Have you ever seen the movie Jurassic Park? There’s a scene where Malcolm, the brilliant mathematician who specializes in chaos theory, reacts in horror as he is shown the dinosaurs for the theme park.
“Don’t you see the danger, John, inherent in what you’re doing here?†he asks. “You stood on the shoulders of giants to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you knew what you had, you patented it, packaged it, slapped it on a plastic lunch box, and now you want to sell it.â€
Direction is everything, distance is secondary.
We just returned home from Haiti. We certainly covered a lot of distance over the past six days, but I am more encouraged than ever by the direction Haiti H2O is facing.
We have strengthened our ties with the Haitian communities in which we serve. By partnering with and depending on local communities through the leadership of their churches, we see how lasting change can happen. As we visited Bassin Caiman and St. Martin, folks asked us about our families, about churches who have visited in the past, about Luther and Carol Hansley (the missionaries who first introduced us to Haiti) and the Bradbury family (our board president who spent six weeks in Haiti with his family this past summer).
As we slowed down, sat and drank cups of coffee together, we talked about those who have gone before us. And I was reminded of that scene in Jurassic Park.
We are connected by a rich tapestry of people, experiences and a loving God who cares about justice, mercy and right relationships (Micah 6:8). Our trips to Haiti are an integral piece of giving these people a hand up and not a hand out.
In addition to the communities we are presently working with, we visited two new areas. The HCDF (Haitian Christian Development Fund) is located in Fond-des-Blancs, and a 26 year ministry of Jean and Joy Thomas, who worked with John Perkins and The Voice of Calvary. We talked not only about water, forestry and building projects, but about the quality of education once the schools were erected. In Haiti, the default method of teaching is rote memorization. We learned how they trained their teachers to create a new method which encourages independent thinking. For Haiti to dig itself out of the present economic and political abyss, they will need a generation of new thinkers and activism to lead the way.
We visited Plain Matin, a new community we are considering working with. Plain Matin is about two hours north of Les Cayes on very rough road. We saw tell-tale signs of malnutrition, bloated bellies and a red tint to the children’s hair. It is a definite area of need where the pastor receives no salary from the congregation. As we sat in his house talking, we asked about the coffin sitting in the corner. He replied, to our relief, that he makes ends meet by carpentry and was hoping to sell it.
There is so much physical need in Haiti, but the hope of the people that we have been working with for the last 12 years strengthens my own faith in the God who has the hairs on all of our heads numbered (Matthew 10:30).
The work we are doing will take time, and will not be flashy, but if God is in it, we are confident that it will succeed. Thank you for your support as we continue down the path God has set before us
jeff 
