Haiti is a place that will change your life. It has certainly changed ours. We think there is value to visiting a culture and land different than your own and learning more about your neighbors around the globe.
We're not personally huge fans of the traditional model of Short Term Missions - we've written about that a number of places, so we won't reiterate here.
If you can come open to learning from Haitians and without a lot of expectations, we encourage you to consider coming to Haiti. If you are coming to Haiti to fix something or someone, we think you'll go home frustrated and probably either annoy or hurt the people you hope to visit/serve. The Haitian people are brilliant and hospitable. They have things to teach us.
If you are considering visiting a developing country we urge you to read "When Helping Hurts" and "Toxic Charity" prior to your trip. It will help you to understand some of the problems of short-term missions and allow you to avoid the common pitfalls.
We currently do not host teams in our home. We live in a regular single family home and are raising boat loads of children and it is not possible at this time for us to host you in our home - mostly due to space and energy and the many, many children.
Occasionally readers write and ask to come check out what we do and to stay with us. We don't want to appear rude (maybe we are? if so. okay, we're rude) but we feel it is in the best interest of our family to keep these boundaries around our home and family time. We don't host people we don't know in our home. We'll bump into you during the work day but our nights and our home are reserved for our family, close friends, and immediate family to visit.
We are Co-Directors at Heartline Ministries. Our model looks a little different - therefore frequent Short Term Groups do not fit our core goals/values.
Heartline Ministries does host a couple of teams a year but we don't host teams as a regular practice. As a general rule we don't have enough things to keep volunteers busy. Sometimes hosting teams can take away from our ability to serve the people of Haiti well ... and divides our attention.
(If you would like further explanation of why we don't do STM - please write to LivesayFamily@gmail.com and we will happily share more via e-mail.)
Many ministries use the STM model and teams as a way to increase their income and to fund their programs, those are the ministries you'll find offering dozens and dozens of team trips each year.
Here are just a few ministries in Haiti that often welcome/host teams:
(this is not a recommendation or personal endorsement, just places that host teams frequently)
Mission of Hope
NW Haiti Christian Mission
Children's Int'l Lifeline
Haitian Childrens Home
OMS Haiti
Healing Haiti - based in MN
