INCLUSIVENESS and SPORTSMANSHIP
Inclusiveness and sportsmanship abounded in the Newfoundland and Labrador Provincial School Soccer Tournament held in St. Lawrence October 14, 15...
Inclusiveness and sportsmanship abounded in the Newfoundland and Labrador Provincial School Soccer Tournament held in St. Lawrence October 14, 15...
Luckner continues to do a good job with our HATS-Haiti mission despite difficult circumstances in the country. The situation in...
Everyone has heard about the devastating earthquake in the Southwest of Haiti. It is heartbreaking, gut wrenching, and extremely painful...
Hi everyone, it’s me again, Beate… Sadly, I won’t be making the 2085 km trek to Deschapelles again this year,...
Oh Haiti! Ayiti! Land of beauty! What an honour for the opportunity To see your land with its different shapes...
Karen asked me to write a blog for the website, and the first thing I did was to look at...
This memories blog will consist mostly of photos of Haiti. My eyes are wet as I post these photos, the...
It has been a long time since I wrote a blog from HATS but am thinking of HATS-Haiti and the...
Friends and family often ask me how things are in Haiti. Unfortunately, we haven’t been there now for 2 years,...
A friend from Springdale NL, Cavell Simms, wrote a poem for me 24 years ago, after I had been living...
Haitian-Canadian teenager goes sightseeing in North America’s oldest city. In early February 2021, Luc and his mom drove from Springdale...
Congratulations Jean Jacques (JJ) JJ age 19, my eldest at the HATS mission, graduated grade 13 at our school, IMKH,...
This week’s blog is a ‘Flashback’ of almost six years ago. Blog was written by brother, Don, after 9-year-old Luc...
Our children are all well. These very recent photos will attest to that. Jonathan Dickieson Sandra helping prepare spices for...
Many of you have been waiting and watching for some word from Hands Across the Sea-Haiti. I must ignore my...
If you’ve ever considered sponsorship, now is the time to do it. Your donation truly does make a difference!
Amazing organization! Had the pleasure of visiting twice, and can’t wait to go back again someday. God is doing some wonderful things at HATS!
I have learned much about Haiti in my short stay here, much about generational, entrenched poverty, and much about hope. We can only be part of the bringing of hope if we become one small actor on the huge stage that is poverty. Thank you, Lynn Clark, for inviting me to share this life changing experience with you, and thank-you, Karen Huxter, for investing so much of your life in a work designed to bring hope to those who need it more than any Canadian could ever imagine.
This is my first trip to Haiti and I’m hoping that it will not be my last! I could start by telling you all about my experiences however I’ll start by saying that Haiti DOES hit you in your heart! Not a day goes by when I’m not fighting back tears. Hands Across the Sea is an amazing place! Our team has been assembled of different men that all who all felt God calling them to do his bidding. Since I have been here I was quick to realize that we are just helpers here. Karen and her team of workers are, what I believe to be, the real workers of God! Each child presents their own challenges and Karen and her staff make sure that all of the children, not one child, are seen to!
Culture shock for this Canadian team at first, but a ride through busy, vibrant streets proved terrifically interesting; busy markets, vendors selling exotic fruits, clothing and shoes, used tires and rusty metal… and then the gorgeous countryside: banana plants, mangoes, cows and goats and pigs and dogs, the Golfe de La Gonave by our side. Rice patties indicated we were close to our home for the next week. We were greeted by Magalie, a house mother, with hugs for all and, of course, the children themselves, so gorgeous and endearing. A beautiful meal was followed by a sharing of impressions: there is a lot of poverty but so much potential and hope. We are already in love with Haiti.
This week has been amazing – one of the best weeks of my life thus far, hands down. I can’t really think of any other experience in my life that can even come close to comparing to this. Though my visit here was short (too short), it has been incredibly eye-opening, and life changing. I will never forget the people I have met here, or the things I’ve gotten to experience! Most of all, I would like to say how remarkable it is to see first-hand the amazing work God is doing here. I am behind this ministry 100%, and will continue to support it. I am so, so blessed to have been given the opportunity to come here, and I am REALLY not looking forward to saying goodbye to the children tonight. My heart sinks just thinking about it. There’s no doubt that they’ve had a bigger impact on my life than I’ve had on theirs. I will be leaving a big piece of my heart with these people and this country. God bless.
I had anticipated that I would enjoy spending time getting to know the children and being a part of Karen’s daily life in Haiti but I had not anticipated that it would capture my heart like it did. I will miss spending time with the children and Karen but I am hopeful that I’ll be able to see them all again in the not too distant future.
It’s going to be impossible to put my thoughts into words about this experience, so I’d say this – if you can get here – do. I think most people probably think they’re coming to help others. To some extent, that’s true (at least this temporary blogger thought so). To a larger extent, you’ll leave Haiti a better person than when you arrived. Nelson Mandela once said something like “Everywhere I go, I wear you”. It means that none of us is our own person entirely. Rather, we’re the culmination of the people and experiences we have had. I leave Haiti wearing 16 HATS children, 10(ish) Haitian staff members, a Calgarian, 2 Winnipegian’s, and a Newfie. And I couldn’t be happier about it. Until we meet again my friends.
After years of thinking about it and months of planning for it, it seems strange that our time in Haiti is over. We have been asked by a few if it was like we expected. Well, no. I’m not sure what we expected, but our minds could not have fathomed what we have experienced, and we can hardly believe that our 3 month stay has come to an end. HATS really became home away from home for us. We knew we would enjoy getting to know and spending time with the kids but we had no idea how difficult it would be to leave them. They sneak in and steal your heart without you even knowing it. We have left a piece of our hearts in Haiti and can’t wait for the day when we can return.
The time has passed so quickly. We know what we’ve done this week is important and makes a difference here at Hands Across the Sea. But it’s easy in Haiti to feel that anything we do here is simply a drop in the ocean. So much need on so many different levels: political, organizational, educational, social, spiritual…But we remind ourselves that each individual life is of infinite value so changing the life of one child and one family is worth the effort.
Thank you Karen for everything you do, all the hard work and dedication that you put into this place, all of the work behind the scenes. Thank you for putting up with all the craziness that we bring when we come to your house for the week, just thank you times a million and one for everything Karen. I can write about my week until I am blue in the face (maybe not write that long but if you know me I can definitely talk for that long), and can sing about kit kat bars until my voice gives out, but I cannot even begin to try and articulate in song, dance, or other random art forms how thankful and blessed I am to have been given this experience not only once but twice! Thank you – thank you – thank you – thank you!!!!!!!
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