The container that arrived last week made me think about a team that visited H2H over Christmas break (while I was in Canada picking up Renel). The team was led by Lia Neufeld - who worked with H2H after the earthquake and handled the logistics of transporting many of the containers. While her family was vacationing in the DR they made a detour and visiting H2H for the first time.
Here are some of their favorite pictures from their trip:
It was a special trip for Lia and her family as they were able to see the impact the containers were having on the local community. Pastor Luc is a member of the Pastor's Association of Grand Goave and he does his aid distributions in partnership with the other local Pastors. "Piles" of items are made around the yard and labeled with each Pastor's name. The Pastors come together, meet & pray, and then take the aid items back to their church. When the items are distributed in the churches each member is encouraged to take a portion and give the rest to someone who needs it more than them. It is a practical way that they can spread the love of God.
Lia's mother, Jane, was on the team and wrote this....
The Container and the Mule
This fall we were having lunch with my brother and his wife planning a Christmas family trip to Dominican Republic and our daughter called and said, “Hey, I’ve got this crazy idea, why don’t we go to Haiti and work in an orphanage as well?” So the plans were made…the first thing we did was ship a few personal items in a container to meet us in Haiti…and then started to pray. The container was filled with 50,000lbs. of donated items for Heart to Heart Childrens Home, along with our few rubbermaid bins to make our stay there more enjoyable, we prayed for an earlier than usual delivery date to Haiti and were thrilled to hear that it reached the home just days before our arrival. We quickly opened it up and made our beds with new sheets and pillows, marveled at our craft items, goodies, clothes for the children and eagerly anticipated our lunch of yummy KD!! It seemed like a small miracle that God gave us to reassure us and say “wherever you go I go before you and make the crooked paths straight” but several days later we saw God’s real miracle of the container.
Over breakfast one morning of white bread(my husbands favorite)oatmeal, PB, fruit and coffee that makes Starbucks seem like dishwater, Pastor Luc told us that today all the Pastors would be arriving from the surrounding area of Grande Goave to share in the goods in the container, slowly, they began arriving, mostly on foot, some on small motos and 1mule. Hundreds of white buckets, hundreds of boxes, vitamins, rice, formula, cans of fruit and vegetables were all spread out in the dusty ground and as I looked over the amazing array of goods I thought about the families and friends that many months ago picked up a bucket, drove to the store and filled them so selflessly for the people in a faraway land called Haiti who were suffering and starving and needed a miracle. Then I watched with a lump in my throat as 50lb. buckets were tied onto the motos, one on each side, a box in front and another bucket tucked behind the driver, a few more tugs on the twine and off they drove out the heavy iron gates to share their precious cargo with their neighbours. Later in the day as we returned home after viewing a local need for a water project we saw an old mule with a wizened old man with a sparkle in his eye loading up straw bags on either side of his mule, he filled the saddlebags each with a bucket and then topped them off with granola bars, rice, and powdered milk until they were overflowing each gift purchased with love long ago for such a time as this. This smiling precious little man of God had walked with his mule 5 long hot hours through the mountains to receive his goods and take them home to his church family. As he prepared to leave he pulled his tattered shoes out of his pouch and I asked Pastor Luc, “what is he doing?” he answered “well, he wore his good shoes to come to town and will change for the walk home to his village shoes.” I was so moved by this dark-skinned, small man and I realized we are the same in our pride and humanness, we are so different, oh so different, yet so similar…I wonder who is more blessed …him or me. We gave him some money and I though how fortunate we were to be able to bless him but as I watched him and his heavy laden mule slowly walk down the rubble road to begin the long, hot and dusty trip home I realized that it was him who had blessed us, I had long forgotten the new sheets and KD and saw through God’s eyes the real miracle of the container. And we thank God for allowing us to be a part of this miracle if His.
Jane Mcbratney, prov.3:6
