[Isaac Pak] Throughout my ten days in Haiti

Throughout my ten days in Haiti, I had experiences that changed the way I saw the rest of the world. It was an incredible experience and I believe that the entirety of this trip cannot be expressed in a short testimony. This was my first trip to Haiti and since the beginning of our mission training, we called it a "vision" trip. This was our chance to find out what God's vision for Haiti was. I went into this trip not really knowing much about Haiti. I didn't have the same expectations that I had for other mission trips: it was my first experience in an underdeveloped country, there would be a huge language barrier, and it was the first mission trip that was organized solely by KPPC. From the moment I first stepped off the plane in Haiti, I was overwhelmed by how different everything was: everything from the weather to the language and the people. God used this opportunity as a way to show all of us what we couldn’t experience any other way. The first thing I noticed was through working with people. By working side-by-side with the people of City Sole, I felt their desperation even for little things like candy or water. On one of the days, we visited an orphanage hospital for those who were abandoned because of mental illnesses and I can say that it was one of the scariest moments in my life. There was so little that I could do and I believe God used this as a wake-up call for me in my spiritual relationship with him. As a group of just five or six people, there wasn’t much we could do to change the situation for Haiti, but I was able to realize that just our presence—be it through shoveling cement alongside the Haitians in the burning heat or just having a broken conversation with a child, even just comforting them by holding their hand—was a physical act of worship.

Ultimately, God showed me, through these ten days, the vision that he had for the future. Through living in Haiti during this time, I learned that in order to serve, I had to first lay down all that I had. God challenged me in this way through this trip. I had to leave my comfort zone, sacrifice my time and even lay down my self-image in order to see what God wanted to show me: all of the ways in which I had to grow in order to face the spiritual challenges and brokenness of the real world. Each of the experiences that I gained during this trip have been invaluable in learning more about myself and about the plan God has for these peoples.