-Shayla
Today and Thursday I met another Daphne. So it's now Daphne times three. One of the days I met a Daphne was on our water truck day(Thursday) during our second stop. She was this sweet little girl who was wearing a pink dress that was dulled by dirt. She had a few holes in the dress and I don't recall her hair being braided. I believe it was around chin length, and possibly shorter. Katie was holding her little sister, and Daphne was hiding behind her legs smiling. I thought it was so strange meeting another person with my name, and wondered if she had thought the same. Maybe she was thinking that is was weird, or maybe cool. Maybe she was scared, but excited to meet someone that had the same name. After we ran out of water for the stop, I said Au Revoir(Good Bye in French), Daphne. It was really strange saying that. I've never said goodbye to someone of the same name before. It was almost like I was saying good bye to myself.
Today, I met another Daphne at an orphanage. She had a white shirt on and Knee length shorts. She had short hair that was probably an inch and a half long. When her friends learned that I had the same name as her, they dragged her over to me while she was laughing while trying to get away. I was really confused at first, but then I realized that we had the same name. It seemed like Daphne was really confused and weirded out by my name being Daphne. It was weird for both of us; meeting another Daphne. We both laughed about it and then she ran off because she must have thought it was super strange.
Meeting two other Daphnes was so weird, but so cool for me. I've never met anyone with the same name as me until I came to Haiti. What if one of the reasons why I was supposed to come was so I could meet the two other Daphnes who were living in Haiti. After meeting them, I was talking to Emma on the Tap Tap. Emma mentioned something about meeting other people with the same name as her, and how we could have been born in there situation and life instead of our own. So it made me think. What if I had been born in Haiti, instead of North Carolina and raised in Minnesota. From the Daphnes I met, there would've been a 2/3 chance that I would've been born in Haiti as an orphan who either didn't have parents, or had parents that had to give me up because of the little money they had or as a child who was struggling to survive and having to depend on a water truck that comes every day or so, just to give me a bucket of water. I feel so lucky to have been the person that got the 1/3 chance of living in The United States.
God could have chosen to have had me living in Haiti, but he chose to have me born in The United States. He has a plan for everyone and he has to have a good plan for me if I was lucky enough to be born in a country that is full of opportunities. I can do so much here and I feel like God wanted me here for a reason, even though I have yet to find it. I also know that God put the other Daphnes that I met in Haiti for a reason, and I know and will be praying that they will have long and amazing lives and will follow whatever plan God has in store for them.
-Daphne
Wow. What an amazing week of serving and loving on others in the name of Jesus. Today was a little bit different day for me than most days. In the past week, almost everyday for me has been serving, loving on others, laughing, carrying buckets, always doing something. Take yesterday, where my emotions were all over the place with everything we did - sadness at the Mass Graves, stunned by the fact that they didn't event know what to do in the situation of an earthquake that they ran into buildings, and finally overflowing joy due to all that Grace Village is doing to provide jobs, love, family, care, and protection to the community. In short, my week has been full of a wide range of emotions and activities. However, today was different. Several times today I found myself simply stepping back and just watching what was going on in front of me. At one point I stepped back to watch 40 children singing This is the Day to all of us, at another point I stepped back to watch children and students tossing balloons full of color around in the air - smiles on their face and over abounding joy in their hearts, and at another point I stepped back to see all of my friends building relationships with children despite the language barrier. It was amazing today to just take a few moments to step back and see all that God is doing in the lives of those children and in the lives and hearts of my Woodridge Community. Today God showed me how refreshing it is to sometimes take that step back to see the bigger picture. Too often we get caught up in day to day life, approaching deadlines, growing to-do lists, whatever it may be. However, sometimes when we do that, when we fill our lives up with endless tasks, we often forget to step back and see where God is working in our days. Every day here during our family time we do a reflection prayer, where our family leaders guide us through our days, telling us to think about each different part of the day, the moods we were in, who we connected with, where we saw life and love throughout the day, where God was moving. There were so many times this week that I did that and saw God in the smallest of moments - things that I missed when it was happening right in front of me, but being able to step back and look at the bigger picture allowed me to see all that God was doing, even in the little things. When we take time to see God move, He doesn't let us down. He shows us what He is doing, the miracles He is performing, redemption and endless love that He is bringing back to a broken world full of sin and death, organizations like Healing Haiti bringing light and life into a beautiful country. Overall, when we take time to ask God what He is showing us, He does. He is always waiting to show us the beauty that He has for us. Whether we are anxiously waiting to see Him move or anxiously approaching deadlines to come, He is aways working and waiting to show us all He has in store.
- Abbie VandenEinde
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