Crew 424 left Leogane and traveled 45 minutes to the town of Petit Goave and the Wesleyan Compound. It was a place I was familiar with, having stayed their many times as a kid. Doctors and nurses from various organizations were camping there, and running a daily clinic. Our medical guys jumped right in, we pitched our tents, and Petit Goave became our home away from home.

The next morning began our routine for the week we served in Haiti. Each day we traveled back to the stadium in Leogane. We haggled with money-changers, searched for supplies at the few standing construction-supply businesses, and got about the work of building the clinic.

Much of the daily grind in the tropics involves “hurry-up-and-wait,” and our people spent that time hanging out with Haitians, making friends, and trying to encourage. Even when building began in earnest, Crew 424 was very intentional about taking time to walk through the tents and shacks that made up the refugee camp we called, “the Ville.” 

People were living under tarps, pieces of tin, 4-6 people sometimes sleeping in a 10 x 10 ft space. Trash was everywhere, and the smell was overpowering in some places. Aid organizations brought in water in huge bladders weekly, and latrines had been hastily dug on one end of the field. Women cooked over little charcoal fires as we weaved in and out of the rows of dwellings, and children appeared from everywhere to join our parade.

The well-known passage from Matthew 9:36 probably best sums up my feelings walking through that mass of impoverished humanity. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Even in the midst of the squalor, there were smiles. Big toothy grins from the children, especially when we led them in a song, or handed out some candy. The adults smiled more thinly, but there was a resolute attitude for the most part. When I asked people in Creole how they were doing, the overwhelming response was Bon Dieu ap kembe mwen. Translation: “Good God is holding me.”

Amazing. 

On that first day leaving Leogane, I caught my first glimpse of the large concrete block building on the opposite end of the stadium. I noticed that it was completely undamaged, locked up tightly, and looked abandoned and forbidding. I also noticed one word painted on the outside: Voudou. 

It's an affliction I come down with every four years. The clash of nations, cultures, and the greatest players playing the greatest sport on the planet. It stops commerce, starts wars, and fixates the attention of people across the globe (except the majority of Americans). No matter how busy I am, or what's going on I find myself on the couch, programming the DVR, constantly checking the iPhone, and obsessing about the disease.

I have World Cup fever.

I love the drama, the minnow nations dreaming big, and the favorite nations being humiliated. I love watching the reputations built and the legends born. I even love the horns and have the iPhone app to prove it.

My big plans of updating this site regularly in June have been dashed. Everything must wait until I've recovered. Until then, I'm pulling for the Netherlands to finally carve their name among the greatest footballing nations. If they falter, perhaps Spain or Uruguay can stop the German blitzkrieg. But I doubt it.

 Enjoy.

I would like to say a heart-felt “THANK YOU” to all of those who supported the Disaster Relief Team trip to Haiti with donations and prayers.  

I know its late to be sharing a trip report, but with the media attention distracted by oil spills and the economy, maybe this can be a reminder to keep the ongoing plight of our Haitian brothers and sisters at the forefront of our prayers & efforts.

The trip was the highlight of my last 6 years of ministry. I’ve been all over the world with the Charlotte Eagles, been to amazing places and had hairy experiences, but going back to the land of my youth ranks right up there at the top. I was invited by World Hope International to put together a team, and 7 other guys from the Tabernacle volunteered to go with me.

We called our team “Crew 424” in honor of the FireHouse Youth Ministry and the local Venturing crew, who both use Deuteronomy 4:24 as a theme verse. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. Fueled by a passionate fire for God, Crew 424 got geared up, our shots, updated passports, raised over $20,000 and deployed in less than 30 days.

For a community our size, in one of the hardest hit states in this tanked economy, this was nothing short of a miracle.

World Hope assigned our team to the soccer stadium in the city of Leogane, just west of Port-au-Prince. Leogane sits right on top of what was the epicenter, and we found a community entirely devastated. There were about 4,000 refugees living on the soccer field, and on our first day we drove straight from the airport to survey the camp from the top of the stands.

Desperate people had crowded there in shacks, shanties, and tents fabricated out of whatever people could scrounge. It was dirty, people were hungry, many still had wounds from the disaster, and everywhere there seemed to be fear and hopelessness. Even the structures that were not flattened were empty – no one really dared to be indoors.

Standing on the top of the stadium steps, our World Hope contact gave us our mission:

 “Love the people in this stadium. Build them a clinic, treat what you can, but whatever you do – love these people.” It sounded a lot like marching orders from Jesus.

Crew 424 piled back into our vehicles and motored another 45 minutes down the highway to our campsite - the old Wesleyan compound in Petit Goave. Our bags of equipment had not arrived (thanks Air France). We had none of our gear, tents, tools or equipment - only what we carried on our backs.

That night, as we climbed into borrowed tents, more than one of us were wondering if we would be able to be of any use during our 8-day trip. However, we were united by one simple faith in our sovereign God. We believed He had a plan and that our job was to trust Him and hang on.