Return From Haiti November 2011

We returned home safely and without event last week. This is the first chance I’ve had to sit down and write some of my thoughts. This time of year is what I’ve dubbed “the RED ZONE.” This is the busiest time of the year for us, so time is a precious commodity.

I’ve been reflecting on the recent trip to Haiti, and with Thanksgiving on Thursday, I just wanted to share something that happened to me and a couple of the other guys on the trip.

One of the deep honors of being a short-term missionary is-you become an ambassador of hope. When we Americans come to a land like Haiti, we are generally attempting to bring hope to a place that needs it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that we don’t have great needs here in the US, but in Haiti, the needs are too numerous to count. The children at the orphanage are there because they have no place, or no one to take them in. For starters, that’s really hard. They live in an impoverished land where food and clean water are a challenge, at best. Then there’s the living conditions, it is a tropical climate, so they don’t have to worry about the cold. However, when it rains in Haiti, it turns everything to mud. In contrast, when it’s dry it’s extremely dusty. It’s an extremely hard place to live. The life expectancy in Haiti is about 45 or so, likely due to disease and living conditions.

As a short-term missionary/ambassador, we get to take supplies, gifts of food, money, medical supplies etc. into Haiti. It is indeed a blessing to be a blessing! It is also an honor of the highest sort, to represent Christ, the Church, and all of you that sacrificed and prayed.

We carried in several extra suitcases this trip. They were filled with hygiene kits, new undies, flip-flops, food, and some goodies too. We had not had a chance to give the supplies to Yvrose (the director of the orphanage) to distribute to the children. So, on Friday I asked if I could bring in the supplies we brought and leave them. Yvrose and I made arrangements for Friday after dinner. So, after we had dinner that evening, Ray, Ken and Terry and I, lugged the stuff across the street to Yvrose’s kitchen. Yvrose immediately started gathering up all the kids, about 72 of them, ranging from 18 months, to 18 years. The children all gathered around in a semicircle, smallest in front, and the older ones in the back, and most of them were seated. Yvrose placed her chair in the middle of them, told us to have a seat at the dining table, then she said, “this is Christmas for us!” She passed out the kits to the older children, then to the smaller ones. I could tell that some of them didn’t quite know what to think, maybe not sure what some of the items were, (shampoo and toothpaste would be an extreme luxury there). Then she opened up the next suitcase, and there were dozens of flip-flops. I saw some smiles, and I couldn’t help but notice a gentle push forward hoping to get a new, (perhaps first) pair of flip-flops. Yvrose calmly picked up a pair, checked out the size, then called out a name. The child would step forward, she would set the flip-flops on the floor and the child would try them on, usually a perfect fit. It took a while to hand them all out, there were likely 4 dozen pair. It was amazing just how orderly the whole thing was, not a tear, or a whine, but a gratefulness is what I sensed, I’m sure.


Then she broke out the undies, and much to my surprise, she handed a pair at a time out the same way. I think it might have embarrassed some of the older ones more than the younger ones, but I couldn’t even imagine how that scenario might play out here in America. “Black Friday” we’ll put away our “thankfulness” and knock anyone down who beats us to the best buys at 4am...(I digress).

After Yvrose finished handing out most of the stuff, she asked if there was anyone that didn’t get a gift, she made sure that everyone got something. Then she turned to us, and said, “Thank You.” She also said, “God Bless America, you’re the only nation that’s helped us. Thank you Church! God bless you!” As best I can, I pass that along to you! Thank you for praying, giving and making the sacrifice!

Then she quieted the kids down, and they sang for us. The first song they sang, was unbelievable! To think about what we just experienced, and the intense need there, here’s what they sang!

‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His word,
Just to rest upon His promise,
Just to know “Thus saith the Lord.”

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er!
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more!


I inhaled really hard several times, attempting to not go to pieces. They sang in Creole, but when they got to the chorus, I knew they were singing the same words, Jesu, Jesu...

I haven’t really taken the time to totally unpack all that we experienced in Haiti this trip. It is a lifetime of memories squeezed into a week. But, how do we let it change us? What difference will it make in us this year? My hope is to be thankful for the real stuff! The things that really matter. (Jesus, Jesus! precious Jesus!) Be thankful and find real ways to love my family and friends. To continue to grow in love for my God and savior, and to love my neighbors. I’ve got a ways to go, still a work in progress.

Have a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving!

Back to Haiti!

What a joy it is to once again be traveling in the name of Jesus to Haiti. Our team is actually being led this trip by Scott Warner of OMS/Men for Missions, and along with 4 other guys the six of us are attempting to put a roof on the church at St. Charles. St. Charles is a small village southeast of Jeremie, about an hour drive toward Port au Prince. Since arriving we’ve loved on some kids, been loved back, made new friends, prayed together, worked together and shared Jesus. We’ve also got quite a bit of work done!

We are all so grateful to God for our church, family, and friends that have made the sacrifice to make this work of grace possible. It is an honor of the deepest sort, to partner with you to do this kingdom work. One of my personal prayers is that God will richly bless you, pressed down and pouring over!

We arrived in Port au Prince on Wednesday afternoon and was met at the airport by Nadair, who works with OMS/MFM. One of his roles is to offer safe passage through Port au Prince. He is a great lovable man, with a whooping sort of laugh. (If that makes any sense!) But, I’m telling you when he smiles or laughs, a room will light up. When people show up at the airport with him, they are warmly greeted, and fellow Haitians know it’s likely a bunch of American Missionaries there to offer help! They’re glad to see us!

Before I go any further, I need to tell you who our team is. As I mentioned earlier, Scott Warner is leading the charge here. Scott and his bride, Debbie have recently joined the forces of OMS/MFM and are excited at what God is going to do in, and through them. Scott has done a great job getting to know some of the locals here in Jeremie, as well as up in St. Charles. He has also brought his considerable carpentry skills to use and leads us as we attempt to put a roof on the church. Also on the team this trip are: Ray DeSpain, Terry Ford, Ken Holland, and Rick Weigand. All of them bringing together their amazing talents for the glory of God!

On Thursday, we spent a considerable amount of time getting acquainted with the children at the orphanage. One of the things that still amazes me here is the deep level of poverty. The children are well fed and blessed to have roofs over their heads, good educations, and caretakers that love them and care for them. In the afternoon, we headed up to St. Charles so all the guys could get a look at the project we’re here to finish. We also needed to get some last measurements before we started building the trusses. With God’s grace, we’ll get it done, it is a lot of work, but we have a great God, whom we all believe has called us to this place and supplied our needs. So, we’re agreed as a team, we’re going to give it our all! What a great team!

Friday morning after breakfast, we waited around for our truck to arrive to go pick up our lumber supplies. Terry Ford and Ken Holland are both electricians by trade, and we’d been informed that the Solar Panel system was not properly working, so they spent a large portion of their morning troubleshooting that system. The “citie’s” electricity in Jeremie only comes on after the sun goes down, and then it’s prone to go out periodically. So, most of the daylight hours the electricity used by the orphanage is supplied by the Solar Panels. It’s very smart way to get energy, when it’s working right that is! They also have a large generator that is in the compound where we are staying. It kicked on Wednesday evening and it sounded like a train in our courtyard. It’s expensive, but sometimes necessary to run it, so getting the solar panels up and running is a priority too! So, while they were working on that, Adrien, Scott, Rick, Ray and I went to get our lumber. You know how when you go to Lowe’s or Menard’s in the states, they’ll actually load it for you in some cases, or at least help you get it to your car? If it’s a large order, which ours was, they’ll usually deliver it for you! Not so here! We walked into their warehouse and they pointed out the lumber we were to get our order from and we proceeded to load our own truck. 2x4’s in Haiti are actually 2”x4” so they look big, but it’ll be nice for building a roof. So, after we got back to the orphanage, we found that we also needed some bolts, so Adrien, Scott, Ray and I went on a hunt to find some bolts. After five stops we found none. We have a “b” plan we’ll need to break out. But, when we returned to the orphanage, much to our surprise, Rick and some of the kids had already unloaded the truck. Thanks Rick and kids!

We decided to build the new trusses here in the courtyard at the orphanage, then once they’re done, we’ll haul them up to St. Charles. We are praying for a lot of local help, because the trusses are heavy and the hill to the church is extremely steep. We spent the rest of the day figuring out exactly how we were going to build them, then we made our templates and proceeded to measure, mark and cut lumber. We finished our work Friday and will assemble them Saturday, ready to haul them up to St. Charles on Monday.

Friday evening after dinner, Ray, Terry and I got to share in one of the extreme blessings of doing a trip like this. We have brought your personal hygiene kits, new underwear, flip-flops, peanut butter, and other gifts you donated. And as we watched Yvrose, (who operates the orphanage), passed out the gifts...it was precious...precious I’m telling you! These kids sat, mostly quietly, wide-eyed, hoping there’d be a pair of flip-flops that would fit them, and maybe, just maybe, they’d get a pair that looked kinda cool too. It’s funny, the “looking cool” part is usually the highest priority for we Americans, but not so much here! They are thankful to have them! $1 flip-flops! Yvrose, was so patient with them, she’d pick up a pair, call out a name, the child would step forward, try them on, and she’d quietly call the next name. For those of you that don’t know, she has been struggling with recovering from malaria, that she caught about a month ago. She told me she thought she was going to die. But, said she’s feeling great now! I think she still has some recovering to go, she moves just a little slower than I remember and her voice is not full strength yet. Then the blessing of blessings, the children sang to us. They sang the old hymn “Trust and Obey” then a number of worship songs, and finished with a couple of Christmas songs! It was Christmas to them!

Thanks for participating in this journey! Thanks for praying for this team, the kids at the orphanage and the church at St. Charles! We’ll be attempting to post up some more of the adventures as we’re able! So stay tuned and keep praying for the grace, mercy and love of our Lord and Savior Jesus to be evident in and through us!

Going to St. Charles Haiti!!

I am honored to be joining a crew of men from Fountain City Wesleyan Church traveling to Haiti, for the purpose of replacing the roof on a church in the village of St. Charles, Haiti. We will be travelling to Haiti on November 9th and will be there through the 16th.
Earlier this year Ron Ayers and I took the incredible trek up the steep terrain east of Jeremie to fix the roof. What we found was a sagging roof due to lumber that was infested with wood-boring bees. We were told that the Haitian that contracted the work took the money and ran. So, with the time and resources we had, we propped the roof up until a team could come and replace it.
Resources are so incredibly hard to come by in Haiti, and that is even more complicated by the lack of funds and skilled workers. Leading this team will be Scott Warner and myself, and with your help, we will raise a new roof on the church. We are looking for both PRAYER partners and FINANCIAL SUPPORTERS.
Currently, we are submitting an application to Christ For the Nations International to help with funding of the materials needed to finish the job. CFNI is an organization out of Dallas TX, that has a program to partner with other ministries to offer financial support for roofing materials. However, the total cost of travel, food, and housing for the trip will be around $2000.
What I’m asking you to do is to PRAY about it first! We are needing prayer partners, as well as financial partners to help with the cost.
If you feel God is leading you to help, just follow the instructions below!

Thanks for praying!!
If you decide to be one of my prayer partners, contact me and let me know so we can keep in touch. If you choose to help financially, you can make checks to Fountain City Wesleyan Church, and mark the memo “Haiti-NOV” and return it to me. You can also give online at: www.fcwesleyan.org
God BLess you and Thank You!
Steve Mathews

Last Day

Photos and stories can never express the beauty or relationships found when you travel. I believe that is especially true when you're travelling in the name of Jesus. Even though photos and video can help, it's never as good as the real deal! Because you can't reproduce the smells, the air your breathing, the touch of a friend. That's the sad part. The good news is that at least you can indeed lock images away digitally, and in some strange way with just a look, months later, you can be transported back to that place.

Yesterday Ron Ayers, Giles and I set out to finish the job we started on Wednesday-to prop the roof up on a church that was collapsing. Seems that the Haitian contractor that did the job did a very poor job, using nasty lumber and low skill level. It was about to come down. We didn't finish the job on Wednesday, but went back yesterday morning. As we were travelling along the beach east of Jeremie, we came upon a road block! They were replacing a huge tile that allowed water to drain off into the ocean. In prior trips across there we had seen dozens of children swimming in the mud hole! Why not the ocean? Well it's likely for several reasons: the ocean is very deep off of this particular coast, maybe some pollution, and sharks! So, we turned back and decided we would come back after lunch, which we did. We had left some tools up at the church the day before and had to go back. The ride was a hair-raising 1 hour drive through the villages and construction zones to get to the top was quite a journey, not for the faint of heart. I told Adrian our driver/translator, this is better than any amusement park ride I've been on!

We managed to get the roof done as the girls stayed back at the orphanage and loved on kids and helped with a feeding project. I had mentioned a new "bud" I've met on this trip. His name is Sha-sha. He attached himself to me as soon as we arrived at the orphanage. And every time we went over there, it wasn't long before I was accosted by he, and two or seven of his friends. I think most of our time together was spent having him sit either next to me, or on my lap and squeezing him. I just sensed he needed that. It was precious, I'll never forget it as long as I live. I found out he is eight, and his sister Ginney also lives there and she's 14. She actually knew a little English, and with the tiny bit of French I know, we talked for a while. The life they live here is tough by any standard. Kids without parents in any world is difficult, but the needs here are even bigger in some ways because of the poverty. Sha-sha is a happy little guy, as most of the children appear to be. The orphanage here does the best they can with the resources available. But, as you can imagine another one of the things that they have a great need for is just human touch. They get some, but not enough for some. He's a typical little boy, gets in scuffles with his pals, tries to manipulate a situation by poking his bottom lip out and pouting. I asked Adrian what the policy was on adoption, and he said they'd really like to see their children grow up and be a positive influence on their nation. The will be! They educate them on sight, as well as show them the love of Christ.

Last evening, they put on a program for us as it was our last night here. Team #2 should be on their way here as I write this post. I pray for their safety today and throughout this next week. Anyway, the program featured their singing, and my can they sing! Then their band performed! What a hoot! They were excellent! It is all done right here on site! After the program, Yvrose Alexandre spoke to us, giving thanks for Americans and the Churches. They also spoke of the vision that keeps them going. It's a Christ centered vision to help those that can't help themselves, and it was started by Yvrose's father. They've also started many churches, one of which we put the roof on yesterday!

That's all for now! Stay tuned as we'll be attempting to post up some of the stuff from next weeks team. I hope to see you this weekend!!

Tuesday, 29th, 2011

Yvrose, (a real life Proverbs 31 woman) runs the orphanage here in Jeremie. She's a beautiful, stately, Godly woman of God, with a passion for the lost. She's grown up in a hard place, but loved Jesus. She also loves His children, especially those with out a mommy or daddy. She is also a leader at her church, but we witnessed Sunday night, she affirms and supports the young men who lead her church. It is likely a cultural thing. If it were not for her vision, there is no telling where these children would be. As an affluent American, it is difficult to see clearly the powerful ministry that God has given her to lead. Because, I tend to look at externals... how clean is the floor, what do the kids eat, what are the conditions like? In this culture, we can't look at that through our American lenses. It's nearly impossible to see clearly what God is doing, because our tendency is to see the "unfit" conditions. That is called self-righteousness folks, and in order to see God's movement more clearly, I believe we need to repent of it! I have been! Pray for me!

The most heart pulling thing I've experienced here is a child's desperate need to be touched! Many of the children will climb up on your lap, hold your hand, or be squeezed until your eyes pop out! It's amazing to touch a child, pick them up, or poke them in the tummy, and they radiate a smile that would light up a city! Or expose coldness in one's heart, if one feels like confessing that! I've been especially befriended by a little guy, his name is Shasha. He came up to me as soon as we walked into the orphanage. I spoke my best Creole to him, which is actually pathetic, and he smiled and responded with a big hug. There'll be more about him on Thursday! Let me tell you he makes his way to me every day so far. So have several other boys, I think they think my large, pink, bald head is funny! Kind of like a lot of theirs...at least the shaved part!

Today the ladies, (Lisa, Brittany, and Debbie), stayed at the orphanage. Sorting some uniforms that had been donated and giving and placing some of the supplies we'd brought. There was an older homeless gentleman who hobbles into the orphanage almost every day, whom many people mistreat, so he'll come by for a scrap of food. and he'll sweep the driveway. He was given 2 hygiene packs and he was so proud of them. As he walked away I saw his lips utter, "merci" (Thank you!). They also spent and prayed with Yvrose, and had a sweet prayer time with her.

Ron and I headed up the same mountain we came in on with Gene Pollic and Adrian. We had a little difficulty getting there as our truck stopped running about half way there, due to water in the fuel. While we waited for help to arrive, dozens of school children passed by in bright yellow and blue school uniforms. Many of them stopped by curiously, to see what these strange looking white men are doing out here. On Sunday night, Gene Pollic, our team sponsor, initiated all of us as "fishers of men." We made bracelets out of fishing leaders, to wear as reminders. As the children were standing around looking us over, one of them tugged on my bracelet asking, as best as I can tell, what is this(?) So, in all my infinite wisdom started doing fishing motions and making sounds like a fishing reel makes. (because my creole needs a little work) They look at me like I was crazy! So, I saw Adrian, our driver, around the other side of the truck, and I hoped he could translate for me. I thought I'd better sieze this "divine appointment"! As I pointed to my bracelet, explaining to him that they were asking what it meant, he held up his hand, and held his wrist next to mine and took off explaining to them that we were both fishers of men. I couldn't tell you a word he said, but I knew exactly what he was saying! As he spoke, he reached out his hand and touched several of them on the cheek. I did recognize that he was telling them God loves them, and we were fishing for men. It was a beautiful moment, I don't know if any of them were "saved". but I do know that they heard a brief version of the Gospel that day!

After we got back on the road, we went up to a church in a village called St. Charles, to look at a roofing project to do. That will be tomorrow's work. Keep us all in your prayers, and stay posted!!!

We Finally Arrived!

We arrived at our final destination Sunday around 1:30 pm. Our destination is a city on the north side of the southern peninsula called Jeremie. The views we saw today were absolutely incredible. It’s another one of those, you’d have to see it with your own eyes, taste, and smell it with your own senses!
We found out a couple of weeks ago that our team was going to have to travel to New York City’s, JFK airport by bus in order to catch our flight! Our trip had been cancelled and rescheduled several times because of political unrest, so by the time thing had settled, we were very close to the actual date we wanted to leave before our air tickets were bought. That was fine, except Port au Prince is the only airport receiving international flights and there were no connects going through Miami because all the flights were full due to spring break! So, the only flight we could find was a direct flight from New York. That meant we had to take the 12 hour bus ride to NYC. So, we had chartered a tour bus and driver to drive us there. Sweet! Not so fast!!! On Thursday, before the bus left on Friday afternoon, we found out the motor had blown in the bus we were going to use! So, we frantically called Covenant Motors, Tom Daugherty and got ourselves connected to two large vans. The thing that changed the most was we had to drive ourselves to NYC.
We left Richmond at 4:30 pm on Friday! We arrived at NYC’s JFK at 4:30 AM Saturday AM, and caught our flight to Port au Prince. When we landed in Port au Prince, we caught our next vehicle to take the next leg of our trip to La Caye, which is about a 5-6 hour ride.

To our surprise, the vehicle that picked us up was not very big, with 14 of us and all our luggage and a lot of extra luggage with supplies, we strapped most of it on top of the van and piled in for the hair-raising journey.
Port au Prince is still devastated from the effects of the massive earthquake some 14 months ago. Our eye saw absolute poverty like we’d never seen in our lives. Millions of people living in tents, or a couple of pieces of metal held together with some rope! Unbelievable! I asked myself, Lord, how is it possible to even make a dent in such massive destruction? I believe God told me to make the dent, the size of it is up to him, I need to be faithful to make the dent and lead others to make their dent.
I wasn’t able to take any pictures in Port au Prince because my camera was buried and frankly, there wasn’t enough room! But in the nest few days, I hope to get some of the cell phone pics we took!
Haiti is as “third world” as it gets in our part of the world. Their entire Infrastructure could not handle the massive mess. Around 300,000 lives lost, building after building flattened! You can see some of the efforts to help in action, but the need is so overwhelming, they’re barely making a dent with the poverty level so desparate. It was moving beyond words. My heart breaks for the people of Haiti. Pray fervently for them. Make a dent when you can. You know, God is bigger! Even bigger than this mess! He longs to do mightier things there! I know it! His word IS TRUE! The need is great, but our God is greater! I spoke to a social worker on the plane ride there, and asked her if she were to give Americans advice on how to proceed, she wisely said, “check your connections out, make sure they’re legitimate, the corruption is rampant and there’s a good chance your support never gets there if your not sure where it’s going.” She continued, “Human trafficking is at epidemic levels, do your homework, give as much as you can to people you know and trust!” And I would add, pray fervently about how you give, if you don’t know who or what you’re giving to, you might as well dump more trash in the streets, that is likely where it’ll end up anyway!
Back to our travels! We arrived in La Caye, around 6 pm, and were supposed to meet up with a tap-tap, (essentially a humans version of a cattle truck-more pics coming), to take us on to our final destination. We ate dinner, and waited, and waited.....and waited. Finally, at around 10pm we found a way to stay in town, the restaurant we were eating at had a hotel attached to it, so we settled in and got some rest.
Early Sunday morning, I heard a tap-tap on our door to tell us our tap-tap had finally arrived and we were leaving in about an hour. We thought the ride would only take about 2 hours. About 4 hours later, we arrived in Jeremie.
The children at the orphanage here are incredible, and the need is so great! But, more about that tomorrow. You'll find several pictures on my FaceBook with a little commentary!

Getting ready to go!!

My pal Lee Behnken always had a great word of advice leading up to almost any trip, especially ministry oriented trips. He says, "make sure and get on the plane." Having become a fan of Tim Hawkins, I'd prefer to get in the plane now, but the point still remains. There are so many things that want to clutter our lives and frustrate us, and cause us to lose our focus. God has called us out! If Jesus doesn't come back by Friday, if he doesn't call me home, barring any major family catastrophe, we'll be in Haiti Saturday morning! The plan for team one is to meet up with the rest of our team on Friday afternoon and take a bus to New York City. Yep, you read it here! Because the trip kept getting postponed because of various political, health, etc problems, when we went to buy the tickets, there were no flights available to Miami. Most flights to Haiti go through Miami. Because of spring break traffic, we weren't able to get a flight through Miami, so we booked the next best available, drive to NYC and catch a direct flight to Port au Prince, Haiti.

Our prayer is that God will be honored and served through us while we are there! We will fly back to NYC on Saturday the second and arrive home some time on Sunday I'd guess. Then team two will be heading out. Their travel is not without challenge either. They will fly out on Saturday, and some of them will fly to Miami and some of them to Texas then Miami to meet up with them.

There are five of us from Fountain City Wesleyan going on week one and seven going the next week! Team #1 is: Brittany Pardo, Lisa Kinney, Ron Ayers, Debbie Warner, and yours truly. (Steve Mathews) Team #2 is: Lisa Bos, Miriam Vories, Kristen Adams, Katelyn Jennings, Jennifer Hudnall, Jennifer Bedel, and leader Nancy Pike. Team #1 will meet up with 10 others from a church in Indy, while team #2 will meet up with 7 from a church in Greenville, OH. Gene and Shelba Pollic of OMS (Men For Missions) will lead both teams and we will be mostly serving an orphanage in the town of Jeremie.

Hopefully, we'll be able to get internet service where we'll be staying, and you can follow along each day. But, should there be no internet, (which is a strong possibility) we'll post up when we get back! Either way, stay tuned here, and keep the teams covered in prayer!!