Seeing Through Jesus' Eyes

Written by:  Melody Sandell

Our team was blessed to begin our day worshiping at the nearby Haitian church along with the Haitians in the nearby community at 6am.  We were filled with amazing, uplifting worship and praise - Haiti style!  Dancing, singing, praying and shouting praises aren't words enough to explain the experience.  This is always one of my favorite things about Haiti, when we sing the same worship songs together, in both English and Creole, while they are two languages, but one song, praising the same God, together.  While we worship, we smile and hear praises and love for Jesus and the desire to live our lives for Jesus.  One cannot say that the Holy Spirit wasn't felt by all that were present.  Did you hear us praying for you?

We came home to the guesthouse for a wonderful breakfast before beginning our day at General Hospital.  None of the team members had been to General Hospital before, so we were all a little nervous for today's mission.  We went with the other Healing Haiti Worship Team and served the individuals at General Hospital together.  We got off the tap-tap and joined in a concert for the people waiting to be seen and hoping to be admitted.  There were many women and children waiting, and while they appeared weak and weary, they had bright smiles as they enjoyed the music.  We then divided into smaller groups to visit the patients and families within the hospital.  My group went to a small room with around twenty five beds with sick children and their mothers.  The children were very ill and the conditions we difficult to witness.  Some children had even been abandoned by their families, yet others had mothers attentively sitting at their sides.  We handed out small bags of donations with a few basic necessities.  We prayed for them and Lisa and I partnered together to gently massage lotion on the moms and children in the room.  When we were done, we served those waiting in the hallways with our lotion.  We then went back to the waiting area, used a few of my choppy French phrases, and rubbed hands and feet with lotion to almost all of the women and children waiting to be seen until joining the rest of our team serving in other rooms of the hospital.

I'm not sure I can accurately fully describe the hospital.  I am not sure I can even really call it a hospital in words or even in my mind.  There were several concrete block buildings with small rooms, with many people, make-shift beds, cribs that were broken and rusty, IV's taped and tied, children lying in their beds weak and hot with fever.  The floors were dirty.  We didn't see any electricity.  Imagine a hospital without electricity... Some parents looked as if they knew their children might not make it, while others had small glimmers of hope.  Ill people were even seen in their cars with IV’s hanging from the roof of the car.  Patients are seen by a few doctors and nurses, but nothing is provided for them.  This means if medication is prescribed, bandages are needed or surgical supplies are necessary, families need to go out onto the street to nearby vendors to purchase items needed for their medical care.  No meals or hygiene items are provided.  We were not allowed to have photos here.

My only personal hospital point of reference is when my children were born.  One may say that was more like a stay at a luxury hotel than a hospital in comparison to the hospital we visited today.
We then visited Gertrude’s, the orphanage for disabled and abandoned children.  While the rest of our team enjoyed a playful visit with the children along with the Worship Team, our Donations Advocate Team (Laura, Lisa and I) met with a long term missionary there to discuss how we can best help with their donations needs.

As we closed the night and discussed our feelings and words about the day, we discussed how maybe we had the opportunity to see a little bit of Haiti through Jesus’ eyes today.

Next the Gertrude experience writing by Luke Hudak:

After the whole hospital experience I was feeling a little meek but knowing that children were in the the foreseeable future my spirit and energy rose ten fold. Right away, like any opportunity to hold and play, main word being PLAY, everyone scattered to find where God would put them. Laura pointed out a girl she saw at here last visit and gave me the insight to make her laugh and smile owwwwww so big. Me and Jeff ran wheelchair races with this girl to get an awesome reaction, a reaction that melts hearts. The music just started to get going and me a Jeff traded off girls to this cute and quite girl and we held hands the whole time even when I got found out by the best snuggling boy ever. We all jam out to the great music from the worship pastor from eagle brook church, mine and Laura's church none the less. What an awesome feeling music can change, there was no more language barrier, difference of culture or any sadness for these handicap children. There was just musical worship and spiritually growth happening on both sides. Truly Heaven is in the eyes of these kids because God was all around us, showing us how to live like his son . . . Jesus.