Here
are some of my thoughts on Haiti and specifically how God prepared the team and
I for our trip. It was (and still is) an incredible journey of seeing God move
and work. I hope that you'll come back throughout the next few weeks to read my
blogs on Haiti as we will continue to post them every few days. You'll also be
hearing from some of the members of the team and what God did in and through
them as well.
Ecclesiastes
3:1 & 11– “There is a time for
everything and a season for every activity under heaven.” and “He has made all things beautiful in His
time.”
I
knew that my mission when I returned home was to deliver the coffee samples I
had collected to the President of Just Haiti. I felt sure that they would adopt
the Baptist Block as they had produced a coffee that the French and Japanese
loved. They had 42,000 pounds in
their warehouse ready to be shipped and they were already organized into trade
associations.
So
last Friday I sat with the President of JustHaiti.org. I showed her three samples of
coffee. The first sample I showed
her was from Cap Haitian; which is from an uncle of a Food for the Hungry staff
member who had grown the coffee. However,
JustHaiti.org wasn’t interested in working with Cap Haitian.
So
the second sample I showed the president was from the Baptist Block. And to my surprise she rejected that
coffee as well! Only this time she said it’s because their coffee is already an
international grade coffee; which is really awesome. So understanding Just Haiti’s mission (which is help
families break loose from the economic injustice at the root of so much of
their poverty) they didn’t want to work with the Baptist Block because they can
already sell this coffee to a buyer very easily.
The
third sample I showed her was from the town of Belladere; where our church was
working and partnering. Some of
the beans were black. Some of the
beans were speckled. The eyes of
the president of Just Haiti lit up when she saw these coffee beans. She said “this is exactly the kind of
coffee we found in Baraderes when we started’. She explained that we can greatly help them by taking their
growers and train them how to grow export quality coffee. It may take us optimistically two years
or realistically 5 years but this is the group I believe we can help.
We
are seeing how beautiful the heart of God is! We see the hand of God orchestrating, arranging and
working. We are in the process of
building a partnership with JustHaiti.org, Food for the Hungry, and Grace
Community Church to spiritually and economically help the people of Belladere. This will involve Kim, President of
JustHaiti.org and the growers of Baraderes traveling 8 hours up to the
mountains of Belladere and explaining how to grow export quality coffee. This will involve building
relationships and learning to trust one another. Eventually when they know we are sincere and they begin to
produce export quality coffee their town of Belladere will be transformed. We will pay the farmers the fair trade
price and they will be incentivized to increase their production. We will use the profits of the sales in
Haiti to build schools, hire teachers and buy curriculum. He has made all things beautiful in His
time!
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