Gwenn's Story

I was talking to a friend recently and she described the
feeling of stepping off an airplane upon arriving in Haiti.
She said it felt like the life was immediately sucked out of
her. I thought that was an understandable take - the poverty
and desperation can take your breath away. But even so, I
couldn’t really relate to what she was saying because, to
me, the feeling of walking off an airplane in Haiti breathes
life into me.

In the summer of 2005 I visited Haiti for the first time, on a
short-term mission trip. I knew before the week was
through that my life had been changed forever. This
desperate, hungry and poor country held beauty like I had
never experienced. I saw true community played out
before my eyes. I saw people with next to nothing living
with contentment. And I became genuinely broken-hearted
by the orphan crisis I saw everywhere you looked. I knew
God was speaking to me, but I didn’t know what He was saying.

Shortly after returning home, my husband and I began the
process of adopting a little boy from Haiti, and we started
praying that God would forge a permanent and continuing
connection between our family and this country we had
come to love. When a planned trip to visit our son was
canceled, we had the opportunity to visit our friends at the
Haitian Children’s Home. Here we saw a new take on the
orphanages - creating “non traditional” families where
orphaned and abandoned children can grow up knowing
the love of a Christian mother and father, and LOTS of
brothers and sisters. At this home, children without parents
(some former child slaves and street children) are educated,
learn about God’s love for them and are seeing family
modeled in their every day life. We saw the redemptive
love of our Father God as children were filled with joy
springing from newly-found hope.

Seeing this happen made our hearts beat fast - we knew that
we were just one family, but we wanted to use all that God
had given us. As we’ve stepped out and followed God’s
lead - committing to some pretty big things for our family -
we’ve seen Him do more than we could have ever imagined.
Since then, two of the biggest passions in our life, our work
in Haiti and our love for our church, have intersected. It’s
been really exciting to see Crosspointe come alongside of
the Haitian Children’s Home. Crosspointe’s commitment
holds so much promise… it means food on the table each
month at Haitian Children’s Home… it means more
children saved from starvation or slavery… and equally as
exciting, it means more people in Cary, NC experiencing
the heart change we’ve felt - God breathing life into them as
they become a part of something bigger than themselves.

 

Watch a Video of a recent trip to Haiti/Kenya