NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Unloading cargo for MAF

There was one missionary with MAF in Port-au-Prince that I came to know pretty well.  We talked every day as we unloaded the day’s cargo.  It became clear that he was and had been looking for parts for the generators he was maintaining.  This man appeared gruff on first appearances (of course everyone in Port was living on an extreme lack of sleep and were exhausted), but once I got to know him I appreciated his diligence and hard work.  He had been serving for many years in Haiti and worked unceasingly to maintain the equipment they needed there.  The fact that he needed parts came out in a conversation one day as I listened to his daily routine.  The earthquake had disrupted the normal flow of cargo they needed since all resources were being poured into the relief effort.  I told him that I would do my best to track down the parts in the massive warehouse back in Fort Pierce.  Several days later I was able to present him with a box full of needed parts.  It was one of those times that brought a rare smile to his face and it made it all worth it.  In gratitude, the next day I had tropical grapefruit, avocado, and mangoes waiting for me.  It was awesome to be a part of the daily encouragement for the missionaries living in Port-au-Prince.

Volunteers at the MFI hangar

Many hundreds of volunteers showed up over the course of the three weeks I spent there.  Most were from local churches and they provided meals, helped with sorting, unloading the trucks, cleaning, answering phones, and loading the airplanes.  The supplies arrived by the semi-truckload on a daily basis, so much help was needed in organizing this, getting everything into boxes, labeled and on pallets and weighed for the pilots.   It was an enormous undertaking but God used many different individuals with the right gifts and the job got done.   It was an amazing thing to watch.

Leaving Cap Haitian

On one trip into Port-au-Prince we made a stop in Cap Haitian and Pignon.    Once we arrived in Cap Haitian a national pastor came up to us and told us we needed to take a man out of the village and bring him to Port-au-Prince where he could arrange his paperwork and get to Florida.  He was unable to continue supporting his family on his current income and he needed to make his way to the States to find work.  He left his wife standing outside the airport fence and boarded our airplane.  He apparently was a US citizen with a passport, but his wife was not, and she was unable to get visa, so he left alone.  The Haitian people appear to accept tragedy or hard times as a way of life, and seemed to me to be a very resilient people.

Relief for Pignon

This is a story that I wrote a little about in our latest newsletter…but is one which impacted me in a profound way.  We were notified the morning of this flight that our airplane had been loaded in sections.  The first section we were to drop off at Cap Haitian, then everything in the cargo pod on the bottom of the airplane was for a special stop in Pignon.  An orphanage was being operated in that village, and many more people were expected to flood in as a result of the earthquake.  This village depended on Missionary Flights International for regular service and since the devastation in Port-au-Prince required so much time and energy it was putting a strain on the scheduled stops.  We landed on this grass airstrip, which is about 20 minutes north of Port-au-Prince around 1130 in the morning, with hundreds of pounds of rice, some tools, and medical supplies for the orphanage.  People excitedly surrounded the airplane as we shut down, then helped us unload.  When we were finished we handed out oranges and a bottle of water to all who had helped us.  I didn’t realize how much this would be appreciated, but there were plenty of smiles to go around.  Before we left, one of the missionaries came up to me and expressed how much she appreciated  the extra stop and all the flying we were doing on behalf of the Haitians and their little village.  She almost started crying as she explained her work and how much this flight had meant to them, and continued to thank me.  All I could say was “you’re welcome,” but how could I express to her how much I was being impacted by being involved in the relief effort.

There is one particular story that still breaks my heart today.  One day we flew into Port-au-Prince and were informed that we needed to fly out some Haitian passengers.  A missionary named Bill brought a young teenage girl and her mother over to the airplane and explained that these two people were his neighbors.  The teenage girl was leaving the country indefinitely to stay with her cousin in Florida.  With the earthquake, nearly 2/3 of the police force was killed, and many criminals escaped the prisons.  People lived in fear of revenge crimes, and since this family lived next to a white missionary family, they thought there might be a higher risk of violence toward the women, as well as a higher risk of kidnapping for ransom.  So the decision was made to evacuate this young woman.  She had said goodbye to her father earlier, and her mom was going to Florida temporarily to help her get settled.  As Bill stepped into the airplane to say goodbye, I saw this young teenager look back at him with tears in her eyes, and as she gave him a big hug, she explained that she would miss him,  that he was not to forget about her,  and that she would be back someday.  As Bill walked away I could see that he was crying as well, and that helped me put into perspective how much of his life was invested into the people of Haiti, and I was able to see a glimpse of the depth of the relationships that were formed in that investment.  No one went through that earthquake without suffering some kind of pain, heartache, or loss.

Things get busy

There is such a huge need, and we felt like we were barely scratching the surface.  One man, working with a team from Israel, came up to me early on and told me about the orphanage he was helping organize and run since the earthquake.  He explained to me that he had 60 children under his care, and they were dying of starvation and thirst.  He had just handed out the last of his food and water and he didn’t know what else he could do.  In desperation he asked me to bring him a case of water and oranges on the next flight.  I told him I would do what I could…he begged me not to forget.  The next day I brought his box of oranges and two flats of water…he couldn’t make it to the airport and we had to leave, so I left it with his name on it and prayed that it would find its way to the orphanage.  This is the norm and my heart breaks for them.  We could only do so much on this kind of personal level, but we wanted to do so much more…it was one of the hardest things I faced on that trip.  I still wonder today how things are going at that orphanage…

I remember a couple of stories that seemed like small stories at the time in the midst of all the chaos, but thinking about it now I realize that for the people involved it was huge.  Similar to the young teenager and her mom in the story above, a mom and her two little boys said goodbye to their dad and her husband and boarded our airplane, bound for Florida.  It wasn’t safe to stay in their home in Haiti, so they were leaving the country.  All three of them were able to get visas, but none of them spoke English…the future looked very difficult for them, but they were some of the fortunate ones who found a way to get out of the city.

Also, around the same time we were asked to bring a large sum of money in cash to a certain missionary in Haiti…cash ruled and they were running very short.  We didn’t know how serious the situation was, so we delivered the money and returned to fuel and get ready head back to Florida…a couple of days later this man relayed a message through another missionary who was able to make it to the airport.  He said that he had been desperate for the cash, and wasn’t sure what he was going to do without the supply we brought…the money came at exactly the right moment, he said, and that it was a huge blessing that we had been willing to bring in that much cash…it was just dollars short of the legal amount you can bring into Haiti.  Once again, God used us to provide for a need, and once again I was amazed at the how my own heart was encouraged and my faith was strengthened by the little miracles.