The Place Between My Own Two Feet

A big part of our mission in Haiti is that we live in a community at "The John Paul II Center for the New Evangelization." We live in a community of Haitians and Americans, where only two people speak both languages fluently. We eat all of our meals together, pray together, have mass together, work together, and evangelize together. Everything here takes longer, not only because the Haitian culture is slower than America, but also because everything often has to be translated into two languages. Imagine having a three-hour community meeting. Now imagine having a three-hour community meeting three times in two days. Yes, that has really happened. One morning, our morning prayer took an hour, because in an effort to be united, we decided to pray the first psalm in creole. We found the psalm in a creole song book, and proceded to sing the whole thing together. The only problem was that this particular song had eleven verses. Then we proceeded with the rest of morning prayer. ...

Picture this: seven Haitians teenagers and a white American girl with no rhythm dancing on a stage to the beat of a conga drum (or "tanbou" as they call in Creole). The man playing the drum is named "Ti-roro". He is in his seventies and is also the dance teacher. Yes, he did teach them their dance moves by doing them himself. This was my first of a few experiences dancing with Ti-roro's dance class. Three or four of the girls had grabbed my hands and pulled me onto the stage after asking me to dance with them. I couldn't say no, so I took a dance class for the first time in the 24 years of my life so far. While I have only danced with them a few times, these girls are a part of most of my favorite experiences in Haiti. They often come by after dance class, and even on days when they don't have dance class, just to say hello or hang out with us. One day I was learning Creole from a book, and it was teaching me actions and body parts. As I was readi...

"Ave Maria!" Marc-Arther shouted into a microphone attached to a sound system inside of a truck, while the truck was driving down the street. A line of people walking two by two stretched out next to, in front of, and behind the truck. We were walking late in the afternoon, getting sprinkled with rain. "Pa gen anye Bondye pa ka fe!" Everyone shouted back. It means, "There is nothing God can't do!"  I was amazed that Haitians would come out in the rain, even to walk in a procession for God. The day before I had been walking with a few missionaries and a few Haitians, and when it started to sprinkle, the girls we were with all started running. When I told them I wasn't afraid of the rain, they told me that I would catch a fever. Anyway, about fifty Haitian teenagers had met us at our mission base on that Friday afternoon to begin a procession to one of the local churches, St. Anthony of Padua. We walked for two hours, singing songs in Creole...

After returning to our mission base, another girl walked in and asked one of the other missionaries, Emily, if we could come and pray with one of her friends. I think she may have heard about us praying with Kimberley because they lived pretty close together. Pretty soon, Emily, myself, and Paola (our nurse) were off to another house. This one was slightly different. Their friend had a cough, but otherwise was fine, so we prayed with her for healing. Soon afterwards, they took us to another house to sit and visit. They cut down coconuts from their tree and we sat around talking in the little Creole that we could understand from each other. Pretty soon they were asking for stuff. "Can I have your bag? Can I have your shoes?" This is a common thing that has happened since we have been here. And in all of us, I think there is a generous part of our hearts that wants to give to people who don't have those things. But I know that we must also be careful, and we cannot encour...

Last week we completed our first mission trip with a mission group in Haiti. Nineteen people (all full-time Life Teen missionaries) came to be our guinea pigs as we led them on mission for nine days. I was terrified that we wouldn't have it all together, that we would fall flat on our face, that we wouldn't have enough for them to do, or know enough of the language to be effective, but God provided for all of our weaknesses, and we experienced a beautiful mission trip together. We worked, painted, prayed, visited houses, played basketball & soccer, danced, went to prayer meetings, and hosted a procession and XLT that over 200 Haitian teenagers attended. Because I can't tell you everything, here are some stories and thoughts from one impactful afternoon that I experienced. "I think they want me to go pray with their friend who is sick." I said to Fr. Louis as more than a few 10 - 15 year old Haitian girls began pulling my arms to get me to follow them. This w...