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Haiti Mission - Coming Home

Posted on February 14, 2011 by Marlo Jenkins

Our team of 10 returned home from Haiti close to midnight on February 10/11… deeply impacted and changed. People naturally ask the question, “How was your Haiti trip?” I struggle with putting what we experienced and what we saw into words that can come close to conveying the impact we felt. I can honestly say, it’s one thing to see it on TV, but it’s quite another to be there in person and experience the sights, sounds, and smells in person.

We arrived at the Haiti Airport on February 2/11 to see the airport there still with broken windows, cracked walls, and taped off doors, over a year after the quake. As we drove away from the airport, on our right were hundreds and hundreds of tents where people were still living. The temperature was over 30° and I couldn’t imagine being inside one of those tents in that heat. I have traveled to places where poverty is very much a factor… places like Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda. Haiti is the worst in this regard.

Our Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada missionaries in Haiti, Michel and Louise Charbonneau, are completely committed to that country and to the people of Haiti. Their commitment shows when they state emphatically, “We want to die and be buried here.” The Charbonneaus give leadership to a ministry to children (www.haitiministries.com). They have a church for children and youth, and run a school and feeding program. They educate 120 children – that number was much greater before the earthquake. With Child Care Plus (PAOC’s child sponsorship program), that number will continue to increase. On the Sunday we were there, I had the opportunity to do something a little scary… I preached, through an interpreter (into Creole), to 750 children, ages 7 – 12. They then served a meal to all of these children. I also spoke that morning in the youth service to 450 teenagers and young adults. As Michel is in his mid-60’s, a current prayer point for them is someone to take the torch of leadership from them sometime in the next few years.

On Sunday March 13/11 at our Eaglemont Church Sunday Gathering, our Haiti missions team will be giving a report and will share the personal impact of this experience with our church family. Everyone is welcome.