Ode to Hibiscus in Haiti

Yesterday I needed to write a few Thank You's and searched out some Haiti-inspired greeting cards that I designed a few years ago, just after Hannah was born and my creative brain was bursting. I haven't touched the cards for a couple of years, but you may have seen them in the OMS Haiti gift shop. 

Last night I got a message from Jill, whose daughter Annie wants to memorize one of my poems (featured on a greeting card) for a Recitation class, but can't find her copy. Here it is, Annie!

 Ode to Hibiscus in Haiti -- by Kate Michel, written 2007

I wake and sense the cool of the morning
in what the Arawaks rightly called
Ayiti, the 'land of mountains'.
I step outside and its beauty
takes my breath away. The
tightly-knotted hiding place
slowly unfolding to embrace
all that the day holds.
It reaches out its petals,
like the layers of rich fabric in the skirts of a
lady of bygone days. Its
extravagant glory proclaiming that
God is still on His throne in this troubled land. 

Hannah's Poem: What MLK Jr. Means to Me

A while ago, Hannah came home from school with a poem she had written in advance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day (a school holiday here in the USA, was on Monday). What she wrote is poignant not only for what she's saying about Martin Luther King Jr., but for what she is saying about herself.

Earlier this week, she was jumping up and down excited to tell us she'd heard her name in the school announcements - she'd won a prize for her poem. And a gift card!

Turns out it was a contest for the whole school district, and Hannah was presented with a certificate and gift card by Tony McClendon, the school district's Director of Multicultural Diversity.

Thanks for these photos from class, Mrs Bless!

We are so proud of you, Hannah!

This is what Martin Luther King Jr. means to me

By Hannah Michel, aged 8 

He helped give choices to black people like me.
He didn't even stop for tea.
For everyone to be alike, uncompared.
Even the people who thought they were better, he cared.
Without him and a few other heroes,
I wouldn't go to school,
I'd be a zero.
So he has changed the lives of many,
I will [not] spare my every penny.
Thank you Martin Luther King.
He has [not] spared his everything.

Image from http://www.harrisonburgva.gov/martin-luther-king-jr-day

A Listener's Tears

Storly got back from Haiti late last night. As we looked through his photos from the 5-day trip (for the new AM towers dedication service), he told me this story from Friday's evangelism and solar radio distribution outreach in Phaeton, an old factory town of a few thousand people living with no electricity on the coast of north east Haiti. 

And the tears started rolling down my cheeks. 

Storly said:

I was walking around the village, checking on each of our teams. As I was passing by one home, a small one-roomed home, I noticed an old man sat alone inside. He was listening to 4VEH on a solar radio. One of our teams must have come by here already and given him this radio.

I asked if I could talk with him, so I went in and we started talking. I said "I see you have a radio. That's great that you're listening to 4VEH."

He told me his name is Ethius. He said, "I'm so very grateful for this new radio because my eyes are bad, I can't read anymore. But I can listen to the Bible now."

He showed me his well-worn Bible. He said, yes, he was a believer in Jesus, he used to be a deacon at church. But now his eyesight is fading and he can't read anymore, and limited in what he can do, he knows the radio will be a constant companion.

While we were talking, one of the guys we were working with from the local church came into the room and asked him, "Do you  know who you're talking to?"

He said "No, ...we were just talking."

The guy from the church told him, "That's Storly."

And he said: "Storly Michel??!?"

[This name meant so much to him - the name behind the voice of Bib la, the daily Bible reading in Haitian Creole; of Atravè Labib, the Thru The Bible study from Genesis to Revelation radio program; the voice of the director of the radio station that means so much to him...The voice of my husband who means so much to so many people. How amazing is that?!?!]

Ethius' response? 

He started crying. 

He said "Thank you God, I'm so happy. I never knew I would meet Storly Michel in my life. And now here he is, I'm talking with him. Thank you God!"

"God sent you to me today!"

It's hard to find words to sufficiently explain the connections, the relationships, the deep gratitude, the strong bonds of fellowship, the brotherly sisterly love of Christ that grows between those who speak into the microphone to minister and those who listen, who sit under their Bible teaching, worship, prayer, encouragement ministry day after day, month after month, year after year. 

And Radio 4VEH is blessed with a strong heritage of faithful-to-Christ voices who minister through the microphone - and blessed by so many faithful listeners, some who have listened to 4VEH for more than 50 years. 

The paradox of radio, a mass medium. Able to reach millions of listeners at the same time, yet intimate and personal. One person speaking to one person. One person listening to one person. 

Storly speaking to Ethius. Ethius listening to Storly. 

Not My (Travel) Plans

Be Flexible!

One of the things we stress when we're working with people preparing to go to Haiti on a short-term mission trip is this: plans will change, so be flexible.

Everything we outline is"draft". We won't know exactly our daily schedule, the locations of our planned outreach or how the days will go until it happens.

Lots of people, especially those with Type-A personalities, aren't comfortable hearing that.

But the fact is, there is so much out of our control, and we can be delayed, redirected, refocused by many things. By bad weather. Road blocks. By a stolen truck battery. By sensing a bigger need somewhere other than where we had planned.

November trip to Haiti: Delays! :(

So when I was delayed getting to Haiti first week of November, first by one late flight meaning I missed my connection into Cap-Haitien, and then for two days by heavy rains in Cap-Haitien, it was another opportunity to live out the "Be Flexible" motto. And I haven't got some deep insight into the purpose for me spending three days in Miami, between airport and hotel, hotel and airport, airport and hotel (you get the picture).

When I eventually arrived in Cap-Haitien, on Tuesday (instead of Saturday), it was with great relief to finally be there. During the flight from Miami, the pilot announced at some point that the Cap-Haitien airport was actually still closed (because of bad weather, heavy rains, flooding the last three days) and if it didn't open by the time we needed to land there, we would be rerouting to Port-au-Prince. So when we did land, it was a great relief.

Met up with fellow OMS missionary Gwen at the departure gate, and another mission team
going to northern Haiti. When flights were cancelled, we spent some time together.   

 

Glad to be safely on the ground in Cap-Haitien.

Gwen and me, soaking wet from the walk/run from the airplane steps
to the now-fabulously renovated terminal building in Cap. 

So, there were drips of water coming through the ceiling...we were just glad to be there.

Of course, whatever I'd planned for my team's visit was, well, shot to pieces. But not to worry. They degaje'd. (NB: Degaje - essential word to learn in Creole. Means 'make do with what you've got, make the best of it'.)

--

P. S. More on what we actually did do coming soon. Right now, the girls and neighbour friend are clomping around the house in my high-heels. Storly's in Haiti with a team for the official dedication of the new AM radio towers at Petite Anse - they were out today doing outreach in Phaeton in north east Haiti, working with the local church to share the Gospel and give out solar radios. Looking forward to hearing how it went.

P.P.S. It's actually above freezing here - and sunny. The frigid cold hasn't stopped me going out running though. I'll tell you that story soon too. Blessings to you for a lovely weekend wherever you are!

Haiti, We Remember

Haiti, we remember. 

I remember having two wisdom teeth out earlier that day. A friend came by with ice-cream and said, "Have you heard? There's been an earthquake in Haiti." We switched on the news, and my heart broke. 

I remember hours upon frantic hours of phone-calls, Facebook chats, Skype calls, trying to locate people - Storly's family members in Port-au-Prince, my former colleagues from World Vision. (We knew the 4VEH/OMS community in the north were not physically affected, but were providing help). I remember praying for people by name around the kitchen table with our small group. (After 5 days, we heard Storly's family were all safe). 

I remember searching the UN Haiti website, hoping not to see a friend's name on their list of staff who died when their offices collapsed. 

I remember friends from around the world calling, texting, emailing, wanting to check on us, and on our people in Haiti. Estelle, your call from Senegal meant so much. 

I remember being in constant contact with our colleagues at Radio 4VEH. They'd felt the shaking (there was no damage up north where the station is), they'd heard the news, but with communications down in Port-au-Prince, they didn't have details. As local and international news agencies, NGOs and others began to get news out, I passed the information on.  

I remember sending out lots of communications, letting supporters and friends of Radio 4VEH, the wider OMS community, know what we knew, how they could pray, how they could help. Ministry partners at TWR offered use of their AM frequency which reaches Port-au-Prince, to broadcast 4VEH live through the night to those who had access to a radio, and needed information, a friendly voice, and words of godly comfort. 

I remember receiving this message on the 4VEH Facebook page, passing it on to our presenters and hearing it on the air: " We are alive! To our parents, to everyone listening to 4VEH in St. Louis du Nord, we want you to know we are alive. Our names are Wandel and Loubert Leger." 

I remember Storly left for Haiti within a few days, leaving me at home, working around the clock, with a 3-year-old and 2-year-old. I remember Karen (whose daycare the girls attended) having the girls over for the night so I could get some sleep. I remember being sick, the doctor telling me he'd never seen so many swollen glands in someone's neck before. I remember from a previous time how the effects of grief can show up physically.  

I remember watching every news report I could find, and being devastated to see so much destruction of places I knew, and people I can picture. I remember being frustrated that the newly-arrived international news media did not have the context or relationship with Haiti, or people on the ground giving them that context to do justice in their coverage. I remember remembering I've at times been in their shoes too.

I remember being amazed that local officials were able to do anything to help. Local officials who had lost family members, homes, offices, colleagues, infrastructure. 

I remember being angry and frustrated at the indignation of the international community towards Haiti, when she was struggling to bury her dead. Did they not know what a terrible state Haiti was in before the earthquake? Did they not consider the magnitude of burying hundreds of thousands of people, in a jam-packed city crushed, with no emergency services? Did they not know people were transporting their dead in wheelbarrows? 

I remember watching news reports of people injured in makeshift hospitals, with no mention of the spiritual story that needed to be told as the patients sang praise songs to the Lord. I remember hearing that as the ground shook, witch doctors cried out to Jesus.

I remember so many people the world over wanting to help. And many people whose hearts were stirred then are still helping now. 

I remember being in church thousands of miles away in Columbus, on that first Sunday, singing, listening, through heavy tears, all filtered through the new lens of what was going on in Haiti. I remember knowing deep in my heart that the Haitian believers that I knew would be in church too, praising and worshiping their God in their overwhelming grief and suffering. Later that afternoon, I remember listening to Pastor Voltaire, at First Baptist Church in Cap-Haitien (our church in Haiti; at the service recorded that morning and played on 4VEH) as he addressed his thousands-strong congregation, knowing that young people from the church, who were in the capital city to study, had been killed. 

I remember five months later, on my next trip to Haiti, seeing the places that had been destroyed, the tents where so many still lived, and all the places that were still standing. I remember seeing people hard at work, knocking out concrete from collapsed buildings, taking down metal re-bar, selling shoes along the roadside. People hard at work, not sitting around waiting for a handout.

I remember a quick stop at the World Vision office, and the relief of seeing former colleagues in the flesh - alive! - and seeing the organization working flat out providing relief, protecting, helping people recover and rebuild shattered lives. I remember the tug at my heart as a leader asked if I wanted to come back and help.  

--

At the time, Storly wrote: 

People talk about Haitians being resilient; me, I see hope, I talk about faith. Of course, we have a different Haiti from what we had before January 12, but people were starting to get back to life. 

School was starting again in many parts of the country. Tap taps (a form of public transport) were back on the streets. People were trying to get back to a more or less normal life because they say God has not abandoned Haiti.

I don’t think there is anything more powerful than that. In the midst of all the politics, all the uncertainty, all the money changing hands, all the relief, the pain and the chaos, the Peace comes. Gentle, simple and straightforward; abundant and sufficient from the cross of Calvary.

Thank you for helping us carry out this message of hope to the Haitian people.

 

Haiti, we remember. We will not forget. 

P.S. The answer to the question, "How is Haiti doing 5 years on?" is a complicated one. An article published today from Concern Worldwide provides a good overview. 

The road ahead for Haiti is riddled with deep and complex challenges, but five years on, hope is very much alive in Haiti. From "Five years on, hope is very much alive in Haiti"

Happy New Year: 5 Things

I'd hoped to have plenty of time over the Christmas break to share some updates with you, but with Christmas activities, then sick for a week (flu or something), and the girls back to school, but morning starts delayed because of bitterly cold weather (-20/25 F with the wind chill, that's -28/30 C), I'm behind. So, here's just 5 things for now:

1. December was lovely. Celebrating Esther's 7th birthday, celebrating Christmas, together (and no traveling). However many times we hear the Christmas story, there's still something about the birth of Jesus, about God entering into our world as a baby on his way to the cross, this massive piece in God's story of redemption, that is, well, mind-blowing. We hope your Christmas was lovely and joyful too. 
2. After hand-signing more than 700 Christmas cards to supporters of Radio 4VEH, we ran out of time to send cards to some of 'our people'. I even found a pile of cards written, stuffed in envelopes, but needing special stamps...not mailed. Oops. Sorry if you didn't hear from us! 
3. We'd love to be enjoying Haiti's sunny winter weather, but here in Indiana, we're surviving  another polar vortex like last winter. How many days till spring???
4. The new year has barely begun, my desk needs a complete sort-out, clean-up and big-time organize, but we're in the midst of writing reports on what's been achieved, progress, during 2014, writing plans and projects for areas of focus during 2015 and beyond. (But I will clear my desk soon.)
5. Storly heads to Haiti next week for a short trip, for the official dedication service of the new towers, to be held in a local church in Cap. He'll have some good friends of 4VEH with him. And we're planning our calendar to spend the summer in Haiti, hosting teams serving alongside 4VEH in various ways, including evangelism, giving out radios, doing maintenance and remodeling, and training. 

That's the quick update. Need to get the layers on now to walk the girls to the bus stop for school. Happy New Year to you and yours!