As of 11:00 PM, Monday, March 22 most of the members of the team are still en route home. Part of the team was delayed leaving Port-au-Prince airport due to the arrival of Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. The airport was shut down, causing them to miss connecting flights in Miami, which will put them arriving home Tuesday morning.
For the members that went through Ft. Lauderdale, they were delayed due to mechanical problems several times and eventually Spirit Airlines told them they could not get the team members on a flight till Tuesday night, March 23. As a last result, they rented a car in Ft. Lauderdale and drove to TN. As of 5:00 AM Tuesday they were driving through Gainesville, FL headed north on I-75.
Word of advice for future travelers: stay away from Spirit airlines, even if they are the cheapest ticket into Haiti.
I will share a few remaining stories with you and then conclude with thoughts from the team members.
When medical staff or other volunteers leave for home they wait for their ride in a central location on the grounds of Project Medishare www.medishare.org.
It is very obvious when team members are coming and leaving. John, who is a Physical Therapist, came up when our team started to leave and spoke to Mark Partin thanking us for our work over the past week. John became very emotional as he shared his story.
John is in his mid twenties and he grew up in a Southern Baptist Church. He shared that his heart was very hard toward organized religion and the church. He shared that he was turned off by all the people that said they believed one thing on Sunday and did something different Monday - Saturday. He did not want to have anything to do with the church and people who were not authentic in their faith.
He continued to weep and thank our team for being authentic in our faith and willing to love others in the name of Jesus. He shared he had been watching us carefully and with a critical eye. As the week went on, he knew we were real and that our ministry had challenged him to rethink his critical spirit and spiritual condition.
John represents most of the staff in the clinics of Project Medishare. They are here to serve hurting humanity and they do it with passion and energy. They are young adults who have grown up in good homes, received a good education and now they are using their gifts by helping a devastated country. Also the staff comes from all over America and they are a portrait of the spiritual condition of America, a lost people that is in need of a relationship with Jesus Christ.
John represents a group in America who grew up in a good home, received a good education and his parents took him to church. Now he has turned against the church and we now pray God has put a flame in his heart to return and walk with Jesus.
The platform God has given TBDR has served not only the Haitian people but the numerous doctors, nurses and other specialists that have come to work in the clinic.
Project Medishare for Haiti, Inc. was founded in 1994 by doctors Barth Green and Arthur Fournier, who assembled a team of faculty from the University of Miami Schools of Medicine and Nursing to assess the health care situation in Haiti and explore ways in which they could help improve the health conditions there.
Many of the workers here are grateful for the blue shirts and yellow hats of our Disaster Relief workers. They also need encouragement and a continuous flow of Tennessee Baptists to assist them.
If you are going to Haiti in the future, please reach out to the medical staff, say hello to them by name, smile at them, ask them how are things going and share Jesus with them. Walk the walk and talk the talk. People are watching your every step.
In a previous posting I introduced you to Sunzi, he is the little boy on the bike seen in a picture which was posted on March 19. As I shared his story I left out that Sunzi was found in a dump. He was left for dead, but he was found and now he has life, a new mom, getting ready to leave for Alberta to his new home and a new bike. Pray that Sunzi will one day find Jesus.
On my last day I spent time talking with each team member asking him to share the impact this trip was having in his life. Here are some quotes from the other team:
“What stood out the most for me was how the Haitian people continued to live their lives against a backdrop of disaster and devastation. Outsiders marvel, pity and take pictures while they simply keep going, accomplishing as much as they can with brooms, shovels and wheelbarrows. Amazing.”
“Makes we realize how much stuff I have.” “This is beyond anyone’s imagination.” “All the babies and adults still losing life.” “We will continue to see the results of this earthquake for decades.” “The thing they think they need the least in the thing they need the most.”
“Mixed emotions, one minute you are praying with someone that has lost a baby then you step to another cot and you pray for a boy that needs to eat.” “Everywhere you see a Haitian helping another Haitian.” “You see a 13 year old boy helping to clean his dad who lost a mother and wife.” “Humanity is not totally bad a lot of good exist in those who do not know Christ.”
“I am a spoiled American.” “I am growing closer to realization of how blessed I am to have a walk with Jesus to know him when others have never heard his name.” “This country is trying to survive.” “Spiritually we have to count on the Lord everyday as if we don’t have anything.”
Final thoughts, when we arrived in Haiti we went straight to hospital/tents and took a tour of the facility. After that, we got to work.
March 14, we walked in the tent that was designated to house medical supplies. It was about 95 degrees plus high humidity, dusty and full of aisles with shelves made of plywood. There was a lot of stuff on the shelves and just as much stuff in boxes that lined each aisle, and lots of hot sweaty people waiting for us to come in there and straighten things out. We were game. That’s what we’d come to do.
For those that served as Chaplains or in the Medical Supply tent there were the people, patients and doctors who were upbeat, in spite of the circumstance. They were leading the way.
On Saturday afternoon, a few of us broke away from our task and went on a tour of the downtown area. Unbelievable devastation - and that was 40 miles away from the epicenter! But people have moved on with their lives. No one seems to be dwelling on the disaster. They are real survivors. I saw it with my own eyes. People cleaning up the streets, rebuilding their homes and businesses in a way that is slow and tedious that you and I would wonder, “Why bother?” But they are bothering. They're working, building, selling, buying, going to church, everything they were doing before the earthquake. Some have returned to their homes in the day time, but at night, they sleep in tents because they’re afraid of another earthquake.
We all are concerned about the rainy season coming in April, but they're concerned about today, this moment, this time. Every day, they do more, and for the Haitians it doesn’t matter whether they see any progress or not. They’re not trying to impress anyone. They are trying to survive.
It was an experience of a lifetime. Seeing it first-hand is the only thing that allows you fully comprehend what happened, what’s needed and why they have such a long journey ahead of them.
So many people, like us, want to do something, but you have to make sure not only that what you’re doing counts, but that it counts for Jesus. And what counts for Jesus............ is the best thing at the time.
People of faith, get ready, and let’s be there ready to go.
Phil Taylor
Director of Missions
Cleveland, TN
Incredible neonatal nurses.
