Maranatha - worth the wait!

Maranatha is strange word.  In the Greek New Testament, it stands alone as an Aramaic word used by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 16:22.  Paul used it as a play on words, having just penned the word "anathema" in Greek to describe those who do not submit to Christ, he then employs the similar-sounding word to express the opposite, a hope in the return of Christ.  Even though scholars debate the exact meaning of the word, the church has generally interpreted the word to mean, "Come quickly, Lord," referring to the second and final return of Christ.

In Haiti, a place where focussing on the present can be depressing and looking ahead to a bright future is a necessary posture of hope, many things are called Maranatha.  Not just congregations, but lottery stops, beauty salons, and of course, water trucks.  Seeing these around town brings a smile to my face as I think about the meaning of the word and of a congregation I used to call home.

In the rest of North America, many congregations, eager to name themselves after a posture of faith in the return of Jesus, and perhaps more with an eye to sounding spiritual than sounding relevant (there were many times in Cambridge I was asked why we were called Marathon Church), this word became the name of many congregations.  There is a great congregation of Christ-followers in Cambridge, Ontario called "Maranatha."  I had the privilege of serving them as pastor for the past decade and many of my closest friends join me in calling the Maranatha family, their family.  Check them out at www.maranathacrc.com

Maranatha is our sending church as missionaries to Haiti.  While there are a number of other congregations who have invested time, money, and prayer into our work here, Maranatha is the one whose members raised a full 25% of our funding and who held the commissioning service to send us here.  Though our years together as pastor and congregation are over, our affection for and support of one another continues.  This is a deep blessing to me and to our family as we follow God's leading while no longer being a part of Maranatha's daily life.

Given all of these "warm fuzzies" you can imagine our delight that a large part of these two months -- January and February -- involves working with short-term missionaries from Maranatha who come and join us in the work here.  Let me tell you about this:

On January 5th, Clare Streutker joined us (wow! It is hard to believe he has been here nearly three weeks already!).  Clare, who owns and manages SKC Construction in Cambridge, has taken nearly two months off from work and come here to Haiti to oversee work teams and manage the construction project of building a significant and strategic addition to the leadership training center used by "Ministry of Christian Development" to train pastors and church leaders around Haiti to do practical, transformative, community-building work.  The first two weeks that Clare was here we had the privilege of hosting him in the apartment attached to our home and having him be a part of our daily life as he prepared for and then led the team from Immanuel Brampton at the work site.  It was a personal joy and ministry to me to have a good friend from Maranatha here with me as I showed him around and oriented him and as he connected with and joked around with my children.

Last week Saturday, the 17th, when the team from Maranatha came, Clare, who was then joined by his wife Sandra, moved to the Ministry Center Guest House to be with the Maranatha team and to make space in the apartment here for the Prince family, also of Maranatha.  While it was sad to see Clare move from our apartment to the Ministry Center Guest House, it was a new joy to have the Prince family stay with us.  You might think that having another family stay with you for ten days would be taxing but our time with the Princes, too, has been a great time of joy as we show them around Haiti.  While the rest of the Maranatha team is here for the work project, the Prince family with their three children aged 14, 12, and 11, are here on a "Look, Listen, Learn" trip spending each day with a particular focus -- history, children, poverty, education, markets -- learning about Haiti.

Some of our days are spent together with the two teams, like this past Wednesday when we all went to Restavek Freedom (www.restavekfreedom.org) to learn about the 300,000 child slaves in Haiti, and the afternoon when we toured the facilities of The Apparent Project (www.apparentproject.org) where the lives of 250 families are being changed as garbage is being turned into artwork and sold around the globe.  This coming Sunday we will travel into the mountains south of Port-au-Prince to see the work "Ministry of Christian Development" as they partner with a congregation and community in Badyo.  Next Monday, the Princes, Charles VanLingen, and the rest of the team return to Canada while Clare and Sandy head off to the Dominican Republic for three days of work there.  By Friday the 30th, we will have Clare back in our apartment hosting a team of 12 people from Woodland Christian High School.  These days are moving by rather quickly.

Despite the extra work of meals, laundry, shuttling, and lack of sleep all this extra activity brings, it has been deeply valuable to us as a family and we look forward with joy to the second wave of folks coming in February including the Woodland High group, a group of young adults led by Jon and Bethany Streutker, and a team including three young adults from Maranatha.  Mere words cannot communicate how encouraging it is to have all of these friends among us.  Like the return of Jesus, it has been worth the wait!  

Immanuel Brampton

For months, I have been looking forward to the team from Immanuel in Brampton to be with us.  They have a special place in our hearts for three reasons, now four.  First, our friends, Erick and Ruth Ann Schuringa serve them as pastor and worship director.  Since Erick and Ruth Ann were coming as part of the team, we were simply looking forward to spending time with them;  Second, Immanuel's Ministry Director, Lesley Toussaint, was a part of the Sous Espwa team during her years in Haiti and so they came with a special connection to Haiti; Third, Immanuel is one of our supporting congregations.  Not only have they taken a number of offerings for us, but they regularly send us notes of encouragement and remember us in prayer, an exemplary way of engaging missionaries.

The fourth reasons they have a special place in our hearts is because of the way God used our week with them to deepen an already meaningful relationship.  Let me tell you how.

Our week with them began with a weekend trip to Jacmel, about three hours from Port-au-Prince.  On the drive there and back, we had a chance to have conversation and to hear there hopes for what God would do in them through this trip.  Some of them had been to Haiti before -- Al Bloemendal, Renee VanderKooy, and Anna Afful -- but Iona Buisman and Erick and Ruth Ann had not.  We listened as they adjusted to the driving conditions in Haiti, trying to resist coaching the driver with words like "watch out", "yikes", and "everybody lean to the left as we go around this corner."  But more, we listened to their hopes for the way this trip might change them, and by extension, shape the congregation they serve and love to serve and love the community back home in Brampton.

In Jacmel, we enjoyed seeing the natural beauty of Bassin Bleu where we swam, the picturesque cove on the Caribbean Sea where our hotel was for the Saturday night, and the deeper beauty of the movement of the Spirit in a Creole worship service at the Christian Reformed Church in Jacmel where Erick delivered (with the help of an interpreter) a solid and meaningful message.

Throughout the week, our times with the team from Immanuel were occasions of joy, whether at the work site or touring around Port-au-Prince, or in our home sharing dinner and conversation.  Throughout the week, one of the things the Immanuel team was burdened with was deciding where to spend some money given them by an individual back home.  This gift provided them with a real way of wrestling through the issues of providing meaningful support to ministries in Haiti and thinking through their and Immanuel's longer-term commitment to ministry in Haiti.

Over the first four months of our being here, our oldest and youngest daughters - Erin and Meghan - have been volunteering in two different Christian schools -- Adoration (www.adoration.net) and Maison de Lumiere (www.childhope.org).  On Thursday the 15th while they were at our home, they asked the girls to tell them more about these schools, listening to their stories and seeing a video presentation Meghan had put together a few months ago.  On the Saturday afternoon over lunch, the Immanuel Team shared with Carol and I that while their congregation's longer term commitment with Haiti would be in an area more directly related to the work of the CRC in Haiti, they felt called to give the money they had with them to be divided equally among the two schools Erin and Meghan are serving and for Erin and Meghan to determine how best to invest the funds.

As you can imagine, this was an incredible encouragement to us as parents.  When we first voiced the possibility of coming to Haiti over a year ago, Erin and Meghan were quick to commit a year of their lives to this serving and growth opportunity.  Like us, they have experienced the challenge of doing ministry in a country with broken infrastructure and diminished expectations.  Like us, they have wondered if their work was making any difference at all.  For them to have the Immanuel Team recognize the value of their work and to back that up with meaningful support that helps our daughters dream bigger, this was an incredible gift.  It is also the fourth reason the Immanuel Team has a special place in our hearts.

Though we were looking forward to the 17th because that would be the arrival of the team from our home congregation of Maranatha, Cambridge, we were also sad that the 18th would come and our friends from Immanuel would be on their way home.  They left behind a family deeply encouraged because of their words, their actions, and simply their presence.  If you are part of Immanuel, give a hug to any from the team -- Renee, Anna, Iona, Al, Ruth Ann, or Erick -- and tell them they left a little piece of themselves here in Haiti, in our hearts.  

Update on Jameson

It's been four months since the day I met Jameson at the Child Hope Feeding program.  I know that many of you have been praying for him over the past four months, so I thought I would give an update. 

The morning after we met Jameson, Susette (the founder of Child Hope) told Jameson's aunt that she could bring him to the Child Hope Boys Home in the morning and he would be provided food there.  Since Jameson was very weak, Susette offered to take him into her home to nurse him back to health and get him the necessary medication from the Child Hope medical clinic.  As Jameson started eating more, the muscles in his little body were not able to cope with processing the food and after a few days, Susette brought him to the hospital where he was admitted.  His hospital stay lasted a month.  He slowly regained his strength.  Jameson's aunt told his father about the situation and requested that he go to the hospital daily to take care of his son.  As it turns out, the father was diagnosed with TB and was also receiving medical care, but somehow still went to the hospital from time to time to care for his son.  Susette brought him food on a regular basis as families generally need to provide food for hospitalized patients if they are to eat anything beyond rice and bean sauce and Jameson's family was not able to provide food for him. 

On the day Jameson was released from the hospital, he and his father were at Susette's door and the father asked Susette if she would please take care of Jameson because he knew that he was unable to care for his son.  Unfortunately, many of the children in orphanages in Haiti have families that are not able to care for their children.  Some are deserted and others are dropped off at orphanages.  Susette took him in and at this point he is still living with her and her family. The future is unclear and we trust that God's plan will be fulfilled in this little boy's life.  At this point, the Child Hope orphanage is at capacity.  

At the beginning of December, Jameson started school at Maison de Lumiere, the school that is part of the Child Hope Organization where Meghan is volunteering.  Jameson is actually in her class! He is gaining weight and looking healthy and his spunky personality is coming through.    

Thank you for your prayers for Jameson.  Please continue to pray for him and his father and extended family as well as the family who is currently caring for him.    

 Jameson on his first day of school

Jameson in front of the door to the school with the principal, Ivens

     

Jameson at his Christmas Program at Maison de Lumiere

tranbleman de te

January 12, 2010.  Almost 5 pm, just before sunset, the ground began to shake.  It wasn't a big water truck going by, a large sound people often hear in Port-au-Prince.  It wasn't a tropical storm.  It was an earthquake, a "tranbleman de te."

On that night, chaos, fear, death, and for months afterward, aftershocks.  In a country already on its knees economically, politically, socially, and nearly every other way, it was now, in the words of one pastor here, "being kicked in the teeth."

As doctors flooded the country from around the globe, bodies began to line the sidewalks, stacked outside those clinics and hospitals which were not already flattened in the quake.  Rescue crews, usually working with bare hands, frantically scratched their way through rubble, desperate to rescue those they hoped were still alive inside.  Those not crushed to death by buildings submitted crushed legs and arms to the surgeon's knife and, sometimes saw, creating a population of amputees who five years later are seen hobbling up crooked sidewalks on canes or sitting in the shade with a tin cup to receive from those who have Gourdes (currency) in their pocket and compassion in their hearts.  Those who bear no physical scars have scars none-the-less, deep inside.  One friend suggested, "all Haitians are suffering from PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)."  Our five months here so far have shown us enough that this is at least believable.

This past Monday, in addition to being a critical day politically as the senate was dissolving and the President is now ruling unchecked, was also the 5th anniversary of the "tranbleman de te."  I was with Clare Streutker and the team from Immanuel Christian Reformed Church in Caledon/Brampton over the weekend on a trip to Jacmel and Leogane, and so I woke up the morning of the 12th in Leogane, the very epicentre of the quake five years earlier.  The contrast was palpable as we awoke in the peace and calm of a large guest house property, enjoyed a grand breakfast of papaya, avocado, eggs, bread and coffee, and packed up our things to head back into Port-au-Prince.

Clare and I were on the road early, wanted to be through downtown Port-au-Prince before any "manifestations" or protests began.  As we drove through the suburbs between Leogane and Port-au-Prince, the largest of which is Carrefour, the streets were unusually quiet.  Even the trip through the bustling downtown of Port-au-Prince, though fairly busy, was virtually void of horn-honking, impatience, or hawking vendors.  It was as if the entire nation was holding its breath for the day.

As alluded to above, Haiti had two reasons to pause Monday.  One was the obvious remembrance of the earthquake.  People who had been burying memories too painful to recall were recalling them anyway.  Churches were beginning services early in the day, songs echoing off ravine neighborhoods in rich and poor sections alike.  Again, as on that day five years ago, all Haitians had something to unite around.  Pain, remembrance, and questions which ultimately would not be answered.

The congregation where our family normally attends worship services, Quisqueya Chapel, held a service at 4pm, wanting to be sure to be in worship at 4:53, the local time that the 7.0 earthquake struck.  There would not be an additional 52 services for the 52 aftershocks of 4.5 or greater that occurred in the two weeks after, so this one service would be our worshipping communities one remembrance.

In a scene reminiscent of 2010 where people were afraid to go indoors, we met out on the soccer field rather than in the chapel, sitting in a large circle of chairs.  There would be no one main speaker or leader; we were there to share -- in story, song, scripture, grief, and hope.

a circle of remembrance

a participant offering a solo of hope sung in Haitian Creole

 Pastor Bobby Boyer made it clear that this was a time of sharing, of grieving, of hoping.  He welcomed any and all to contribute in any way they felt led.  The circle started small, as did the participation, but eventually stories and songs and scripture and prayers cascaded upon one another.  A few brought guitars and song sheets, one brought a recorder or maybe it was a flute.  All brought heavy hearts.  No one brought answers.  Haiti, in addition to the 10,000,000 whose ancestral origin hails from Africa from where they were brought as slaves in the 1700's, is also a country of NGO's.  In addition to the nearly 20,000 foreign troops in Haiti, there are countless Non-Governmental Organizations, mostly faith-based, who do work in nearly every sector -- health, infrastructure, faith, community building, etc.  These NGO workers seem to hail from every corner on the planet.  In the service we heard stories of Haitians and of folks from Britain, Kenya, Canada, and the United States.
At the end of the service, Pastor Bobby pulled pastoral privilege and appointed me to lead in a parting blessing.  I knew he would as the Holy Spirit had been preparing in me something that needed to be said.  While I can't recall my exact words, I spoke first about the great and terrible power of the tranbleman de te and how its power is a devastating destructive power which has impacted us all.  I then spoke about the greater power, of the Holy Spirit, who is continually active throughout Haiti in and through the work of God's people, reminding all there of the words of 1 Corinthians 12 "Now you are the body of Christ, each of you is a part of it" and of 1 Corinthians 6 that each of them are temples of the Holy Spirit, and that as Paul wrote in Philippians 1:6, "He who has began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus."

In a place where the economic and social aftershocks of the earthquake continue to reverberate, this posture of faith is a secure place.  It is also the safest place to be as we consider the second reason Haiti had to hold its breath Monday:  politics.

Politically Haiti has nearly always been an unstable place.  A country barely 200 years old (independence was 1804), Haiti has seen more than their fair share of presidential coups and assassinations.  In fact, of the 44 Presidents so far, only 8 have served their full term.  This carries into recent history as 9 Presidents have been overthrown since the end of World War II.

Monday January 12, 2015 was a day of breath-holding politically as that was the day that terms of office of Senators would expire, effectively dissolving the parliament, and leaving President Michel Martelly with the legal right to rule by decree.  In a country where the population has memories of past dictatorial rule, and where corruption is an assumed norm, this is, to put it mildly, not ideal.

And so, the parliament has dissolved, the country has not spiralled into deeper chaos than it is already in, although it could.  Each day, we who are filled with the Spirit are called to pray and work and hope against the grain of despair and disorder that mark daily life here.  We pray that the power of renewal and rebuilding will overwhelm the forces of destruction and that one day, when people of Haiti refer to "the quake" they will be referring to that greater power of God making all things new.