City Soleil- Stop 1 and meeting Little Man

Okay so I'm finally getting to my trip. Our first day was in many ways the most significant for me, or at least the one that has stayed with me the most. We began with a day most Healing Haiti teams participate in- the water truck in City Soleil. City Soleil is extremely impoverished and while only 3 miles big, is home to 400,000 people. It is one of the most dangerous and poor slums on this side of the world. They have no sewage system, and few hospitals or schools. For many years, even the police and UN were unable to penetrate City Soleil as it was run entirely by gangs. In past years, the government has again seized control of the city. And God has opened doors through relationships Healing Haiti has developed to be able to begin the water truck.

Here's what Healing Haiti says about it: "
In Cite Soleil, the poorest slum in the western hemisphere, Healing Haiti is delivering fresh water, bucket by bucket to thousands of families each day, six days a week, without charge... people who have no electricity, no toilets and no running water. Healing Haiti runs two water trucks that deliver 63,000 gallons of chlorinated water every week. That equals 3.276 million gallons every year. Healing Haiti delivers each five gallon bucket of water for less than 3.5¢, while at the same time employing four Haitians to run and manage the truck so they can provide for their families."Pretty amazing, huh?

I was excited for this day, but unsure what to expect. We rode our tap tap to the first stop, all of us in our Healing Haiti shirts.



As one by one we exited the tap tap, children filled our arms... outstretched hands, dirty shirts, no bottoms, but oh so eager. As I had experienced in Africa, it was like they picked you. They would walk intently up to a certain person and either take your hand or reach up. We were all caught up in the moment, our eyes and attention solely for the one child we held. There was no barrier with the lack of clothes and the dirt. You didn't even think about it. I think about how if I had encountered this in the US, would I have so easily held them? I'm not sure I would have. But what a picture of the father's love. How when He looks at us, despite our dirty sin and how we come before him exposed, He simply loves us. WITHOUT HESITATION! Wow, what a blessing, what a gift!

As I stepped down from the tap tap, I had not even gotten to the ground when a little boy, about 1 1/2-2 years old reached up. He took my hand and the moment I got on the ground, he reached up. I was planning on helping with the water hose at this stop, but that wasn't going to happen anymore :) His face was so serious and so I made it my goal to get a smile. I set him down, took his hands, and spun him around. THAT got a smile! And just like any child back home, there was no need for words as he asked with his actions-- again? again? again?

 Here is the water truck... it was heavy with the water pressure so it took a few people to hold it up with the water going. And one person would aim the water in the buckets that would be lined up.

The two girls in the picture on the right- the one braiding and the pregnant one beside her were obviously friends. The came and talked to me-- it all began with the one who is braiding touching and feeling my braid with interest. She and her friend would comment to each other in creole. I asked them if they had children. The one braiding has two- and it was in this conversation that I saw a bit of the struggle. she tells me, through a translator that sometimes she slaps her children. I said, why? When they disobey? She said "when they cry"-- I couldn't discern if this was a normal parenting thing or not but it hit me kind of hard-- are these children loved? are they safe? She seems normal, but in such a hard life in the slums, what is their reality? Do children grow up with affection and security? Do they feel nurtured and love?
Next they told us we were going to walk-- at this stop, it's where the water is and with no sewage, it's where all the trash and bathroom things cumulate as well. Many of the children walking with us had no shoes and again you wonder about their world. They have never known any different!

And yet here, in the middle of all of this- we experienced a moment of pure JOY!!!

"God is so good, is so good, is so good!!" Emmanuel, our guide, told us to get in a circle and put down all the children. My little man, as I call him now, kept reaching up- not wanting to be on the ground. So I would squat down around him and clap with him and then he'd get this big smile on his face and begin clapping along-- you can see him in this video doing just that. We got to praise God for his goodness, in the middle of all this trash, in the middle of all this poverty and need, in the middle of the slum with these beautiful children that God dearly loves and who we got to love for just a little while this day.

 

 

And after we sang, we walked back up and on the top of this dump, we circled again-- this time on the site that will be Grace Church-- a church and school in City Soleil. I marvel at God and how He takes the worst place and what seems impossible and creates something beautiful. This church will bring hope, healing, restoration, community, salvation, redemption, new beginnings, a future! We had the opportunity to pray on this ground-- for all of the pieces that have yet to come into play-- the construction and all the logistics that entails, the workers that will be hired, the pastor who will be called, all of the many details and circumstances that still need God's favor and guidance and protection before they will come to be. As I've processed being home, this church has given me hope. I keep thinking about how this is Little Man's stop-- this could change his whole future!! I am praying for this church and for my Little Man. I invite you to pray alongside me for what God has in store for this community of City Soleil.