Can I tell you a secret? I never REALLY wanted to go to Haiti. My husband absolutely did. He was all in the moment he first heard our friend Jeremy talk about his work with Real Hope For Haiti. Me, not so much. I could give you 50 reasons that is just “didn’t work out” for me to go with my husband Ron each time he planned a trip. But the truth is, I didn’t REALLY want to go. All of those reasons it didn’t work out for me to go on those trips were actually my excuses. They were my way of running from what God was leading me to learn and leading me to do. To be totally honest, part of it was me not wanting to be uncomfortable in a dozen different ways, but it was also me not trusting God to take care of my physical and mental health. Thankfully, does He not give up. I could write a book about that, lol! I cannot even describe how grateful I am we serve a God who pursues us even when we make excuses and run from him!
I lost track many years ago of how many mission trips we have been on and I don’t even know for sure how many times Ron has been to Haiti. What I can tell you is I knew the Lord was really up to something during Ron’s second trip. You see, each trip to he makes to Haiti, I have one request. Call me once you safely arrive at the Real Hope property. During his second trip, I was in a small group class at church that day. I distinctly recall telling my group members that the Lord had moved Ron’s heart even more than I knew because what he said to me during that call was this: “It felt like coming home when we drove through the gate. I was just so happy to be back!”
Over the years he has worked on so many projects during his visits. Things like electrical issues at the houses, installing water tanks, repairing the big water pipe up in the mountain, putting up a roof for the clinic waiting area, pouring cement for the clinic, installing gates at the rescue center, “moving rocks for Jesus” (ask him about that sometime), and one of his favorites was installing tile in staff homes and rescue centers. He especially liked the trip in 2011 when he brought our youngest son with him. He loves it most when he gets to work with local people and teach them some of what he is doing!
One trip he arrived home from RHFH just a couple of days before the earthquake in 2010. So many people here at home made comments to him like “Thank goodness you aren’t there now”. They were well meaning, and so Ron would simply smile and shake his head. But those of us who know him well knew that it was breaking his heart that he was home and not there. His response to me in private was “NOW is when I need to be there. How soon do you think I can go back?” When you live with and love a man whose heart is so dedicated to serving others in a specific country, you can only run from it for so long. Eventually, God used my husband, my friends, and many other methods to move my hesitancy aside. By the time we came to Haiti together a few years ago, we had done dozens of mission trips to many different countries. There was something different about this trip to Haiti though. Something special that I can’t quite define. It grew our marriage and our faith. My knowledge of not just Haiti, poverty and malnourishment, which was previously practically nothing, and is still minor, began during this trip. So did taking a hard look at my own prejudices and Americanized belief systems about things, along with wrestling with hard theological questions related to the why and how of abject poverty and privilege. It was the hardest trip of my life, and yet, probably the most important one ever for my relationship with the Lord.
Since that first trip together in 2016, we have steadily grown our support of RHFH in multiple ways. Financially is one way. And the Lord has provided for us in generous ways whenever we have made a commitment to support the organization. But I think our support has grown in even more important ways than that. The staff and the organization as a whole is much more consistently in our prayers. We have made return trips. I had an opportunity to work with the staff and use my skills by doing small, basic trainings related to child development and the importance of adult-child interactions. Most recently, we have been blessed to share probably the most precious resource there is – a youth from our church’s youth group. She came with us to visit for 8 or 9 days back in 2018, and now, she is living there for 3 months serving along side the permanent staff.
So, even though I didn’t initially REALLY want to go to Haiti, it changed my life in all the best ways possible when I finally followed what God had been laying in front of me for several years. I have learned so much about Him and his faithfulness and have made new friends over the years that I will always treasure. I wonder what God is laying on your heart? Follow it and see just how amazing and faithful He is!
– Casey H. from Union City, Indiana