Pea Ridge Baptist Church

Aaron Brownfield is spending the summer working in Haiti.  He wrote the following to his family and they have given us permission to post this for you to read about Aaron’s ministry.

Please continue to pray for Aaron and offer his life as a servant of Jesus Christ.

Haiti

Hey family, here are some of my thoughts and feeling on Haiti thus far.  I am sorry I have not been able to communicate better but I am trying.  I am glad I am going to be in Haiti for another month, very excited to continue to experience and learn from this place.  These were my thoughts from the first few days, I will update with more recent stuff soon.  I miss all you guys and I mean that.  Except Pokie, obviously.  And give Rowdy some love for me.

I still don’t know how exactly to respond to Haiti.  When we drove across the border, immediately the landscape changed to desolate poverty.  Rather than buildings like in the Dominican, there were shacks and trash everywhere.  We got to Ft. Liberte and began to unload the bus and were immediately surrounded by Haitians.  The poverty smacked me right in the face. Everywhere you look, people living on nothing, with nothing.  You walk down the street in the middle of the day and there are Haitians walking around or sitting along the side of the street because the unemployment is at 70%.  And then there are the street kids that come up to you every time you venture outside the church compound and ask you for shoes, for candy for anything.  I walk around town and it is visual overload because I continue to be shocked by the images I see.  The first day I was continually asked if I was excited, if I was loving it. How in the world could I be excited when I am surrounded by people that have lived there lives with nothing, without even the basic necessities of life?  And here I am a white person living this life of incredible luxury while there are people living like this.  Am I excited?  I guess I was overwhelmed.  And I am saddened by the situation.  It really mellows me.  So back to my original question, how do I respond?  After a week and some, I am still getting there.  But the basic fact remains that I am no better than these people, not at all.  I for some reason was blessed to be born in the United States and they were born in Haiti.  God formed and knit them just as he did me and God is working in Haiti.  In Philippians it talks about humility and considering others better than yourself.  I am trying to suck up my pride and really apply that.  Really considering Haitians as better than me.  Truly caring about them, realizing just because they are in a poor country does not mean that they don’t have relationships and worries and lives.  They are people; love them.  But what that means, to love on these people and do it because I really want to serve them is what I am processing.  Not just loving them because hey I am on a mission trip, woohoo.

I think a big part of this for me is going to be getting to know the Haitians as individuals.  There are a couple of Haitians that are my age that speak decent English whom I am hoping to get to know better.  And then I think I can really start to get a glimpse of Haiti, Haitians can help me understand this country.  But then again to think I will be able to understand Haiti is in and of itself ridiculous of me, but I am really excited to be here for another month to really integrate myself into the culture.  To attempt to understand a very little bit of Haiti.  A couple things I am hoping to do after the main group leaves is learn how to play dominoes, apparently the national past time of Haiti.  So then once I learn I can go play with all the old Haitian after a hard day’s work and subsequently beat them  mercilessly, haha.  But wouldn’t that be cool, making friends and playing dominoes with Haitians.  And then apparently everyday there is a hangout spot in the courtyard by the Catholic Church where they play pickup games of soccer every day.  There are several other thoughts and ideas that I have that really excite me for the next month.

So friends of Ft Liberte has a huge sponsorship program where kids in need here are sponsored financially each monthly by Americans.  And the sponsors usually give the group that comes down here little toys/treats/clothes to give to their sponsor child.  Anyways, there is a large line of sponsor children that wait outside the church so as to hear their name called  to receive their gift bag from their American sponsor parents.  And as I am trying to walk in the church, there is this beautiful little girl, probably 10 or 11 yrs old, who is clutching an envelope. I smile at her and nod toward the treasured possession in her hands.  She proudly pulls out its contents.  There is a card from her sponsor family.  It is a very generic car with a very generic little saying on the inside and the sponsor family just says that there is snow in wv and says a couple words of encouragement, It really wasn’t even that thoughtful of  a card.  And then the little girl proceeds to show me the few pictures inside the envelope.  They are of the sponsors- an older couple, overweight and very white.  There were like two or three picture of them.  That was all, and yet these few things meant the world to this girl..  She was so excited to get her new package from the sponsors that we had brought.  This scene really struck me on two levels.  One, the letter and pictures the sponsors had given were pretty pathetic in quality.  It was so little and the card probably only took 3 minutes to write.  So much more could be done with not too much more effort.  That really frustrated me.  But on another level, the girl loved the little she had, they meant so much to her.  I realized that even in the midst of so much overwhelming hopelessness, a little bit of kindness can make a huge difference in someone’s life.  I have heard the Mother Teresa quote, but it was so real to me in that moment. I guess seeing the very real change that the sponsorship program makes gives me hope for this place.

Another side story.  I got to work in the clinic and helped out by taking blood pressure, temperature, and weights.  Yeah, I mean, I was saving lives by the hour, but I still really enjoyed it.  It was really good just interacting with patients, that more than anything else motivates me to learn creole.  A preemie baby was brought into the clinic coughing constantly and burning up with fever.  She was so tiny, only weighed like 5 lbs.  And she was the most adorable little Haitian baby I had seen yet. But she was really sick, and the doctor that came down with us spent a good deal of time treating this baby, prescribing medicine.  I went back to the compound to get a chunk of ice to make ice water so as to cool the baby down with a wet rag.  This baby was brought in the next day as well to be treated and was doing better.  Two days later, we find out the baby had died.  This is Haiti, stuff like this happens all the time.  But it should not have died, it was just a premature baby, it would have made it without a doubt in the US. And I wiped its brow with a rag but now it is dead.  Yes I know I am being dramatic about it, but that is a human life that is now gone.  First time I have experienced this and it kind of hit me right in the stomach.     I guess I realize that in the medical field you have to detach yourself to a certain degree or all the death and suffering will bring you down.  I get that.  But I think that deaths that shouldn’t happen should stick with you and motivate you.

I did go to a Haitian graduation.  The university where Pastor Andre graduated and where he now teaches once or twice a week had its graduation ceremony on Friday.  It took about an hour and a half to get there, the roads in Haiti are not very good.  There are no laws or rules to driving.  Goats, people, cows crossing the road constantly.  Just using your horn when you want cars motorcycles to move over. The horn is used all the time. Crossing over terrain with potholes wider than the car.  It is absolute madness.  The graduation itself lasted 4 hrs and was all in French, very different than my commencement ceremony.  Today is Saturday so not much going on but I did go to the barber shop.  And I was able to communicate to him that I wanted all my hair buzzed off with a 2 guard.  So he went to work and by golly I have myself a buzzed head now.  It will be much cooler for working.  Although all the orphans will hate me for it because they loved the curly hair.  All three of us brownfield boys have buzz cuts now.  We also went to the tourist market in the city of Cap Haitian (2^nd largest city in Haiti) on Wednesday with the group.  They have all kinds of neat stuff there and I was wondering what the family members wanted me to bring back.   They have paintings of all sizes, drum art (Google it, pretty neat), all kinds of wood working stuff like mugs and vases, canes and short and taller walking sticks, masks,  jewelry boxes, place mats, woven purses/ bags, bracelets.  I will have other opportunities to go back, thought I would ask to see if you guys would like anything specific.  I mean if you want a neat painting it will cost like $25-$40, but other smaller stuff is more manageable.  Like I said, I miss you guys and hope everything is good at home.  Jared, keep studying hard, I am sure you can start to see the light.  And keep the text messages coming, I enjoy them.  Thanks family, Talk to you soon.

Aaron