Cyndi Sax
Haiti Mission Team
Haiti Mission Team
While in Haiti, we prayed together on Wednesday morning for healing and awakening. As I thought about the work ahead of us on this hot, humid day – painting, sanding, hammering, sawing – I wondered what might be awakened in me besides aching muscles that would later require healing.
We loaded our arms with work tools and equipment, cooling rags, and treated water and made our way down the stairs, across the hospital lobby, through a passage way and out to the courtyard where we would occasionally see a woman preparing a meal in a makeshift outdoor kitchen, or an occasional rat scurrying across the yard. My thoughts were already focused on the day’s tasks. How long would it take to sand each board? Paint each desk? And how many of them did we have to complete this day?
Our progress was stopped before we even made it across the courtyard. The gate was locked. We groaned. And laughed. And groaned some more, eager to begin work and impatient with this
unexpected delay.
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We loaded our arms with work tools and equipment, cooling rags, and treated water and made our way down the stairs, across the hospital lobby, through a passage way and out to the courtyard where we would occasionally see a woman preparing a meal in a makeshift outdoor kitchen, or an occasional rat scurrying across the yard. My thoughts were already focused on the day’s tasks. How long would it take to sand each board? Paint each desk? And how many of them did we have to complete this day?
Our progress was stopped before we even made it across the courtyard. The gate was locked. We groaned. And laughed. And groaned some more, eager to begin work and impatient with this
unexpected delay.
To continue reading, click Read More
I turned away from the group and walked slowly, aimlessly in the direction from which we had come. Suddenly, I heard an incredulous voice say, “Look! St. Luke’s Chapel!” I looked up, and saw a plaque on the side of a building we had walked past multiple times each day, identifying it as the Chapelle St-Luc.
Luke was a disciple of Jesus, an evangelist and physician. Known as the patron saint of healing, our own chapel at St. Anthony the Desert is named after him. Our St. Luke’s Chapel is a thin place for many, a place where one might feel closer to the divine. In St. Anthony’s St. Luke’s Chapel, personal prayers for healing are offered, candles are lit as a symbol of prayer requests, a weekly healing services brings comfort and support to many. It is here that we sit in dark vigil on Good Friday, where we chant and pray in the Taize style, where we come in times of trouble for silent reflection.
As I stood in the doorway of the Chapelle St-Luc outside of Ste. Croix Hopitale in Leogane, Haiti, I felt myself break out in goose bumps. Here is a place so far from home in a place so different, yet so familiar. I wondered about the people who might come here for solace and healing prayer. Patients from the eye clinic, parents of a sick child, those who had just lost a loved one or received a difficult diagnosis. I later learned that this place was often used to conduct public health education workshops on important topics like clean water and sanitation.
As I stood in the doorway of the Chapelle St-Luc outside of Ste. Croix Hopitale in Leogane, Haiti, I felt myself break out in goose bumps. Here is a place so far from home in a place so different, yet so familiar. I wondered about the people who might come here for solace and healing prayer. Patients from the eye clinic, parents of a sick child, those who had just lost a loved one or received a difficult diagnosis. I later learned that this place was often used to conduct public health education workshops on important topics like clean water and sanitation.
I stepped into the chapel and closed my eyes, wanting to be aware of how the Spirit might be present in this place, to sense Her healing presence and feel the prayers that had been lifted here. And I
remembered our prayer from just a few minutes earlier:
O morning Song of Love, heal the unseeing parts of our lives. Lead us to our awakening places. Open the doors of our hearts, the windows of our souls, and the walls of our minds.
Merci, Jesus. Merci
remembered our prayer from just a few minutes earlier:
O morning Song of Love, heal the unseeing parts of our lives. Lead us to our awakening places. Open the doors of our hearts, the windows of our souls, and the walls of our minds.
Merci, Jesus. Merci
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