Arriving in Thomassique, Haiti for the second time, I was both excited and nervous. I had loved my previous mission trip here and remembered fondly the family who had hosted me and shown me kindness and joy. But I had been with a mission team then, rather than returning individually, and was afraid of feeling lonely and isolated in this nation where I was a foreigner and where my Creole was limited and my hosts’ English skills varied greatly.

My nerves, however, were short lived. Upon arrival at the house, the women greeted me warmly with hugs and an encouraging combination of short Creole phrases I might understand and short English phrases they knew. Not long later, a van arrived, and the teenage girls I had spent time with on my last visit leapt from the door and rushed across the yard with exclamations of “Kara! Kara! Hi, zanmi’m, how are you?” With that greeting, my fear evaporated and I was ‘home’. This Haitian family, whose people I had come to help serve, taught me about love, joy, and strength.

 

SEEK, Haiti began as a result of several people sharing similar experiences to mine in Thomassique, Haiti. Through trips with various purposes, we each developed a heart for the Haitian people and a desire to help them build stronger futures for themselves and their children, as well as a desire to share Christ’s love with them. However, we believe that some types of ‘help’ are more effective than others. We aim to ‘help’ by empowering. Our goal is to not arrive in Haiti, accomplish a construction project or short children’s camp for a week or two, and then rush back out, allowing everything to return to normal, leaving a memory of a group of Americans who once visited Thomassique. Instead, our goal is to be a witness of our Savior, to show love and compassion, and to offer partnership and education to make a lasting difference. We work to support better education for more children, who will be able to grow into educated adults more capable of making their city and country the best it can be, and who will be able to continue to reach out to others, continuing a cycle of compassion and empowerment. Each project we support is one we feel will serve this mission of educating and empowering the people of Haiti and furthering the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.