SPEAKER_04 0:00

Here comes a sun do. Here comes a sun da say. It's all right.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Hello, fortitude audience. Thank you for joining us today. I am Heather the host with my husband Amos, who's the co-host. Hello. And today we have Paul and Bethany with us, who are the brains behind Mission Haiti and also the passion that comes with it. Being globally known and doing the work that you guys do is really special. So thank you for the work that you do. It's really neat. Thanks for inviting us. Such a pleasure to be here. So we officially met at a wonderful Kingdom Capitol evening at Mr. Matt Jensen's house. And getting to know you and you sharing your story with me in that exact moment, I was like, yes, I have to have you guys on. And Paul, we've seen each other in the community in different different aspects. And so it really is an honor. If you guys can just jump in and share about who you are, your love, your family, and then Paul, we're gonna go back to Haiti. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

All right.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

So go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

Again, thank you so much for having us. Um my name is Paul Parisian, and I serve as executive director of Mission Haiti, which is a nonprofit organization that is based out of uh Sioux Falls, and we serve uh people in Haiti. And our motto is to love Jesus, love others, and make disciples. And I get to also work with my wife, Bethany.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Yes, I am Bethany Parisian. Um, I was born and raised here in Sioux Falls. Um, kind of surprised I'm back. Never thought I would be back in Sioux Falls. Um, but join the club.

SPEAKER_03 1:56

You're a good club.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Um and yeah, Paul and I have been married for oh man, now on the spot 12, 11. 11, 11 uh years, and we have three children: seven, six, and four. Tiona, Luna, and Leo.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

So they are really, really beautiful. You guys make beautiful children. I was looking at the picture and I was like, oh man. They're a cute little mix. They are, they are. And you guys met while in Florida, which is really a fun story because Red Lobster serving tables, God brought you together over some lobster.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Sure did. Over shrimp scamping, those awesome Cheddar Bay biscuits.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Oh, yes. I think I have some in my cupboard in a box.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

I really do.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

I'm surprised that Red Lobster actually sells them because it's like what gets people in the door. So I'm surprised that they're sold outside.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Well, thank you, Red Lobster, for bringing these two together because not a sponsor. The impact that y'all are having is is big. Um, but I want to I want to go back to Haiti because Paul, you moved here when you your family did when you were 10.

SPEAKER_04 3:06

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

But for a long time, your mom was a single mama with four boys in Haiti. So dig into that story a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 3:15

Yeah. Um, you know, I'm born in '85. So around that time, uh, Haiti was uh still unstable. Um the dictatorship was moving away and it was getting to be a republic. So um my father worked for actually this mission organization that was leaving because things were getting to be so unstable in Haiti, and he essentially got a one-way ticket uh to go to the States. And even though he had a pretty good job uh in Haiti, uh he knew that for him to be the best father and husband, that um he needed to go to the states so that he could have a better life. So I was um just under two years old when he left in '87. And um he left, yeah, me and my three brothers, and my mother uh in Haiti. And Haiti was still the quote unquote, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Um so uh you can kind of um guess how that type of life was for me and my brothers and my mother. Even though we had a father that um lived in the States, a lot of times, you know, he would send money uh when he could. Uh, he would work hard um so that we could not go um hungry. But uh there were days that unfortunately um we went without you know having sustenance um because things would get so hard. And you know, as as a kid living in Haiti, a lot of times you don't feel the poverty um just because you have uh parents that talk you through it. And I can vividly remember my my mom telling me to just look up and just look up at the sky. Um just just look at all the beautiful things in the sky. So um so many different things were used to, you know, uh have our mind still um still know that there is hope. And and that's exactly what my mom and my dad did, where even though I grew up poor, um, I lived in me and my brothers shared one bed um for like the first eight, nine years of our lives. All of us slept in one bed. Um even though things were really hard, we had hope because we knew that with our dad living in the States, that he would be able to essentially send money over to us, which is something that most Haitians, most of our neighbors, most of the kids that we played soccer with uh did not have. Um they essentially had no hope. Where in 96 my father was able to send for me and my three brothers and my mother, and we moved uh to South Florida, and that's when our lives changed forever uh for the better. Yeah. Because we moved from you know a third world to a first world.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Yeah, what was that like when you got? I just picture that moment when you get the news and you're 10, and you're like, we're we're going where? Like what was what kind of emotions were you going through?

SPEAKER_02 6:34

A lot. And and they were all mostly good because we knew what that promise was. Um we heard of uh one of the stories that we heard of the states is people just walk around and uh they will have tape on their shoes because money will just flock to them, like like they will just have money that just uh sticks in the shoes. So that didn't happen. Um but we knew we knew the change. Um we knew that we were essentially transported into a different world, and almost everything was different. Uh, we knew that we would have opportunities that our friends, our cousins uh would never have. It was a little difficult not knowing the language, not knowing the uh culture, uh culture shock and being made fun of, not being able to speak the language. Um but you know, uh to us that was nothing compared to the opportunities that we knew was ahead of us.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Was there families and different people that wrapped around because that's a that's a big piece of what we're dealing with right now, right? So people move in and we have immigrants, and then you go, well, is it are are we do we have organizations that are helping, that are reaching out, that are being the hands and the feet? Because did that happen for you guys?

SPEAKER_02 8:02

It happened in a sense of the community. Um when when we lived in West Palm Beach, you know, we were blessed to be able to go to a Haitian church, right? Um you had that Haitian community, but you know, things were difficult at at uh school because you know, you're just uh put into this classroom and your uh teacher does not know your language and uh you do not know uh his or her language yet. But you know, me and my brothers and mom and dad, we have a close relationship uh because we had to rely on each other um so much. Yeah.

unknown 8:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

And your parents and brothers are all they're all alive and all doing well?

SPEAKER_02 8:47

They're all alive. They're all in um Florida. Okay, some are in Orlando, uh West Palm Beach. And uh, we do have a sister now that she was born in the States. So she's quote unquote the only full-blood American um in the family. Um, so yeah, um I still get to uh see them a couple of times a year, and uh we have a very close relationship.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Oh I think about the day that your dad just having you all show up, you know, because he'd been gone for so long. Did he ever take it take trips back?

SPEAKER_02 9:23

So from the time I was two to the time I was 10, I saw my father twice.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Man, wow for like a week. Incredible reuniting of the family together. For sure. Like just how special that would be.

SPEAKER_03 9:35

Yeah. What's the and in in Haiti they speak is it Creole? Yep, yep. Is that a common misconception? Do people think they speak Spanish or French?

SPEAKER_02 9:43

Or Haitian? Haitian Haitian Haitian, yeah. Yep, so Haitian Creole is what we uh is what we speak. Which is a flavor of French, right? Correct.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

Due to French colonization back in the early 1900s, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:55

Yep, so yeah, so um in the 16, 17, and 1800s, yeah. So we speak French and Creole. So those are the two uh languages of Haiti, um Haitian Creole and French. Um, but mostly Creole is what is most widely spoken, where French is usually uh spoken in professional settings.

SPEAKER_03 10:18

So French is still alive.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

French is still alive.

SPEAKER_03 10:22

Yeah, so you'd think you'd move to South Miami and you could just speak Spanish. People, I think people would make that misconception. Yeah. And so yeah, that language barrier, Heather, you know what that was like just spending a couple weeks in Germany.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

It was it's hard. I got depressed the first three days we were in Germany because I couldn't communicate with people. And I would make contact, eye contact with people, because I didn't want them to start start talking to me and I could. I'm like, I'll nothing. I got nothing. And so I just wasn't looking at people or communicating verb non-verbally or verbally. And I quickly realized that I was like, I looked at Amos and I was like, What? What? Oh, I feel super depressed. And it's because I'm that's what I'm built for is connection with people.

SPEAKER_03 10:59

I mean, we're all built for that, but so then she got really American in Europe. Like looked me in the eyes.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

I was like, like I finally I'm like, why am I not looking people in the eye? Who cares if it's awkward? I'm awkward, you know? I don't care. So it it flipped very quickly.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Did you find yourself avoiding contact when you got here? No, so I learned to really look at nonverbal cues.

SPEAKER_04 11:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

That was huge for me because I I made so many mistakes, not really understanding. So I had to learn very quickly that I did have to really pay attention. Like when I was in school, my eyes, that's okay. When I was in school, my eyes would be locked into the teacher. Yeah. And in having conversations and looking at what other people are doing before um I would do it, I still get myself in trouble now, even though I kind of know the culture a little bit. You know, I I still have to um pay attention to those verbal, especially those non-verbal cues, um, to kind of quote unquote act right, right?

SPEAKER_03 12:04

To that specific and besides the language, what was the biggest culture shock?

SPEAKER_02 12:09

Hmm. Um gosh, that's a good question. You know, food was different, um, but you know, just living in a different world, you know, just being in a different world, and you know, so many aspects of life where you have to learn everything is new to you. Um, but language for sure was the hardest part. Language was the hardest part. And I can remember that I think it was ninth grade that I really, really understood what the teacher was saying and uh really understood what I was reading. So that was like four years. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:50

That was four years.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Yeah. Yeah. So that was in ninth grade that I could really, really understand. Before that, you know, I got maybe 40, 50, 60 percent of all of those different interactions, uh, which can be difficult.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Did they have any special tutoring or special classes and different things that they'd pull you out for?

SPEAKER_02 13:11

Yeah, that's a great question. So um I was in sixth grade, so my first year in the States was in a school that was predominantly um had a lot of minorities, had a lot of students from Haiti, had a lot of students from South America, right? So uh there was the um ESOL or English as a second language program that I was part of. So all my four classes, you had teachers that were Haitians, you were uh you had teachers uh that were Hispanics that could help you through that transition. But then my seventh grade, I moved uh to a neighborhood where it was about 98, 97% Caucasian. So not a lot of minorities. So that was when it really, really became difficult. Um But you know, I had teachers that were really caring and loving and patient and kind. And other teachers, it was not that they were not loving, caring, but they just did not get me. They just did not understand me. And they did not know how to quote unquote deal with a kid that doesn't know how to speak the language, right? So there were some frustrations back and forth.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

That is such a big piece of my heart and why we do this podcast is like what you don't know. You just you don't know the impact that you can have or that you're not having, and the engagement and and really going above and beyond to help. Like, what are the things we need to know? You know, what could have made a difference and the programs that we need to need to have in schools or the programs that maybe we're doing that you're like, what are we why? Why why wait why are we wasting money on this when we we could be investing it? And I'm probably speaking your language when it comes to why you do what you do in Haiti too, right? So um I I want to go a little bit to Bethany. What did your parents, what was your family and everyone thinking when you married a full Haitian? Or you fell in love with this red lobster Haitian?

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Um well, let me backtrack a little bit. My my mom is she she's kind of a goof nugget, but she uh when I went off to college, she she told me to bring bring home a beautiful black man.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

That's she was joking.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

She was so like you can't ever say that I'm not an obedient child, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:31

Um my mom about beautiful, but she Well, I got part of it.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Yeah, I did the best I could. This one. Um, we uh my mom has missionaries in her family um and integrated like marriage within like the mission community. Um, like her cousin's married to a Nigerian, things like that. Um so like on my mom's side, it was a different story. My dad is from New Holland, South Dakota. So, like, if you can just it doesn't take much imagination to the dynamic of people um there. And so that one was more of like, oh boy, what are we gonna do? Um, but um I mean when I called my grandma and told her that uh Paul was gonna come to Christmas, I was I was just like, and I just gotta tell you, just so you're aware, like he's black. And she's just starts giggling and she's like, oh, does he have and then inserted this name of this disease that makes your skin turn darker that she was just reading about? And she's just cackling. And this is like not ever a conversation I would have ever had with my grandma. And I was like, no, pretty sure he's black, like his parents are black. He was born in Haiti, whatever. And you it was his first trip to South Dakota within 24 hours. We were on our way to New Holland, just him and my dad and me. For some reason, it was only us. And he walks into my grandparents' house and he just sits down and hears my grandpa's war stories and all the things. And my grandparents just instantly fell in love with him. And it was very, very quick as to the they just like they saw him as a person. Um, and um, so it was, it was very easy. Uh, and Paul is a very likable human being, but um, just for people to to realize that what the concerns that could be there, it's it's about the heart. And so, and there's a lot of inner um interracial, biracial marriages that have to fight that for a really long time within their families, or even again when they have kids and stuff like that. Um, and it should be should be known that my mom's like joke about me bringing home beautiful black men, she wanted little, little mixed babies for sure in her family. So um, she got them there, there they are. Um, so it we're very, very grateful for the way it's panned out and Paul's family, very accepting of me. Um, and I made a I made a big effort with Paul's family from the beginning to be like, I want to learn about the Haitian culture. I want to learn language. I remember talking to Paul's mom and just kind of having a little bit of a difficult time because of some of the language barriers. I'm like, someday I'm gonna be able to speak to you in your language. And so now I usually do. It's a lot easier for me to communicate with her in Creole. Um, and her English has gotten way better just in the the 12 years or whatever that I've been in your your family's lives. But um yeah, it's it's just it's fun to be able when you can communicate to someone on their original language, like it breaks down things.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

So well, and it it's it's it's beautiful to the that shows you care too that you've taken the time to learn the language to be able to communicate with hers.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

That I mean, that's gotta be a except disclaimer, I feel like it is important to say that Paul's brothers were not as excited because they used to talk in Creole about like the wives and the girlfriends, and they can say things of like concocting plans together. And I'm the first time they realized that I could track this, they're like, this is no fun anymore.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

Your Haitian creel is too good. You know, the the the only other thing that I like to add about um Bethany's grandparents, uh especially uh Corney, you know, like on the first undersurface, we're so different, right? Here is this uh Haitian kid, and um, here is this Caucasian person that was born in New Holland, South Dakota. But like we are so different, you know, we are from two different worlds, but you know, he and I grew up kind of the same way. You know, he had an outhouse and I had an out an outhouse. I love history, and he could tell me about World War II.

SPEAKER_04 19:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:49

So, you know, on the surface, we seem so different, but but I think deeply he and I were so alike, and also what I what I knew that would bind us together is that my parents and Bethany's parents raise us the same way, which is to love Jesus and to love God. So I knew that whatever it was on the surface that we could get past that because we both serve the same God. And they raised us really the same way to love Jesus and love your neighbors and be the best person that you can be.

SPEAKER_03 20:24

I love how you're not skirting around the race issue. Yeah. Like there's there's no hesitation there. In a world in a culture where we're taught to be colorblind and just ignore race, you guys are embracing it. I I love that fact. And then you circled around and said, but we're still all the same, too. We're all the same in Christ. We all we all bleed red, we have the same Christ. And so we're not different, but we are the same, but we're different. And I just think that's a wonderful way to approach it, the celebration of differences, not that they're bad, yeah, because like you can celebrate them. So yeah, no. It's a great, it's a great counter to the culture.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

Yeah. And even just just literally this morning, breakfast table conversation with the kids, like they're just they asked so many questions. And we started talking about like the colors again. And I told them, like, they were talking about, hey, when you were young, like were there slaves, or when when your grandma and grandpa were young, were there slaves back then, you know, giving them kind of like timelines on things and like, no, it wasn't that way. Um, but there were certain things that like black people didn't have the rights. But then I also could tell them that like you guys are important. It's important for you to know that you are white and black. Like we never just call you black, like in that back in the day, like if you had one ounce of black blackness in you, you were black. And like, no, like we are very it's very important for you guys to know that you are both. Like we will say you are mixed, we will say you are light brown, but you are never either black nor white. Like you're both. Yeah. So yeah. That's really beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

Yes. There's there's so much. More to this conversation than we come out there.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

Yeah. So like it's important for me, for the kids to also know about their Dutch um heritage and their German um heritage and of course their Haitian heritage as as well. You know, it's both of us that make them who they are.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

What an exciting life they have to be able to know they come from these both of these worlds and you two have come together, and because of your heritage and how your family raised you, but you're coming together and you're you're doing really big, big, beautiful things together versus fighting and being decisive. And it's one way or the other way, you know, that decisiveness and you know, pointing different fingers. And it's like it doesn't have to be like that. You can really come together and celebrate, like Amos said, celebrate each other's differences. That's what our world needs to, I think, do much better at right now. Um so when it comes to what you do, what God has put in your laps for your every single day life now, because there's a lot of trips back and forth to Haiti. Yeah, because you have built something very beautiful. So can you guys talk more about what is going on in Haiti right now and what you're doing to help the people in Haiti?

SPEAKER_02 23:20

Yeah, so you know, you know, we moved to Haiti in 2014. So Mission Haiti itself um was already uh functioning and um this amazing young woman, uh Pam Plaisier, started Mission Haiti. And uh but in 2014, God called us to uh move there. And Bethany had never never visited uh Haiti. And I came back and I said, Hey, uh, how about we move to Haiti in six months? And what did you say, Bethany?

SPEAKER_04 23:57

All right.

SPEAKER_02 23:59

So without even ever yes, ever being there.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

So And no kids yet.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

And no kids yet.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

Made that all right just a little bit easier. That is much easier.

SPEAKER_02 24:09

2014 without kids, and um very quickly uh after that, you know, we started to be in leadership position um with uh Mission Haiti and living there. And Mission Haiti specifically, the biggest thing that we do is uh schools, where uh back in the day we operated about four or five schools. Now we operate nine schools. We have a medical clinic um that uh sees close to uh 13,000 patients a year.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

16,000 patients a year from the medical director over here.

SPEAKER_02 24:46

Thank you very much. We have an elderly home where we have 16, 17 um elders. Most of them cannot see and they cannot uh walk uh properly, and they have a home, they have community, and and we do evangelism. Uh, we have a small orphanage, and uh we also help uh build homes and so forth. And I say that uh just to kind of I I I sometimes have to remind me um the amazing things that are going on in Haiti and the amazing work that is going on by the amazing people that are in Haiti. Um because Haiti is still the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. And um you've heard me say that a couple of times, I'll probably keep on saying it, just because um I was quick quickly reminded of that when I was growing up, and it's something that I don't shy away from because it is the truth. Um right now the Haitian people do not uh have a president. Um the capital city is uh 80% of the capital city is run by gangs. And 80%. 80% of the capital city is controlled by gangs.

SPEAKER_03 26:06

That is not an insignificant number.

SPEAKER_02 26:08

It's a huge number. What's the population of Haiti? About 11,000.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

11 million. Million. Eleven million. I went, wait, hold on. You service 11 million.

SPEAKER_02 26:20

11 million.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

Wow. And so what's the underlying reason for I mean, because not there's gotta be wealth. There's there's food coming in, there's money coming in, but it just is not getting to the people. Is that because that's what you hear?

SPEAKER_02 26:35

For sure. So many, you know. Um, gosh, you know, Haiti gained its its independence in 1804. It was the first black republic. And Haiti's first president was like our George Washington, right? Uh he fought against the French um to help Haiti gain its independence. And he became president. But then two years after he was in power, he was assassinated um by some other different groups in Haiti. So like imagine if George Washington was assassinated by maybe um John Adams, right? Like the history of the United States would be so different. Yeah. Um, you know, Haiti was also closed off as well, where you know, United States and the UK and other countries did not recognize Haiti as a country because at that time and place, those countries also had slaves as well. And Haiti was the first successful slave rebellion.

unknown 27:42

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

So it's a lot of things, but a lot of it, I as a Haitian, you know, I look at myself first. What can I as a Haitian do to help the country that I was born in? I can look at so many different outside factors of different times that different countries had control of Haiti and um the terrible things that other countries have done. But, you know, we as Haitians, we are smart. Uh, we have capabilities. So what can we do? And I think it's because of our leaders, you know, uh, what can we as Haitian leaders do to change the trajectory of the country? Um, so for me, it's, you know, what can we do to get the gangs out? Or um when can we have some good government and power? But for our work is, you know, we need to spread the gospel. Uh, we need to spread uh the word of Christ. Because when you have some of the poorest people in a country, in a place, you know, we will do anything to survive, right? Um, we will do anything to take care of our family um members. But when you are looking in an eternal perspective, you know, maybe you will not do certain things. But, you know, it's on us to also provide education, right? To uh provide medical care and uh to see how we can help with the infrastructure or create jobs. So that is our work um we know with Mission Haiti.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

You know, there's what's what I love is that there's a lot of people in this location that really have a heart for Haiti. Um I just had coffee with Gretchen Schaefer, who goes over there and she, that's her family. You know, she she has such a heart. And then Kayla and Weibear Raymond over in Iowa, you know, they're that's their that's their home. That's what they they were living there too, and then got pushed out um for safety, for life, you know, for livelihood. So when you get told you can't go back to a place that you feel like is home in your family, that's that can't imagine how hard that is, right? So 2014, you moved there, but you're not living there anymore. So how did you guys end up back in Sioux Falls?

SPEAKER_01 30:14

Yeah, so we left at the end of September of 2021.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

There was some issues going on within our community where we were not supported. Um, and there were violent attacks on us very specifically as a family and as a mission and threats. And we called the community out saying you need to stand up against this kind of action. And uh we didn't feel the support that we had. So um our board made the decision to pull all of the missionaries out. At that point, we had 12, I think, um, foreign missionaries on the ground because we had a uh English uh teacher program where native English teachers would come down and uh do co-teaching. Okay. And uh so we all left thinking it was gonna be a month or two. We have done these evacuations multiple times, too many times in the last years before. Um and I remember one of the teachers turning to me and being like, what if this is it? Like, what if they don't let us go back? And I said to her, I was like, I can't, can't go there in my head. That's just not even like whatever. And sure enough, uh the decision was made by the board with our support, um, our painful support that that we weren't gonna be sending missionaries back.

SPEAKER_03 31:38

Um so and this was following the hurricane.

SPEAKER_01 31:41

There was an earthquake. It was an earthquake and COVID. Yes. Uh yep. COVID was a lot different scenario for Haiti than it was for the United States. Um, it played into it within the dynamic of the people we had on the ground, but um, its prevalence was different. Okay. Um so yeah, we had a big earthquake. And so if you ask her oldest, she will tell you the earthquake is why we left. She she will ask God why he sent an earthquake to get us out.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Because your kids loved it.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

You had all three kids.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

That was their only thing, their home that they've known.

SPEAKER_01 32:13

Their home.

unknown 32:13

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

And they would all three go back right away if they could and live there. So um anyway, they um yeah, we had to restructure our entire family, our entire mentality, our entire relationship was Haiti bound. And so it was painful for sure. And it it is painful to some degree to not be where you want to be um and where you think you should. But the clouds are clearing and we're starting to see things within a clearer realm now and ended up making Mission Haiti more sustainable. Um, things that would have taken us a long time to get off of our plates within just like, um, what do you call it when you tell someone to take a job? Like when you pass on a successor. Yeah, that's not the word I'm looking for, but okay. Oh well.

SPEAKER_02 33:05

Um, station guy will now be able to help you. Delegate, delegate.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

Um I was like, I know I've heard you say it before. Um, so things we would have taken a long time to delegate were an immediate necessity. And so, and just looking back as different positions we had put in place months before, years before, it was like, uh oh, like that makes sense now because the Lord knew we weren't gonna be down there. Wow. But the fact that like Mission Haiti isn't missionaries, Mission Haiti isn't Paul and Bethany, Mission Haiti is the team on the ground that continues the work. And so we just get to like oh, my oldest the other day was like, um, so you just sit at a computer all day. Like, could you do cooler work? Like that doesn't seem she literally, that doesn't seem like real work. She's like, like, we're empowering the people on the ground to do what they need to do.

SPEAKER_00 33:59

And is that hard? Not hearing that from your daughter, but like, but hard. I mean, I can't imagine the pull on your guys' heart, not because Paul, you just got back. You were down there for a couple weeks or at least like 10 days or something.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

So going back and this back and forth tug on your heart of being in it and then behind a computer and then in it, right?

SPEAKER_02 34:21

It's a world of emotions.

SPEAKER_00 34:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:23

Like, you know, we still feel ourselves so lucky to be able to still do this work. But um, you know, we lived with those people for eight years, you know, our our kids went to school in Haiti and going up and down the mountain and you know, being so so grateful to still be able to do the work. But, you know, a huge part of our lives, our of our emotions are still in Haiti. And you mentioned the Raymond and they're such good friends of ours, but you know, having to go to their house a couple of times and just talk about that, right? Because they can understand that poll, wanting to be in Haiti, wanting to, you know, do life uh with um the people there is still hard. It's still something that gets emotional. And for us as a family, one of the biggest blessings that we had is we're able to go and do um counseling sessions for like almost a month. Because, like you said, you had things like COVID, you had the earthquake, and then there was a tropical storm right after the earthquake, and then rocks thrown on our family and threats and and so forth. You know, how do you move on, right? How do you continue to serve people in the community that you love so much and that you want to do the work, but then now we have to leave and now we quote unquote have to put our kids um at school here where we just want to put them at school at and in Haiti. But at the same time, the people that we serve, you know, they could use some therapy, they could use some counseling, they could use a safer place, and they're not getting that. But we are.

SPEAKER_04 36:22

Right.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

You know, so many different emotions and feelings that we continually have to fight, continually to remember to be grateful for what we have, that we can still be able to tell the stories of those wonderful human beings, um, but then be like, dang, Haiti, yeah, you know, when are you gonna get your crap together? Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

Yeah. There's a there's a survivor's guilt there that is for us, yeah. For us. And you ask our kids, they're they're backwards in their mentality that they'll say, why did we have to leave and the orphanage get to stay? The words that they use. And I'm not gonna correct that in their mind because it's not gonna be helpful for them, but like eventually it will. But um, you know, that mentality of like, we got the shaft in in that scenario where we are blessed and it's hard. It's, you know, like in this summer we got the chance to spend two months there. And Haitians were very thankful, like overwhelmingly, because they knew like, and they weren't bitter at us when we left again, but they were thankful that we could share our lives again with them as much as we could.

SPEAKER_03 37:38

This this contrast between the danger there and your hearts is incomprehensible. You know what I'm you know what I'm saying? Like it's it's what we hear, and then maybe you can clarify this, is the danger. And I hear you say talk about getting rocks thrown at you, and you want to bring your kids back and put them in that situation, which is counterintuitive to being parents, right? And but also as you were basically rejected, you want to go back into the fire. And like you're strongly drawn to this. Help our listeners comprehend that. Where is that where's that coming from?

SPEAKER_02 38:18

Yeah, so you know, we left in 21 and when we spent time this summer with our kids for about uh almost two months, we did not stay in our home in Haiti. Uh we stayed about 20 to 25 minutes um away from our home, the compound. So, you know, it has been a process of you know, when when we are believers, our first um most important thing is to love God, right? And then our first mission is our family. You know, so we've had to have great deep conversation as to, you know, what level of danger are we going to put ourselves in? And then our kids, we love the work that we do with mission Haiti, but mission Haiti is not the most important thing in our life. It's our relationship as husband and wife, and then our uh responsibilities as uh father and mother to our kids. Um, so there's so many different little steps that we have taken in order for us to feel quote unquote safe when we go back to Haiti. It was not until the last two times that Bethany and I went without our kids that we stayed in the compound in the place that we called home. And, you know, the first night was tough for me, especially. You know, um, where we stayed there were PTSD about the earthquake that first night. Uh there was PTSD or people going through throw rocks again, right? But you know, it's it's that balancing of taking risk that you know are low-level risk and also trusting God as well, but pretty putting your spot in a safe situation for your friends and for your family and for your kids, where it's a constant battle.

SPEAKER_01 40:32

I would like to point out it is important to say that our area of Haiti is a lot different if you're comparing like our area to the Raymonds and other areas within Port-au-Prince or closer to Port-au-Prince, um, where gangs uh have active control, where for us it's create there there are multiple things in play, but for in this scenario right now, and it could change today or tomorrow, but um right now it's it's the trips in and out, the traveling throughout the country that's been difficult. Our area has been quite peaceful, and uh everybody just kind of makes a new normal, right? There's less imports and there's less that, this and that because of gain control throughout the entire country. But our area has been a different scenario.

SPEAKER_03 41:21

So there's safe areas, there's bad areas. We think of Hades as just geographically small. So we I in my mind, I think it's very condensed. And so the way it is in one place is the way it is everywhere else. And then it's a misconception, I think. So thanks for clarifying that. So when you're going in, you're being very intentional about where you're going. Are you getting in to the to the thick of things and then getting back out when it gets dark, going back to a safe place? I mean, are you transitioning into the thick of things? And then Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:55

So now when we go into Haiti, uh we go into the capital city, uh, which again is the most uh dangerous part. But uh thankfully, we are kind of in a bubble when we go in there because we are around the airport area. We used to take a five-hour drive from uh Port-au-Prince to our base. Um, so we cannot make that five-hour drive anymore because of how dangerous it is around Port-au-Prince. So now we just take a small plane, just a couple of steps from the airport to the smaller regional airport, and we go directly to Lecayes, which is Haiti's third biggest city, about 45 minutes from our base, our hometown. So when we are in our base now, now we now we feel pretty safe. Um where um it, you know, if we had to make that trip around um Port-au-Prince, um, that's that's a very, very difficult um situation.

SPEAKER_00 43:01

Uh we can't really get into this because it's almost time to wrap up here. But if people want to go and read about what's really going on going on in Haiti, it's very painful. It's it's painful to know that human life can be so devalued and that there's beheading just right in the streets and just so it's really, really evil. Like it's evil. So prayer, what else can we be doing in the the whole like you think about how big the world is, right? And yet we're we're a little podcast. But if you could voice it to the world, what would you s what would you say beyond prayer? Because prayer is number one.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

Yeah, um, gosh. You know almost everybody in our hometown and the areas that that we serve, you know, they want to leave and they want to go somewhere safe. Uh they want to go to a different country, and some people have. But we know that most people will not be able to. Um they'll have to stay in that muck. And uh again, we are so blessed to be able to tell their stories because you know, they still go days without food. They don't know when gangs are going to come to their door. If there's an earthquake or a hurricane, uh their homes might fall on them. They have no clue when Haiti is going to have a president. Um, so you know, the small little difference that we make when we look at Haiti as a whole, we can get discouraged. But when when we know of the stories of the mother that can send their kids to school and not have to worry if that kid is going to eat or not, or being able to go get medical care, um, being able to just have that hope of education, of healthcare, of um having a good school to send their kids to. You know, that is huge. Um, so you know, support organizations in Haiti are huge. Um can go to w.mission-haiti.org and um help us continue to do that work uh because it is life-saving.

SPEAKER_01 45:36

Yeah. I think we could probably link some other some other mission organizations too from Haiti that we have very good relationships with that we know this money isn't getting extorted like that kind of stuff. So we could help people have confidence where where their money's going.

SPEAKER_02 45:53

There's a lot of wonderful organizations, like the Raymonds in Haiti Alive that are around here that we know do amazing work in Haiti.

SPEAKER_00 46:03

Okay. I'll make sure that we get that all linked in with your episode. And so this this has been wonderful. Thank you for being just very apparent, being very open and honest and real with us about what what you guys do, but what you've gone through just from your childhood to marriage to now what you're doing. I mean, the whole all there's so much more to unpack in all of it. But um, just for people to get an overview is really great. So thank you for being here today, you guys, and sharing with our audience.

SPEAKER_02 46:30

Our pleasure. And thanks to you and uh Amos for giving us this opportunity and also being so open with your story as well of helping people means a lot. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_03 46:44

Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you guys. Thanks. Thank you so much for listening. We want to change lives through this podcast. And if you want to support this podcast or our guests, please see the links below for our Patreon and giving links.

SPEAKER_00 46:58

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