We have a couple friends that visit us often. They are neighbor chickens and they somehow slide in under our gate. They often will bring centipedes or other creatures under the gate that they are trying to eat so the other chickens will not steal their food. They also will run around upstairs and end up wandering around in our kitchen on a semi regular basis. Our friend said we should just eat one them, but they are scrawny little chickens and someone is probably relying on them for $$ or food.
The guesthouse next door also has a stray pigeon that likes to come inside the house. Naomi loves to go over 1) in hopes of getting a snack from miss Beth and 2) in hopes of seeing the pigeon, but Beth of course does not want the pigeon in the house messing things up. Max the dog actually was chasing the pigeon around the house and Naomi thought it was the funniest thing!
We are surrounded by all kinds of God's creatures here in Haiti. It's quite different then the states or even when we had our little mini farm in Oregon. Food is scarce and that is reflected on the appearance and health of the animals. We see cows and goats, but it seems to be rare that people would actually milk the goats or cows for personal use. Without refrigeration, dairy products are difficult to store and very hard to come by. When we had our goats and cows in the states, if you didn't feed them the right stuff, their milk was severely limited.
The same is true for people. If mom is malnourished and dehydrated, she will have a very difficult time feeding baby. One thing I would LOVE to do someday is spend more time helping nursing mothers. I was able to nurse five of our children, which was a bit of a challenge being that I only gave birth to three of them plus two were born prematurely and had difficulty nursing. So, maybe someday I could help others that struggle with nursing. I'll have to add that to my "to do" list for the future!
I do believe though that when we see starving babies, giving them formula is typically about the worst thing we can do within this population. It is a temporary (at best) solution to a much bigger problem. We need to focus on sustainable changes by helping the mother so that they in turn can feed their children. Yes, easier said then done, but something as missionaries and humanitarians we should really contemplate when "helping".
We're often not looking at the overall picture when we come in to "help" others. Many years ago when I worked in larger orphanages, we would have team members visit. Sometimes they would meet parents or nannies that also had other children at home. Mission teams would bring formula from the states and out of love distribute that formula to people that were having trouble feeding their baby outside of the orphanage. After all, they received the donations of formula and the babies were in fact starving.
Problem is: Time and time again, babies would die. On the next trip I would ask about the babies, but the vast majority of those babies did not survive. Yes, maybe they had other things going on as well. Possibly they were already so severely malnourished that they would have died anyway, but giving formula (for the most part) was not a wise decision. It was founded in love, but lacked understanding and wisdom. In your spare time, please consider reading, "When Helping Hurts" by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. It helps us to understand how our good intentions can be harmful to others.
In the situation of formula, even if the donors would give many cans of formula and then also money to buy more, what would typically happen with the families was tragic. Often they would give either all of the formula to the baby or give some and sell the rest. Funds that were given to the families were usually used for the crisis of the day instead of for buying formula for the future (the next day, week, or month). There would be no money or formula left to feed the baby PLUS they could no longer nurse the baby at all because their milk had completely dried up at that point.
I think those of us from the USA often have a very hard time understanding a society that lives in survival mode each and everyday. This is true in many countries, but in most countries that I have worked in, although there may be little thought for next week, they may think 2 or 3 days in advance at least. In Haiti, the thought of tomorrow when we are starving today is often times simply not there. Haiti was classified as the poorest country in the western hemisphere prior to the earthquake. The county has lived in survival mode for so many generations that strategies that may be effective in other countries may have little impact for sustainable change in Haiti.
In the USA, we may understand the concept of survival mode, but we have very little personal experience of the degree and types of struggles that others face around the world. We may be overdrawn in our bank account or our home could be in foreclosure, but we typically have options that are simply not available in many parts of the world (food pantries, clothing closets, homeless shelters, family, neighbors, churches, and others organizations that try to help). This is not to say that there is no suffering or poverty in the USA. There certainly is, but there is an entirely different kind of poverty and suffering. In many ways it is a poverty of the mind.
I remember a goat project we had where we would buy goats for orphanages. We had trainings about what to feed the goats. We felt like we were really getting positive feedback and understanding about the importance of milking the goats so that the babies would have milk to drink. But then we would go back to the states (feeling quite good that we had not only implemented something sustainable, but that people were also very happy about the whole process). Unfortunately, most of the time we were wrong. The intent was always good, but for those of us that came back again and again, the end result was disappointing at best and devastating at worst.
Time and time again, we would return and there would be a big party on our arrival at which point we would discover that the goats had been eaten. One time I remember being served the goat prior to even leaving the country. It was such a foreign concept that you would actually keep feeding an animal in order to get milk that you didn't really like anyway when you can eat or sell the goat TODAY. If we can eat it today, why plan for tomorrow because tomorrow may never come.
We are so thankful to be with Mountain Top Ministries for this reason (and countless others). We are seeing change. We are seeing thousands upon thousands of people that see beyond today and actually do have hope for tomorrow. When I worked in Port au Prince, it really felt like we were gerbils running in a wheel going nowhere. We kept trying to help, but it was this bottomless pit. It felt like we were tossing money into a hole with no end in sight.
That doesn't mean that change wasn't happening and certainly there are many, many organizations that are doing amazing work throughout Haiti. BUT it is a challenging platform to work from. Especially in certain parts of the country. On the other hand, sometimes when we are walking with the Lord we may not see the change that comes from what we implement today. It may take generations to see the change. We may be on a long winding road that the Lord has called us on. Although the outcome is known to God, the end result may be hidden from our view. I truly believe we don't have to know or see the outcome to be a soldier for the Lord. God has it covered. If we are walking with Him, we're going in the right direction even if it means roaming around in the desert for 40 years.
On the other hand, there are times where we are walking with the Lord, but are simply not fully evaluating the way in which we implement what God has called us to do. This is often due to not understanding country dynamics and culture prior to formulating a plan. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for jumping in with two feet to serve. Otherwise, we wouldn't have hopped a plane with 14 one way tickets in hand. We pray daily though that the Lord would guide and direct us in how we serve and we know this is a continual learning process.
Today, 38 team members arrived at Mountain Top Ministries. We are so thankful to have them serving alongside us here in Haiti! About half will be serving in the medical clinic and the other half will be working on building the trade school. I think a few are also planning a basketball camp with the kids. Please pray for safety and guidance with the team and that the Lord would open our eyes to continue to improve ways in which we serve.
“Often the answer to our prayer does not come while we’re on our knees but while we’re on our feet serving the Lord and serving those around us. Selfless acts of service and consecration refine our spirits, remove the scales from our spiritual eyes, and open the windows of heaven. By becoming the answer to someone’s prayer we often find the answer to our own.” ― Dieter F. Uchtdorf
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