Final Words and The Road Ahead

Hello to you all,

First of all I would like to say thank you so much for all of your prayers and support for me while I was on this trip in Haiti. It was a fantastic trip and I can't begin to express the amount of things I have learned. I am  safely at home now. I arrived home wednesday morning, very early. The trip home was smooth for the most part, besides two delayed flights in Miami. I got through US customs and got to my gate to find they had just delayed my flight 30 minutes. I had only a 35 minute layover in Chicago, so they rebooked me on another flight through Dallas. That flight ended up being delayed an hour and a half due to the bathroom in the plane being out of commission. I made my connection in Dallas by five or ten minutes. 

As I said above, I can't begin to express how much I have learned over the course of this trip. The Lord has really talked to my heart in showing different things, as well as just the overwhelming amount of things I have learned about so many other topics. There are people in Haiti who still need immediate food, shelter and relief supplies from the earthquake who are not getting it. The Haitian government is corrupt beyond describing, and most relief supplies will never ever make it to the people who need it. It is resold or gotten rid of. I won't go into the other politics behind what is going on, but I do know that God is in control here. God is the only one who can change Haiti. The message and hope found in Christ is what is able to transform any nation. Through the love and hope of the message of Christ, I know that Haiti can be a transformed country and rise from the ashes it is in. Haiti desperately needs Christian leadership... someone to be elected to the office of President, and be willing to serve the people, as he is elected to do. If a person could stand above the corruption and lead on behalf of the people, the country would follow that man. 

This trip has been life changing in many ways and I will never forget, nor cease to apply what I have learned and been guided to do as a result of this trip. The road ahead is promising, and I know God has so much to be excited about in store. In a few weeks, I will be heading out on a mission team through Europe with Royal Servants. I will be gone seven and a half weeks with them, and unfortunately will have little to no internet access the entire trip. I will almost be totally out of communication from what I have heard, which will be a different environment for me as well. This trip though will be different in the fact I am with a team of guys and girls my own age. That in itself makes a huge difference. It will be a very exciting trip where the Lord has given me the opportunity to get exposure to mission work on a much wider, global basis. 

I want to attach a few more photos of this trip. Below, I have posted a few photos from the latter part of this trip that I hope you enjoy. The first picture is of the one good highway that exists in Haiti just nearing sunset. The second photo is of the beach near Charocol. The third photo is the beach that is near Labadee, at the Cormier Plague Hotel. The fourth photo is a picture overlooking Cap Haitien. 

Thank you again, all of you for your prayers and support. It means a lot to know that people were home praying for me when things were tough. It was a great trip and I look forward to returning leading a team this coming January. This will be my last planned post, but I am pretty sure I will just leave the blog in place just in case I have a future need or request for it on further trips. 

-Garrett Luck

Updates

Hello to you all,

It has been a very busy last week and I have got a lot accomplished. Right now, I am in Cap Haitian. I am staying with Pastor Payot, whom many of you from Camano Chapel back home know. I have been working with him and commuting to Charocol where his church is every few days or so. Charocol is a small village of about 5,000 people that is located about an hour outside downtown Cap Haitien. This town is a very poor town and many people within the village are in extreme poverty. Pictured below is one of four new Christians in Charocol who got baptized last week.

So, what have I been doing? Right now, I am working on several different reports with information to be brought back to the states. I am putting together information on different needs, different projects and the ways to accomplish them. I have been working with Pastor Payot to see different possibilities surrounding the January 2011 Camano Chapel Youth Team being brought into Haiti. I am doing a lot of other things, but I just wanted to highlight a few. This is a picture of part of the school located at Pastor Payot's church.

Below is a picture of the meals currently being provided to the children at the school at Pastor Payot's church. For most of these kids, this is the only meal they get during the day. This is also part of the new kitchen that Camano Chapel helped to construct. 

Below is a picture of me and a very cute kitten.

I am learning a lot from Pastor Payot about Haiti and the ministry work that he is doing here. He speaks great English, which is a blessing, and I have been able to talk in depth on subjects ranging from politics and economics, to church doctrines and various beliefs in Haiti. I have learned a lot about the culture and perspective of different groups of people here.

Right now, another thing that I am putting together is a class on basic sanitation, hygiene and first aid. Sanitation is a huge issue in Charocol, and one that will not be solved without long term plans and goals. I have been given the opportunity this coming thursday to teach what will be about six to eight classes in a row on these subjects, to each different class at the school at Pastor Payot's church. Most people in Haiti receive little to no training on health and sanitation. Pastor Payot and the other Catholic Church in Charocol are working with the local Haitian Magistrate to be able to put in formal classes on health and sanitation for the community in the coming year and beyond.

One other note that I want to talk about. After two weeks of prayer, and countless factors involved, I am going to be returning to the states on May 25. This is right around the original planned date to return before I extended the date to June following several other opportunities that have not developed as planned. There are many other factors that came into this decision, but it is the best choice at this time to return a little earlier. I have learned so much here and there is still so much that I am going to be thinking and praying about in the months to come.

I thank you all for your prayers and support. It is hard to know what to say right now just because the so many things that I am thinking and praying about. I am healthy now and I know the Lord is using me in so many ways while here. It has been a great time so far with Pastor Payot and so much has been accomplished, both physically and in me learning.

-Garrett Luck

Speechless

Hello to you,

No words will ever be able to fully describe this last week and the events that have occurred. It has been a week of chaos... a week of missed plans... a week of highs... a week of lows... a week completely in God's hands and power. This last week I traveled with Pastor Cebien into the Dominican Republic. I am going to try and make a really long story short here, so a lot of details are going to be missed to give a full perspective on the week.

Last friday, we were supposed to set out for the Dominican Republic at 9:00 AM. For reasons not to be stated, we didn't end up leaving until 2:00 PM. Just about everything this last week was the exact opposite of what I was expecting and under the impression of. I had been told we were riding with a Dominican bus company from Cap Haitian to Santiago... yet there I was at 2:30, loading into a Haitian van and speeding towards the boarder. There were 23 of us in this small van... larger than a mini van but smaller than a Camano Chapel church van. There were several more people on top as well.

We arrived at the border to the Dominican Republic border at 4:45. The border guards had decided to close the border at 4:40 instead of 5:00 when they are supposed to close. We missed crossing the border by five minutes and were stuck overnight on the Haitian side. We stayed with a local pastor and it all ended up working out for the Lord's glory.

The next day, we crossed the border, boarded a bus and headed towards Santiago in the Dominican Republic. Long story short, there are 15 Dominican military checkpoints between the border and Santiago. At each one, they racially profile you, see if you are not Dominican, and if you are not, they stop you and check information. There were eight Haitian illegals on the bus we were on. In the Dominican, as long as they paid the "bribe" that was set at each checkpoint, they would be allowed to pass. We had to stop at each and every checkpoint, have our bus boarded by armed soldiers, have our luggage searched and passports checked. At one checkpoint, I was even ordered to disembark the bus and was escorted by two Dominican Soldiers into a building because the man who checked my passport missed my stamp that had been stamped at the border. Ten minutes later, it finally got sorted out... (it is hard to communicate in Spanish when you are on a bus where nobody speaks Spanish). Being the only white person on the bus made me stand out in a bad way. When armed soldiers and harassing you for money and searching your things to steal, it is not good to stand out. It was a very long day... it took six hours to travel the distance that with no stops took two hours coming back.

So, we finally arrived in Santiago... 26 hours after we had departed. We were staying with a local pastor and his family. A lot of the details of the next few days I am going to skip over for the sake of both time writing, and more important, the privacy and content of what happened. In all, the Lord took what was probably the hardest and loneliest five days of my life and then turned it into some of the most joyful and fulfilling days that I have ever had. It was very hard... very lonely... but the Lord took what was a very tough situation and transformed it into something beyond what I could have ever imagined. He answered my prayers when I really needed him most... in moments where nothing was in my control... and I mean nothing. We serve such a majestic and all powerful God! I have seen God at work in Haiti... and He is working far beyond what I could ever begin to fathom.

He gives protection in situations of danger. He gives health to those who are serving, even in the poorest of conditions. He gives new life to people who desperately need hope. He provides for the needs of those who call upon His name, whether we see him work or not. I have seen God take the lives of children who are starving to death. I have seen God stand by and do nothing in a situation where people are helpless. In all of these situations, good or bad in my eyes... I saw God working.... REALLY WORKING! I ask myself, "How can a God that loves someone, allow a child at the age of six to die of starvation while painfully combating AIDS as well?" God is taking even the worst situations that I can imagine... and using them for His glory. I don't always see it, but I know without a shadow of a doubt in my heart that He does and is. God has taken me in a moment of struggle... a moment where I desperately needed Him... a moment where I could not find hope through anything that I could do... and He took that prayer of mine and transformed my heart. He provided for my basic needs and provided comfort in my heart. God has worked in my life and is working in many lives in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. He is transforming communities for His glory, and I am honored to be an ambassador of Christ.

I am back in Haiti now. I traveled back to Cap Haitien on wednesday. I did travel by myself back from the Dominican Republic because Pastor Cebien was put into a situation where he needed to stay. I was safe the entire way back and was traveling with a Dominican Bus company called Caribe Tours. It was a very nice and very comfortable trip back to Cap Haitien. I am with Pastor Peyot and his family now and will be staying with him for at least a few weeks I believe.

I thank you all for your prayers. I am greatly encouraged to hear how many of you have been praying for me back home. God is moving mountains in my heart and in Haiti. A lot is still uncertain in my life... but I know both now and forever, God will guide my path. Thank you all and I will continue to keep you posted.

-Garrett Luck