In July, The Compass Church sent a team to serve along side ReachGlobal in Haiti. Darcy Ruscitti, Executive Director of Central Ministries, was the team leader and shares here some reflections on the trip.
It is hard even two weeks later to put words to how impactful a trip it was. We started off as a group of mostly acquaintances, and ended the trip as strongly bonded family. You always hope for strong relational connections as a team – but this group exceeded expectations. Our group was fun-loving, flexible, and hard working – all needed for ministry work in Haiti.
Each of our days was a very different adventure. We did everything from painting rooms at the local clinic for a new incoming doctor to filling water jugs for locals and walking them to their homes. Some homes were tarps, some were the shelter of trees, some wood, and others were even made of cinder blocks.
Two days we traveled to the area called Jan Jan. We drove for almost an hour, which was as far as we could go by truck, and then we walked with our supplies the remaining mile. One day we ran a VBS type camp with almost 200 kids! They just kept coming! It was great to teach them about the shield of faith and do related activities. The next day we came back to work on a church building construction site in Jan Jan. The kids came back out in groves singing the songs and looking for more interactions. While some of our team did that, I joined working on the construction and learned how to do re-bar! As I started I am sure they were quite skeptical of what I could contribute, but after some time with an amazing teacher (one of our interpreters named Joe), they weren’t even checking my work anymore and by the end were including me in the process just like one of them! It was a blessing to me to get to do some actual labor type work and be praying for the people that will be attending that church.
Near the Jan Jan area there was a vast, mostly dried up river bed. While there was some running water in it, (the team took numerous trips back and forth to bring water up to the construction site for cement making) you couldn’t help but imagine what that river area would look like filled. What changes would it mean for the people for their living conditions, their food, their livelihood? You can’t help but carry this analogy over to the people and their need for the love of Jesus. So much of Haiti is a vast area of spiritual dryness, people in need of Jesus. There are small streams of strong Christian communities – we pray those continue to grow and spread for Haiti.
We had the complete joy of wrapping up our week by attending a beautiful church service. It didn’t even matter that we couldn’t understand the parts that were in Creole – we knew we were getting to experience a special moment within a body of fellow believers. The singing and joy for the Lord was clearly present even though many had walked quite a distance to even get to church. We had a big rain Saturday night and it was quite muddy Sunday morning. It would have been easy to skip church that morning – but they weren’t going to be stopped! The singing was powerful and so was the message!
Thank you for your prayers and support – we couldn’t have had such an amazing trip without you being a part of it!
What often happens, I’ve noticed, is that those who are homeless are often dehumanized by those who have the means to help them. But in reality, they’re people too, they have their own stories, lives, families. So what I think I took away was that what I personally need to do better, and what I think a lot of people could improve upon, is not turning our noses up to the hurt in this world, but embracing it and treating it with love. The lesson Elsa and I taught for the VBS kids that week was all about going out into the world and loving people the way Jesus loves. And in our experience that morning, we were living that out, and it was incredible to be a part of.
Today at the end of kids camp, I ran up to the mother of the girl from last year and asked if she was coming to camp. Unfortunately, she was not, as she was out of town until Sunday. Bummed, I began telling her mother how much I loved her daughter and told her to give her a big hug for me. Her mother was very kind and wrote down my email so she could reach out to me. As she started to leave, she mentioned she worked at a church out here. It turned out that it was the same church my aunt attends and when I told her my aunt’s name, she goes, “No way! She’s one of my closest friends! I just texted her yesterday!” She then continues to tell me about how my aunt led her husband to Christ, which in turn, eventually led their entire family to Christ. Woah.
CompassGlobal 