WORD OF THE DAY, AUGUST 1, 2017
Each day we debrief our experiences by each picking a word of the day and describing why we picked that word.
Shayla - Empower
Today felt so good, not overwhelming. It felt wonderful.
Josh M - Joy
Never seen anybody as happy as those kids we saw at the water truck stops.
Braeden - New
I haven’t been on this trip before, its all new. I am a new kind of exhausted and I am feeling a new kind of joy.
Joanna - Hands
I felt the hand of God on all of us. Every time a kid would come up to me he or she would grab my hand. I did a lot with my hands.
Bella - Decrease
In a really, really good way. Decrease in who I am outside of Jesus. A decrease of what I don’t want to be.
Emmy - Love
Everyone loved each other. I didn’t see any violence. I only saw love today.
Lizzy - Watching
When you are holding a kid who you can’t communicate with I had opportunities to look around and watch. I wasn’t always engaged in conversation which was new and I was watching and God was saying that’s ok. Look around, take a moment.
Josh H - Comfort Zone
With all the chaos I felt pushed out of my comfort zone a little bit but reflecting on it I am really thankful for that.
Abbie - Giggles
A lot of giggles in my day with the children and at the pool with our team. The giggles transcended the language barrier with the kids and we could share in the joy and the laughter.
Lauren - Follow
I feel like a lot of things in Haiti follow a pattern. Some parts of the pattern feel like a vicious cycle. In the midst of that the kids have an undeniable joy.
Also, even after I put a kid down and we were leaving they would follow after us and not let go.
Austin - Privilege
I was carrying water buckets today and I was thinking about how at home I will go to a restaurant and be annoyed if people don’t serve me a certain way. I was thinking about how maybe some of the people I was carrying buckets for today have never had anyone serve them. I think that Jesus was telling the truth when he said their is joy and purpose in putting others before us. I got joy in serving other people. It became a privilege to carry the buckets for those women and serve.
Tori - Sacrifice
I witnessed a lot of sacrifice today. Our team put in a lot of sacrifice. I noticed sacrifice with the kids we spent time with.
Emma - Care
I’ve seen a lot of love in Haiti. I was holding a girl at our first stop and after one or two minutes she got down when a little boy came over and asked me to pick up the little boy — she cared for this boy.
Annika C - Wow
I was on the truck because I was tired and dizzy so I decided to take a break on the truck. At the third stop I just said to God, you want me to be here so heal me so I can go out. And in that moment the tiredness and dizziness went away.
So I said God what do you want me to do so I saw this boy who had sores on his body and I could tell God wanted me to love on that kid so I did.
Annika S - Protected
A little boy was so protective over the baby I was holding.
I learned from that I had some fears about feelings but God is protecting me and those fears mean nothing.
Lea - Father’s Heart
I am blessed that one of our Haitian guys, Jermaine, has chosen me as a friend. Being able to go 8 times has meant each time I have gotten to have a sweet time with my friend Jermaine. Each time he wants to tell me about his son. He has the best smile and beams about his son. It is a beautiful thing to see a father’s heart for his kids.
Graham - Break
I was carrying bucket after bucket for 25 minutes straight and then all of a sudden I get back to the hose and I wanted to take a break so I took a break I just got really tired.
Noelle - Sleep
On one of the water truck stops a little baby fell a sleep in my arms and that is one of my favorite things.
Ann - Chauvinistic
I had a baby boy fall asleep on my shoulder and that was wonderful so I was watching the filling of the buckets and I thought where are all the Haitian men, have you noticed it is all women and children? Why is it all those women and children filling up those heavy, back breaking water buckets.
Maya - Willing
God made all of our hearts so open to love and the Haitian people open even though they don’t know us. It was beautiful to see all the strength and willingness God placed in each of us.
Daphne - Tough
It was kind of hard to understand people even though I know some French. Sometimes thought I knew more than I did and started talking a ton and then I would do really weird hand motions to explain I couldn’t talk to them.
This one game this kid taught me was also hard to learn and hard to play because the kid was really fast and good at it.
Also carrying the buckets was hard.
But it was all cool and exciting, tough in a good way.
Katie - Grateful
We complain about the littlest things but to see what these kids are going through and yet have joy for something as small as a bucket of water made me want to be grateful.
Brice - Age
There was a time when Haitian people asked me to tell them how old everyone on our team was and then they would just laugh and pull in other people and tell them how old we were and laugh. It was awesome.
Larissa - Connected
Today I started to feel really connected to this group. I am a big talker when I am comfortable but since I don’t really know a lot of you it has been hard to make a conversation but today I actually achieved that and got out of my comfort zone and started a deep conversation with some people.
Robby - Step Back
The other times I have been here it has felt the same but different. I wanted to provide other people the experiences I had and on previous water truck days I always did the hose so this time I stepped back and hung out with the kids the whole time. In giving other people the experience I had I was able to have a new one.
Drew - Determined
I was carrying a bucket behind a Haitian woman who was also carrying a bucket. And her arm muscles were not as strong as me but she never put her bucket down. I wanted to put mine down and my arm was hurting and I just watched how determine she was, how determination seemed to fuel every Haitian person.
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