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

Count It All Joy

The first text I received from Jeremy this morning read: "Waking up to women and kids singing praises to God. They have a hope that is not based on physical comfort; their circumstances don't dictate praises"
In Josh Moody's words: "At about 5 am, pitch black dark, about 2 or 3 people broke into praise songs. A few more joined in, then a few more, and before long nearly the whole church compound was singing praises to God.....and the sun wasn't even up."

I am beginning to believe that our team is learning much more from the Haitians than they ever thought they would.

A four hour worship service was held this morning in the courtyard of the church in Petionville, to go along with the fast which all the Christians in the country participated in from eight to twelve. The local churches will be fasting for three days. Can you imagine? They barely have enough food to eat and they are intentionally fasting.

The singing during the worship service went on for more than three hours. Ronnie spoke briefly, then Jeremy spoke to the people of the church about the team's purpose for being in Haiti. He told them that the medicine and food would run out quickly, but that his desire was to leave something eternal with them, something that would never run out, something that would not leave them hungry or thirsty.
Alex then preached a sermon out of the first chapter of John, where John the Baptist called Jesus a lamb. Then he went to the book of Exodus and explained that on the night of the Passover something had to die, whether it was a person or a lamb. I got chills when Jeremy was telling me about it because the story of redemption is just so amazing that it is hard to ignore the fact that it is woven all the way through the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.

One of the interpreters became a believer today. To God be the glory!

The team members that I have heard from all seem to be thinking the same thing: how can these people who have lost family members, who are sleeping in the streets, who do not have enough food or clean water, still hold fast to their belief in a mighty God? One clue may be in some scripture that they shared with the locals.

And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:2-5

We know that the Bible tells us that suffering is the way of life for Christians, that we should not really expect anything other than persecution and trials. It seems that the Haitians know this all too well, and are experiencing amazing spiritual growth because of that knowledge.

Some of the local teenage boys have been asking the men on our team a lot of theological questions this week. They are so hungry for teaching and are in desperate need of discipleship. Jeremy thinks that they are probably the future leaders of the church, which is a blessing because there are not many men who have stepped forward to be leaders. The church is mostly run by women because there are no men to do the job. Perhaps the things that have happened this week, and in the past month, will cause a ripple effect in the community and more men will come forward to be spiritual leaders in their homes and in the church.
There were also some older teenage boys who have begun to realize that life in Haiti is bad. They told our guys that there are no opportunites for education, jobs or even employment. Most of the men do not work, but depend on assistance from others. In many families, there may be one person with a job and they must provide food and shelter for the entire family. These teenagers were basically begging to come to the United States so they could get a job and have a chance to get out of the deplorable conditions of their own country. They were offered advice about searching diligently for jobs and working hard, and about how they could possibly work their way up and be successful. The culture they live in, however, is not very conducive to success of any kind. Please pray for these boys. Their hearts seem to be in the right place, but the poverty in Haiti is so oppressive that I pray they do not lose that motivation.

The cooking team prepared some more food today and fed about one hundred people. One of the guys (Brett, I think), went to the store for some chicken to cook and had to pay $70.00 for the same amount of chicken that we would pay $20.00 for in the states. No wonder the locals do not buy much meat. I would not buy it either at those prices!

The vehicles are another story. The one Jeremy has been driving was seen by a mechanic today and they found out that it was not the transmission but a clogged radiator hose (If that does not make sense I apologize. I do not know much about cars and the phone connection was not great).
Anyway, the hose was replaced and the truck seems to be driving well now. The team will be making the long journey across the island again tomorrow and the vehicles will be put through extremely harsh driving conditions once more.

The team will be up bright and early in the morning so they can be on the road as soon as possible. They will be spending the night in the hotel in Santo Domingo once again, and flying back home on Sunday. I can only imagine how exhausted the men are after the week they just experienced in Haiti. God has allowed them to be a part of some amazing things this week and I know the people of Haiti are appreciative of all they have done.

Prayer requests:

• Travel safety tomorrow (Saturday)
• No mechanical problems with the vehicles
• Some decent rest for the first time all week. (They will actually have a bed to sleep in and real showers for the first time in several days!)
• The Haitian people who are being left behind in Petionville
• The team will continue to show the love of Christ as they travel on Saturday and Sunday
• That God will get all the glory for what has occurred this week

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:2-4