hey guys!
here's an update over the past couple of months...
We left Australia in Nov 2008 for the states and have been staying in beautiful Lake Tahoe, with its snow capped months, and crystal clear lake. We left here, one of the wealthiest and cleanest places in the western world for Haiti last month. (We'd been praying about where to go with our new venture- taking a water purifying unit to places where people die from dirty water. This machine turns salt water into chlorine which can then be used to clean contaminated water). In a matter of 3 days of deciding on Haiti we were in the country, our team included-me (Tash) my husband Chad our daughter Isa, our friend and partner Eddie and a girl we'd only spoken to over the phone, Hana. We all got on famously, which is fortunate as there were some pretty cosy living arrangements at times.
In contrast, Haiti is known as the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and for the past 500yrs has lived under the shadow of much darkness, poverty, evil and death. This is no exaggeration...
Columbus discovered it in 1492 and claimed it for Spain rendering the indigenous population extinct due to murder, forced labor, repression and disease. Then the french came in also wanting control. Farming needs grew as did the need for African slaves, as many as 790 000 slaves were shipped in for only 32 000 white rulers, this was at least a third of the total number of people used in the whole of the slave trade...all in Haiti!! conditions were brutal to say the least, as you can see in this record by one man who lived half his life as a slave:
"have they not hung up men with heads downward, drowned them in sacks, crucified them on planks, buried them alive, crushed them in mortars? Have they not forced them to eat s*#%? And, having flayed them with the lash, have they not cast them alive to be devoured by cauldrons of cane syrup? Have they not put men and women inside barrels studded with spikes and rolled them down mountain sides into the abyss.."
This slave mindset of bondage and hopelessness is still strong even generations later after independence and freedom have been declared. I guess there are some things that are harder to abolish. Voodoo is the dominant religion of Haiti, it focuses on healing, calling up dead spirits, fortune-telling and dream interpretation, casting spells and creating potions. This is done through communication with dead spirits, they raise flags and preform drumming and dancing rituals to attract the spirits which then come and 'mount' or take over their bodies. A Voodoo service has animal sacrifice. By killing the animal one releases life, since the spirits are exhausted from the taxing task of running the universe, so they receive this life released to them and are rejuvenated. A girl i was speaking to about this, says its been known that children have been used in sacrificial ceremonies, she lives near 2 voodoo priests! Another aspect of voodoo is that its generally accepted and expected that the spirits determine lives, there is little use or space for free will and personal responsibility. One does NOT act on ones own, this is counter productive as the spirits have already determined things, and are not very taken with change. This fatalism is hard to comprehend when you witness such poverty and lack of willingness, power or vision to struggle for freedom. When you ask a child their dreams for the future you are often met with a vacant look, this broke my heart as I have never seen a nation filled with such talent that is wasting away.
If you squint you can imagine the paradise Haiti once was, now the beaches and towns carry a stench from the rotting filth and trash, dust settles on everything and fades out the color of what used to be. We saw women and young children climbing down a 20 foot vertical drop into a cave to collect 5 gallons of muddy water which they would then balance on their head and walk bare foot over the sharp rocks for hrs. That same water would then in turn cause them to vomit and have diarrhea from drinking it. They would bath in it occasionally and get scabies as a result. The recent storms and hurricanes devastated their meager crops and children, fathers and mothers, old and young would starve to death. Last month over 30 people died in one small village we visited. So how do you fall in love with a place like this? The people. Jesus gave us His heart for them and asked what would we do in response?
It was an incredible month for us, we saw MANY miracles, here's a couple:
We stayed at an orphanage and would go into the town to find sick people to help and pray for, one of them was named Salvadore, he'd recently been involved in a motorcycle accident and was limited to crutches due to the intense swelling and pain in his leg, as the boys prayed for him he immediately got healed, as the pain left he began weeping and was overwhelmed by the presence and love of God that was tangible in the room, the following days he was out walking and driving around town! Another guy on the street we met couldn't walk without a cane and after prayer carried his cane away on his shoulder. A woman with painful eyes and blurry vision could see clearly for the 1st time in yrs and no longer had pain when Jesus healed her, we saw her 3 days later and she was still smiling! For me the most memorable healing was a little baby that was carried into the clinic i was working in, he'd been having diarrhea for more than a week and was pale and non-responsive, the clinic was a shambles and poorly stocked, i had no IV fluids to give and felt very helpless as i turned them away with a little bottle of oral fluids and a prayer. I felt the baby would be fortunate to make it through the night, I couldn't sleep and kept praying hoping to see the mother bring him back in the morning...as i was thinking about them and wondering how that could happen in a crowd of 100s of sick people she appeared at the door holding her baby. He was happily playing in her arms and full of life and color. I said, Jesus healed your baby, and she responded, if it wasn't for Jesus they wouldn't be there!
We set up 8 water purifying machines which means up to 40, 000 people now have access to free clean water. We will return in early march to follow up on the success of this and distribute even more, we also want to go back as soon as possible because there is a huge need to help the children there. in one small mountain village where we stayed for one week almost 100% of the patients i treated there were under 5 y.o. Many of them have been abandoned or orphaned due to the extreme poverty. people are resorting to selling their children or bodies for to price of a meal! When I asked what was in place to help the children or being done for them the response came "nothing". The generous man I was speaking to then took us for a walk to view his 2 properties and asked which one we'd like to start a children's home! I chose the one on the high ground overlooking the ocean, it even has fruit trees on it!! We have some local house parents in mind and have already met some of the kids. hopefully we will start building as soon as march!
One final story, of the many, we met a man in his cocoa plantation that invited us to his home, he had been serving voodoo for many yrs and as Eddie shared his story of how he had also been into similar practices and then came to know Jesus as a friend and the freedom that he now enjoys the man said only last week he had a dream where he took all his voodoo stuff and threw it into the ocean and wanted to know Jesus! His face was beaming as we left..
If any of this speaks to you let us know...become part of the adventure!! life is so good!!
After being in Haiti for 2 or 3 more weeks we are going to Cambodia. Thanks for all the prayers and support! God is so very good, a loving father, friend and provider!! Praise HIM!!
Here i have seen things rare, and profitable;
things pleasant and dreadful,
things to make me stable in what i have begun to take in hand;
then let me think on them, and understand....
pure and undefiled religion before God is this:
to visit orphans and widows in their trouble..
James 1v27
Love Tash, chad, Isa and Eddie
ps.
Isa had her 1st birthday at the orphanage in Haiti, we played pass the parcel, musical chairs, and ate lots of banana cake!! she rocked the nation, and absolutely loved it!
