God blesses us in so many ways that most of the time we do not see it. I was blessed by God in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, last May. I did not know anybody going on this trip. I prayed that everything would just come together and for God to use us.
The students included Jesse Alley and Rebecca Williams (Virginia Tech), Sean Boden (Liberty University), Kirkland Broadwell and Rosemary Willis (the College of William & Mary), Noah Hayden (Emory & Henry College), Meredith Hubbard and Leah Arthur (the University of Virginia-Wise) and me. Our rocking awesome campus minister and leader Cheri Wise (Longwood University) greeted us with such excitement. After months of e-mail correspondence, we had finally all met up. God truly placed each one of us on this team, as we came to see.
Jacob Mosser distributes candy to children at a church in Haiti.
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We left for the airport at 4 in the morning and arrived early for our flight at 7. When we arrived, we found out that there was going to be a two-hour delay on our flight to Miami, which would make us miss our connecting flight to Port-au-Prince. The true work of God here was that there was a flight leaving in 30 minutes to Miami. There were exactly 10 seats on the plane open and we made it through security in that time period. I kid you not, we performed the running scene from Home Alone and made it to the gate! Praise God! From Miami, we transferred flights to Port-au-Prince and were on our way.
As we got out of the airport in Port-au-Prince, I realized that culture shock hit immediately as most of our group climbed into the back of a pickup truck that took us to our apartment. What with the buildings in rubble, the mass of people on the streets and the amount of garbage everywhere, I felt very far from home.
We met Pastor Ronel Mesidor, who was coordinating our mission, as well as Deliris, a Puerto Rican missionary living in Haiti. We talked about rules we were expected to follow as well as what we would be doing that week. As a team, we talked about our mission. Sharing the love of Jesus Christ was our purpose, but we would do that by the actual building of a house and by building relationships.
Throughout the next five days, we realized the people we were working with were an amazing blessing. As we did manual labor such as carrying blocks, making mortar and concrete by hand, and moving dirt, we made strong bonds with the people there. Kirk Broadwell, whose Baptist collegiate ministry had been there the previous January, was reunited with his Haitian friend, Anderson. It was Anderson’s house that Kirk had worked on before, just a few doors down from where we were building a new house in the Delmas 19 neighborhood.
Leah Arthur and Meredith Hubbard played with kids who would come to see what we were up to after their school let out. Jesse Alley became a human jungle gym as the kids crawled all over him. One 5-year-old boy, Olivier, in particular won our hearts with his cute smile and wonderful personality.
Noah Hayden became the “chosen one” as he was picked by the head Haitian workers to be with them as they laid the blocks for the house. Rebecca Williams showed our translator, Pierre, how much work she could do and earned a lot of kudos from him. Sean Boden talked with people who came by, using a Creole tract and sharing the gospel. Rosemary Willis showed off her Creole, learning songs to sing with the kids.
Most of the time, we moved buckets of mortar and concrete from where it was mixed to the house. We formed a line and sent buckets up and down it. At times, one could see a circus of “flying buckets” as we tossed them from one to another (when empty, of course). We worked beside a road, so we had to stop and move whenever we heard the Creole word machine, which meant car, and then return to what we were doing. Patience was absolutely key as we worked in this very hot climate.
As we progressed we saw a space that was once nothing but a pile of dirt and rubble become an actual house, which really blew me away. By Friday, a roof was put on this 20-by-20-foot cinder block house; and Evelyn, the homeowner, was overjoyed. She made us lunch three of the five days we were there. The food she fixed was delicious and it made us think of her as the widow in the Bible who gave everything she had. Cheri Wise, Deliris and I prayed with Evelyn for her new home and for healing from a recent surgery. Evelyn was such a special lady. On Friday we had a little celebration with the local neighborhood and prayed for her house. The presence of the loving and almighty God was felt and we knew seeds had been planted.
We finished the week by going to a school sponsored by Pastor Ronel’s church. We sang the Creole song we had learned and played with the kids, and then listened as they sang in the worship service. I felt the Holy Spirit just pour over me as I prayed for these people. This nation has had so much despair — seeing them so resilient and hopeful, putting so much trust in God, I was truly blown away.
I have a deep commitment to my friends in Haiti. I encourage anybody, if led by the spirit, to go on a mission trip and allow God to use them to bless others as well as for God to allow others to bless them.
Jacob Mosser, is a student at James Madison University, where he is active in the Baptist collegiate ministry.
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