HAITI TRIP REPORT MARCH 3 – 10, 2005

….and they shouted MERCI JESU (thank you Jesus)

God spoke at the last minute and said Dewaine was to go with me to Haiti. After scurrying around we arrived in Port au Prince, recently referred to in a news article as the most dangerous airport in the world, to find an almost surreal peace there. No pushing, no shoving, no in-your-face, just one uniformed man who offered to help us and did! He found our bags, rented a cart for us to use and somehow managed to get customs to pass us through without even a peek in the six bags. What a change this was from previous trips and what a blessing for us!

Pastor Jerome and Geralda were waiting outside the fence for us and all at once we were finally in Haiti and on our way to the compound. Staying at the compound was the greatest time of my life! It is one thing to read about the worship that goes on at Good Shepherd Church. It is quite another to be there and be a part of the almost full time meetings that take place. This was not a special thing; this is just life at the Good Shepherd Church. The evening of the day we arrived we could hear a large group of people downstairs in the church singing, praying and shouting Merci Jesu over and over. Joshua, Pastor Jerome’s oldest son told me they were giving thanks to God for our safe arrival. They had been praying for weeks about our trip and now they spent hours telling God thank you for allowing us to come. A more humbling experience one can not have. Each evening they had meetings at the church. Anyone who wanted to sing was allowed to sing a solo and one man sang the song he had written about his conversion from Voodoo and his new life in Christ. I was allowed to bring a prayer need from back in the states to them and after they prayed for my dear friend, he experienced a miraculous recovery at exactly the same time the church completed their prayer for him.

Each night there were services, one night a nearby home group sang and prayed all night long, two mornings the worship began at four o’clock and continued until seven. And one morning at five I awoke to a rumble and upon checking saw men all over the mountain walking on their roofs and praying outloud. If I had to tell you the one thing I learned most from our Haiti family during this trip, it is this! Not only do our family in Haiti pray with total faith and anticipation for God to answer their prayers, they truly spend hours each day just PRAISING their Lord and thanking him for His love and provision. They shout over and over again, Merci Jesu!

There are new children living with Pastor Jerome and Geralda now. Geralda tells me she has to turn away children every day, as there is no more room and not enough money to take on the support of these children. Dewaine and I have committed to send support for Joel. Would you consider support for Sandra, 9 years old who is in the first grade, or perhaps one of the 15-year-old twins Jackson and Watson. These children have no one to help them except Pastor Jerome and Geralda. And there is Mesmynn, who although he is 22 is only in the tenth grade of school and lives with the others at the compound.

Dewaine and I knew that one of the most important things we could do for the family was to provide the medication for intestinal parasites. The children at the feeding program were in the worst shape I have ever seen! Their bellies were distended and swollen with the worms and many of them were sick from this infestation. By the time we had left we had given out 1,500 of these one-dose pills. We had also had two days of clinic and seen sick and needy people on the top of the church long into the night. We were worried and distressed at the blood pressure readings we took from many of the ladies. And there were many that came that were too sick for us to do anything for them. After seeing around two hundred and fifty or more sick people, we just know that there has to be some provision made for taking better care of them. Geralda wants to do this but I cannot imagine how she will have time to fill this great need. Please begin praying for this project.

We did not have enough children’s vitamins and found out you simply cannot purchase them in Haiti. We had gone to the Canadian Caribbean Chemical Company and purchased much of the medicine we dispensed, but they have no children’s vitamins!! Also we could not acquire the much needed scabies medicine and had a desperate need for many more bars of soap. Some of the sick had never had a bar of soap for their very own! Pastor Jerome told us that there is no longer a clinic available for the people of Carre four Feuilles, even if they could afford to go to one. They were so grateful for Tums or the Tylenol or the cough syrup we were able to share with them. Many, many thanks go to Zachery and Joel for helping us with the clinic. Without their knowledge of English, this clinic would have never happened.

And last but not least, we now have a site ready for the construction of the new facility for the school and the feeding program. It is not big enough but it is all we can afford to clear. After around two hundred dump trucks full of dirt were removed we have a 33-foot by 33-foot clearing, remember we are clearing the side of a very steep hill. The estimated cost for the entire clearing of the lot project had been $8,000.00. We contracted for clearing half at $4,000.00 and had to stop the work when at about one/third completed the bill was $6,000.00. So now we adjust our plans and build a two or three story building, as God provides.

Going to Haiti both thrills and breaks our hearts. But Dewaine and I came home more committed than ever to being obedient to God’s call on our lives. Being a part of this ongoing work is a challenge, but we all know that our God is big, is good and is in control! So now we wait and watch Him work and we too shout Merci Jesu! Merci Jesu!

Called to HIS Service,

Elizabeth (Liz) Seese