Grateful, Mommas, Belief, Laughter…these are only a few of the words that our team used to describe or summed-up in one word what today meant while they experienced our first full day on a Healing Haiti team.
My best friend invited me on this trip and although I had always wanted to go to Haiti on a mission trip, I had said no in the past a couple times when asked. Why did I say no, I’m not sure, but maybe it was that I just had not felt called at the time to go or my life seemed to have more important things going on, so I thought. Nevertheless, as I prepared to pack for Haiti, I sat down and prayed asking for God to help me understand why. Why now, when we are still in the midst of a pandemic and people are afraid and travel is tight, complex and you just never know what might happen with expectations of tests, flight changes and countries potentially closing and so on. As I continued to pack, I had an overwhelming sense, and the word “Watch” came over me. My bestie, (the one who invited me) and I prayed for God to open our eyes to why now, what does he want us to see and learn while we are there.
Our first day was filled. We started our first full day with a beautiful sun rise over the city of concrete buildings and a mountain in the background. We all jumped in and grabbed our seat in the “Tap, Tap”. That is what they call the trucks we all travel in, all chatting as we made our way to our first day of serving and learning. Today was Water Truck Day! Sounds fun right? As I sat in the Tap Tap, the chatter became white noise that was distant, and my eyes were focused on what was around us as we traveled into City Soleil. The world around me just changed. The beautiful, flowered trees faded away, the concrete ground we drove on turned into a floor mixed of refuse, soot, water and things that looked like it was degraded food and clothing. The smell was of something I can’t describe, but definitely a scent of smoked plastic and rubber and maybe even spice. The grounds were covered in small creek beds of green water and litter. Amongst several concrete buildings were many make shift homes created on top of mountains of litter we might call their rolling hills and out of them came beautiful ivy that gave them some greenery. It was profound, but what was more wondrous was the smiles and waving of hands as littles came running out and yelling the words “Hey you!” That is their way of saying Hello! The excitement of their little faces grabbed a hold of my heart instantly and I could not wait to jump out of the truck and wrap my arms around them. But there was more. We continued to make our way into the city and the faces on the people there of the community were serious and yet, amongst them I also saw smiles simply come alive as they saw our truck filled with many green shirts coming. It was if their smiles screamed “their back!” My Body is full of emotions, and as I write this, I hold back the tears. We all jumped out of the truck and toured the first village named Hope Village, we then made our way into the city where we provided water. Healing Haiti has started an amazing program at Hope Village. Hope Village provides teaching to small children as well as medical needs. Then they showed us the beginnings of an innovation program from a partner that is from our side of town in Wisconsin. This caught my eye and heart and I have been praying to God why.
We all headed to the water truck, and instantly between the entire team, we all took our spots. From loving on kids, carrying and directing the water hose, pulling and pushing on buckets to ensure they were in line to get water to carrying water buckets to people’s homes,, we did it all as a unified community. The sense of care, serving and loving on kids was an experience I can’t even begin to describe. I took a moment to pause, and look around and watch, what God showed me was incredible. I immediately saw pain, hurt, starvation, despair… and yet, in the same panoramic view I saw joy, community, care, hope and best of all a tremendous amount of Agape Love. I instantly got goosebumps all over, (I call these Holy Goosebumps). I knew I was supposed to be here. I’m still learning why.
As we made our way through our three stops, serving, loving and spreading hope to so many, I realized that we too were being changed, being given hope, love and community. The hugs from children, the smiles from their mommas and watching my teammates, seeing that they were all in love as well as watching and learning also, I knew my life was about to change. I got a sense that today, I would start it as the person I knew I was, but at the end of today, I can tell you I am a different person.
These people I came to serve, love on and provide care for, are my sisters, my brothers and in God’s eyes, we are all one community. We are a unity, all in pain, all broken, all still learning and in the midst of our lives, we have blessings, joy, peace, and hope. God is gracious, he loves us unconditionally and sometimes he takes us to places to help us see just how deep, how wide and how strong that love is.
My word today is “Wonder”. A feeling of amazement and admiring all that God showed me today. Nothing I have ever seen…sure, but there was so much more than what was on the surface. It was the depths of what God showed me that broke my heart, but also gave me so much more than anything back home has given me. Today I learned that although I have eyes that can see, have I really seen what I should see? What have I missed all these years? Do I really watch for opportunities to provide love, hope or something more? Our sisters and brothers here taught me that my brothers and sisters back in the states need love, need us to lean in and listen, talk, touch and laugh with them. We are all one body and we get so caught up in “our” own lives, and if we simply just pause and watch for moments of wonder, we will continue to grow, transform and be all that we were always meant to be. This is day 1. What will God continue to show me? I'm really not sure, but I’m going to focus on one day at a time, watching, learning and my goal at the end of this trip is to learn why and how to apply it in my life…after. Tonight, I rest, tomorrow is a new day. Am I ready for tomorrow? Probably not, since I don’t know what it will show me, but what I do know is that I am not alone, and together “we” will step into tomorrow already blessed in it.
