s not bad for a $2,000+ cruise for two! Or an Apple Ipad II!

All $10.00 donations will be automatically entered into the drawing. Please make sure you include your email or address! Make your donations at www.haitishope.org. Any questions or details, please email us at lionyb@haitishope.org. 

It’s weird…the morning after I returned from Haiti I woke up feeling that something was missing and at first couldn’t put my finger on it! Then it hit me: during the time spent there I woke up in a house in Port-au-Prince to have breakfast with 20 people…and the last day we added an additional 26 kids from the orphanage to that breakfast table! Now I was getting ready to have that breakfast by myself! And even though I went out and got me a nice, juicy hamburger the moment I was out of the plane…now I was craving those scrambled eggs and the daily doses of fresly-made fruit juices. I missed having spaghetti for breakfast. I missed the sound of that crazy rooster waking me up a 3:00am. I missed the 10 cold showers we took every day because of the scorching heat! I missed that blend of strange smells driving through Carrefour. I missed the sadness of a broken country. I missed wanting to weep a thousand times and not knowing how. I missed sensing the transformation that seemed to be taking place in the minds and hearts of those who were there. But most of all…most of all…I missed the smiles and laughter of the children and 20 people that in the end seemed more like family than friends.

I wondered if that’s how Jesus felt as he travelled around with 12 people who went from being strangers to close friends. Wondered if like us they went through all the emotions of the moments at hand; if they laughed at breakfast and talked of the endless possibilities of bringing transformation to those they had a chance to interact with. If they went to sleep thinking: tomorrow I get another opportunity to make an impact on the lives of those who are hurting.  I think that’s how we felt every morning we woke up to that scrumptious breakfast! And whether it was climbing a mountain to visit children in a make-shift “tent” school; driving through broken streets; going crazy looking for paint for the orphanage or spending hours playing and loving the children at Diakonos orphanage…something in all of us kept saying, you can make an impact today!

A piece of scripture found in the book of Romans challenges us deeply: Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. There was a time when I wondered about this verse. Didn’t fully understand that “patterns” were being formed all around us, every day, that excluded the hurting, the abandoned and neglected children. Patterns that said if you were a different race, social status, or lived in a certain region things would be denied to you.  Didn’t realize I had slowly become part of those patterns. I’d heard the stories and seen the photos…but it wasn’t until I boarded a plane to touch those who were being affected by these patterns that it transformed my thinking and brought renewal to my mind…defining the person I am today.

And as I we painted the orphanage in fresh and vibrant colors, as we transformed and renewed a structure that seemed to be screaming out for change, that was conforming to the patterns of a country needing healing, I could only hope and pray that we, too, were being transformed in the process. That with each brush stroke our minds were being renewed. That the stories that might be painted about our lives in the future would be filled with vibrant and refreshings colors. That the patterns in our own lives, however small, would be changed forever. There’s still a lot of work to be done. To join our efforts at bringing transformation and renewal…help us at www.haitishope.org