2019 – Homeward bound

We are on the plane heading home from the Dominican Republic.  Every year when I make these trips, I realize that there is a lesson that God feels I need to learn as part of my trip.  Early in the week, this year’s lesson was loud and clear, I was supposed to TRUST in God’s will and God’s plan.  As we landed in Santiago last Saturday, the airport was modern and clean.  Certainly nothing like Port au Prince airport in Haiti.  As we exited the airport to look for our ride to Mission of Hope, there was no chaos.  Just nice cars and modern streets and modern buildings.  We boarded an air-conditioned charter bus, not an old dusty hot school bus.  We drove along pretty streets with traffic lights and well-maintained houses, shops and offices.  I couldn’t help but feel that this was all wrong.  In my mind this was clearly not where I was supposed to be, I was supposed to be in Haiti.  I felt a bit of a funk coming on, deep inside I was disappointed.  At least God did not leave me to struggle with my own ideas and thoughts for long.  As we got off the bus at the Mission of Hope compound, it had many similarities to the Bercy compound we typically stay at in Haiti.  I immediately ran into many old friends, MOH staff and interns, that I have gotten to know in the past.  I had no idea that so many of them would be in the DR, my spirit began to rise.  Our sleeping quarters were almost exactly the same as what we are used to in Haiti, and from my perspective, thankfully they were not air conditioned.    We had our communion service on Saturday night and our first sunrise rosary and coffee on Sunday morning.  On Sunday I was delighted to learn that we would actually be going to Haitian church and many of the people we would be serving during the week were Haitian immigrants and refugees.

Monday, July 1 was Canada Day.  At breakfast we enjoyed a rousing rendition of O Canada with Dianne Vivian, our adopted Canadian team member and two other Canadians from another team.  On Monday morning we were in a village to participate in Strategic Mission Time, we go to people’s homes and talk to them about their lives and their faith.  It’s never been my favorite activity, but it’s always left me with many deeply moving experiences.  One woman we met, Mercedes, was a Catholic Dominican woman whose son had been murdered.  She had a picture of the classic Jesus knocking on the door picture on her wall.  Through our interpreter, Jim, I told her that I had that picture on my desk at work.  I explained that if you look at the picture you can see that the door has no handle.  Jesus is knocking, but we need to answer.  She got a big smile and said “Si!”.  The next woman, Nidia, was explaining that she had a grandson who was struggling with alcoholism and she was constantly praying for him.  She had a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the wall and the same Jesus knocking picture.  That also was an invitation to discussion and prayer.  When I was quickly packing the night before we left, I noticed a crucifix I bought in Haiti last year hanging near my desk.  Something told me to put it on for the trip, so I quickly did and forgot about it.  During our discussions with Nidia I was overwhelmed by the feeling that I had brought it with me to give to her.  She was delighted and gave me a big hug and kiss on the cheek.  During the week, we walked by both Mercedes and Nidia’s homes many times and they were often there giving us an enthusiastic greeting and a hug.  Monday afternoon was spent with the kids doing Kid’s Club.  Everywhere I have gone on mission trips, Mexico, Haiti, the DR, and several domestic locations, the kids are the same.  Loving, enthusiastic and accepting.  A true Joy.  MOH had asked us to bring a craft to do with the kids.  They said to plan for 25 to 100 kids, hmmm, that’s easy enough.  Judy came up with the idea to bring beads for making bracelets.  She made a quick trip to Michael’s before we left and we were all set.  The kids loved the project, even the boys.  They all treated the plastic beads like precious gems.  If one was dropped in the dirt, many hands were after it to make sure it wasn’t lost.  At the beginning of kids’ club there was about 25 kids, by the time we fed them at the end there was more like 80.  Word had spread through the neighborhood.  Most of our activities this week centered around a small Haitian church led by Pastor David.  He was all smiles as our efforts helped advertise his church’s presence.

A quick aside – I did 6 youth trips through our parish before beginning these adult trips.  I always loved working with the teenagers and was worried about not having a connection to their energy and exuberance during my mission work.  Our first year in Haiti we had about 10 young adults, most of which had been on youth trips with me, who made the journey.  That filled my need for that presence that year.  The next three years in Haiti it was the youth group from Hill Country Bible Church outside Austin, TX that shared our trips with us.  Last year it was the kids from Coral church in Florida.  God provided again this year, sending the youth group from Chapel church in Buffalo, NY.  We worked beside them all week and I had so much fun interacting with them.

On Tuesday, we did SMT and kid’s club again.  During SMT, we were in some areas of the slums of Santiago that were truly awful, it’s hard to imagine people living in those conditions day in and day out.  There was a young woman from Haiti that we met, she had a small child.  She lived in a dark, dank one room home at the end of a dark narrow walkway.  She said she had not been going to church for ‘personal reasons.’  Through some cajoling, we figured out it was because she did not have proper clothes.  Haitians all dress for church.  We gave Pastor David some money to buy her clothes and he said he would send someone to bring her the clothes and bring her to church.  She said she had come to the DR for a better life and had left her two daughters in Haiti with her sister.  The baby had obviously been born after she arrived in the DR.  We pray that the clothes and a church community can bring some joy to her life.  During SMT that day I also had a long conversation with one of our interns about Catholicism.  He is an evangelical protestant and he said he had some questions.  We discussed eucharist, Mary, praying for the dead, purgatory, confession and other things.  It was a very respectful discussion and I hope to have cleared up some misunderstandings he had about us Catholics.   For kid’s club, we needed to do a bible story skit for the kids.  I had assigned it to the Chapel group since they had large numbers and young creative minds.  I will admit I got a kick out of the fact that they came to me to tell me they were doing the story of Noah’s Ark and they couldn’t imagine anyone but me playing the part of God.  My team got a chuckle out of that and said there’d be no living with me the rest of the week.

On Wednesday and Thursday, our group and the Chapel crew worked on two sites to tear down old small homes and rebuild new homes.  The structures we tore down were simply awful, I can’t describe them in any other way.  They were a part of row houses along narrow paths in a very poor section of Santiago.  We worked with a crew of mostly Haitian laborers that worked hard and allowed us to participate.  Working that hard in the hot DR sun is tough work, but I truly love it.  We did all the demo on Wednesday and when we got to the site on Thursday, the Haitians had finished putting in the concrete block foundation.  On Thursday we built the walls of the small home.  Our home was about 6 X 12 feet.  A single man would be living in it.  The Chapel crew’s house was a little bigger and would be occupied by a couple.  They made progress similar to ours.  We had a lot of wood cutting to do on Thursday.  We had a couple of rusty hand saws and it was slow slugging.  We took some team funds and sent an interpreter to buy an electric circular saw.  The Haitians had never used one before.  We taught them the basics of using the saw and gave it to them as a gift from us.  On Wednesday night, another MOH intern, one that we had met last year, asked me about the rosary we pray each morning.  We had a nice discussion about the rosary, the mysteries and Mary.  Another great respectful chat about our faith.  We also had a great 4^th of July party on Thursday night with corn on the cob, a roasted whole pig and even a very impressive fireworks display.

Friday at Mission of Hope has always been beach day.  All the mission trippers go to the beach for the day.  Half our team went this year.  Tom, Tim and I opted to go back and work on our house.  Two great young hard-working interns, Bri and Ellie, came with us.  The Haitians had finished roofing both homes.  The five of us plus the Haitian crew managed to paint the inside and outside of both homes.  During our painting, Bri and Ellie said they had some questions about Catholicism, so I had my third discussion of the week about some of the tenants of our faith.   We also formed a bucket brigade to bring dirt up from a creek bed to level the inside floors of the home and another to bring sand and aggregate down from the street for use in making concrete.  As we left the site Friday afternoon, we were almost done concreting the floor of our home and the Haitians were beginning the floor of the other home.  In 3 days, 2 homes had been demolished and 2 new ones built.  We left tired, hot and sore with a real sense of accomplishment.  Oh, the folks that went to the beach had fun too.

Ruth spent the week going to a different location each day as part of a medical team doing remote clinics out of the church we had gone to on Sunday.  She was disappointed that she hadn’t worked with us each day and she missed the camaraderie we developed as a team.  I assured her that she had made a sacrifice to do that and she had made a big impact on the huge numbers of people that came to the clinic each day.

During all camp debrief on Friday night, I spoke to everyone about my feelings coming in and my lack of trust that God knew better for me.  During our last team discussion Friday night, we all share our highlight from the week.  I wasn’t sure how to choose, I had so many.  It finally occurred to me that my moment was a collection of moments.  Through Mercedes, Nidia, the interns, and our team I was truly able to celebrate my Catholic faith while making this trip.  All of my trips have been great, and this one was no exception.  I don’t know what next year holds, we’re all hoping to go back to Haiti.  I’ll truly try to trust that next year we will be where we’re supposed to be.  Just like we were where we were supposed to be this year.

Dave Berg