I'm ending week 5 here and I haven't been willing to go to a tent city until today (my heart already breaks for the kids that I see on the street daily, so I didn't want to have an emotional meltdown in a tent city...been really cautious about going). The street I live on is pretty nice and rebuilt...there wasn't severe damage from the earthquake. But as I walk down the street and turn a corner, there are not only collapsed houses, but also large tent cities. Many of the kids that come to our feeding program live there and Scottie, one of the missionaries here, usually walks a few of the kids home to meet their families and pray for them. I decided to join him today.
So I went with six other missionaries and about thirteen kids from the feeding program. It was hard to walk through the wet dirt, shabby tents, and see kids with holey shirts to no clothes, and soooo many people living there. It broke my heart...especially to think of what it's like when there's massive storms or really hot days. One of the little girls, Melicia, brought me to her tent which was actually fairly big relative to other ones. It was actually wood panels with a tarp on top. The entrance of the "house" had a sheet and Melicia, with a big smile, opened the sheet to show me the inside. Her father sat in his boxers washing clothes inside a bin while her mother was in the back on one of the bunk beds. I felt awkward, honestly. Feeling like I was being a bit intrusive as Melicia invited me to come in. Although her parents were very cordial, I decided to stay outside.
During this time, our team of people were praying for one of the feeding program girl's mom and I stood on the side holding one of the small boys. I was praying from where I was and noticed there were four young women that were standing by and watching, one was holding a baby. They were smirking, talking in Creole, looking at both me and another young missionary, Arielle, and from their body language, were not saying very nice things. One of them, at one point, even brushed Arielle's arm in a kind of mocking way. I continued to pray and sing quietly that God's glory would be revealed to them. After the team prayed for the mom, Scottie looked at the young woman holding the baby and asked if she had anything to pray for. She laughed awkwardly and didn't know what to say at first. Then she said that she wanted prayer for her baby because the baby was sick. So Dena, one of the missionaries held the baby and they prayed. The baby's countenance was so happy and the mom began to laugh. I think she just didn't know how to react.
Meanwhile, I moved closer to the three other young women who were standing by and talking trash about us. Then one of them pulled out an envelope with pictures and handed it to me. It was pictures of a cute small boy that I assumed was one of their sons. They then pointed out that this little boy was sitting on the side on the ground...he only had a shirt on, no pants...sitting on the ground. I told them thank you for sharing the pictures and said that the little boy was so cute. I asked them each their name...I forgot the first girl's name but the other girls names were Christella and Jessica. When I met Jessica, I quickly said, "Mwen rele Jessica." My name is Jessica! For weeks, two of the little girls from the feeding program have been telling me they had a older sister named Jessica, so it was exciting to finally meet her. Anyways, these three hardened women all smiled and somehow I felt their preconceived notions about me diminish. I'm sure it also helped that I tried to communicate in Creole. The missionaries finished praying for the woman and her baby and we moved up two tents to pray for another mom of a feeding program child. I bid buh-bye to the four women, and Jessica actually followed us to the next tent. :)
The lady we prayed for next was such a sweetheart. She was so thankful, gracious, and praying for blessings for Haiti. I was so happy to be able to witness that.
And to wrap it all up, we started making our way out of the tent city. Our last turn before we exited, we could hear a man yelling and a woman and child screaming. It was starting to get dark, I felt uneasy about staying in the tent city any longer, so me and two others headed straight back home. However, Scottie and two other missionaries stayed back to intervene. Scottie asked one of the Haitian men standing nearby if he could go in and check on the tent they were hearing noises from. It was clear that both the woman and boy were getting beat by the man. The man emerged from the tent, stunned and embarrassed to see the missionaries and a dozen kids staring at him. He started to make excuses for what he was doing, but he was still really embarrassed. His little boy emerged in tears and his face covered. Scottie was able to pray for the man before they left.
God is so good. He cares about revealing His Fatherly love to a boy and wife who at that moment thought no one would deliver them. And He cares about redeeming the life of one man who thought that violence was the answer to his situation at that moment. Our God is a God who is mighty to save!
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