Three months after Hurricane Matthew struck Haiti, a Volunteer in Mission Team from Michigan is there to help.
KAY DEMOSS
Senior Editor-Writer, Michigan Area
A team of seven Volunteers in Mission, led by the Rev. Don Gotham, left Utica, Michigan on January 2 and is now in Haiti. For the next week they will be in Jeremie working on hurricane relief projects. Jeremie was among the areas hardest hit when Hurricane made landfall on the island last October.
Once on the ground the team began work on construction of the new roof at Gommiers Church. They also hope to finish the rebuild of the hut that housed the church security guard and his family that was destroyed in the storm. The guard began reconstruction then died recently leaving a wife and six children.
The Volunteer in Mission Trip is sponsored by the Michigan Area Haiti Task Force. They are working in partnership with the Jeremie Project that was started a number of years ago by a group of Michigan VIM leaders.The President of the Jeremie Project is Carmen Zeigler, who is active at Detroit Metropolitan UMC with her husband, Rev. Karl Zeigler. The United Methodist Church in Michigan has had a covenant relationship with the Methodist Church in Haiti since 1996.
The Michigan Area Haiti Task Force is working in partnership with the Methodist Church in Haiti and The United Methodist Committee on Relief.
Gotham will be blogging and posting photos about the current work at the Jeremie Project Facebook Page. We will keep this page updated as he reports.
Gotham Blog January 3: Blue tarps and Q-Tip trees …
As the flight gets close to the airport in Jeremie, traveling from Port au Prince, the thing that caught my eye was the overwhelming number of blue tarps. Homes which had corrugated tin roofs now are covered by tarps. While blue has always been my favorite color, it didn’t excite me today. The hurricane was just about three months ago now, and while these tarps offer protection from the rains, and the sun, they are a constant reminder of the wounds the storm inflicted on people who don’t have the means to restore their homes to what they once were.
Along the ridges of the mountains, strange looking spindles stand where once there were lush trees laden with fruit. Now, these King palm trees are sprouting green branches. Their look from a distance, is that of a Q-Tip. They more resemble something from the imagination of Dr. Seuss than what we’ve come to know.
The people, as battered as they have been, are still warm and welcoming. A ready hug, a warm embrace, and expressions of gratitude for our coming, witness to the power of God in their lives, and their resiliency. We are just one team, but the truth is, there is work here for hundreds of teams. We are not the only ones welcome here, and we are not the only ones needed. Come, people, come! Your brothers and sisters here need you!
The VIM Team expects to be back in Michigan January 14.
Gotham Blog January 4: Digging deeper …
Tonight I met the pastor who lives in the house next to the guest house where we stay. We began our conversation talking about the usual pleasantries. Then there was a shift in our conversation. Pastor Claudel started to share with me about the devastation in the Leon area, where he is the Superintendent. He asked if I had ever been to Leon, and I told him I had. He then began to share about being there at the Methodist Church in Leon, which now has no roof. They were worshipping when it began to rain and they all had to take cover.
The pastor spoke of how devastated the Leon area is and of how he had heard talk from the people at the church that maybe it was time to just close the church and not try to restore it, since they didn’t have the money it would take to do so. He went on to tell me he had decided his next message for them would include a stirring encouragement to not give up but to dig deeper than they ever had and allow God to honor their efforts.
The pastor went on to tell me how at the close of that service, the stewards of the church informed him he was a bit late with his word of encouragement, as they had already taken their first collection. The people of the church collect four thousand Gourdes, or about $62 U.S.
While $62 doesn’t sound like much when you think about it being an entire congregation’s collection to repair their church, but consider: the folks who gave this money, for the most part, no longer have a home. The choice to give what they did in most cases was a choice between eating and selfless giving. Their choice to give means it will take even longer to rebuild their own homes.
As Pastor Claudel told me the story, I sensed God nudging me to be one to chip in the next $62. Being a part of the miracles God works is a blessings for me.
Gotham Blog January 5: Gift of “New Eyes”
Tonight I realized one of the greatest gifts someone new brings to a mission experience is “New Eyes.” I asked what the team members saw today that left an impression on them, and they responded with things like, “How much better we seemed to work in cooperation with our Haitian counterparts,” and “How impacting the prayer was this morning, when we gathered with all of the folks in the sanctuary.”
Each of the team members had something wonderful to share, for the day had been a blessing to them. It was then I realized that I was not looking a things with the same eyes. I was considering how much there was to get done, and thinking about the amount of time we were not accomplishing as much as I had hoped we would. All the while, those not stressed over the schedule were finding the blessings.
I am asking God to give me “New Eyes” tomorrow.
Gotham Blog January 14: Holy Moments
With gratitude for all of your prayers, and well wishes, I want to let you know the Utica team have all returned from our mission trip to Haiti. Most of our experiences were not what we had planned, and yet, as we reflect on them, over and over we see the hand of God.
The resolve of the Methodist church of Haiti, and of our other Haitian friends to do everything to ensure our safety will serve as a lasting example of how fiercely our Lord loves and protects us.
There are so many ways we can tell you of the provisions of God for us, and for others in what we experienced. But I want to share with you one of those stories, and a story which capped the trip off in a glorious way.
We were offered seats on a plane friends had chartered to bring two members of our team to get back to Port au Prince, and we accepted the offer, not knowing if our scheduled flight would be coming that day. Within minutes of those two of our group heading to the airport, my phone rang to inform me our plane (with a capacity of nine passengers) was on its way to the airport in Jeremie. With two less passengers, we had four empty seats on our plane. Just after checking us in, the pilot informed me we were going to wait a bit, as the UN had four more folks needing a flight to Port au Prince, and they were going to be coming with us. Stepping out of the vehicle was a father and his two young sons, (ages 5 and 3) and a friend. I was delighted at how God had worked the seating arrangements out. When the father asked me how much he owed me for the seats they had occupied on our chartered flight, I assured him it was our blessing to have them join us, and no payment would be accepted. My joy was then expanded when I saw the boys run into their mom’s arms in the airport terminal in Port au Prince.
I try to find the positive in life, and I got it in a great big way on the plane as we were leaving Port au Prince. Just two rows ahead of me on the plane, there was a husband and wife with two seven-year-old boys. The couple had just completed the adoption of these boys. Mine was the joy of seeing how tenderly this new mother and father brooded over these boys. The boys (who I imagine had never seen the airport, let alone been on a plane) seemed comfortable with the couple, and a bit unsure of all the folks seated around them. While standing at her seat, and looking to the row behind me to a friend, the new mother looked down at her sons seated next to her, and tears began to drip down her cheeks. In her eyes I saw that her heart was bursting with love ,and that she now knew a completion she had been longing for. I thanked God for allowing me to have a glimpse of that holy moment.
Last Updated on January 11, 2017