April 13, 2004

Hey Family and Friends,

Just to let you all know that today I purchase the ticket to go to Haiti. I will be departing Thursday, May 6 at 7:25 a.m. with COPA airlines, changing in Panama City and arriving in Port au Prince that afternoon at 2:05 p.m.

Folks in Haiti say the situation has normalized. Mission workers from ECHO had already returned to an area near Pignon, about two hours north of where I will be living in the community of Papaye, which is about half an hour outside of the city of Hinche. All of this area is generally known as the Central Plateau, a fairly large region that occupies the major part of the “body” of Haiti, that is, the part that is not part of the two far flung peninsulas (north and south). If you take your right hand and fold in all your fingers and hold it with your thumb towards your nose, more or less, that is the central part of Haiti. Put out your index finger, that is the northern peninsula of Haiti, which points west (straight towards Cuba, actually). Stick out your pinky and that is the southern peninsula, also pointing almost due west. The only problem with this hand figure is that the southern peninsula is, in real life, very long—maybe about twice as long as the northern peninsula. If you keep your index and pinky fingers pointing out and turn your hand over so that the thumb is pointing away from your nose, the approximate shape of Haiti is more accurate. Now, with the thumb side of your hand away from your nose, Hinche, Papaye and Pignon would all be located approximately in the area between the two middle knuckles. They tell me I will be about 45 minutes by back roads from the border with the Dominican Republic, which starts more or less where the veins start running down from the knuckles.

I am not without my trepidations, but it is good to have the ticket in hand. It is time to move.

There seems to be a good chance that Vernat Supreme, an agronomist from MPP will be arriving here in Nicaragua this Thursday. I checked on his visa Monday and was told that it was indeed approved in February, as I had been told, and sent to the Dominican Republic (Nicaragua does not have either a consulate nor an embassy in Haiti). The person in charge assured me, when I called back an hour later, that the visa had been sent again and the arrival had been confirmed. I am waiting word today or tomorrow that Vernat has arrived again in the Dominican Republic (he arrived the first time last week, he was supposed to fly out yesterday for Nicaragua) and was able to get the visa. Prayers are in order.

Prayers for me in leaving Ebenezer are also in order. It is probably going to be a rough three weeks and two days. Pray, please, that I can maintain my perspective, the larger vision of God’s perfect justice and the sense that the Holy Spirit truly is at work transforming my heart and mind and hands, as well as those of the people around me. I leave behind many things I wish I had done better, even as I take with me so much information that I really believe can find positive new expression in Haiti, a land with deep hopes and shining dreams. Pray that I can enter in Haiti with a profound attitude of learning and sharing and communicating, prepared in every sense—mentally, spiritually, emotionally—to submit to the vision of God’s Kingdom here on earth.

I wish I could end this note with some clever phrase that clearly expresses what I am feeling and thinking right now, but every sense, including language, fails me when I try to unravel the tight ball of twisted emotions that lives in my gut these days. Thinking straight has never been my forte, and these days, I seem to be able to barely think at all. I like to think that some clarity awaits me on the other shore of this tumultuous transition.

In Christ,

Mark

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 140