I want to personally thank each and every person who followed along with the Iris Latin America team's journey. It was such an honor to be a part of this team - this family. When the vision for the trip was birthed in 2010, the Lord laid it on my heart to write testimonies from the journey. I knew God would show up in wild and radical ways. I wrote as we traveled, and I have finally finished a book that shares stories of healings and miracles, personal struggles and victories, funny moments with my teammates, and ultimately realizing that the greatest miracle of all is love. If you enjoyed following along with our journey, please check out my book about the trip. It's called Believe and Be Love by Caitlin Ann (available on Amazon.com). Enjoy and God bless you!
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=caitlin%20ann%20believe
IRIS LATIN AMERICA
Iris Ministries under the leadership of Rolland and Heidi Baker has commissioned a group of Iris missionaries to carry the love and glory of God through Central and South America on a one year missions trip. This blog is the documentation of that journey.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Epilogue to Caitlin Ann's soon-coming book
Twenty-six countries. Nineteen months. Countless flat tires, car breakdowns, personal freak-outs, sleepless nights, and moments of roaring laughter. And then, in a blink of an eye, our journey was really over.
When I joined the Iris Latin America
team in September 2011, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. My planned eleven months on the road quickly
turned into nineteen, and I’d be lying if I said the journey wasn’t far more
than I’d bargained for. I was stretched
in ways I never dreamt possible; sometimes the process was so painful I thought
I would burst.
I
think it’s safe to say that my teammates would agree. None would claim that this trip came without
challenges. Honestly,
there were many tough moments not
recorded in this book — times when we prayed for people who didn’t get healed, instances when we
couldn’t agree on decisions no matter how long we talked them over, moments when
we all felt like giving up. We would be
deceiving you if we said no one ever got cranky, tired, or frustrated. Sometimes we whined about stupid things or cried
out of sheer exhaustion or snuck away to secret places in an attempt to hide
from the world.
As
I’ve shared testimonies of miracles and healings, far too many people have
responded, “I could never do what your team did.” But we
weren’t the ones doing it in the first place.
I can’t heal anyone on my own, nor can anyone I know. It is the Holy Spirit moving through us that heals. The purpose of sharing our story is not so
that readers can put me and my teammates on a pedestal. If that’s all I’ve accomplished throughout
this book, then I have failed you. We
are not heroes; we are not superhuman.
We are ordinary people with extraordinary dreams. And we’ve simply said “yes” to the extraordinary
God who fulfills them.
When
God invites us into His story, I believe it’s our responsibility to share it
with others. I want the world to know
what God is up to, because He’s up to amazing stuff! I want the world to know that God still heals
cancer, opens deaf ears, causes the lame to walk, grows out limbs, opens blind eyes, heals backs, and
sets people free. I want people to know
that anybody — anybody — can be a
part of these testimonies. God delights
in letting us be a part of His story.
And yes, certain chapters will come at a very real cost. However, the things sacrificed will never
compare to the things gained. Nothing this world has to offer can compete
with the pure, unconditional love of Jesus Christ. My God is amazing.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Jamaica: ONE LOVE
Twenty-six
countries. Nineteen months. Countless flat-tires, car breakdowns,
sleepless nights and moments of roaring laughter. One heart.
One vision. ONE LOVE.
It’s
hard to believe that our wild journey throughout Latin America and the Caribbean
has finally come to an end after nineteen intense months. When I joined the Iris team in September 2011,
I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
My planned eleven months on the road quickly turned into nineteen, and
I’d be lying if I said the journey wasn’t far more than I bargained for. I was stretched in ways I never dreamt
possible; sometimes the process was so painful I thought I would burst. But in the end, I don’t regret a moment of
it. I have more trust in God than ever
before. I have renewed faith for impossible
things. I look at the future with
hopeful expectation. I am honestly in
awe of Jesus.
Despite
the challenges of the past year, the victories far outweigh them. Besides going through my own personal
transformation, I saw God do things in front of my eyes for others that I’d
only read about before. Collectively, my
teammates and I saw cancer healed, deaf ears opened, blind eyes healed, the
lame walking, limbs growing out, backs healed, and people set free. Sure, I missed a real bed, hot showers,
friends, family, normal food, and the distant memories of a routine—but no, I
wouldn’t change the past nineteen months for the world. The things sacrificed cannot even compare to
the things gained.
As
my teammates and I approached the end of our trip, I prayed that God would give
us an exciting ending. Though exhausted
in every way, my teammates and I were determined to finish well. From Cuba, we flew to our twenty-sixth and
final nation—the beautiful island of Jamaica.
During our final hour, God still had some surprises up His sleeve for us
and gave us a perfect ending for a wild journey.
Personally, I was elated to finish our
time in Jamaica. I’d been dreaming of
visiting this island since I was a little girl, and reaching Jamaica seemed
like the prize at the finish line of a very long race. While planning for the Caribbean leg of the
journey back in December, the Lord had told me to simply dream with Him. Along the way, He met every dream, fulfilled
every promise, and surprised me with unexpected gifts. It seemed only fitting
that entering our final country was a fulfillment of a lifelong dream. Being in Jamaica was like a physical
manifestation of God’s promises.
Right away, I fell in love with
Jamaica. The crystal-clear beaches,
friendly people, delicious jerk chicken, and unique melody of the Patwa
language—it was just as I’d always imagined it.
We began our time in Jamaica just
outside Montego Bay to volunteer at a children’s home. Days later, we worked our way to the sleepy
beach town of Negril and ended our trip in the capital city of Kingston. Through a complicated chain of events, we got
connected to a Bethel Church team who was headed to Kingston the same week as
us. Every spring, Northern California’s
Bethel Church (the church to which Iris Ministries is officially “married”)
sends teams all over the world for short-term mission trips. Because Iris and Bethel are closely linked,
Iris’s Heidi Baker had visited Bethel Church at the start of our journey to
officially commission our trip to minister in Latin America and the Caribbean. It seemed significant that we’d begun our
journey with a blessing from Bethel; and now, nineteen months later, we’d come
full circle and ended with Bethel.
Partnering with Bethel seemed like a
divine connection, but I was unaware of just how much had happened behind the
scenes to connect us. Upon arriving in
Kingston, we met with the Bethel team as well as the local pastors who were
hosting us and sat in awe as we listened to God’s divine hand in it all. Unbeknownst to me, the Jamaicans had been
dreaming of having people from both Bethel Church and Iris Ministries visit
their island congregation for a long time.
The pastor who invited my team to join them in Kingston didn’t initially
realize we were from Iris Ministries and freaked out when he found out that Iris
and Bethel would both be at his church at the same time. Meanwhile, one of the leaders of Bethel was
receiving words from the Lord about Jamaica, even having a dream that revealed
who her co-leader would be. A Jamaican
woman from the Kingston congregation had a dream of a large group of white
people standing on their stage and didn’t know what it meant. And my team weaved our way into this church through
a friend of a friend of my parents who just-so-happened to go to Christmas
dinner with one of the pastors this past Christmas. The pastor normally spent the holiday with a
different family but decided to change things up this past Christmas. The connections made at that dinner were what
introduced my team into this beautiful web of Jamaican and Bethel brothers and
sisters.
I quickly realized it was no
coincidence that all of us were in Kingston together. And as I heard the
expectancy from the Jamaicans and the Bethel team, my expectancy grew as well. I knew God was going to do something great in
Jamaica.
We began our time in Kingston with a
healing conference at the church, and right away God began to move in a
powerful way. From the first night to
the last day, God healed and freed many people.
To be honest, I hadn’t seen an unusually large amount of healings
throughout the other islands, but the Holy Spirit broke loose in this place;
and people were getting healed left and right.
There were so many testimonies that I gave up trying to record them all.
Here are just a handful…
One man in the congregation had a
friend who was stuck at home with a sick daughter but wanted to be at the
conference. As people were healed of
various ailments, they marched to the front of the church to share their healings. This man started texting his friend the testimonies.
As she read the stories of healing on her phone, the Holy Spirit invaded her
home, touched her daughter, and the fever left her body.
Natalie received a word of
knowledge that someone in the congregation was allergic to water. She saw a picture of itchy irritated skin
from the allergy. As she shared the word
aloud, I wondered if it was even possible to be allergic to water and where
she’d gotten this idea from. Yet sure
enough, the following day, a man from the congregation grabbed the mic to share
his healing testimony with the church.
“I was allergic to water,” he declared.
“Whenever I showered or got sweaty, my skin would feel itchy for twenty
to thirty minutes afterwards.” I looked
at my teammates in disbelief. This was
real. The man went on, “But I’ve been
dancing around the church, getting sweaty, and I am not itchy! I’ve been healed!”
On the first night of the conference, I
prayed for a young man who had problems with heart palpitations and shortness
of breath. On my way home that night, I
just-so-happened to bump into the young man in the parking lot. He approached me and exclaimed, “I’m so glad
to see you! I need to tell you
something! I’ve been running around and
around, and I’m not short of breath!” He was grinning from ear to ear. This was good news.
Another young Jamaican man named
Matthew, who helped serve as a chauffeur for me and my teammates, shared an
amazing testimony with us. Matthew
explained that just getting to the conference was a miracle in of itself. Though born in Kingston, Matthew had been
studying in Montego Bay (several hours away), as well as spending time in the
Cayman Islands where his family lived.
He was scheduled to start an internship back in Montego Bay after
visiting the Cayman Islands, but he ended up taking a little detour to
Kingston. He needed to help with wedding
preparations in the city, and his internship was pushed back two weeks. He knew the Lord had brought him back to
Kingston for this specific time, and he had come to the conference with high
expectations.
Matthew had been in a snowboarding
accident five years prior while attending boarding school in the states. He had
three herniated disks, which were extremely painful. After the accident, Matthew had to throw away
his dream of becoming a professional soccer player and dealt with depression as
he couldn’t do the physical things he used to.
He had spent a long time rehabilitating his back and doing
physiotherapy. Doctors warned him that
if he didn’t keep the muscles around his back strong, he would be at risk for
paralysis later in life. But Matthew no longer has to fear such a thing,
because during the conference, God completely healed and restored his back. All pain left; all disks were restored.
Matthew is now able to bend over and do things he couldn’t do since age
sixteen.
But my favorite healing testimony belongs to the Jamaican woman who hosted Aleeza and me. Betty had worn glasses for over a decade but
wasn’t even thinking about her eyes at the conference. In fact, when Betty stood up for prayer, she
asked God to heal her back pain. Yet, as
people prayed for her back, she received a surprise she hadn’t asked for. Her eyesight was unexpectedly restored. She was so shocked she could see without
glasses that she completely forgot about her back. Realizing that her vision was the same
whether her glasses were on or off, Betty started telling everyone around her
what had just happened. She shared the
good news with Aleeza and me as we got into her car to drive home—the first
time she’d driven without glasses in years.
“We’re your guinea pigs!” we joked. “Betty, you better really be healed
if you’re going to drive right now!”
Betty, Aleeza, and I laughed the whole
ride home. Every time we stopped behind
another car, Betty read the license plate numbers aloud and asked me to confirm
the accuracy. With every correct answer,
we erupted into more giggles. Betty was
so surprised that her joy and laughter was contagious. God is just cool like that.
After the conference, the Bethel team
split into two ministry groups--one heading off to the countryside, the other
stationed in Kingston. After many
changes of plans, we Iris five were asked to stay in Kingston with the city
team. One morning, Nick, the leader of
the city team invited us to visit their host house to pray for us. We gladly accepted the offer.
We were driven up to the beautiful
mountain home where the Bethel team was staying. The view was breathtaking, overlooking the
city and the ocean. Nick said his
teammates wanted to wash our feet and pray for us. As they prayed for God to bless us for the
sacrifices we’d made, so much was going through my head. Tears began to flow from my eyes remembering
the past nineteen months of my life—remembering the pain of being separated
from friends and family during crucial moments, the devastation of being robbed
and watching my teammates get robbed, the discouragement of illness, the
frustration of endless car breakdowns, the nights sleeping on the side of the
road, the moments of paralyzing fear and the reality of just being plain
exhausted. People often ask to hear
about the glory, the healing testimonies, the stories of adventure—but most
don’t acknowledge the pain and sacrifice that come alongside those
stories. As the Bethel team prayed for
us, I felt tears begin to trickle down my cheeks. Our trip had been amazing, but it hadn’t been
easy. And someone noticed. Someone cared. Someone took the time to stop for us.
As the five of us—Alan, Roberta,
Aleeza, Natalie and myself—sat there receiving the blessing of having our feet
washed, I couldn’t help but to think about the many people who weren’t sitting there with us. I couldn’t help but to remember the beautiful
faces of my teammates—my family—who had gone home after the completion of South
America and not returned for the Caribbean.
I couldn’t help but to mourn the loss of their presence for the final leg of the journey.
I remembered that Natalie had told me
many months ago (long before we separated in South America) that the Holy
Spirit gave her the number seventeen
and told her seventeen people would finish the trip in the Caribbean. While traveling with just five people, I
figured that had simply been a mistake.
However, in Kingston, I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to count the
number of people on the Bethel team standing beside us. I asked Nick how many people from his team
were left in Kingston, and he said that after many rearrangements, they were a
team of twelve. The twelve Bethel
members plus our Iris five formed a final team of seventeen. We had become one unit; and just as Natalie
had heard many months prior, we finished in Kingston with seventeen people. So many hard changes had tried to come
against the vision in our hearts, but when God says something will be done, it
will be done. When God says seventeen,
it will be seventeen. Though it was hard
to lose such a big portion of our team, God has such a beautiful way of
redeeming things and accomplishing His purposes. He is truly awesome.
I wanted God to give me a very exciting
ending to our story. He gave me a finish
beyond my wildest dreams. Not only did
we see miracles in Jamaica—eyes healed, lungs healed, deaf ears opened,
herniated disks restored, etc.—we saw God’s divine hand wrap up our entire
journey into a beautiful time of redemption and restoration. He gave us new stories, new testimonies, and
new friends. We saw God’s blessing, His
honor, His grace, and His complete control of everything.
The phrase “one love” from Bob Marley’s
famous reggae song has become an unofficial slogan of Jamaica, and I can’t
think of any better way to sum up the story of Iris Latin America. In Jamaica, the phrase “one love” refers to a
universal love for all people. No matter
what your color, gender, beliefs or ethnicity, you shall remain under the
covering of “one love” for every person.
After visiting God’s children in the largest cities of Latin America, in
indigenous tribes in the jungle, on the streets of red-light districts, inside
prisons, in orphanages, on farms in remote rural villages, and everywhere in
between, we saw the true “One Love” moving and breathing upon all of them. We saw God’s love for all His children—from
the fairest ones to the darkest ones. We
saw God’s love for the jungle chief, the prostitute, the prisoner, the orphan,
the mayor, the rich man and the poor man.
We saw no bounds on God’s love.
I love to share cool stories and
testimonies, but there is something that I feel is far greater to share—LOVE. The greatest miracle we can ever experience
is the raw, unconditional love of Jesus Christ.
Everything else is meaningless without it. I have traveled the world and been privileged
to see many things and many nations. And
my best testimony, my journey’s greatest conclusion, my favorite memory is love.
Thank you for reading and for following
this journey. May God bless you and fill
you to the brim with His beautiful LOVE!
submitted by Caitlin Scudder
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Monday, March 11, 2013
Haiti: Beauty for Ashes
“…[H]e will give a crown of beauty for
ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of
despair.”
-Isaiah 61:3
Before
coming to Haiti, I had heard pretty much nothing but negative talk about this
country. People called it a hopeless
nation, a black hole that sucks up resources, a revolving door of missionaries,
a country given to Satan, and a barren land.
Rumor said Haiti was ugly, brown, and unfertile. I’d been told I would see a shift from green
to brown the moment I crossed the Dominican-Haitian border, a result of demonic
curses. “No one knows quite what to do
with Haiti,” was the resounding opinion.
“Don’t waste your time.”
To be
honest, whenever I hear negative press about a country, everything inside of me
wants to prove people wrong. When people
declare a hopeless nation, I want to declare hope. When people declare barrenness, I want to
declare life. When people declare a
curse, I want to declare Isaiah 61—beauty for ashes, blessing instead of
mourning, praise instead of despair.
The
Lord had given me a vivid dream about Haiti way back in August, and I held it
in my heart. Despite hearing how
dreadfully ugly Haiti was, my dream revealed gorgeous palm trees, sparkling
water, and natural beauty. I believed
God saw Haiti like this—but I wondered what I would actually see when I got
there.
Upon
arriving in Haiti, I quickly realized that people see what they want to
see. Yes, it is true that parts of Haiti
are incredibly polluted, poor, and destitute. But beyond the rubbish piles and the poverty, there
is beauty so intense that it honestly can’t be put into words.
In
Haiti, I saw green. I saw lush
vegetation. I saw majestic trees. I saw children laughing and faces
smiling. I saw the same sparkling clear
water and palm trees I’d seen in my dream.
And most of all, I saw a nation bursting with endless potential and
relentless hope.
Haiti is
undoubtedly on the brink of change. The
earthquake of 2010 was not the confirmation of God’s hatred for this “ungodly
nation”. God loves Haiti. He loves His Haitian sons and daughters. And He has a plan of hope and prosperity for
them.
After
visiting twenty-four countries during this trip (many of which blur together), I
can honestly say there is something very different and very special about Haiti. Something significant is happening in Haiti’s
history right now—you can simply feel it in the air. It seems like the people have hit a turning
point, and the nation is on an historic upswing. There is still abundant need and appalling
poverty, but Haiti is rapidly moving forward.
Because
of the unique nature of Haiti, our team’s ministry time here unfolded quite
differently than we’d imagined. Instead
of witnessing healing miracles, overwhelming financial favor, or other
demonstrations of the more in-your-face glory, we experienced God’s glory
through relationship. Most of our time
was spent getting to know people on a much more intimate level than we normally
can. We shared our hearts with our new
brothers and sisters, listened to their visions, and ministered to many
individuals who are in the process of transforming Haiti.
I felt
like God let us in on one of His greatest secrets—that He is going to surprise
the world by what He is doing in this little island nation. He is gradually pouring more and more fuel
into the country, and soon He will throw a match on it; and Haiti will explode
with His glory. In Haiti, I felt like an
undercover agent for God, secretly being handed fuel by my Father and shown
what people to throw it on--knowing the explosion is coming really soon. God connected my team to pivotal leaders in
Haiti’s transformation, and I can’t explain how humbled I am that He let my
little team be a part of their lives and this upcoming burst of glory.
Our divine
connections actually began before we even arrived in Haiti. A friend of my mother, June, had lived in
Haiti years prior and connected me through Facebook to several of her friends living
in Port-au-Prince. I started writing so
many emails to strangers in Haiti that I was getting mixed up with who was
who. But one man’s emails really stood
out to me, and I knew I needed to meet him when we arrived. His name is Pastor
Bobby.
Bobby
is the head pastor of Quisqueya Chapel, one of the three English-speaking
churches in all of Haiti. We attended
his church on our first Sunday, and the moment he began to speak from the pulpit,
I knew this man would shake the nation.
He declared the very words that were on our hearts. He boldly proclaimed that Haiti was
positioned perfectly for revival. God
loves to use the underdogs to blow people away with His power and glory. God uses the weak things of the world to
shame the wise. Haiti has been declared the “poorest country in the western
Hemisphere”; and Bobby declared that label of poverty is precisely why God
would choose Haiti for a powerful movement of the Holy Spirit. He said that because of the devastating earthquake
in 2010, the whole world is watching Haiti.
This tiny country had attracted the hearts of people all over the globe,
and people would see when God brought it from tragedy to victory. This was the first time I’d heard someone
fearlessly declaring that the negative words spoken over Haiti were lies and
curses--and that we needed to believe in something greater.
Immediately,
our hearts connected with Bobby and we knew we needed to spend more time
together. He quickly adopted my team as
his little “League of Nations” and invited us to stay at his home for a couple
nights. There we shared ideas, food, and
laughs with him and his beautiful wife.
Bobby was hungering for more and more of God and was desperate to see
Him move powerfully in his life, his family, his church, and his nation. He saw the same ticking time bomb that we did
and believed God was getting ready to blow Haiti up with His glory.
Bobby
knew God was on the move here in a radical way and wanted to involve us in what
was happening. We spent hours praying
with Bobby and for Bobby, anointing his whole church with oil, prophesying over
his family, and breaking strongholds and curses over Haiti. Bobby had person after person lined up for us
to meet. Through his connections, we met
many of the key players in Haiti’s future and were able to speak with and pray
for several.
One of
the many fireballs in his congregation was South Korean Helen. We met her on a Sunday morning when Bobby
brought her over to our group for prayer.
Helen was facing many trials that had all piled up into one big
mess. She had mistakenly been assumed as
a woman of great wealth, and greed led to an attempted kidnapping. Fortunately, she’d been removed from her home
and able to hide out for a while; but she felt unsafe and needed a new place to
live. Helen was in search of a new base
for her ministry as well. In addition,
she had been suffering from a relentless cough for months. Looking overwhelmed and broken, she
approached us for prayer. We prayed that
God would protect and provide.
Just two weeks later, we reunited with Helen in her brand new
home. God had provided a new place to
live—beautiful, affordable, and fully-furnished. Though monthly rent is a concept virtually
unheard of in Haiti, Helen needed this option, and the woman renting the house
said that was no problem. Helen was also
provided with a new house for her ministry base at the exact price she’d prayed
for. And lastly, her cough was
healed. Helen looked radiant—healthy,
happy, and in awe of God’s speedy answer to prayer.
During our visit, Helen invited a colleague over to her
house and asked us to pray for her. We’ll
call her Jasmine to protect her privacy.
We asked Jasmine what she wanted prayer for. Poised and self-assured, she very
matter-of-factly said she was bi-polar and would like to live a more normal
life. We began to dig a little
deeper. Eventually, Jasmine admitted
that she had been abandoned by her mother and mistreated by her sister as a
child.
Jasmine also divulged that she heard a voice who gave her
instructions. The voice told her there
was no God. It told her that if she kept
smoking, she would go to hell. We asked
her who she thought the voice was. She
seemed unsure at first, then said she thought it was the devil. We asked Jasmine if she believed the voice
when it spoke and if she really wanted to follow its instructions. She said she had no choice. She needed a guide for her life, and the
voice was the only one guiding her.
Jasmine said she couldn’t hear the voice of God, so she was forced to
follow this one.
Jasmine explained that she had begun to feel a “negative
energy” in her childhood home in Jamaica.
Her sister hated and cursed her, and whenever she wore her sister’s
clothes, she felt pain all over her body.
When Jasmine told her mother about the pain, she immediately brought her
to a psychiatric ward. Jasmine was
diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and put on medication. Her mother couldn’t handle the situation and
quickly sent Jasmine off to live with her father in Haiti.
Jasmine had been dismissed as mentally ill, but I told her
that she was not crazy. I explained that
we are all in a very real battle, and there are very real angels and demons
around us. I told Jasmine that the
negative energy and the voice speaking to her is called Satan. The positive energy is called the Holy Spirit. The negative energy, Satan, produces lies,
death, condemnation, etc. The positive
energy, the Holy Spirit, produces life, truth, freedom, peace, joy, etc.
We asked her if she wanted to hear the Holy Spirit instead
of the voice. We asked her if she wanted
to forgive her family and find freedom.
We asked her if she wanted to stand in authority over the voice that was
controlling her life. She said yes on
every account.
Natalie began by leading her in a prayer to forgive her
family and renounce all pacts she’d made with Satan. Several of us prayed for her, and we asked
her to repeat, “I am a daughter of God.
Satan has no power over me, etc.”
As Jasmine repeated, she suddenly burst into tears and began
to yell words from her heart, “I belong to God!
Satan, I’m not your play-toy anymore!
I hate you!!!”
In that crucial moment, she shifted from being trapped to
taking authority over what was happening in her life. I saw the deep pain from her battle and the
true desire to defeat the enemy. We
stopped fighting for her and began
fighting with her as she spoke words
of truth over her own life. This was breakthrough.
Finally, after much prayer, we all went outside, joined
hands and screamed “FREEDOM!” at the top of our lungs three times. Jasmine radiated with victory. She was no longer a prisoner. This woman was free.
Helen looked elated at the deliverance that had just taken
place. As she continues to reach out to
those around her and take the time to find the Jasmines in her community, many
more will walk in freedom.
* * * *
Though we could have easily spent our entire month in
Port-au-Prince, we decided to head outside the city for part of our
journey. We spent some time in the
region of Carrefour, just an hour outside of downtown Port-au-Prince. One of Natalie’s friends connected us with a Haitian
fireball named Karly. An architect by
trade but missionary by practice, Karly exhibited what a true servant of Christ
is supposed to be. Karly spent his days
visiting the tent cities and homes in Carrefour to visit families and pray for
people. He was involved at a
neighborhood orphanage and active with the youth in his church. Karly’s home not only belonged to him, his
wife, and adorable son but also to the countless neighborhood children who
flocked to his property. Every time we
came to his home, local kids were in the front of the house playing soccer,
gathered in his living room watching a movie, or sitting on his porch waiting
for a hug.
Karly often worked with visiting mission teams and led them
throughout his village to be involved in his day-to-day ministry. Normally the teams stayed at “The Villa”, a
fancy establishment across the street from Karly’s home. However, we were placed in a more modest
house next door and invited to eat at Karly’s house each night instead of The
Villa. This turned out to be a huge
blessing and an opportunity to transform from acquaintances into family. Each night, we enjoyed the delicious local
food Karly’s wife cooked for us, as well as the fellowship of new friends. As we joked around with Karly, he became like
a big brother, and his four-year-old son became our team’s new favorite
person. The people who saw us
interacting thought we’d been friends for a long time and were shocked to find
out we’d just met.
Karly whipped us into shape by hiking us around his mountainous
community and bringing us into homes to pray for people. Many were sick and in pain. The need was great. At the top of Carrefour stood a tent city, a
makeshift community formed of tarp tents after the earthquake. As we passed through, we were invited into
some homes to pray. Whenever we prayed,
the women put cloth on their heads—a sign of reverence for God while receiving
prayer. If they didn’t have a
handkerchief handy, they all scrambled to find something before prayer started—even
an old T-shirt—to place on their heads. Despite
rumors that everybody in Haiti
believes in voodoo, my team was moved by the Haitian humility and reverence for
the Lord.
Karly also brought us to a local orphanage which immediately
melted my heart. Most of the children
living there were very young—around five or six years old. They eagerly surrounded us, ready to
play. We organized a few rounds of “duck,
duck, goose” and then a game of musical chairs.
The kids went wild with excitement and roared with laughter.
Aleeza spent her time holding a tiny baby, just a few months
old, who was the most malnourished person I’d ever laid eyes on. I’d seen starving babies from places like
Somolia on TV and in magazines, but I’d never seen a child so emaciated right
in front of my eyes. Her legs were like
fragile little twigs, with withered skin sagging off of them. She looked so delicate that I felt like I’d
break her if I touched her. Aleeza
bravely picked this baby girl up and held her on her lap. She prayed for God to heal the little baby
though she looked lifeless. Her face was
blank, and I knew if she hadn’t been taken in by the orphanage, she would have
died.
A few days later, we asked Karly to take us back to the
orphanage for another visit. In just a
few days, the tiny baby girl had transformed into a different person. She smiled when we picked her up. Her face had life in it. She showed emotion. I could scarcely believe my eyes. God was really healing this baby. Slowly but very surely, He was nursing her
back to health.
The other children were happy to be reunited, and I spent
most of my time chasing around a few of the little boys, tickling them as soon
as I caught them, and swinging them in the air.
I got tired much quicker than the six-year-olds did and sat on the couch
for a moment to rest. A quiet little boy
approached me and crawled into my lap. He examined my ponytail and ran his fingers
through my brown and blond hair, carefully rearranging where it fell on my
shoulders. After he was pleased with his
work, he cuddled into my chest, his arms wrapped around me.
I’d been having so much fun playing that I’d kind of
forgotten these kids were orphans. Suddenly,
I remembered why they were craving such love and attention. It’s not normal for a little boy to be so
starved for affection that he doesn’t care where it comes from. That’s never the way God intended the world
to be. Though we were providing very temporary
affection, I knew these kids needed so much more than we could provide in a
just a few hours.
This feeling of hopelessness is what many people let define
Haiti, but this isn’t the end of the story.
Though there are still many orphans, God is raising up a generation of
fathers for the fatherless. Karly is
already serving as a spiritual father to many, and he is training up many young
Haitians to follow his example.
Karly had been dreaming of organizing a youth conference for
the young adults in his church for a while and asked us to make it happen. He wanted to disciple the youth and begin a
ripple effect of God’s love. As these
youth go deeper with God, they will become the revival Haiti needs. Karly invited several young adults to our
house for a three-day conference. My
teammates and I taught on the father heart of God, our identity in Christ, and
the authority we carry as God’s children.
The youth were open, eager to learn, and excited to pass on what they
learned to others. I believe God will
raise them up to be amazing leaders in Haiti, and I’m blessed to have met them.
Though Carrefour was great, we still wanted to explore
further outside the city and began to pray for open doors. Through a friend of a friend of a friend, we
got connected to a German woman named Martina living in Gonaives, an area about
three hours north of Port-au-Prince.
Martina invited us to stay at the children’s home where she lived, Mission
de Vie. We’d found that most non-profits
in Haiti charged lots of money for visitors, some orphanages charging as much
as $90 per night to volunteer. When we
asked Martina how much it cost to stay with her, she seemed confused as to why
we would even offer money. Her orphanage
was the first we’d seen that didn’t seem to depend on foreign teams for income. And though Martina was from Germany, she was
married to a Haitian, and there were no other foreigners at Mission de
Vie. Martina was gracefully and joyfully
immersed in the culture. I liked that.
Martina organized several meetings for us—praying for
sponsorship program parents, orphanage staff, kids, and youth. At the staff meeting, we threw our original
plan out the window and decided to simply wash the feet of all of the staff
members and pray for them one by one.
One woman’s stoic countenance cracked, and she began crying. As we prophesied over people, Connie was
overwhelmed by a sense from God and told one of the women, “I feel like you are
called to be a mother.” This didn’t seem
a wild notion for a woman working at an orphanage, but the woman sneered. Connie was a bit taken aback by her reaction
and wasn’t sure what to think.
Natalie pried further to see why she’d reacted like
that. Natalie asked the woman if there
was anything she needed prayer for.
Reluctantly, the woman offered, “I don’t know why, but my husband and I
can’t have children. Before this
meeting, I was crying out to God about this.
I told God that if your mission team didn’t say anything about me being
a mother, I wouldn’t listen to anything you told me.” We were a bit stunned.
Shortly after, her husband heard what Connie had heard from
the Lord, and he asked us to pray for both of them. We went to their home later on and prayed for
God to give them children. The woman’s
countenance had completely shifted from harsh and skeptical to soft and
welcoming. She hugged us goodbye,
blessing us and telling us to come back to Haiti soon.
At the end of our visit, Martina dropped us off at another
mission in Gonaives called Much Ministries.
We were greeted by an American couple known to locals as Papa Beaver and
Mama Kathy, the heart of Much Ministries. Beaver and Kathy started going back
and forth between Haiti and North America for ten years before making a permanent
move to Haiti in 2011. They now work in
an extremely impoverished community called Jubilee. There’s a garbage dump, several shacks, muddy
roads, sewage streams, and salt flats.
You can choose to see the brown ugliness of it all, or you can choose to
see the beauty. Papa Beaver and Mama
Kathy choose to see the beauty.
Kathy’s vision entails taking things that others consider
trash and making them into something beautiful.
She started collecting trash from the rubbish dump in Jubilee and
teaching the local women how to turn it into beautiful jewelry. Years ago, she told the Haitian women of
Jubilee that one day foreigners would be fighting over what they had. The Haitians laughed at Kathy. Not too long after, they began to sell the
jewelry and stunning art they’d rescued from the dumps and transformed into
masterpieces. Foreigners began coming to
visit the project, and some literally fought over who got what--all wanting to
buy the stunning art. The Haitian women
who had once laughed at Kathy stopped in awe.
Mama Kathy smiled; she’d seen the beauty in Jubilee all along.
Kathy named their line of jewelry and products “Second Story
Goods.” She said their materials have
been rescued from the trash, but now they are being used for something
beautiful. They are on their second
story. And this story is a good one.
People like Kathy and Beaver will change the nation of
Haiti. They already are. Martina and Karly and Bobby and Helen as
well—they are vital agents for the kingdom of God and are calling forth great
change in a small but mighty nation.
I suppose the line of Kathy’s products sum up the heart of
Haiti best. Truly, this nation is on its
second story. The first story I heard
about Haiti was poverty and strife. But
its second story will be transformation, prosperity, and hope. I am so honored that God brought me to Haiti
at such a significant time and connected me to such amazing people. I am so humbled that He let me and my
teammates sprinkle fuel onto this country, and I can’t wait to hear news of an
explosion really soon.
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