My trip to Haiti was God’s miracle – His answer to my prayers, as it was something I always wanted to do so much, but never seemed to have enough time or money while being a college student. It all started with a phone call from Natalya Polyashenko (who I never met before), who somehow found out that I’m a nurse and called me asking if I want to go to Haiti for a mission trip, serving on a medical team. Of course I agreed right away, because I knew right then that this was God’s work in my life. For the few months prior to that phone call, I had this burning desire to go on a mission trip, to go serve the people, to do something that would change lives, and not just the lives of those whom we serve, but also our own lives. I know that when God uses people for His work He not only blesses those whom they serve, but also those “in the service,” by teaching them to totally rely on Christ and making them stronger Christians through testing their faith, which happened to us so many times during our stay in Haiti.

So… the Medical Team… It was Tuesday evening already (most of us came on Monday), but our medical team, which consisted of six nurses, still had not done anything that we came to Haiti for (the medical stuff). Some people already started to fall into despair, thinking that we are just wasting time, and that we really need God to open His doors for us and show us the way, since none of us knew the area, or the language of these people who so desperately needed healing, both physical and spiritual. That evening on the roof of pastor Capre’s house Venya (our leader) told us: “Bозведите очи ваши и посмотрите на нивы, как они побелели и поспели к жатве” (Иоанна 4:35), and he pointed into the direction of all the tents around us. He said, “All these people need your help.” He called all six of us up to the front and prayed for God to bless us, to open His doors and to give us vision on how to start His work here in Haiti.

I know that this prayer reached Heaven, for the next morning we, along with our Haitian friend Wesley, who served as our interpreter, were on our way to a small community within Port-Au-Prince, where we had people coming with different health problems, who we could give medical help to. But before we even got to that community, one of our sisters saw the gate to the school/orphanage which was slightly opened, so as we walked by it she decided to peek in to see what’s there, and suddenly the gate was opened by one of the school directors, and he started speaking to her in English! She told him that we are a team of nurses who came on a mission trip to Haiti and that we are looking for people who we can help. He invited all of us in and showed us the school, saying that we can come here any time, even every day if we want to!! A lot of the kids in that school were orphans, others had either one or two parents… So in one day (after that prayer on the roof) God opened two doors for us: a school/orphanage, and a small community where we could screen, assess, and treat people. But this was just the beginning…

The next day one of our nurses went to the local supermarket and came across some “people in scrubs.” She came up to them asking where they are from, knowing that they must be associated with some local hospital. They happened to be volunteers from a hospital organized by the University of Miami’s “Project MediShare”, located by the Port-Au-Prince airport. She told them who we were, why we came to Haiti, and wrote down their contact information since they said that they’d gladly accept nursing volunteers. This was another door God opened for us. Later, we all went to that hospital and could serve there as well.

The following week, God blessed us even more, and we had so many places to go to (churches, schools, and orphanages), that we had to say no to the hospital, since we decided that we could be much more useful to those who had no one else to help them, whereas in the hospital there were enough volunteers most of the time. We donated a lot of medical supplies to that hospital (things and medications that we could not use for our own medical work, like prescription medications, surgical supplies, etc.); all of those supplies came in the container along with other things. The hospital representatives were very grateful and thanked everyone who was involved in this project!

…Besides going out to different sites, we constantly had people coming to us with different health problems (both in pastor Capre’s house and later at the church that our brothers were building). There was a teenage boy with very bad leg ulcers, who came everyday for dressing changes and antibiotics. There were kids with fevers, headaches, stomachaches, skin problems, etc., who all needed medical help.

There was one young boy we met once, who lost his parents during the earthquake and now lived with his relatives. He came to us for a check-up one day when we were in one of the schools. He was very dehydrated and seemed very exhausted. He also complained of stomach and chest pain. When we asked if he ate or drank anything that day, the boy said “no.” He had nothing to eat or drink for a while now; his relatives were neglecting him, not giving him any food and not taking very good care of him. I cannot forget the look in this child’s eyes. In his young age he looked so serious, like he’s been through so much in life. Luckily, one of our girls had some snacks and water with her, so she took the boy behind the tent (otherwise the kids would rip those out of her hands!) and gave him some food and water. Wesley, our interpreter, wrote down some information about this boy, so he could keep in contact with him after we leave.

Another time we met this little girl who was about six years old and also lived with her relatives after losing her parents during the earthquake. This little girl had multiple abrasions and scars on her back. We found out that she was being physically abused by her relatives, who made her work very hard and constantly beat her for “misbehaving.” We all were shocked by what we saw. This poor little girl was so quiet all the time; while other kids were running around and playing with each other when we were assessing other kids, she was sitting quietly on the bench, so sad and serious – it tore our hearts apart when we found out about her life! …There were a lot of different heartbreaking situations that we came across while working with the people.

Besides serving the Haitian community, our medical team also helped our “wounded brothers” who got injured during the construction process. There were a lot of burns, scrapes, cuts and blisters that the guys acquired during their hard work of building the church. So our nursing team could serve them as well.

This mission trip taught me a lot. I realized each and every day how dependent we are on God. He strengthened my faith so much by showing me that He is there no matter what, and that He will answer our prayers if we only believe!! God blessed our entire team so abundantly; we just wouldn’t have been able to make it without each other. Everyone was so hard-working, supportive, and willing to do whatever it was that needed to be done. God also taught us flexibility: there were times when there was a lot of other work that needed to be done at the construction site besides our medical work, so our nursing team decided to split and have some of us go and help out with other things. And we saw God’s blessing in that as well !!

To all of the youth who have never been on a mission trip before, or are thinking of possibly going someday, I’m telling you now: GO, AND YOU WILL NEVER REGRET IT!! You will have an opportunity to serve the people in doing God’s work, you will meet other great brothers and sisters who want to serve the Lord, and will most likely make some lifelong friends, and most importantly, you will grow spiritually in God, and have something to share with others when you come home!

May God abundantly bless each and everyone who is reading this article, and may His hand be upon your lives. May He lead you and use you for His work, for “The harvest is great, but the laborers are few” (Luke 10:2). May His name be glorified! Amen.