Entering the woodland our guide stopped and reconstructed for us the nine years of labor it had taken to conceptualize and help create the impressive wood surrounding us. Many did not believe such a full restoration of the earth could happen, but the man who stood before us had dedicated his entire life to being a steward of the planet through this project.
Tall sturdy trees stood filled with fruit — trees that would help sustain and nourish the people who cared for them. Soft, almost ruffled-looking ferns on the forest floor had sprung up as the land became reinvigorated with new growth. There were even signs of fresh water within the forest unobservable elsewhere.
Where there were once small houses constructed out of banana leaves there were now homes made of concrete blocks with cisterns to hold fresh water. In ravines that would have been previously void of life, there were now nurseries where literally hundreds of trees were sprouting to life, watered and nurtured by dozens of workers. In the schools there were gardens with seedlings assigned to all of the children, and plots where vegetables had come to replace rocks.
MICHELLE WAHILA, an associate pastor at Third Church in Pittsburgh, Pa., reflects on her first experience visiting a CODEP project in Haiti.
