Great People

I’ve talked (typed) a lot (too much, my kids would remind me) in this blog about Haiti and her people.  But I’d like to give a few perceptions about some other great people I’ve had the opportunity to serve with.  I could talk (type) a lot (too much, my kids would tell me) about each of the 21 team members but instead I’d like to give a brief salute to each team.

During my first week in Haiti, I served with a medical team that was put together by St. Anne’s Catholic Church in Broken Arrow OK.  For all but one of the team members, this was their first time to Haiti. But they got acclimated quickly and in just three days the team helped over 200 locals with urgent care. They, along with a great group of translators, worked tirelessly and with great enthusiasm. Though all were unknown to me before this trip, after spending a week together they each now seem like old friends.

Most of all I was impressed with this all-Catholic medical team’s faith. We started each day with daily readings and prayer in the chapel and ended the trip with Stations of the Cross.    Their inspiration and joy came from their intense desire to be God’s hands while seeking the face of Jesus in those they served.  While their skill and the tangible care they offered was undeniably important and helpful, I think their primary motivation was just to be present, to understand and learn from and build solidarity with their brothers and sisters in Haiti.

During my second (and my family’s only) week there, the main group was a team of dentists out of San Antonio.  The leader of this team had been to the mission each year since 2012 and many of the team members had been at least once previously.  With the confidence of familiarity, they got up and running quickly and were able to treat a very impressive 130 local people with urgent and profound dental needs during their time there.  This team worked very hard but they had a lot of fun too.  And, like the medical group, these ‘strangers’ were like family to all four of us by the end of the week.

This dental team, too, was comprised of very faithful members who were thrilled to be able to dedicate their skills to God’s service. But what impressed me the most about them was their skill, professionalism and dedication to their patients. I found out that most often, missionary dental teams such as this are only equipped to extract painful teeth and occasionally provide fillings. But while this team also extracted and filled many teeth, they also had a doctor that was able to create dentures there on site!  This greatly pleased the many with a substantial loss of teeth who are now still able to have beautiful, confident smiles. The care and desire for their patients’ (even patient’s from several years back) well-being exhibited by this team was truly inspiring to me.

Two very different weeks, two very different teams. But I was honored to be a part of both of them and to now call each member of each team my friend.  I wish I’d been able to be of more actual assistance to both teams but in the end this trip has been a big success for me personally and for my family.  We’ll never forget our experience there, the wonderful people we met, played and worked with (both Haitians and Americans) and the troubled but beautiful land of Haiti.  What’s next? Only God knows. Ryan, Rachel and I have all come away with related projects we are working on which I’ll talk about in the next post.  But as we speed over the tundra-like cloudscape that covers North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma our official trip to Haiti has come to a close.  We are just so grateful that we live in a land of such prosperity that makes a trip such as this possible.