Mud and stick houses, dirt floors, and kids wearing the same dirty clothes as the past few days. Even though I just got back from my third trip to Haiti with an organization called 410 Bridge, these sights still make me realize how much poverty there is in the world and how blessed most of us truly are. The most significant aspect about the community of Maliarette, where I have travelled all three times, was the progress made in the community.

My first trip to Maliarette in 2012 marked the first trip that a church group actually went into this community. At the time of our first visit, the school consisted of sticks with canvas on top of them (pictured below), no source of clean water, and the dreams of a community garden. Only 25% of the kids had the opportunity to attend school, and many kids suffered illnesses due to unclean water and malnutrition.

In 2014 I went back to the village of Maliarette and was impressed with what had been accomplished. They had just finished the construction of a 4 classroom school, but final touches still needed to be done before it could actually be used (pictured below). The community was also excited about the addition of a water filtration pump that brought clean water to the community. The clean water pump is in a central part of the community, but getting clean water can still be over a mile walk for some. During our trip we helped in the initial stages of creating a nursery area for plants, along with preparing dirt for plants to grow.

Now on my most recent trip about a week ago, there was so much progress that has been made from 2 years ago and especially compared to 4 years ago. In the realm of education, they now have 8 classrooms, along with a small administration building with dreams of creating a library, kitchen, and another 4 classrooms in the next 3 years. When a student goes to school they get a free meal and clean water, which is a great incentive to go to school instead of staying home to work and provide food that way. Now 75% of the children in the area are able to be educated compared to the 25% only 4 years ago. The investment the leaders in the community are putting into the education is amazing and will pay off later, as the new generation rises up in the village. Another amazing thing to see is the health of the village has increased with the water filtration system. I asked the community leaders about the impact of clean water in the community, and they said before a ton of kids always had upset stomachs and didn’t feel well, and now that has basically been eliminated. One last major change has been the community garden. During our previous visits it had been a dream, but now it’s luscious, fruitful, and absolutely spectacular.

One afternoon in Haiti, I had time to talk with the President of the leadership council in the community about all the progress that has been made in the last 4 years and I was shocked to hear what he had to say. Even though he was the mastermind, used his own money to pay for parts of the projects, and brought organizations into the community to assist in the projects; he didn’t take one single bit of credit. He gave all the credit to God. He said God has given him the vision for this community, and he has just listened to the call of God. This man’s humility truly astounded me. He has literally been the head of projects that are positively impacting every single person in the community and he doesn’t want a single bit of glory for any of it. Through more discussions with this man, he told me the two main components of all this progress. President Paul said prayer and patience is what has made the true progress. Through the whole process, in both the good and the bad, he kept on praying. At times he was about to lose the land for the school because he couldn’t come up with $5,000 to pay for the land, but just days before time would run out for him, someone gave a donation of $9,000 to the community. He said he just kept on praying and knew that God would provide, he just needed to be patient and trust in God. One thing Paul said that stood out most to me was when he said, “I like all the fruits of the spirit, but the most important is patience. We know we have a good God and a God that provides. We just have to let him work and be patient because it all happens in God’s timing.” These words hit me hard. As Americans we live in a society that is such go go go. We hate to wait and we rely too much on ourselves to get the results we want. I will be the first to admit I’m horrible at this and I struggle a lot with patience. But I learned that with prayer and patience, it is so much easier to rely on God and reduce the stress in our own life, and in the end will create the progress I want to see in my life.