Haiti, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere and one of the world’s most impoverished, is plagued with chronic malnutrition.  The already severe problem has become critical as food prices have risen around the globe in recent months.  Last January, the Associated Press reported that Haiti’s poorest citizens were resorting to eating meals of mud cookies—a concoction of dirt, salt, and vegetable shortening—as a means of keeping their hunger at bay.  Mud cookies, which use dried yellow dirt from Haiti’s central plateau, have long been used by pregnant Haitian women and children as an antacid and source of calcium.  But rising food costs have elevated the mud cookie to a dietary staple for the poorest of the poor.

From March 14-20, 121’s Mary Henderson had the opportunity to take glyconutrient supplements to six Haitian orphanages as part of a 12-member MannaRelief mission team.  Founded in 1999, MannaRelief Ministries is a non-profit organization that supplies essential nutrition to orphans and children with critical health needs.  Henderson, a case representative for the organization, was one of several MannaRelief employees who trained orphanage staff in how to administer the nutrients to the children.

What Mary and her colleagues witnessed at the orphanages was heartbreaking.  “There was crib after crib, room after room, of malnourished babies,” she shared.  “One very malnourished child, who was in a wheelchair, put up her hands to me and said, ‘Mama.’”  The smallest orphanage the team visited had around 30 children, but the other five housed between 60 and 120 youngsters.

While the primary focus of the mission was getting the nutritional supplements to the orphans and training orphanage staff, the team also took advantage of opportunities to share the Gospel whenever possible.  “We ministered with Bible stories, puppet shows, and Gospel presentations,” Henderson stated.

The team also had the chance to enjoy fellowship with their translator, bus driver, and two of their friends, all of whom are Christians.  “We had been told ahead of time to be skeptical of Haitians who claim to be Christians,” she said.  But after some initial wariness, the MannaRelief team realized that these four people were genuine in their faith.  “We had an incredible worship time together on the beach,” Henderson stated.  The group found a holey bucket in the ocean, and the MannaRelief workers decided to use it to wash their Haitian brothers’ feet and pray for them.  “They were absolutely overwhelmed,” Henderson shared.

As part of the team’s preparation for the Haiti trip, Henderson and her supervisor met with 121’s Jane Wynn.  Wynn, who works with missionaries in Haiti, met the two over lunch to tell them what the team could expect during their trip.  “Jane was a wealth of information,” Henderson shared. “She was extremely helpful, and she even told us about a guest house for missions teams where we might be able to stay.” 

The MannaRelief team wound up staying at the guesthouse Wynn mentioned.  While there, the group met a dental mission team that was also staying at the guesthouse—as well as another American missionary.  “We met the father of Mark Stuart, the lead singer of [the now-disbanded Christian music group] Audio Adrenaline,” Henderson stated.  Stuart’s parents, Drex & Jo, were missionaries in Haiti during their son’s college years. The couple returned to Haiti to serve as full-time missionaries at The Hands and Feet Project, an orphanage started by Audio Adrenaline in 2004.

The trip was Henderson’s first to Haiti.  As a young believer in 1998, she heard a Haitian pastor speak at the church she then attended.  “He pastored several churches throughout Haiti, having very little time to do anything else.  He owned a bread factory that he would feed most of his people from; but when that would run out, they had to make some kind of paste from tree bark to feed the people,” Henderson said.  “Later, we were able to see pictures of him that had been taken over the years at the different churches he took care of—and he always had the same tie and shirt on. My heart was broken and overwhelmed with compassion in a way that I had never experienced.”  Ever since, Henderson had felt God’s call to this Caribbean country. 

In reflecting on her six-day experience in the Caribbean nation, Henderson said, “It was just too short.  I wasn’t ready to leave when it was time to come home.”

To learn more about MannaRelief and how to become a partner in its ministry, check out the organization’s website at www.mannarelief.org.

::Cindy Bushman