katie loves haiti: God Spoke to me in Gonaives -- Part 2

On Friday, we explored Gonaives a little bit. Although it is the 3rd largest city in Haiti, it is significantly smaller and less populated than Port. I think there are roughly 100,000 people in Gonaives compared to the 2 million in PAP. We all loaded up into Dorothy's truck. There were five inside the truck and four of us sitting in the bed.

First, we went to see Pastor Inada's church and bakery. Although I was not able to meet the pastor and his wife, I have heard a lot about them. They minister to a community of deaf Haitian men and women. That is who now has Emanuel, the little deaf boy that was living with us for a while. They run a bakery to help earn money for their ministry. Many deaf men and women work in the bakery and then help to sell the bread. Kez bought some to share with us, and it was really good.

This is the oven in the Inada's bakery...so neat!

The outside of the bakery.

Then, we went to Jubilee. I heard Jubilee referred to as "the armpit of Haiti". It is the slums of Gonaives. It is on a flat, dry dusty part of land with no vegetation or trees to shelter you from the beating sun. When we stepped out of the truck, we were instantly swarmed by children. Most of the children had orange hair from malnutrition. They were wearing little to no clothes. The clothes that they had were filled with holes, and obviously very worn. The children were all covered from head to toe in dust. They just wanted to be given attention and love. We got to take a tour of the building where they have the daily feeding program for the local children. We also got to take a tour of the school. They currently have 75 children attending school. The children must pay 4 Haitian dollars per month. Essentially, it comes out to about 50 cents per month (I think). They charge the children to come to school to help teach them and their families a sense of responsibility and to value their education. Lala and the rest of the clan in Jubilee are trying to convince me that I need to be a teacher there in January. I have not shut it down. I just want to go where God leads me. Jubilee is definitely "the least of these".

We were able to go into one of the tin and mud homes. A baby was just born recently to a mother with HIV. Her husband abuses her regularly, and she is in denial about her HIV because it is such a shameful thing within such a small community of people. It was heart wrenching standing inside their tiny one room home holding that precious little new born. God just keeps taking me deeper and deeper to show me the lost. I've realized that you have to be able to look past the poverty and see the "lost-ness". I cannot feed every person in this country, but I can pray for them, share love, and show them the kingdom of God. So, who knows? Maybe in 2011 I will be ministering and teaching here....