Vacation In Haiti

We’ll it’s been a long time since I posted and part of the reason was our families vacation in Haiti. What I’d like to do for the next series is post a summary of our days activities to give you a glimpse of what we saw. This post will be a summary of why we choose to take our family, kids and all, to the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

The first thing most people ask us when they heard we were going to Haiti was “Are you going on a mission trip?” The answer for us was a resounding no. We were going there for our vacation, plain and simple. You see we’ve done a trip to Haiti before, we’ve done the resorting vacation, and we’ve done the adventure vacation. I can assure you that we have much more memories, and much fonder memories, of our last trip to Haiti than any of the others. Not that we were going to be lounging around while people starved around us, we would be looking for ways to connect and help out where we could. It’s making the connection with others, and perhaps making one persons life a little easier, that have made the past trips so meaningful.

The second thing most people wanted to ask us is if it was a mission trip. The answer is a resounding yes. Part of focusing on our life’s priorities is not doing things that don’t have a purpose and doing more of the things that move us to our goals. The trip to Haiti was one of these things. We had a very specific purpose in mind: To introduce our oldest daughter to another culture, and to show her poverty first hand. We hoped that this would re-enforce in her a heart of compassion for those in difficult situations and help her appreciate how fortunate we are. You see we have spent a lot of time talking about poor people, we’ve written many letters to her sponsor child, we regularly pray for her sponsor child and her family, we’ve helped our daughter give money, clothes, and food to the poor but she has never really seen what it means to be poor.

Our secondary goal was to begin establishing our own relationships with people in Haiti so we could better understand some of the countries social issues, so we could continue to return to Haiti in the future, and so we would have connections through which to help others.

But why Haiti? That’s simple. First, there is a lot of poverty in Haiti which provides ample opportunities for people of all ages, skills, and financial ability to show compassion. Second, it’s very close and relatively inexpensive to get to. Third, our Church will be sponsoring a couple to begin building a program in Haiti to employ orphans (after graduation) while teaching them practical skills (like agriculture and literacy) to be put in practice in the local villages in a Jesus focused environment. The more we know and understand about Haiti the better advocates we will be for their work. Finally we choose Haiti for the heat. Hey, I said this was a vacation right?

One thing I am going to do throughout these posts is focus on the positive. I don’t wan’t to give you the false impression that there isn’t a lot of poverty because there is. And yes, I’m aware of the recent food riots. What I would like to do is encourage you that there is hope, and that there are many ways that you could be part of the solution.