We Are All Broken

Here is the second report from Paul Haken, team leader for the Hershey Free's current team in Haiti.

It's Tuesday afternoon. This morning we had class on "How can we find healing for our interior wounds." It was quite amazing. The class really seemed to resonate with the material. When I asked them "How many of you are sleeping in tents?" nearly everyone raised their hands. Several of them have houses that have not fallen down, but they are fearful of going into their houses or at least sleeping in their houses. The guy who drove us back to the center has constructed a shelter along the side of his house and he sleeps in that. Besides that, though, these people seem very normal and quite cheerful, not to mention very well educated with good jobs.

In the course of the morning class, they said that how could they themselves help others when they are traumatized and in need of help? I tried to help them understand that everyone in the world is broken in some way and that no one is really "qualified" to help. I told them that they were at least motivated enough to come to a class and that they could count of the Lord to help them to reach out to one another. During the course this morning I talked about the importance of listening as a way of helping. Fednor and I did a skit where he told me about his trauma and I looked around, talked on my cell phone, crossed my legs and arms and got up and walked away in the middle of his sentence. At one point I was talking on the cell phone and indicating to him that he should keep on talking. The class got quite a charge out of it. When I asked them what they noticed about how I listened, they had a long list of criticisms.

From there, I divided them into groups of three and asked them to share with each other their own stories over the course of about 5 minutes. I asked one of the three to critique the listener. They seemed to get into the exercise and really shared with each other.

At the end of the class, they were asking for more hours of teaching. It is a blessing to teach them.

The other guys here built a couple of toilets. Now they are constructing an outhouse enclosure. This is all for a bilingual school that is not very far away and meeting in a tent beside the tumble down school house.

Seems like we will be working on a school for the next three days. Wesley spoke of a wall the school at Port au Prince that needs repaired and a bunch of desks that need to be made for a school in a neighboring town.

The team all seem to be doing well. Thanks for your prayers. There are many opportunities here to be a blessing.