Haiti day 1 and 2

I have joined my older brother’s church on a mission trip to Haiti with Mountaintop Ministries. It is a medical mission and construction mission. I had heard that Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and while I have been to other third world countries, I was not expecting it to be much different. Just in two days, it has been quite an experience. To start with, the night before our flight, the travel risk to Haiti was elevated to a level four. But we came anyway. Customs went well. We loaded a truck with all of the luggage, 28 people’s luggage, 2 suitcases each and one being large for supplies. Several of the guys ended up sitting on top of the luggage for the ride to Mission house.

One truck developed a busted radiator house that we had to pull over to repair. Then the truck with all the luggage stalled out climbing a long hill. We got it to the side and waited for someone to bring a fuel filter, which was replaced on side of road. I thought, God must have something amazing planned for this week for Satan to work so hard to create obstacles to try to keep us from coming. Today, I discovered one of those things. Willem, founder of Mountaintop Ministries, had to point out we witnessed a miracle from God today. A young lady, 19 years of age arrived at clinic this morning and she was pregnant. Upon arrival, she was already in labor and while there her water broke. She gave birth to a little girl later in the afternoon. The miracle Willam pointed out was God planned that birth, at conception, to coincide with a team of American doctors being in Haiti and holding a medical clinic. She did not have money to pay a Haitian doctor but because of God’s timing, she received exceptional medical care and did not pay a dime.

In the afternoon, I had the opportunity to join my brother Phil on his construction project. He, along with 5 other people, were repairing benches in the church. Later this week he will be teaching grade school students carpentry.