A clinic for Petite Rivierre des Bayonnaise?

The Cholera epidemic in Haiti is far from over. This is one of the many reasons we would like to see someone start a clinic in the Petite Rivierre des Bayonnaise area of Haiti. Just last week, another child died in Souvenance in a house where we installed a water filter in May. We don't know why the child died. It may have been preventable, but without even basic medical care there is no way to know.

This is just an idea at this point. The first thing we need to even begin to move forward is a nurse. We need an RN or a Nurse Practitioner who is willing to live in Haiti for a few months just to see what the feasibility of something long term might be.

So, think about it, pray about it, tell someone who might be interested and let me know.

If you get a few minutes read this post on Troy and Tara Livesay's blog:

http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/2011/07/written-by-friend-to-haiti.html

Petite Rivierre des Bayonnaise

I have been back from Haiti two weeks now. Things are always muddled when I get back from Haiti. Hopefully my thoughts have gelled enough to put some of it down on paper(digital paper anyway)...

These people have really grown on me. They endure so much, and yet are completely dependent on His sovereign mercy and grace. I hope to be able to spend some time in Petite Rivierre with the entire family next summer between semesters at To Every Tribe.

This last trip was really bitter sweet. We have helped with several projects on 4 different trips to Haiti. We have seen so much need. We have met so many resilient, strong people.

And we have only really been up and down two small dirt roads outside of Gonaives.

Haiti is everything we have seen and more, multiplied a thousand times across the whole country.

The depth of the need there boggles the mind. We can only do what we can with what we have and trust in God's sovereign plan which we know is for our good and His glory. It's really hard to see that plan when you are in the valley. I saw this exemplified as we climbed a hill on the edge of the valley that the river beside Holy Bible School runs through. When we reached the top and looked across the valley you could see 100's of acres of lush green farm land all of which was almost completely invisible from the dry dusty roads that meandered through the villages. I mentioned this to Roger Hill. He replied that, "We sometimes forget that God always sees things from up here." It's His plan, in His time. It may seem like we are in a desolate lonely place, but He can see the good that will come at the end of that dusty road...

Hopefully this video can accurately tell the story not only of the work we have done, but of the heart and drive of some of the people we have met along the way.

Petite Rivierre des Bayonnaise, Haiti 2011 from Jeremy Sanders on Vimeo.

In Haiti Again...

Another team has journeyed to Haiti in order to assist with some projects and continue to build relationships with the Holy Bible Church and the surrounding community. Jeremy is on this trip, as well as several other men, most of them mission trip "veterans". I don't have all of their names, but when they return I'm sure Jeremy will be able to fill in any missing information for you.

The original purpose of this trip was to assist with the construction of a new roof for the church in Petite Rivierre, since the existing roof was on the verge of collapse. Fortunately, they were able to hire a local contractor to do much of the work, and have therefore had less construction and more relationship building opportunities. I have very few details about what exactly they have done so far, but I know that they did assist with some of the roof construction one day, painted the school, helped bury some pipe that had become exposed, and I think Jeremy preached at least once.

One of the major projects has been water filtration. You may remember that back in September, Raymond Schackleford, who had been thoroughly trained by Living Water International, installed a large water filtration system that was capable of producing three hundred gallons per minute of clean water. The timing of that installation turned out to indeed be providential. Shortly after we left Haiti a terrible outbreak of cholera occurred, killing thousands of people in the country. Although there were a few deaths in Petite Rivierre and neighboring Souvenance, that water filter likely saved hundreds of lives. This week the team has done some maintenance on that filtration system, ensuring that it will continue to provide fresh, clean, safe drinking water to the thousands of people in the area. I know that everyone who was on that trip will remember the contributions that dear Raymond made that week. He passed away just a few weeks ago, after using his wonderful talents to glorify God for so many years. He taught my own son, Sam, so much that week, and I know that anyone who came in contact with Raymond could say the same thing. He was a brilliant man, yet gave God the glory for anything he did.

The other water filtration project is primarily being done by Richard Bradley and some other members of Rotary who are also spending the week in Petite Rivierre. They are installing several sand and gravel filters which are more suited for use by individual families. This will be tremendously helpful for the community, since these water filters last a long time and require little to no maintence. The people will still have to walk to get their water like they do now, but rather than drinking dirty water, or using their precious cooking wood to boil the water (which is very rarely done there), they can filter it right in their home! This is very exciting and should significantly decrease the incidence of water borne illness in the area.

Some of you may remember the orphanage in Petite Rivierre that we visited in September. From what I remember, there were nearly one hundred children in the orphanage at the time. Please remember that I use the term "orphanage" quite loosely. We wouldn't recognize it as such. There's no "house" to speak of. No beds. No toys. No swimming pools to play in. No food. No clean water. The conditions are horrendous; they are all sleeping on the dirt floor in a couple of tiny mud huts, drinking dirty water, and basically starving to death. No one is going to adopt these sweet children; they will probably never have a "forever family". If there was ever a group that fit the definition of "the least", this would be it. And no one is coming to rescue them. While I know this sounds dramatic, let me assure you that I am in no way exaggerating the conditions in which these children exist. At the same time I realize the dangers of thinking that we can somehow come in and be heroes by providing for their every need. The last thing we want to do is cause them to be dependent on Americans. This is a long, difficult, confusing road to travel, and I know that with God's guidance, those in charge will figure out the best way to move forward.
On our previous trip to Haiti, some food was getting to the orphanage, but not enough to adequately feed everyone. Now it seems that most of their food supply has been cut off, for reasons that I don't know yet. I'm anxious to hear about this development when the team returns to the states, but the small amount of information that I do have just breaks my heart. Half of the children had to be sent away (Where? I'm not sure), because the orphanage could no longer take care of them. The conditions are the same; a few of the children have mats for sleeping, and some of them are able to sleep on a concrete floor instead of dirt. The food situation is dire. Based on Jeremy's descriptions of the children today, it appears that all of the children show multiple signs of severe malnourishment. Fortunately the team was able to get enough food to them that should last about a month, as well as some hygiene supplies. Please join me in prayer for this situation, for the health of the children and caregivers, and clear guidance for our church to know how to handle this. Also, please pray for the emotional well-being of the team members. That may sound like a strange request, but with the recent tornado devastation in our area, many of these guys have been working very hard over the last three weeks, helping people dig out their belongings, cutting trees off of cars and houses, distributing supplies to the hard hit areas, or just being a shoulder to cry on for those who have lost everything. Even the toughest guys can have a difficult time handling the sheer amount of devastation and sadness they've seen here in their hometown, and then in Haiti this past week.

Jeremy will be able to fill in all the gaps, and show lots of pictures when he gets home.

Thanks for keeping the team (and their families back home) in your prayers!


Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes... Proverbs 3:5-7a

Haiti Trip May 14-21, 2011

We're taking another group back to Haiti in May. We'll be leaving on the 14th and returning on the 21st. We'll be going back to Petite Rivierre outside of Gonaives Haiti to work with Elises's church and school again. If you are interested there will be a meeting April 3rd at Gardendale First Baptist at 5:30PM in room 115 at the North Campus. We have spots for about 5 more guys.

Elise Speaks at Gardendale First Baptist

I'm a little slow getting this video up on the site, but this is Elise's talk at our church on November 17th. He did a great job relating their situation to us.

Elise Cadet at GFBC on 11-17-2010 from Jeremy Sanders on Vimeo.

God used Elise's talks at Rotary and our church in a big way. The Gardendale and Trussville Rotary are partnering together to provide 75 more Hydraid water filters. These filters are point of use filters and will be distributed in houses throughout the community. Our church, Gardendale First Baptist, took a love offering and collected $12,000. This money was used to purchase an 11KW diesel Kubota generator that will power the water system mentioned in his talk as well as provide power to the church and school.

The school is still in need of people who will come along side them to support the teachers and provide food for the students at the school. If you are interested, check out the http://hereamihaiti.blogspot.com website. You can make a donation via Paypal or mail them a check if you would like.

We are also sending Elise, Junior, and Saintanier to a pastor's conference outside of Saint Marc. Tom Ascol and Tim Brister from Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral Florida are leading a conference the week of January 3rd with over 35 pastors from Haiti. Pray that they will be able to focus on the gospel and it's implications in their lives and communities of faith.

I think that's all for now, but there are still several more projects in the works that we hope will further enable the Holy Bible Church and School to reach out to it's community with gospel of Jesus Christ who came to seek and to save that which is lost.

Elise Speaks at Gardendale Rotary

Elise Cadet - Gardendale Rotary 11/17/2010 from Jeremy Sanders on Vimeo.

Cholera Deaths in Petite Riviere

by Kandy

I have just this afternoon found out that four adults at the Holy Bible Church (where we stayed and taught hygiene classes in Haiti), and three children at the school in Souvenance (where we built the new church/school) have died as a result of the cholera outbreak. This is heartbreaking to me, as I know that this outbreak has the potential to continue to get worse in the coming weeks. Please keep these communities in your prayers, especially the families of those who have passed away. Pastor Elise is here in town and will be speaking at my church this evening. I will have more details after talking with him tonight.

Thank you for your continued prayers.

Out of Darkness

By Kandy Sanders

I have been unable to finish my account of our trip to Haiti, in part due to the busyness of home schooling, soccer games, dance class and all the other activities that seem to fill my days, but primarily because of my sheer inability to get something down on paper that conveys my experiences in a manner which makes sense. I have decided that there will be no more waiting and I will just write down what comes out and hope that you can understand in some small way the impact that this trip had on my life. Rather than writing a separate post about each day like I planned (which might take the better part of a year), I will do my best to summarize our entire week in this one post. We’ll see how it goes :)

On Monday morning the men left very early to begin work on the church in Souvenance. Souvenance is a village a few miles from where we were staying, and most of the people there practice voodoo regularly. It is a desolate place and I cannot even begin to describe the area except to say that it is extremely dark spiritually. About six years ago, the Holy Bible Church planted a church there, and the building they used was made of sticks and scrap pieces of tin. It was very small and definitely not sturdy enough to withstand tropical storm force winds. Not only were they holding church services in this “building”, about fifty children were going to school there as well. The few believers in the area have been faithfully preaching and living the gospel, all while the voodoo witch doctor lives perhaps a hundred yards from the church building. This witch doctor even visited the job site a few times during the week, which was very interesting, but that is not my story to tell. Perhaps one of the guys can write it down so that you can see how God was at work in this seemingly godless place. So, it was at this building in Souvenance that the men spent a majority of the week.

One of the men that came with us is an expert at water filtration, and he and Sam spent most of their time working on a water filter for the village. This filter will provide 3000 gallons per day of clean water to the people of the village of Petite Rivierre and the children who attend the Holy Bible School. Most of these people have never in their lives had clean water, and suffer from constant sickness due to their continued drinking of water from the river and irrigation ditch. Yes, you read that right. They drink water from irrigation ditches and mud puddles. I saw this with my own eyes. They do not even boil the water since it is so difficult to obtain wood for their cooking fires and they do not want to waste the precious wood to boil water. Can we even imagine having to make the decision whether to cook our food or boil our water? If you add to this the fact that severe hunger is a constant reality to them, it becomes easier to see what decision we would make. Is it possible for us to fathom the fact that there are whole villages full of people all over the world who must make this decision every day? I walk into my kitchen and turn on the tap and there is wonderfully clear, life sustaining water, any time I want it. How would I feel if I had to give my children water that I knew was making them sick, shriveling their little bodies, bloating their bellies, and turning their hair that awful rusty orange color? My heart hurts and I feel physically ill at the thought of the reality that these people face daily. The water filtration system will potentially change the lives of everyone in the area. The plan is to set up a bottle filling station at the school where the villagers can bring their own bottles and pay a very small fee to fill them with clean water. We pray that this will be a way to not only dramatically improve the health of the community, but also jump start the local economy.

There were two other ladies from our church who worked with me for most of the week. We spent some of our time teaching bible stories and hygiene classes to the local children who ventured to the area. We taught them the difference between clean water and dirty water, how to keep their water buckets clean and how and when to wash their hands. We also used the Jesus Storybook Bible to tell them about Christ. We had brought some copies of the book translated into French, and we left some of them with the school teachers. Jeremy also purchased some Creole bibles, which we left with the pastor. One highlight of my time with the children was when they sang “Change La Vim” for us. Jeremy had recorded them singing it on his first trip to Petite Rivierre and I had listened to it again and again over the last few months, but now I was able to finally hear it in person. The children sang so beautifully about God’s love for them and how they desired for Him to change their lives, that my eyes were suddenly filled with tears. This seemed to be the way my emotions operated while in Haiti, with sudden dramatic bursts of uncontrollable weeping. If you do not know me, let me tell you that this is very uncharacteristic of me.
After our bible stories, songs, and hygiene training, the children would go into the school yard and play games. Sam was able to join them some of the time and he enjoyed it thoroughly. He had never been around children who played soccer on a rocky field while wearing no shoes, and was quite surprised at how athletically talented they were.

One interesting occurrence during the week was the slaughter and butcher of a goat, which I was able to witness- a first for me. The pastor’s wife then cooked it and served it to us for dinner. It was very tasty and I did not hear many complaints from the other team members. We also at some small, whole fried fish one night, which tasted very good. Beans and rice were incorporated into pretty much every meal, but we ate significantly more meat than is typical of the Haitian diet. I know the guys had lots of Spam and peanut butter at the job site, so I am sure they were happy to see some hot food in the evenings, even if it was a little different from what they are accustomed to eating at home.

The afternoons were spent doing health surveys in the village surrounding the school. This was the most eye opening part of the trip for me. I had known that we were going to see hungry, sick people. I had not known the extent of the poverty that I would witness. The people there have nothing. Many of them eat one meal per day or nothing at all. Those who are well-fed eat twice a day when they can find enough food. Most of the people have gardens, but they are small and provide primarily corn, beans and sorghum. They all drink dirty water. Most of them are sick quite often. Many looked as if their bones would break if they were hugged too tightly. All of the children showed signs of malnutrition. Not many of the villagers have jobs, as there are no jobs to have. Many spoke of losing loved ones in the devastating hurricane and subsequent flood that swept through the area a few years ago. I was completely unprepared for the magnitude of desperation and sadness that I would witness in Haiti.

On Tuesday, Jeremy and I took a very long, arduous trip to Thommonde, which is located in the central plateau of Haiti. Providentially, on the flight from Miami to Port-au-Prince, Jeremy had been sitting beside a man from the CDC who is doing work in Thommonde, and Jeremy was able to find out about a project that the CDC is involved with there. This man has been working in Haiti for ten years with people from many different agencies, and they are training local health workers to help the people in the area, as well as teaching them how to grow and process food. They have done some fantastic work so far and we wanted to see how they are doing it. The man from the CDC invited us to come and talk to the workers in Thommonde, and fortunately we were able to find time to go, despite the fact that we were several hours away from their headquarters. However, we were able to glean some great information from the staff there and we hope that some of the ideas can eventually be transferred to Petite Rivierre. A clinic building has been sitting right next to the Holy Bible School for ten years, but due to lack of money, construction was never completed. If some of the locals can be trained in basic healthcare, perhaps this clinic could be operational some day. If this occurs, many of the health issues in Petite Rivierre will be nearly nonexistent.

On Thursday some of us went into Gonaives, the closest city to Petite Rivierre, to buy supplies, order textbooks for the school (provided by donations from you guys!), and take the Judy dolls to an orphanage. The first orphanage we tried would not even let us in, but we kept looking. After asking around, we finally found one that would let us come in and distribute the dolls. The orphanage housed twenty-nine children, and they seemed well cared for. The boys and girls had separate rooms with rows of bunk beds and lots of space. All of the children were wearing clothes and there were only a few signs of nutritional deficiencies. We were able to tell them about the dolls and explain to them why we were there. They were, of course, very happy to see us since we came bearing gifts. What child doesn’t love to receive a gift? The children were sweet and beautiful, and loved to pose for pictures. After leaving the orphanage, we went back to Souvenance to get the construction crew and were surprised to find that they were only ten minutes from completing the roof. I was able to watch the final few minutes of construction, then found myself teary eyed again as Richard climbed the ladder and hung a wooden cross on the front of the building. After lots of pictures, we gathered everyone together inside the building for a dedication service. One of the highlights of the service was Brother Mark preaching while using the bible on Jeremy’s iPhone, a sight I am sure will never be seen again. After speeches and prayers from some of the men involved in the construction and church planting, we all sang “Amazing Grace”, a song that people in many cultures seem to know. I have been a part of many worship services with people in other cultures, but hearing those precious believers sing in Creole while we sang in English made me want to shout with joy. In my experience, I can think of nothing closer to the scene in Revelation where John recounts his vision of seeing people from every tribe and tongue praising God around the throne.

After leaving the new church building, most of the crew headed back to where we were staying, in order to get cleaned up and ready for dinner. A few of us, however, walked the half mile down the road to the voodoo temple. When I said earlier that voodoo is practiced regularly by most of the people in Souvenance, I was not exaggerating. Souvenance is home to one of the largest voodoo temples in the country and is considered the center of voodoo activity in the northwestern portion of Haiti. Many voodoo rituals and healing ceremonies take place in the area where we were working, and one of our interpreters showed me the signs of a voodoo house. There were several of those houses, recognizable by the strange items in the yards or charms hanging from trees. Around one tree was tied an infant sized casket which was painted red. I could write pages about how the people of Haiti are in bondage to voodoo and how they are so desperately looking for help that they call out to evil spirits daily. However, I will leave you to research that on your own if you wish. Just know that voodoo is dark and evil, and according to our interpreters, 90% of Haitians practice it in some form. We arrived at the front gate of the voodoo compound, were given permission to enter as sightseers, and began to look around. We could see many people sitting around, eating rice and talking with one another. They looked no different than the other Haitians we had seen. I think I was expecting to be able to discern the voodoo people from everyone else, but soon realized I was wrong. We saw many small huts which housed some of the people in the voodoo community, children running around playing, and several large, strangely shaped trees. One of these trees was in the middle of a large pit in the ground that is used for bathing during rituals. The voodoo worshipers believe the strange trees are magic. At night (according to voodoo beliefs), some of the people are able to go inside the trees, converse with the spirits, and be healed from all their ailments. Other trees are used for curses. The people believe that by wrapping an individual’s clothing around the tree, wrongdoing can be avenged. We began to talk to some of the children, found out if they could read, and gave them some Christian literature if they could. Since there were a couple dozen adults gathered together in the center of the compound, we headed that direction in order to strike up some conversations. We were able to talk to a few of them one on one before Jeremy asked if he could share a message with the whole group. They seemed eager to listen, and more people began to appear. Jeremy began to preach the sermon that Paul preached at the temple of the unknown god in Athens, slightly adjusted to fit the voodoo context. The people were excited about the message and seemed to agree with everything he said. I was more than slightly confused, as I had expected to be kicked out of the place as soon as he mentioned the bible. When Jeremy told them that they must throw down their voodoo charms and worship only the true God, pandemonium broke out. There suddenly seemed to be dozens of people there who weren’t there only moments before. They became extremely angry, and one of the men (who we later found out was a witch doctor) came up to Jeremy and began to argue and quote bible verses at him. I was even more confused at this point, wondering why he knew anything about the bible, but learned later that it was a ploy to confuse everyone so that they would not listen to the message. The amazing part was that he seemed to know more scripture than many Christians. This was the first time I had come face to face with what I recognized to be syncretism. As I looked around, I realized that many of the people were wearing shirts or necklaces with saints on them. They knew the bible, and agreed with everything Jeremy said. They talked about the miracles of Jesus, and told stories of Moses. They honestly believe that they are worshipping God, yet their voodoo practices contradict the idea of one Sovereign God. I have never felt more spiritually discerning than I suddenly did at that moment. I am not the type of person to talk much about spirits of good and evil, and I am not charismatic, but at the time I could almost see the forces of good and evil at work. It was an extremely strange experience for me, one which I have never had before. To be honest, if it happens again, I hope to be much better prepared than I was. All I could do was stand there, pray silently, and watch my husband attempt to share the gospel with these people. Another man began to talk to Jeremy and said that if we would give them food they would accept our God. Jeremy explained to them that we could not bribe them to believe in God. Besides, we had no food to give them. After a few more minutes of conversation and people yelling things in our direction, we decided it was time to go. We left the voodoo compound, but we pray that a gospel seed was planted in someone’s heart.

On Friday morning we were able to meet with the teachers of the Holy Bible School and have a hygiene and sanitation class with them. They learned many things, asked many questions, and were very receptive to what we taught them. We are praying that they will understand the importance of the information and teach it to their students. We left plenty of sanitation literature with them, in their native language, so they can study and learn even more.

After we finished that class, we all loaded up onto the bus and went to an orphanage, this one just a few miles up the road from the school. What I saw there was, at the very least, heart wrenching. We walked down a dirt path to a crooked gate made of sticks and tin, and as we walked through the gates, the children quickly gathered together and began to sing to us. It was so sweet to hear them sing, “We are glad to see you, glad to see you, glad, glad, we are glad to see you!” They sang it first in English, then French, then Creole. After the song, Jeremy told them why we were there and we began to hand out the dolls. I handed out a few, and then began to walk around and look at the orphanage conditions. The things I saw made me feel like crying and running and screaming all at once. The children were malnourished. Many had no clothes. Some were obviously sick. They all smiled at us, however. I felt silly handing dolls to starving children. To my right was a small mud hut that the orphanage worker said was where the children slept. I ducked through the small door and almost instantly had to turn my back to the children and face the wall, because my body was suddenly being racked with sobs. I had no control over it. These precious babies and children were sleeping on top of one another on a dirt floor in a tiny mud hut with nothing under them to cushion their emaciated bodies and nothing over them to keep away the disease carrying mosquitoes. When I could finally control myself, I turned around and began to try to talk to the children. None of them could speak English and I had no interpreter with me, so I had to resort to smiling and hugging them. It seems funny to me now that I was frustrated by that, as if somehow loving on them was inferior to talking. I spent a lot of time in that room and could not seem to bring myself to leave. I snapped a few pictures, but could not muster the strength to take more. When I finally walked out of the dark little hut and into the midday sunshine, my team was gone. I looked around and finally realized they were all on the bus, which was up the road waiting for me. As I trudged up the dirt path to the rocky dirt road, I almost felt numb from the experience. I was leaving those children to starve and die from some preventable disease. How do you process that? I still haven’t figured it out, but I nearly had a shouting fit when I learned last week that the members of the Holy Bible Church had taken some of their small water filters to the orphanage and are going to try to get them some food.

We drove back to Port-au-Prince that afternoon and flew home the next day. While I have had a difficult time processing some of the things I saw in Haiti, I know that God is sovereign and His plan is being worked out, even when I do not understand it. While it breaks my heart when I think about those sweet babies with no food to eat, I see that God is now mobilizing some of my brothers and sisters at the Holy Bible Church to help as much as they can, and He will be glorified. While I have no comprehension of what compels Haitians to practice voodoo, I see the small church in Souvenance faithfully plowing the fields with the gospel every day, and I know that God will be glorified. When I see natural disaster after natural disaster shake the small country of Haiti and do not understand why, I know that God will be glorified.

Please pray for the country of Haiti. Pray that those in bondage to voodoo will be set free because “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36) Pray that those who go to bed with hungry bellies tonight will look to the Word to be filled. Pray that those with no bed in which to sleep will look to God for their comfort, even amidst their suffering.

I hope that from this post you are able to get a small glimpse of our trip to Haiti in September. I could fill pages and pages with the stories we brought back with us. If you ever have an opportunity to go on a trip like this, I pray that you will seriously consider going and experiencing God’s work in a different culture than your own. It can be life changing.

"I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me." Acts 26:17-18

The Journey North

by Kandy Sanders

The journey across Haiti to the small town of Petite Riviere was long and filled with sights which were new to me. When driving through the country side of Alabama it is very common to see pastures full of cows, horses or goats. Occasionally a hen house can be seen in rural areas of the state, or perhaps a few chickens pecking around in someone’s yard. I had never been in a place where cows, horses, goats, donkeys, chickens and pigs roam completely free right in the middle of a city. There was an almost disturbing clash of cultures which could be seen in every direction. People were riding donkeys loaded down with goods, children carefully balanced buckets of water on their heads, while trucks and motorcycles seemed intent on running everyone else off the road. On one street corner an elderly woman was selling freshly made fried plantains and pork on a stick, while on the next a man was trying to sell old stereo parts and computer equipment. One of the strangest sights was of a lady walking down the road with a large basket of laundry on her head while talking on a cell phone. Occasionally a UN truck filled with soldiers carrying large weapons would come into view and I was unsure at the time if I should feel protected or frightened. While the bus weaved its way among the streets littered with debris and people, the cacophony of sounds was unlike anything I had previously heard. The constant noise of large trucks rumbling slowly through the city, the buzz of motorcycles darting in and out of alley ways, and people hawking their goods on the streets verged on auditory overload. The air was filled with dust and a horrid smell which could have been one of any number of things, but the near nausea that it induced prevented me from attempting to identify its origin. The constant jostle caused by the conditions of what the Haitians called “roads” was more than slightly annoying and I almost felt as if I was in Jeremy’s old Tacoma mud riding through Mt. Olive again. The only difference was that this ride was incredibly long and punctuated by nearly constant horn blasts from our bus and every other vehicle around us.

The larger cities through which we traveled resembled Port-au-Prince in that they looked like garbage dumps with people and animals wandering around in them. While in Port-au-Prince I had been astounded by the amount of earthquake damage still visible but as we made our way north, I eventually began to see evidence of hurricane damage. Haiti has been ravaged by many hurricanes, tropical storms and floods over the past few years, but I had assumed that the country had largely recovered from these earlier assaults. Surely the earthquake was the only natural disaster still causing problems, I thought. Unfortunately, as I soon learned, the country is in such mayhem that the people just cannot seem to get out from under the devastation of so many catastrophic events. For too many reasons to explain here, damaged buildings sit untouched, lingering rubble is piled high in the streets, people remain hungry, and children are still sold as slaves.

The bus stopped in St. Marc, which is the main port of Haiti, so that we could eat a late lunch and load up on groceries before getting out into the countryside where supplies would be fewer and harder to find. For me, it was an exercise in faith just to walk across the street since vehicles had no regard for the safety of pedestrians and they almost seemed to veer toward those on foot in most instances, so I was sure I was stepping off the curb and into certain death. Let me say here that I have spent time in many large U.S. cities, including New York, San Francisco and others, as well as the cities of Lima and Iquitos in Peru. I also experienced what I thought were crazy cab rides while on my honeymoon in St. Thomas, and on a trip to Hawaii, but I had never seen anything like this. There seemed to be no traffic laws whatsoever, most of the roads would not even be considered roads in America, and our driver had nerves of steel. That is not an exaggeration. At one point during the week I remarked that driving must be considered an extreme sport in Haiti and I know that you could ask any member of our team and they would concur. Once safely inside the store, we grabbed a bite to eat, purchased groceries and journeyed back to the bus. Despite exhaustion caused by being on buses and planes for many, many hours, I found that sleep was elusive. I reasoned with myself that sleep would come once we were settled somewhere for the night and I certainly did not want to miss the sights, so I stayed awake through the long ride.

The countryside of Haiti was absolutely gorgeous and I was pleased that I had stayed awake to enjoy it. The green hills, which rolled right up into the not too distant mountains reminded me of the breathtaking scenery in Hawaii. Palm trees could be seen swaying against the backdrop of a Caribbean sunset, the ocean became visible for a short while, and I began to feel peaceful for the first time in several hours. For a little while I almost forgot that I was in the most impoverished nation in the western hemisphere. Occasionally we would go through a town and see pigs rooting around in piles of trash, or women making charcoal by the side of the road, but after a few hours I began to feel as if I was becoming desensitized to these sights. When we finally arrived in Petite Riviere, I was relieved to be finished with the day’s travel, but more than slightly intimidated by what was to come. For some reason, I felt for a moment that whatever happened over the next few days couldn’t be as difficult as the previous twenty-four hours. However, I remembered having this same thought upon arriving in Iquitos, Peru last July after more than a day of travel, and I was overwhelmingly wrong in both cases. The days to come would prove to be filled with exhaustion of both the physical and emotional kind.

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Psalm 23:1-3

Overwhelmed

By Kandy Sanders

Some of what I've written here is straight from my journal because I want you to get a sense of the raw, unedited emotion I felt at the time. You may be surprised at some of it, but I'm striving here for honesty and not the toned down happy mission trip story that so many of us have told or heard at one time or another.

Walking out of the airport into the overcast day brought unusual sights, smells and sounds which overwhelmed my senses and brought to mind the vague feeling of a being on a movie set. Scanning my surroundings, I quickly became aware that I was certainly not in Alabama anymore. After fighting my way through a sea of people, being herded through the fiasco known as baggage claim, then being attacked by pseudo airport employees, somehow I had expected relief upon exiting the building. What I saw made me wish I had stayed inside. Children dressed in not much more than rags held their little hands through the holes in the chain link fence, hoping to be given something, anything to feed their hungry bellies. The cinder block wall across the street was a canvas for all manner of graffiti, and men leaned heavily on it as if one, the men or the wall, would be unable to stand otherwise. The porters who fancied themselves airport employees were arguing with one another over my bags in a language I did not understand, and I began to feel absolutely helpless and out of control. Once again expecting respite from what seemed like a strange dream, I boarded the bus which would take us to Petite Riviere, our final destination. I was wrong again. The drive through Port-au-Prince was surreal at best, a nightmare at worst. There were people everywhere in the streets, an occasional naked child running this way and that, buildings in shambles, trash piled high on what may have been sidewalks, goats and chickens roaming free, and vehicles everywhere competing for space on the road. When the bus finally reached the outskirts of the city and I thought that surely the worst was behind us, the tent cities came into view. Some were seemingly built on heaps of trash, some on hillsides, others in ditches alongside the road. They stretched as far as I could see and suddenly I was devastated. The emotion of the day began to have its way with me and I was ashamed of the name of that emotion. It was disgust. Absolute, total, outright disgust. I could not fathom why someone would want to come to this God-forsaken place to do anything. How was I going to spend an entire week here?


I did spend a week there and lived to tell about it. There is more to come. God is good!

"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails."
Proverbs 19:21

Our Trip to Haiti

By Sam Miller, age 13


We got to Haiti Saturday evening and the airport was crazy everyone trying to “help”. The ride over to Gonaives was extremely bumpy but I actually got some sleep. When we finally got to the house we went to bed. Sunday we went to church. I thought the church service was neat; I had never been in a church service that there was a translator. The church was definitely different than the churches here. It was a building with no windows and one room inside. After church I helped Raymond sort out pieces for the water filter. Monday we started sanding the pieces to the water filter and putting them together without gluing them. Tuesday we started to glue the pipes and pieces together. We started to put the system up on the wall, after that I went outside and played soccer with the kids. They were so much better than me that they were just going around me with the ball. Afterward I went out and helped do surveys around the school. The houses looked like mud huts but the people looked happy.
Wednesday we finished putting the trusses on the church in Souvenance. I was glad I got to help out as much as I could, carrying and lifting. Thursday we started and finished putting tin on the roof of the church, and put a small wooden cross on the church. We sang “Amazing Grace” with all the people who were there. On Friday we went to an orphanage that had 95 kids and gave out dolls to all of them. They had one meal a day sometimes none at all. They lived in dirt floor huts and they all looked happy. Afterward we went to Port au Prince and stayed in a house that was really nice especially for Haiti. On Saturday we went to the airport and flew to Miami and we ate the best food I had tasted all week, Chile’s. When we finally got to Atlanta we started driving home. When we got home I went to bed and slept like a rock.
I think Haiti is a terrible place with so much poverty and death. I would also like to go back because I enjoyed helping the people there. That was what I did in Haiti and what I thought.

Report from PAP Airport from Jeremy - Saturday, Oct 2

Wow, crazy week.

We're sitting in the PAP airport and I finally have a few minutes to collect my thoughts. Here's a quick update on our various projects for the week:

• church - the roof is finished thanks to a lot of help from the community. The dedication service was great. Mark preached a quick sermon(he had to use the bible on my iPhone, ha!) and then we prayed for the church leadership. As we prayed for them I was overwhelmed by the dedication to the gospel displayed by these men. For the last 6 years they have faithfully been plowing this land planting the seeds of the gospel in the hearts of the people of this community. I am not worthy to tie their shoes. Hopefully God will allow these men to continue to spread the gospel for many years to come.

• water system - we were not able to get the system fully operational due to some electrical problems with the generator. Elise is going to get a breaker box put in and then a local plumber is going to help him test it for leaks once it is pressurized. Elise said he would call me when it is working.

• hygiene/sanitation training - the ladies were able to share with the children Monday and Tuesday. They read the Jesus bible storybook and taught some personal hygiene lessons to them. In the afternoons they visited houses and were able to collect information for our health surveys. We still have to compile all of the information but the results confirm a lot of what we expected to find. Most people eat 1 time a day if they have food. Everyone has stomach problems and headaches which are common symptoms of water born diseases. Friday we had a class with all of the teachers at the school. It was very interactive and full of questions. After the class they were real careful about their drinks. It really made them confront things that the sort of knew but didn't apply them to real life. Some of them drink from the river. Some of them don't have latrines. These are things that are within their power to change. They think that they don't have the resources to do this themselves and is the attitude we are trying to change. We told them to start where they are, use what they have, and do what they can. Hopefully they will become passionate enough about their community's health to do something about it.

Voodoo temple - the main voodoo temple in Haiti is less than 1 mile from the church we were working on. As we passed by it each day I couldn't help but think about the people in bondage to this dark religion. I also thought about Paul when he went to the temple to the unknown god in Athens and presented the gospel to them. Thursday morning I paraphrased Paul's message so that I would be ready if we could get into the compound. After the dedication service we got Michelle(our truck driver) to drop us off at the temple. Kandy, Mallory, Jenny, Odny, and myself went up to the gate and the lady told us we could walk around and take pictures if we wanted to. There were children playing and 20 or so adults scattered around the compound. We walked around passing out copies of Finding Your Joy in Creole. Everyone wanted a copy and several people immediately started reading it. One teenage guy spoke English and asked me what religion we were apart of. Instead of answering I asked him what religion he was. He said he was Christian so I asked him why he was hanging out in front of a Voodoo temple. His replied that he was there because his mother was there. I asked him if he also worshiped Voodoo spirits. He said that he did. Then I asked him how he could be Christian and Voodoo at the same time. He had a puzzled look on his face and said, "I don't know". Before I could respond he said, "You mean you have to choose?" This was not something he had ever considered before today. I told him that yes he had to choose. He could not serve God and Voodoo at the same time. Then I told him that I had a message for them if they wanted to hear it. Everyone gathered up and Odny translated for me. What I said is below:

Men of Souvenance, I see that you are very religious. I see this great temple that you have built to honor all of the many spirits of Voodoo. Therefore you worship many spirits that you do not know. I am here to tell you of the God who made the world and everything in it. He is the Lord of heaven and earth. He does not live in a temple made by man. He is not served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives life and breath and everything to all mankind. From one man He made all the peoples of the earth, and He determines the years of their lives and where they will live that all men should seek after God in the hope that they might blindly find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us, for "In Him we live and move and have our being." The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent because He has planned a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead. This man is Jesus Christ, the one and only son of God. He lived a perfect life and died to pay the sin debt for every man who believes in Him. Therefore you must repent and believe in Jesus Christ. Throw down your Voodoo charms and call upon the name of the one true God. Cry out to God and leave this way of life behind.

They were fine with everything I said until the part about throwing down their voodoo charms came out. They erupted with anger screaming, "we will never do that!" A witch doctor argued with me for a few minutes and knew a lot of scripture, but never did have a point. We eventually made our way back out to the road and walked towards Elise's church. I don't know if there will be any fruit from that experience, but hopefully some of the people will reconsider their syncretism and turn to Christ.

I also want to write something about the orphanage, but that will have to come later. See you guys tomorrow.

Friday, Oct 1 - Final day of ministry in Haiti

From Jeremy and Kandy's FB postings from yesterday and today:

Yesterday: Jeremy - Just preached paul's sermon from the temple in Athens at the voodoo temple in souvenance.

Yesterday: Kandy - Today's excitement: a visit at an orphanage and a debate in a voodoo temple.

Today: Kandy - Just visited another orphanage. Atrocious conditions, much worse than the other orphanage. Very emotional.

Today: Jeremy - Orphanage had 95 kids, mud huts, one meal per day. Kids slept in dirt or on a foam mat

Today: Jeremy - Sanitation class this morning, dist Judy dolls at orphanage. Headed back to PAP now.

I believe the team is now headed back to Port-Au-Prince to prepare for their departure early tomorrow am.

Thursday, Sept. 30 am

Posted by Kandy on her FB page less than an hour ago:

In Gonaives, searching for an orphanage that will let us in. No luck so far...

Let's be in prayer that the team will be able to get into an orphanage to deliver the dolls and Bible story books.

Updates from Jeremy - Wednesday, Sept 29

Just in case you do not monitor Facebook, here are some recent updates that Jeremy has posted to his FB page:

Based on the surveys the women have done: 90% unemployment, 1-2 meals a day when they can find food, lots of kids live away(restaveks).

Also, a lot suffer from stomach problems, headaches, all symptoms of bad water and malnutrition.

Today we are distributing finding joy booklets in creole and playing the proclaimers for the onlookers and helpers at the job site.

A lot of the people helping build the church are not Christians and some are Voodoo worshipers. Pray for them as we proclaim Christ.

Also, be sure to read Kim's update from Josh from last night. Here is the link to her blog:

http://moodygirls3.blogspot.com/

Update from Josh - Monday, Sept 27

Kim received a brief phone call and then an email from her husband, Josh, last night:

http://moodygirls3.blogspot.com

Update from Haiti - Sunday, Sept 26

Jeremy called for a brief update this afternoon. He said things were going great. They arrived at the school between 7:00 - 8:00 last night and everyone got a good night's sleep. They attended church this morning and Mark Harrison preached. They were planning out the rest of the week this afternoon, gathering up supplies, etc. He said the translators were working out really good so far.

Keep praying for God's favor upon the team and the community they are there to serve. May God receive glory through every aspect of this trip.

September 2010

Hi everyone, this is Kandy. I haven't been on here in a while, but I just wanted to let you all know how to obtain information about the trip if you wish. Internet access will be spotty at best, so I will keep a journal and update my personal blog when we get back to the states. Here is the link: www.sanderspartyoffive.blogspot.com

Also, Josh Moody's wife may be able to update their blog while he's in Haiti. This is the link to that one: www.moodygirls3.blogspot.com

I know that Jeremy will update this blog when he can with the logistical aspect of everything, since that's what he's so skilled at doing.

Please keep us in your prayers as we go and minister to a hurting nation.

Blessings!

Kandy

Back to Haiti

Wow, it's been a while since I've updated this site. A lot of people have been asking about it though, so I'll see what I can do to bring everyone up to date.

Most of you know I went back to Haiti in June with Richard Bradley and Hal Heiss to evaluate some future projects at the Holy Bible School in Petite Rivierre des Bayonnaise, Haiti (outside of Gonaives).

Here is the view from Google Maps:


View Larger Map

We got to know Elise Cadet and the other men and women who run the mission. They are part of a small network of four churches, two of which are church plants from this original church. One of their church plants is just a few miles from the main mission in a town called Souvenance. Souvenance is home to a large Voodoo temple and the locals referred to it as the center of voodoo in Haiti.

Here is a link to an article about a Voodoo ceremony in Souvenance. Voodoo has a real hold on people in Haiti. We joke about Voodoo here, but this is a real and very dark religion.

Here is the Voodoo temple on Google Maps:


View Larger Map

Here is a picture of the gate outside the Voodoo temple:

From haiti2

The church was planted six years ago and currently has about 60 active members and 50 children going to school there. One of the members we met was a Voodoo witch doctor's wife. She was converted about 18 months ago and has been active in the church since then. Her husband is still in bondage to Voodoo.

Here is a picture of the witch doctor's wife and Elise:

From haiti2

The Souvenance Church is here just a mile down the road:


View Larger Map

This is a picture of the front of the church:

From haiti2

From the Google Maps image you can see the beginnings of a block wall around the existing tin and wood structure. We are helping with the resources to finish this building. Last week we sent the money down for Elise to buy the brick and concrete to finish the walls and pour a floor. Here are some pictures of their work so far this week:

From haiti3

From haiti3

When we get there next week one of our projects is going to be to help those guys put a roof on the building. Hopefully by the end of the week we'll be able to have church with them in the new building. One of the things I really like about this particular project is that it's not our project. As you can see, these guys are taking the lead and doing the work. We're helping out, but this is their deal. There is also an active healthy body of believers that have been meeting here for six years. We are not helping with a building hoping a church will materialize. The church is already there. We're just helping with a better facility.

Water filters

On the trip in June we were able to take some water filters from Hydraid to the school. They were already in a warehouse in Port au Prince so we picked them up on the way, all 3500 pounds of sand and gravel and filter cones.

Here's a picture of some of the filters put together:

From haiti2

Each filter can produce 75 gallons of clean water per day. You take the top off and pour 5 gallons of water into the top. It filters through the sand and gravel then up through a chlorine filter. After the chlorine chamber it goes into a plastic container that has a charcoal filter attached to the exit valve. The charcoal filter removes heavy metals and the chlorine from the water. After a few weeks of operation, a film forms over the sand that they call the "slime layer". This layer of bacteria removes up to 99% of harmful bacteria from the water greatly reducing the constant diarrhea that often plagues people without access to clean water. Once the slime layer is in place, the chlorine tablet is not necessary and does not have to be replaced.

After we left in June, we were able to get Santanna, the principal at the school, and his assistant Junior to a training class offered in Haiti by Hydraid. They are now fully trained on how to operate and maintain the filters. Elise said that the clean water is the biggest thing to ever happen to their community.

While we were there we (meaning Richard, the real engineer) examined a filtering system that they purchased, but it has never been installed. It is a system from Living Waters for the World(LWW) that can produce up to 3000 gallons of clean water a day. This time we are taking a man named Raymond Shackleford that has been trained by LWW to install this system. The school has a water line off of a mountain spring that is piped down the road and is used to fill their cistern. This system will be used to filter that water and store in a tank for use. We will probably have to pull the existing tank off of the roof and clean it out with bleach or buy a new tank while we are down there. This filter does require electricity but they do have a generator that they run when needed. There is lot of promise in using this system because it will produce enough clean water for the entire community and could even generate some income for the school. Currently the only source of bottled clean water is in Gonaives 8 miles away.


Sanitation and Hygiene Training

Since the community now has access to some clean water and may have access to a lot of clean water if we get the second system up and running, we wanted to focus on sanitation and hygiene on this trip as well. Our female members, Kandy (my wife), Jenny, a former Peace Corp volunteer who spent two years in Africa, and Mallory, a patient care tech are going to be teaching sanitation and hygiene to women and children in the community. One of our goals is to transform the community by teaching them the importance of digging and using latrines. Hopefully this will occur through the material we are using from http://www.communityledtotalsanitation.org/. We'll see how that works out. We are also going to teach personal hygiene and hopefully setup some hand washing stations around the school and church. The device we are going to try to build is a tippy tap. It's basically a suspended bottle which is tipped over to dispense some water. Hopefully this simple device will allow the children to wash their hands after using the latrine and before eating. We also have some signs to put up around the school teaching basic hygiene points in Haitian Creole.

As we talk to the community about sanitation and hygiene we also want to gather information about their health. What are their most common medical problems? How many births and deaths have each family had in the past 10 years? What were the causes of the deaths(if known)? This data will be invaluable in helping them shape a health care plan for their community. We have three ladies from the community who have volunteered for medical internships. Hopefully we will be able to help place them in internships at other clinics in Haiti so that they can return to help run a clinic in Petite Rivierre.

Judy4Haiti

I responded to a Twitter request to help get some Judy4Haiti dolls to Haiti. Their goal is to give these dolls to Haitian orphans who don't have anything else in the world. Our goal is to get some of the women of the church in Petite Rivierre to go with some of our group to one of the orphanages in Gonaive to get them involved in reaching out to the orphans in their communities. The orphanages are not very nice places and are sometimes hard to deal with because of corruption and harsh conditions. Even so, we hope to get the local church engaged with the at least one of the orphanages in Gonaive while we are there.

Discipleship

Today I received 300 copies of Desiring God's Finding Joy booklet in Haitian Creole. This booklet is 47 pages and details answer to such questions as:

Why did Jesus have to die?

How can God Love Me?

What if I don’t love God?

How can I love a God who allows so much evil?

Why is it all about God?

What does all this mean for me?

What should I do?

We hope to host some classes in the evenings for whoever will come and discuss each of these questions. We also hope to hike up to a village in the mountains (6 hours one way!) and pass the booklets out there as well to those who can read. For those who cannot read, we were able to take some Proclaimers in Haitian Creole last time. This time we are taking 5 Proclaimers in French per Elise's request. These devices have the entire New Testament audio on them. They can be charged with a wall outlet, hand crank, or attached solar panel and are loud enough to be heard by a large crowd.

For the kids, Kandy found the Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Loyd-Jones in French. We ordered five of them from France last week and they arrived yesterday! This storybook Bible frames each of the stories in redemptive history. The theology taught through this book is even good for adults who may not have connected the Bible into one story of redemption.

I also got a copy of Desiring God by John Piper in French for Elise. This book and John Piper have influenced my personal theology a lot and I hope Elise will enjoy it as well.

Details

We'll be leaving Gardendale about 1AM on Saturday morning headed for the Atlanta airport. We fly from there to Miami and on into Port au Prince. We will arrive in PAP about 11AM local time and meet Elise there with a bus. From there we will drive to Petion-Ville and get a rental truck. From there we'll head north toward St Marc. In St Marc we'll probably stop for groceries and some late lunch. The next leg takes us to Gonaive. Gonaive is on the coast and only 8 miles from the school. The last 8 miles takes about 45 minutes though. Hopefully the road won't be too muddy in the fully loaded down bus.

Pray for the people that we are going to serve. Pray that we will show them the love of Christ in word and deed next week. Pray that they will be encouraged to know that we are one body of Christ and that there are other Christians that care about them. Pray that God will help us to convey our material whether it is hygiene training, discipleship, or just talking about our families back home. Pray for our four interpreters that they will be able to fluently translate our words to those who need to hear them. Pray for our interpreters that we may be able to influence them with the Gospel since we will be spending an entire week with them. Pray for our safety and that our team would function smoothly.

That's all I can think of for now.

Pics of Text Books at Elise's School

I uploaded some pictures to the Here Am I Haiti website if you want to take a look at the books that they have to use now. We've raised about $1,100 of the $21,087.62 needed for the books.

http://hereamihaiti.blogspot.com/