Glory to God Forever

Today was Day 3 of serving: Water Truck Day! This morning, our entire team boarded the tap tap and followed a truck full of up to 10,000 gallons of water into City Soleil. We made three different stops on the streets. At each one, all of the kids would come running at the tap tap and surround it before we even stopped. Some were clothed and some were naked. Lots of them had bloated bellies, and some had red hair, both of which are signs of malnourishment. The one thing that was the same about each and every kid that I saw as we drove up  was their expressions of pure joy. As we got out of the tap tap, they crowded us with their hands up, some even fighting over us, wanting to be held and loved. While we were getting out, people of all ages, from little kids to elders, lined up behind the water truck with buckets waiting to be filled. It was overwhelming yet incredible to be amongst all of the kids who were constantly grabbing at you for attention and people aggressively racing into the line, all shouting in Creole. It was chaos that so clearly revealed to me what joy really looks like. Not the joy you get from buying new things or winning a big game or holidays. These people had a much stronger and truer joy than that, one that comes from having a basic need like water fulfilled when you've been deprived of it. One that comes from having someone simply hold you because you don't get that love and affection from your family. Despite having nothing, these people offered so much love. An eleven year old boy came up to me with his little three year old brother and points to him, then tells me "porte". In English, it means to carry. He wanted me to hold and love his brother instead of himself. I picked up his brother and both of them smiled so big, and the eleven year old said "chante". This is where my two years of high school French came in handy and I was able to translate that to "sing". The night before, we had learned a song in Creole that goes "Glwa Pou Bondye Pou Tou Jou", meaning "Glory to God Forever". When I started to sing it for him, he and a couple other boys nearby join in, and we together we stood in the middle of the poorest slum in the western hemisphere singing "Glory to God forever". These children have nothing but God, and they worship Him and praise Him because He is their hope. This moment just really stuck with me, and I still can't get it out of my head. These kids worship God when they have nothing, and sometimes it seems like I'm too busy with the things that God has blessed me with to even stop and thank him for it. The people in City Soleil are such an inspiration for me, because they are full of joy and praise for God when they are some of the poorest people in the whole world. At the end of the day, I felt like they showed me more love than I could've ever shown them. They would come up to me and jump on me, braiding my flyaway hairs and teaching me how to play clapping games, then singing to me and giggling over my bright white skin. In the limits that such extreme poverty put on them, they were giving me everything - their gifts, their talents, their time, and their love. They showed me what pure joy and love looks like and inspired me with it. The poverty is ugly and unfair and these people don't deserve it, yet God is using it to teach me more about Him. He is showing me His love in these people, and I feel so honored and humbled because of it.