As most of you know, we have a Humanitarian Assignment
that takes us, literally, all over the world.
One of the countries to which we are assigned is Haiti. Two and a half years ago we were asked to go
to Haiti and develop a program whereby the people could be given the
opportunity to become more self-reliant.
There have been so many times
when we have felt the “hand of the Lord” guide us in this assignment in Haiti! Just the fact that we were able to develop a
program and implement projects which now involve some 240 different families in
12 Wards and Branches, is a virtual miracle in and of itself. This could not have been done without the
intervention of the Lord and his direct inspiration. It certainly could not have been done through
our own understanding and experience.
A particular example of the
Hand of the Lord happened this (2014) fall:
The projects which have been
developed in Haiti involve families raising chickens – primarily meat birds
(broilers). These are people with little
or no experience in raising the chickens, and no experience in handling money
or marketing their products. So part of
the program is training. Specialists
train in nutrition, construction of coops, how to raise and care for the
chickens, and, perhaps most importantly on budgeting, personal finance and
marketing.
We have felt good about the experts
who have taught about nutrition and construction and how to raise the
chickens. There are local experts in
these fields, and the results have been good.
The Church has a training program for businesses and finance, and there
had been some local leaders in Haiti trained in this training program. They had taken the first few projects and conducted
the “finance” training. It appeared at
first that this was very adequate.
However, little things kept
popping up which made us wonder. Nothing
major and nothing that would give us reason for real concern. But when we made our visit to Haiti in
September, we had very strong impressions that the Church Members who worked
for the Church with whom we were working on the projects needed some additional
training. This need for training
manifested itself in rather obvious ways.
In addition, we felt an uneasy discomfort about the training the
families were receiving on the budgeting and finance and marketing. There was nothing we could put our finger on,
but the impression was so strong
that we could not “shake” it.
So we made a request that we
be allowed to go back to Haiti in November (the last place we really wanted to
go in November) and train the two men we worked with on their
administration. We determined we would
visit projects with them, but would spend two full days just refining, planning
and teaching. Then we requested that we
attend one of the training courses on Budgeting, Personal Finance and Marketing
which was being given in one of the Wards which was instigating a new “Broiler”
project.
Our training went well. It became very obvious that the two men with
whom we work needed further development in their skills. So this part of the November trip was a huge
success – and we felt the direction of the Lord the entire time we were
meeting.
Four or five hours were set aside to attend
the financial training in the Ward – as a matter of fact we had allocated a
full day for this. We attended the
training, and as the spirit had whispered, it was a disaster. It was not well organized, the trainer was
not well prepared, and the material presented was totally inadequate. No one in Haiti had caught this in the other
Wards. Everything was reported as going
well. While there were little things
that bothered us, there was nothing that would have been dramatic enough for us
to ask for the opportunity of sitting in on a training. It was totally inspiration.
So we stepped in and with the
help of a local leader, took over and conducted the remainder of this
particular training. We made sure we did
not offend the trainer, and actually he had done the best he knew how to do.
From this experience we
learned that there needed to be a better understanding of what was to be
taught, and that we needed to have more qualified Trainers. It was obvious that we needed to be a
curriculum for the course.
So that night we went back to
our hotel, and sat down and made an outline of what needed to be taught in the
course. Then from that outline we
prepared a detailed step by step outline of what the course should
contain. This was all accomplished in
the space of about three hours or so.
There was no way that we as inexperienced and unknowledgeable people
could have done this. It was the hand of
the Lord and there can be no question about it.
We were overwhelmed when, at the close of the evening we realized what
had been accomplished. We knelt and gave
thanks for the guidance and direction we had been given. The Lord had taken control and had insured
that what needed to be done was accomplished.
It is hard to even explain
this and have it as impactful as it was to us.
But we can testify that in this situation as in many others in Haiti and
other countries, the Lord inspired us and took us by the hand and made it
possible for us to accomplish what needed to be done – even things that we did
not know needed to be done.
The Lord is in charge and if
we listen to the whisperings of the Spirit, He will lead us and direct us.
