Monday - Day 2 - Journal

We met downstairs at 4AM, arranged all of the luggage and supplies, some on roofs. Brett's Isuzu had a flat tire, so we changed that with the help of one of the valets at the hotel. Josh led devotion and we prayed before we left at 5AM. It was still dark as we made our way across the city, but uneventful. We had Motorola radios that made vehicle to vehicle communication possible. The trip across the DR took about 6 hours, and 3 flat tires. Luckily there are plenty of places to get a tire fixed around here. In one little town while waiting for a tire to get fixed we bought 7 ham, cheese, and slaw pannini's being cooked by a lady street vendor. It cost about $3.50 for all of them, and they were pretty good. The scenery in the DR is gorgeous. Rolling mountains are almost always visible. We bought gas in Jimani and headed for the border crossing.

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

Before you watch these videos a few disclaimers. Go ahead and make fun of our unintentional fake Dominican and later Creole/French accents. They get better as the week goes on. Also, these videos were mostly shot from a moving SUV in crazy traffic so they aren't very steady and the conversation in the background reacts to the traffic. The videos are in 720p and streaming from Vimeo.com so you should be able to make them full screen and it be very crisp.

Bani from Jeremy Sanders on Vimeo.

Vincinte Noble from Jeremy Sanders on Vimeo.

The crossing was packed with vehicles and people. There was a market right at the border and people were buying and selling food to take into Haiti. It took about 45 minutes to get across the border, but we weren't stopped or questioned at all. We didn't even get our passports stamped, they just waived us through. There was also a big UN troop carrier with a 50 cal mounted on the front that was a little intimidating, but all of the military we ran into just let us move forward without question. The road on the other side of the crossing was a very bumpy gravel road that was cut out of the side of the limestone cliffs by a river. Once free of traffic we stopped to wait for the other vehicles to catch up as it was impossible to stay together in that mass of people and trucks at the crossing.

This one is a little long, but is all my footage of the border crossing into Haiti which was quite an experience.

Border Crossing from Jeremy Sanders on Vimeo.

One notable image was that of a single man in a canoe with outriggers loaded down with probably 10-15 50lb bags of rice paddling it down the river towards Haiti. He wasn't making much progress, but I guess he was determined. Maybe a sign of things yet to come…

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

We thought that we were seeing poverty in the DR. Poverty in Haiti is so much worse that it is not even comparable. As soon as you reach the first town the smell of the third world greets you strongly. There are tent cities everywhere. I asked Dickens if those were earthquake refugees? He said that they lived like that before the earthquake. Another thing we noticed was that the gas we bought in Jamini must have been pretty low quality. All of the vehicles reported a loss of power and rattling valve trains. The trip from the border into Petion-Ville was about 3 hours which only covers 35 miles. The images of poverty and earthquake damage were striking as we rode into town. I think they speak for themselves.

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

We made it to the church about 2:00 I think. The "street" that the church is located on is a very steep dirt, gravel, and sometimes concrete road. When we got out of the cars and looked around, I was amazed that this was what these people were living in. They were very happy to have us there. We quickly unloaded and assembled a team to go to St Marc to get the food. The medical team was going to sort the medical supplies and get ready to open the clinic the next day. I left Jeff in charge of the rest of the group to get our other supplies and gear situated and to start talking to the people of the neighborhood. We met Chasnel Raymond (referred to as Raymond), Josue's brother, as well. Dickens got a guy named Michel to drive our lead vehicle and the others followed. He is a professional driver and it was a fast ride into St Marc trying to keep up. Richard had his second flat tire on the way. I stayed back with him and we worked on getting it fixed. We had a jack, jack handle and four-way, but couldn't get the jack high enough to lift the tire. While he was under the truck, a water truck came by spraying the road and soaked him while he was laying in the dirt. After that we discovered from some local guys that there was a tire fixing stand about 100 yards down the road. It had just enough air in it to drive it that far and we were able to let them fix it.

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

Alex and crew proceeded to the port. When he got there about 5:15PM, the guards said it was closed, but took him to the ship. The guys on the ship took him to a room and said to wait there while they talked to the captain. The room they left him in was full of other guys from the ship. They asked him if he was new on the boat, and he said "pretty new!" One of the guys he met was Roy Dixon. He is from England and runs a non-profit getting aid into countries. He had an ambulance full of medical supplies that he was trying to get to a team of doctors, but couldn't get it through customs. They customs people told him he needed an NGO (non-government organization) to consign it over to in order to get them to release it. Through that search he met the guys at YWAM, Youth with a Mission. They have a large base in Saint Marc headed up by a guy named Terry Snow who has been in Haiti for 17 years. Tom was his contact there and after Alex told Roy what we were trying to do, Roy said he would try to get us connected with them as well to see if they could help us get the food off of the boat.



Once Richard, Mark Turner, Josh, and I caught up with Alex at the port, Roy jumped in the SUV with Josh and me and we rode the few blocks to the YWAM compound. St Marc is like the Wild West. All of the roads are dirt, and there are motorcycles zipping by everywhere. The dust just hangs in the air. When we got to the YWAM compound, a guard opened the gate (more like metal blast doors) and let us through. We waited around for a while for Terry or Tom to become available. While we were waiting I called Elise to see what he thought we could do. He said that we could go see his cousin Wally at customs tomorrow and we could probably pay a little bit to get the food released. When I relayed this to Roy, he was pretty adamant that we not pay tariffs or bribes to get the food released. He said that once one organization does that it sets a precedent that harms all of the other Christian organizations trying to get aid into a country. Tom from YWAM was able to talk to us at 8PM. He went through the process of getting a shipping broker to handle the paperwork and file it with the government in Port au Prince to get your supplies released. We explained that we did not have time to deal with all of that, that we were only going to be there for a week and had to get the food so that we could distribute it. I talked to Elise and he said that we could go see his cousin Wally the next morning at the port and see what we could do. He was going to drive up and be there by 7AM. Then we went with some of the YWAM staff to a local restaurant to get some dinner. The place we went had hamburgers, pizza, and other various American foods, so I ordered a Royale Cheeseburger with Bacon. It has to be the nastiest hamburger I have ever put into my mouth. I only ate two bites of it and couldn't eat anymore. The patty was about one eighth of an inch thick and was burned to a crisp. The bacon even tasted bad. I think that this has to be the first burger in my life that I have ever not finished. I went ahead and ate the fries.

After dinner we were going to drop Roy back off at the port since he was staying on the boat. He jumped out of the car and walked over to the guards to try to get in. Well, the guards evidently had decided to give him a hard time and wouldn't let him back through the gate. Roy is kind of a hot head so he just kept getting more and more wound up. He was going on and on about how the problem with Haiti was the government and how they hold up everyone trying to help their people. He then threatened to call Fox News, CNN, the BBC, and anyone else who was listening and tell them that they were responsible for suffering in Haiti. Of course the guards didn't understand a word of English and he might as well have been yelling at a brick wall. After a few minutes of this, one of the Haitian YWAM guys that was with us jumped out of the other vehicle and ran over there to see if he could help. Once he started translating what Roy was saying that just made the guards madder. Evidently the Haitian word for the f-bomb is the same as it is in English. Somehow through all of this Roy convinced the guards to let him back to the ship, and we headed back to YWAM. YWAM lined up some bunks for us to sleep on and had some towels and stuff for us to use in the morning. I talked to Alex for a few minutes and then headed up to bed with some Ibuprofen. My neck was pretty tight from all the car riding and stress of the day and I had a raging headache. As I laid on the bunk on a thin air mattress with a sheet over it, I prayed that God would release the food, but that I also would be content with His will if it did not get released. I prayed for the safety of our team and the success of our mission to show the love of Christ to those in desperate physical and spiritual need.

Sunday - Day 1 - Journal

Here I will begin my journal entries for each day of the trip with pictures and video as appropriate.

Today was pretty exciting. Everything went smoothly at the church except that we had to pack the extra luggage in Kandy's van. Once to the airport it got a little hectic. That pretty much set the pace for the entire day. Checking 12 people in with 24 checked bags equals a lot of chaos. I managed to get checked in and was paying everyone's extra bag fee of $30 when I realized that Mark Fisher wasn't there. I tried calling his cell phone repeatedly to no avail in between running my Amex for the baggage fees. Finally, I asked Kandy to look up Sandy's number on the emergency trip info sheet. Sandy answered the phone and they were pretty much asleep. This was at 5am. They headed out and thought they could make it. Also in the middle of all of this chaos, Wesley Templeton is introducing me to his friend Rich and explaining how these ceramic water filters work and trying to show me how to hook them up. We say our goodbyes, go through security and make our way to the gate. Kandy calls me and says, why does security have Brett's bag torn apart? So I walk back to security where he is just getting his stuff back together. Evidently they wanted to check out his inverter and knife in his mess kit. As it ended up, Mark didn't make it, but was going to try to catch us in Atlanta.

The flight over was uneventful, the plane was half-empty so it wasn't crowded. I read some of Brainerd's journals and basically finally made it through the intro to J Edwards bio and to the first page of the journals.

Waiting in Atlanta

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

In Atlanta, we made our way from A to E terminals and to the gate. Most of the guys got some breakfast, and I think Brett Simmons got a 3 course meal that he took on the plane to eat. Mark managed to make it, even though it took Wesley driving 100 MPH and God causing an AL trooper to let them slide without pulling them over. Jim Beard and Jesse Prater met up with us there as well. Jesse's Indiana flight was delayed from de-icing, but he made it just in time.

The flight from Atlanta to the DR was about 3.5 hours. I sat across from Roy and Jesse. This was the first time I have met Jesse so we got a chance to talk a little on this flight.

When we arrived in the airport customs was smooth. We didn't even have to pay the tourist visa since we were going to Haiti. We gathered all of our luggage, all 23 checked bags. I talked to Dickens on the phone and he said he was outside in the parking lot. On the way out the door there was a guy with a sign that said "Jeromie". I said hello and he said to follow me, but he didn't look like the picture of Dickens that I saw. We were walking out and they had some cars for us, but then I found Dickens on the phone and he walked over to where we were. So it turns out that the reservation that Alex, AJ, and I setup via Skype was duplicated with another rental company by Dickens. I talked to Josue and Pastor Lackey and Josue said he didn't have any friends in the DR and to just get the best deal between the two. So after at least 30 minutes of bickering and bartering, I paid the original guy $150 to go away and got the rental Dicken's arranged down to $75 per day instead of $90. We all piled into the 4 SUV's that they had and had to put a bunch of luggage on top of the vehicles. Since Alex and team weren't even here yet with their gear and all of our stuff wouldn’t fit into the 4 SUVs as it was, I decided to try to get 5 SUV's. At the rental company they spent about an hour trying to get the contract filled out. I had to let them copy my passport, driver's license, and Amex. It was $3000 for all 5 SUV's for the week. Once we left the rental place we pulled in to the next gas station to fill up because they rented them to us empty. When we got into the parking lot, Richard said that as soon as he pulled out of the rental lot, a motorcycle smacked into the back of his SUV. It dented the bumper and broke the tail light. We decided that there wasn't anything that we could do about it, and Dickens said that he could have it fixed in Petion-Ville. We gassed up all the vehicles and then tried to pay. It worked out to about $450 USD, but the gas station was charging a premium for the exchange that caused it to be $490 USD. To avoid paying that I got into the car with Dickens and Haiti(Dickens' local contact in Santo Domingo that helped arrange things), and she drove us to a local market that would exchange our US dollars for Dominican Pesos. I felt pretty out of place in this store, and I think the locals were laughing at me, but the exchange went smoothly. We were able to pay the attendant in Dominican Peso's and get on our way to the hotel.

Bartering with rental companies

From Haiti - Jeff's Pics

From Haiti - Jeff's Pics

Having to pay the extra rental company $150 to go away

From Haiti - Jim Beard's Pics

Loading up

From Haiti - Jim Beard's Pics

Working out the contract with our professional rental company

From Haiti - Jim Beard's Pics

Hotel check-in was remarkably smooth. Everyone rested for about 30 minutes and then a group of us went to the store to buy supplies. We took two of our vehicles and followed Haiti and Dickens. There are no traffic laws that I can tell in the Santo Domingo or anywhere else on the island for that matter. People drive wherever and whenever they want. Motorcycles on both sides of the road in between cars that are barely far enough apart to fit, people passing wherever they want into oncoming traffic, it's nuts. The road in front of the store is the Las Americas highway and runs along the coast. The water down there is true to other Caribbean destinations, beautiful. The store that they took us to was underground. The parking lot attendant (with a shotgun) gave us a security pass to get our vehicle out and we went down the escalator type thing down into the store. It was like a big Sam's or Super Wal-Mart. We finally rounded up all of our supplies and went to pay when I discovered that my passport and wallet were not in my pocket. I just about lost it.I sent Josh and Jeff to the car to check if it was there while I walked around the store and looked to see if I might have dropped it. I didn't find it, but Josh came back with it from the car. I was very relieved to find them. So then we checked out and tried to pay with my Amex. It wouldn't go through though. I called the Amex 800 number and they had to remove a security restriction to allow Caribbean charges. After that was taken care of we headed back to the hotel.

As soon as we got back, I left in another vehicle to go get Alex and crew from the airport.

Picking them up was easy since they were waiting on the curb when I got there. We got them situated in hotel rooms then went to the hotel restaurant to eat. Someone said that Harrison Ford was in the bar across from the restaurant so we all had to ease in there and "inconspicuously" see if it was him. It was and he was working on getting drunk! He didn't seem interested in conversation, so none of us spoke to him. Anyway, we ate a good dinner and then Alex and I went back to the airport to pickup Dr Jarrett. I waited in the car about 15 minutes, and then Alex came out of the airport with him. We got him situated in a room back at the hotel and got ready for bed.

Updates

by Jeremy

All of this has begun to sink in. A little perspective comes with time. I have talked to a few of the other guys and we are all sleeping a lot more than normal. Maybe it's the crash from living off of adrenaline for a solid week, I don't know.

I'll link to a few of the other guys' blog posts relating their experiences below this:

Scott Ronyak's writeup

Josh Moody's writeup


I have had some requests for the detailed play by play stories. I am working on a journal that I will post when it's finished, I'm about half way finished with it so far and will hopefully post it sometime this weekend.

I tried to call Dickens yesterday but his number wouldn't go through. So I emailed his uncle Josue' in Orlando to see if that was still a good number to call him. Josue' called and told me that Dickens was robbed in Santo Domingo the other night. They didn't hurt him at all, they just took his phone and money. Josue' sent him some money and he was able to get a new phone. Anyway, I finally got in touch with him at his new number. We talked for about 10 minutes and he is still very appreciative for what we did. I asked him to talk to Pastor Fob when he gets back and start discussing the possibility of us coming back at some point to do some discipleship with the young men in the community. So hopefully in the next few weeks we can start putting some of that together.

Continue to pray for the people of Haiti. Pray that the young men in Haiti who do have a love for Christ will become strong in their faith and leaders in their communities. It is not scriptural to think that the entire nation will become Christians, but it is scriptural to expect all of them to hear the Gospel.

And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, "It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, "'I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'" And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. Acts 13:46-49

Home...

by Jeremy

Everyone made it home safely. First I want to thank everyone for their prayers and support. This was a learning experience for all of us. We had to depend on God every step of the way because nothing we did was something within our power to control.

I want to share one personal experience from the trip. After we made it back from the second Saint Marc trip with the food and the overheating vehicle, I had some downtime and was hanging out with the kids of the neighborhood. They all wanted me to take their pictures and wanted me to get my picture taken with them as well. There was one boy who was a little introspective and asked me the following question. He asked, "Why are you taking our pictures?" I responded with, "So that the people back home will know who we were working with and so that I will remember you." Then he said, "You will look at the pictures, and you will remember, but you will not come back to Haiti." It literally broke my heart because I don't know for certain that I will be able to go back to Haiti. Even worse than that is that for someone his age to have that ingrained cynicism must mean no one has been there for him throughout his entire life. I hope that we can show them that there is someone who will always be there for you.

He's the young guy in the hat on the left.

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

Now we have to start the difficult task of sorting through these experiences and deciding what our next step will be. There is so much need and we can't even begin to fulfill it all. We can only do the task that God calls us to do and let Him worry about the results. At the same time, we have to figure out how to help without crippling them even more by making them dependent on our American money and resources. As the American church, we think we can solve the world's problems by writing a check or sending someone some food, building a church, or new houses. More often than not, this just breeds dependency. I think what is needed more than money and resources is to spend time discipling the young men of Haiti so they can grow into fearless warriors for Christ. The people of Haiti have a strong willingness to worship God in song and spirit. They also have a strong hunger for biblical teaching that is not being met. I think that this may be the key to them raising up a new generation of leaders that will have the potential to change their country.

As we consider our next steps to reach out to Haiti, we have to ask ourselves what is our end goal. Is it to raise the social status of the people of Haiti, or is it to support local churches so that more people can come to Christ? I can assure you that buildings, money, and jobs are not necessary for the latter.

These issues are divisive and painful to sort through, but if we really want to align our outreach to these people with scripture, we must consider them carefully.

To say that I was changed by this experience would be a huge understatement. I have a strong desire to serve these people in any way possible, but know that we must temper that with a cross-cultural approach that doesn't impose our society's expectations on their lives.

Housekeeping:

• Pictures will be showing up on my Picasa web album as I get them uploaded http://picasaweb.google.com/jeremysa
• My writing isn't nearly as good as Kandy's so I'll apologize for that up front
• Here is the team picture we took Friday night

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

Thank You!

The flights will be coming in at various times around the country today and all of the team members will be back in their own homes tonight, spending time with family and friends. Praise the Lord!

However, there is one matter I wanted to take care of before Jeremy takes back the reigns of his blog. I wanted to thank all of you for everything you have done to make this week possible. In the world of missions, there are people who go and people who send. Many of us have been at home in the comfort of our own beds this week, but that does not mean that we were not a part of what happened in Haiti over the last few days. If it had not been for the generosity of so many people who donated money, food, medical supplies and prayers, the trip would not have been possible. If it had not been for the mothers, wives, and children of these men, being willling to let go of them for a week, none of it would have been feasible. Thank you for heeding God's call to be a sender and to enable those who were called to go.

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Romans 10:14-15

And I know this is probably pretty cheesy, but I really do love this song. It was written and sung by Ray Boltz and I believe it summarizes what I am trying to say. These are the lyrics:

I dreamed I went to Heaven, you were there with me.

We walked upon the streets of gold beside the Crystal Sea.

We heard the angels singing, then someone called your name.

You turned and saw this young man, and he was smiling as he came.
He said, "Friend you may not know me now," and then he said, "But wait -

You used to teach my Sunday School, when I was only eight.

And every week you would say a prayer before the class would start.

And one day when you said that prayer,

I asked Jesus in my heart."

Thank you for giving to the Lord,

I am a life that was changed.

Thank you for giving to the Lord,

I am so glad you gave.

Then another man stood before you, he said "Remember the time,

A missionary came to your church, His pictures made you cry.

You didn't have much money but you gave it anyway.

Jesus took that gift you gave

And that's why I'm in Heaven today"

Thank you for giving to the Lord,

I am a life that was changed.

Thank you for giving to the Lord,

I am so glad you gave.

One by one they came, far as your eyes could see.

Each life somehow touched by your generosity.

Little things that you had done, sacrifices that you made,

They were unnoticed on this earth

In Heaven now proclaimed.

Thank you for giving to the Lord,

I am a life that was changed.

Thank you for giving to the Lord,

I am so glad you gave.

And I know up in Heaven you're not supposed to cry

But I am almost sure there were tears in your eyes

As Jesus took your hand and you stood before the Lord

He said "My child look around you,

Great is your reward."

Thank you for giving to the Lord,

I am a life that was changed.

Thank you for giving to the Lord,

I am so glad you gave,

I am so glad you gave.

Lyrics by Ray Boltz

Jesus is Worth It

The team is safely in their hotel in the Dominican Republic tonight. They had an extremely long journey today and experienced more car trouble along the way. One vehicle was running hot for a while and then one of the SUVs was rear-ended by a motorcycle (the second time that happened to the team this week). At one point it took six hours to travel ninety miles. They crossed the border with minimal issues and finally made it to their destination this evening.

During the trip they stopped at a park and saw several iguanas, then traveled through fields of sugar cane before crossing a mountain range. The guys had a lunch of fried chicken and fried banana chips at a place called 'Picapollo Liang', which was in the middle of nowhere in the Dominican Republic. At one point they were able to stop alongside the interstate to watch the waves crashing against the coral walls. After settling in at the hotel, they hung out by the pool for a while before dinner. If I didn't know any better, I'd say it sounded like a nice, relaxing vacation. They definitely deserved a few minutes of peace (and hot showers) after everything they experienced this week.

Although the team has had some difficult circumstances this week, what they accomplished was worth every moment of difficulty they endured. Every obstacle they had to find a way around, every "interesting" food they had to eat, every rooster crow they heard in the middle of the night, all minor inconveniences in God's big picture. Dying people heard the gospel and are now believers in a sovereign God. These men were obedient to the call and God used them in miraculous ways.

They will be back home tomorrow but I know that they have been changed in many ways because of the events of the week. The world surely looks different to them now, and I am anxious to hear the stories they have to tell.
Perhaps a missionary has been born out of this trip? Maybe one or two (or nineteen) of them will be back in their churches next week, encouraging others to go? There is no way to know how God will use these nineteen men who have so willingly spent a week in Haiti in order to share His love and spread His name.

Earlier today I posted a great video about reaching people for Christ who have never heard the gospel. I actually intended to post a different one, but was unable to find the HTML code to embed the video in its entirety (I'm not even sure if that's the correct lingo to tell you the truth). Unfortunately I am not very computer literate and my computer guy is out of town and could not help. So here is the link to the video. However, do not watch it unless you are ready to be challenged.


http://www.jesusisworthit.com/





"Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell. I want to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell." -C.T. Studd

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Matthew 16:24-26

Back in the DR

The team has made it across the border and is now back in the Dominican Republic. They did have to pay $400 in taxes, which was expected, and they will now be making their way to Santo Domingo. The driving conditions are still not good and they still have a long drive, so let's pray for continued safety.

Four of the team members are from To Every Tribe , which is located in south Texas. They are missionaries and three of them (Alex, Mark Faulkner, Scott) will be moving with their familes to Papua, New Guinea in the coming months.

This is a remarkable video that was put together by the people at To Every Tribe that explains the need for missionaries to go to the unreached people of the world.







"Remember, when you see a missionary coming home broken in body and weary in soul, it isn't the privations or dangers or things he's done that leave a deep hurt; it's the things he couldn't do that break his heart." -Anonymous Missionary