Several months ago, in the mission segment of their meeting, a group of Avera physicians, were discussing a section from the book, Mountains Beyond Mountains. The book describes the life and work of Paul Farmer, MD, the infectious disease expert who has spent more than half of the last 20 years working in central Haiti, in addition to teaching at Harvard and serving as an attending physician at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
At one point someone asked me for an update on Avera’s involvement in Haiti and, after I responded, asked me why we continue to go there when the country seems to make so little overall progress. I’ve thought a lot about that question since then and would share with you these musings:
- One reason we continue to go to Jeremie, Haiti is that several years ago Avera Health made a commitment to Dr. Jerry Lowney, his wife and family, and the people of the Haitian Health Foundation [HHF]. We said we wanted to do the Avera thing – partner with them and help them in their ministry to the poorest people in the Western Hemisphere. Dr, Lowney et al have been at it for over 20 years, giving fundraising talks to Rotaries, packing supplies into steamship containers, developing grant proposals, leading groups of volunteers to Jeremie, and more. As Jerry’s wife, Virginia, once said, “We don’t go down there, you know, and then come back and just play golf. This is our life.” And Avera volunteers who have been to Jeremie can attest to the incredible development of buildings, programs and staff that the Lowneys, their friends and supporters, have made possible over these 20 years. Avera is fortunate to be a contributor to this Spirit-driven undertaking; we are a part of something that is clearly making a difference in the lives of thousands of Haitian people.
- It is true, of course, that most of Haiti exists in abject poverty, and it will take wholesome leaders and significant first-world economic assistance for the people to improve their standard of living. In the meantime, in the Grand Anse region of the country, as Avera volunteers can attest, HHF nurses and workers, who not only see 200-300 patients a day at the People of God Clinic in Jeremie but also travel monthly to over 100 villages in the surrounding mountains, have helped to dramatically improve the health of over 200,000 people through their programs and interventions. If only every region of Haiti had a Dr. Jerry Lowney or a Dr. Paul Farmer living and working on its behalf!
- Another reason for going to Jeremie, as Avera volunteers will attest, is to spend a week with courageous, Spirit-filled women like Bette Gebrian and Sisters Maryann, Anna, Mary Mac and Sophie. I sometimes reflect when I am here at home, that those women are down there week after week, month after month, often in hot, humid weather, responding to needs, organizing projects and managing staff. I don’t know an Avera volunteer who hasn’t come home feeling enriched by his or her time with these women.
- When Avera volunteers apply for a specific trip, they express in writing their reasons for wanting to go. Most often it is a variation of “I have been so blest; I want to give something back and I would like to share it with the poorest of the poor.” Some people don’t understand such sentiments; the poor are no concern of theirs. But for others who do understand, the opportunity to contribute to HHF fits their aspirations.
- Finally, perhaps the most meaningful but difficult to articulate reason for going is this: We know the risen Lord is present in every situation, dwells within every living person. Yet it is also true that at times we may have difficulty experiencing his presence. Over the centuries the spiritually wise have said that if we have trouble finding the risen Christ, we should look for him among the poor, for those are the ones with whom he spent the most time and had the greatest concern when he was physically in our midst. The poor, of course, are everywhere, but nowhere are they poorer or in greater need in this hemisphere than in Haiti.