To the Top of the Mountain

When we woke up this morning we thought the tough stuff was done for the week and today would be a little more on the relaxed side.  We left to go to a new SHG an hour or so away, seeing more sights that boggle.

Haitian Home Depot

This is the City Dump.  The sign in Creole says "Don't Dump Your Trash Here!"
(This dump is directly next to the "clean water source" for the city)

Part of the way there, we stopped on the roadside at one of Jutta's favorite metal workers.  They cut out metal figures from scrap and paint them beautiful colors.  Percy was also suffering from chukingunya, but like any Haitian, he can't afford to lay in bed and rest.  Forget medicine.  His daughter was painting a picture, practicing to learn her father's craft.  We got some beautiful butterflies and a gecko for the boys to hang on their wall.

beach homes

We went through the "beaches" area.  A lot of Haitians will go to the beach for some of the day on Sundays.  Not exactly the resorts we're used to.

welcome to Relax Beach Hotel

Yep, that's Relax Beach Hotel

We stopped at the "bottom of the hill" to pick up our Haitian coordinator.    What we thought would be a few minutes more drive turned into a climb to the top of the mountain!  The pictures just don't do justice to the incredible climb, hairpin turns, loose rocks, and narrow passages on the edge. It helps to have an amazing driver like Andy, who knows exactly what his vehicle can do.  Not only has he kept us safe on the streets with crazy people driving every which way, including massive trucks, and pedestrians crowding the road, he certainly kept us from going to some very bad places on that pass!

There is a remote clinic part of the way up.
They also sponsored the road. Once you pass it,
the roads get pretty bad.

pictures don't capture the climb very well

I told Andy I liked it much better when he
was on the downhill and I was on the
uphill side of the road! Look or don't look?

part of the way up, looking back down
how much further?!

Andy's truck worked overtime today!
We had to park and walk the last bit.

this church/school had three classes meeting

selfies on a mountain top in Haiti. Fan-tastic!

beautiful landscapes, lots of erosion (no trees)

Andy immediately went in and goofed with the school kids

three classes in one room!

 I won't tell every harrowing detail of this trip, but I will say that the four of us will not soon forget this day.  There is a natural bonding in a mission trip already, but at least for me, I don't think I will ever get over the feelings the Lord washed through me today.


It was cloudy when we arrived, and we expected it would stay that way, so for the last bit of walk we had to make to the church/school where the SHG meeting would take place, we didn't take hats or water bottles.  Mistake.  The heat came back and baked our heads on that mountain as if we were so high we were scraping directly against the sun.  When the group finally arrived, in their tradition, the meeting started with singing (How Great Thou Art) and prayer.  This is a tough place to live.  You can see it on their faces and hear it in their singing and prayers.

As we sat on a rock watching the meeting, a small block of cloud moved over, almost as if it only covered our rock.   The temperature literally dropped 10 degrees.  A single thought rushed through me, still shaken from the trip up, "He who  dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."  Shadow, the perfect image in Psalms 91 of protection.  It was if the thumb of the Lord Himself cast shade upon me, and I was broken.  What did I fear? What gripped me?  He sent me up this mountain, why would I not believe I was in His shadow?!  I will not ever forget the emotion of that moment.


As we descended again, going through those same incredible curves and loose rock, down down to the bottom, I was nervous.  But I was different.  It's not easy being so close to the very real Truth of Faith.  When we talked about it tonight and I'm sure while thinking of it a hundred times for days to come, I look back at the question in the devotional  "when you are in the high places, do the trials go away? move? change?"  Sometimes getting to the high places of faith involve the most humbling tests of faith, of real courage to believe in the One True God.  Sometimes approaching that kind of power, as gentle as He is, is unhinging, and we must lose everything that is us in order to survive the climb.  Including fear.

See that peak in the clouds?
We just came from there

Tomorrow is our last day in country before heading back through an overnight in Miami.  We'll go back to the orphanage one last time to drop off school supplies and see the kids in school. We hope to see Pastor Ronel as well.  But for sure, this place is etching itself in our being.  How will we live when we get home?