Good morning my name is Peggy and this is Valerie and we had the privilege of going on the mission trip to Haiti.
We would like to introduce you to some special people we met in Haiti. This is Emanuel, a Village Champion, who worked for the Mission of Hope, he took us to visit several homes in his Village of Titanyen. One of the homes we visited was his 93 year old Grandmother who is the other person in the picture.
The first thing we noticed was the special bond between Emanuel and his Grandmother. That bond was Jesus Christ. Emanuel shared with us that his Grandmother was in constant prayer for him while he was growing up. That when he came to visit her she would share the Bible with him. As grandmothers ourselves, Valerie and I felt an immediate connection with her.
God provide us with the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Emanuel and his Grandmother because it started pouring and she insisted that we all come into her home to get out of the rain.
Now Valerie will continue the story:
During our morning village time, we would walk with our Village Champions and interpreter and try to engage in conversations with people outside their homes. After each conversation with a villager, we asked them how we could pray for them. But Grandma wanted to pray for us...and boy did she pray. Of course we couldn’t understand any of it but her love for the Lord and us and the power in her prayer was such an encouragement to us. We shared a time of singing hymns in English and Creole - and she was the one doing the dancing and clapping. She also gave us a lesson on the nine points of a faithful Christian walk. Grandma’s life is focused on encouraging everybody she meets to walk faithfully with the Lord through her fervent prayers, godly example and life lessons. Her life has not been easy - physically she’s as poor as anybody we met. She could easily have become bitter with God because of her living conditions. Grandma lives in poverty but is a very wealthy woman spiritually.
During part of our devotions before we left for Haiti, we were encouraged to give up a meal, giving us a small but actual “feel” of what it is to live in poverty. During that time all I could think about was what I couldn’t eat right then and what I would eat at my next meal. We saw the evidence of malnutrition in the bloated tummies and orange tinged hair of the kids. It would be so hard to be focused on a good and loving God when you don’t have enough to eat, have access to clean drinking water, a job to provide for your family or enough clothes to wear. We have our physical needs met in a way the Haitians do not but still need to be encouraged to keep our focus on Christ because of the many distractions that we have in our lives.
Each Village Time afternoon we went to open fields and played with kids, Bruce told them a Bible story, and we handed out water and cookies. Two of our days we painted homes in Titanyen. This was an encouragement to these families who are active in their local churches and are having an impact on others for Christ. When we asked them how we could pray for them, each one wanted us to pray that they remain strong in their faith and finish well. We were told that the Christian men are incredible fathers in a society where intact families are rare.
Each time we go on a missions trip, I try to sift out the main things that I can bring home to apply to my life. Our precious time with Grandma encouraged me to finish well, keep my focus on Christ no matter the distractions of life, and to realize the impact that a godly woman can have.
