Madanm Tite!

Last week whenever the team was here, Madanm Tite cooked for us everyday which was such a blessing! Madanm Tite is one of the moms in Stacie's ministry. Of course, we all got really close to her because she was here all the time! Stacie told us bits and pieces of Madanm Tite's story during the week, but one night after dinner, we asked if Madanm Tite would share her testimony with us. She was happy to, and I want to share with each of you her story...

Madanm Tite used to live in Port Au Prince, and she was there when the earthquake struck in January of 2010. She told us she was out of the house, but her children were at home when the earthquake happened that afternoon. She told us that she just knew Jesus was coming back when the earthquake occured because Haiti has not had a huge earthquake like that in a LONG time. (I think I would have thought Jesus was coming back if I had never experienced an earthquake, and all of a sudden the ground started to tremble and buildings began to crumble) Once she realized what had happened, she began to praise the Lord that she was still alive. She went back home, but her children were not there. They were at a nearby home, and they were upset because they did not know where she was. Madanm Tite and her four children realize how blessed they are to have lived through the earthquake because so many people were not so fortunate.

After the earthquake, Fritznel (Stacie's husband) and some of his friends and youth group wanted to help out the refugees of the earthquake, and that is how Stacie and Fritznel got to know Madanm Tite. She moved into Montrouis (which is about 2 hours from Port) where she was provided a house for her family to live in since the earthquake destroyed her home. Now, 3 years later, she is still in Montrouis! Praise the Lord!

She does not live in the original home provided to her, but she now lives on top of a small mountain with others who were displaced after the earthquake. An American team came in and built a row of houses for the remaining refugees. There are now only about 8 women left from those who moved into Montrouis with Madanm Tite. The rest have all moved on to other places, or gone back to Port to rebuild. These new homes are almost like duplexes in that one family lives in one side, and another family lives on the other. The home has only two rooms...no bathroom, no running water, or electricity. The house is made out of cinderblock with concrete floors. To us, this seems terrible for her to live like that, but in comparison to other houses here, she has a very nice (and well-taken care of) home.

One of the things that is lacking from these homes that were built for the refugees is a well. Madanm Tite has to walk to get water, then take this huge jug of water on a motorcycle back to the top of the mountain. To her, that is just part of life, but it's really sad that the people who built the houses did not think to build a well for these families on top of this mountain. (I'm going to try and get a picture to show the distance Madanm Tite has to travel to get to her house, but let's just say we were trying to take a truck up the mountain, but we had to jump out of the back because the truck began to slide backwards...that's how steep this hill is to get to the houses).

Madanm Tite loves her 4 children (we all met two of them, her youngest son and daughter, and her daughter is beautiful and her son is handsome!). She used to wash clothes for people in order to make money to put her children through school! That is a sacrifice to hand wash people's clothes, but she wants her children to go places, and not just be stuck in poverty.

I am not sure exactly when Madanm Tite got saved, but I do know that she is a Christian. Whenever we shared with her that we were doing communion, she said that she felt she could not partake of communion because she had never been baptized. We explained to her that in order to take part in communion, she did not have to be baptized, but if she wanted to be baptized one of the ladies on the team (Mrs. Pam) was a pastor. Mrs. Pam was more than willing to baptize Madanm Tite! Madanm Tite said she wanted to be baptized, so Friday afternoon we all went down to the beach, and Mrs. Pam baptized Madanm Tite!!! It was so neat to experience! Madanm Tite kept asking Stacie, "Are y'all coming to pray over my house?" So on Monday afternoon, after all the good byes were said to the moms and kids, we all went and prayed over Madanm Tite's house. We asked that God would shine in her home, and that she would spread His Name throughout her community. The team anointed her home with oil, and prayed that no evil would enter. Madanm Tite was so excited to have her house prayed over!

Many times, people get baptized, and you never see the change in them. However, Madanm Tite's change was immediate! Not that she was living a lifestyle of sin or anything, but you could just tell that she was really grasping the true meaning of having a RELATIONSHIP with Jesus instead of just following a religion.

Continue to be in prayer for Madanm Tite as she journeys on the path with Christ! Pray that she would be encouraged by other believers, and that she would spread the Gospel in her community and everywhere she goes! Pray that her words and actions would glorify God! Pray that her children would see God in their mom, and that they would desire to follow after Christ like their mom does!

While you are praying for Madanm Tite, pray for each other! Life is hard. We are all on different paths that God has chosen for us (some of us are on different paths because of choices we have made), but we should all have the same goal to Glorify God in all we say and do! We should be spreading His Word throughout our communities and throughout the world. It doesn't matter whether you are new to the faith in Haiti, America, or some other country, we all serve the same Father!! Isn't it awesome to just sit back and think that the same God that Madanm Tite serves is the same God you and I serve too?!

I pray that each of you would be inspired by Madanm Tite's story!

Blessings and Love!
Ashley