The New Look

This post is just a test. No emergency,  just testing out the new platform. A team heads to Haiti in just a couple days. Stay tuned…

Embrimaoma

Embrimaoma is a Greek word that means moved, stirred, and angry. Embrimaoma is the opposite of apathy, it means you are moved to care. Pain moves us to care. Most great movements in history were started by pain. I still remember the pain I felt first seeing the conditions in Haiti. As I walked into…

What Irritates Me About Millenials

I have a special relationship with my local university as I spend every spring break in Haiti with about twenty students. I live with these millenials, for a week or so, in fairly rough conditions. It’s not for the faint of heart. In this setting, even if we try to hide it, our worst character…

They Just Want to be Heard

I’m currently on an old bus in central Haiti with 3 Haitians and 2 other Americans. We have been in a traffic gridlock for about 2 hours. The people of this little town have blocked the road with 3 semi trailers and punctured the tires. There are hundreds of vehicles, bumper to bumper with horns…

Dreams Do Come True

In the beginning my dad was the Hut Outreach visionary. He was the one who brainstormed the name and logo, the face of the organization who spoke at events and shared the stories. He was also the dreamer. Aaron and I were always practical, but dad had big dreams: a youth center! A computer lab!…

No Greater Love

The women rushed towards me and I was not really scared but hesitant. They positioned themselves next to me, one on either side. Before I knew it they had linked their arms with mine. N-ap kampe ave-ou. We are standing with you. That very year Aaron had given me two expensive gifts: a digital camera…

The Command to Go

Last week I had the incredible honor to meet the Provost of the American University of the Caribbean in Les Cayes, Haiti. Paul grew up in Haiti, he even attended university there then moved to the US for graduate school. He met his wife and raised his family in Indiana. He was a self-proclaimed ‘soccer…

Promise

The thesaurus says promise means ‘to give hope or possibility’ A few months ago I sat with a missions intern from Northpoint Bible College and brainstormed for Haiti. She came up with an idea, to teach the moms in our program how to make jewelry.  This program is now in place. Everyday a group of…

It’s all too much

It’s all too much to take in. If I had $10,000 in my pocket we may have been able to meet most of the needs. The home was made of sheets of tin, tin that blew off other homes in Hurricane Matthew, garbage. They made a home out of garbage. Then the woman, lying in…

The Next Generation

Thoughts from a group of college students on their first trip to Haiti: “I was homeless in high school and it was nothing like this.” “On the basketball court we were the same, no barriers, just people.” “It’s the first time in my life I have ever been somewhere where I was in the majority.”…

Wisdom

A few weeks ago I sat in Haitian church honestly focused on how hot it was. I had brought a small piece of cardboard to serve as a fan, but air movement only made a slight difference.   I was trying to listen intently to the sermon, translate it into Creole in my head, then…

Smiling Once More

She is so beautiful, so full of joy and light, the opposite of the girl I first met.