Haiti Trip - day 6
We started the day by going to the orphanage for one last time. We had a chance to share the rest of our Vacation Bible Studies stories which included Jesus’ death and resurrection. We also gave the kids a chance to respond to the gospel at the end and the amount of information they have about Christ is overwhelming.
Some of us also had the opportunity to help the women at the orphanage cook lunch. These women were so happy and the work they do is so hard. Everything is cooked over charcoal in huge pots. The whole time we were working these women kept offering to serve us and offering us chairs to sit in while we worked. The ladies were always more concerned with our comfort rather than their own. These ladies do this everyday for these children, EVERYDAY, no vacation, no holidays, no weekends and their joy was infectious. It is apparent that there is a joy that carries them through the day.
It was so convicting to be around people that pour so much into their work that is far harder and more uncomfortable than we will deal with. Even though we wanted to bless these ladies by lightening their load, they blessed us by their attitude and spirit of joy.
We wanted to take the kids to the beach to close out our final day here. What made this day different was that many of us wanted to take the time to just watch the kids have fun and really try to soak in what little time we had left with them. Once again the kids displayed a real happiness and laughter despite many of them knowing that after today we would be leaving. God truly blessed our team by allowing us to go to the beach several times this week. Nearly getting drowned by kids who could not swim, having salt water shoved down our throats, and just sharing this experience with them, made the mile walk to the beach with 74 kids worth every exhausting minute. Their smiles made it worth it all.
Without a doubt the most difficult part of this entire trip was our final goodbye to the kids, workers, and translators. Not many of us expected to get so deeply attached to the kids. Tears filled the eyes of our team, the kids, and the workers as we said our goodbyes. None of us predicted to react so deeply to this farewell. Many of us expected to love on these kids, pour into their lives, and then leave unattached to them. Instead we got to know them as separate children of God. We learned individual traits, personalities, characteristics of these kids that made us know they were not orphans but children that needed to be loved; not as a group but for the tremendous kids they are.
Many of our goodbyes were filled with tears and hugs not only from us but from the kids and the workers. They wanted to know when we would be back. All we could tell them is we loved them and God would care for them better than we could. Many of us are already talking about coming back to pour into these kids lives again. We know even if we can not make another trip down to Haiti that through the work of God and One Vision we will one day see many of them in heaven.
Tonight, our group discussed what we were going to take back to America from this trip. We discussed how important it was to seek and know God’s personal vision for our lives. Whether it is coming back to Haiti to visit the orphans again or going into college or our careers with a heart for the widows & orphans, we will attempt to find God’s vision for our lives and live it out. The generations of tomorrow are depending on our following through with the plans God is breathing into us today.
