Word of the Day for August 5

WORD OF THE DAY, AUGUST 5, 2017

Each day we debrief our experiences by each picking a word of the day and describing why we picked that word. 

Drew - Reverberate

Today it rained so we had to do our team time inside instead of outside. This same thing happened on Saturday last year. Both nights the sound of our voices worshipping passionately together reverberated around the room. 

Emmy - Connections

Today during my family time I heard God telling me, “every day this week I am going to give you one person to connect with.” When I looked back that has really been true. I have connected deeply with one person each day. 

Daphne - Daphne 

This trip I have met two other Daphne’s. One on Thursday and one at the orphanage today. Thinking about the lives of those Daphne’s has made me feel so blessed for the life that I have. The other Daphne’s had so much gratitude and joy. At home I think I am unthankful for a lot of the stuff I have. 

Joanna - Boogaloo

I played a game with the girls at the orphanage we visited and at first they looked at my like I was crazy but then all of us were having fun together.

Robby - Farm

It was fun to eat the coconuts. It made me think of the garden of eden, a man made river ran through it with trees hanging over. And it was cool to think that the restaurant that we ate at yesterday had food coming from this farm. 

Lizzy - Enjoy

I thoroughly enjoyed today. A lot of good moments today: playing soccer, riding in the front of the tap-tap and talking to Annika S and the farm was really cool.

Braeden - Happiness

This whole week at some point every day I have experienced at least one small moment of sadness but not today. It was all happiness.

Josh M - Pain 

I hurt myself trying to head a soccer ball past the goalie (Rob). I hit my shin on the curb and my leg hurts. 

Josh H - Humility

My spike ball team lost for the first time. And I got scored on six or seven times as the goalie at the orphanage, two through the legs.

Shayla - Peace or Joy

I found myself in peace. I had time to reflect on everything I’ve done this week. The trip was worth while even though I was sick. I was simply in awe, I loved every minute of it. 

Larissa - Wait

At the metal market people would come up to me at the metal market and ask me to come up to the store and then would tell me that they would wait, one said, “I will always wait for you.” It made me think that God will always wait for me, and for us. He is ready and waiting and loving whenever we are ready to take steps with him. 

Annika S - Share

I shared a lot of things with people today. I shared a lot of joy with our team and the children. I shared a handshake with one of the orphans. Emma shared her food with me and I shared a lot of great conversations.

Noelle - Swing

I got to go on the swings with a 15 year old boy at the orphanage. Even though I could not really talk to him I still felt connected just swinging together. 

Maya - Fulfilled 

At this orphanage today the kids didn’t seem to need our love as badly and it made me happy to think that they are being loved by God and each other. 

Buying stuff at the metal market made me happy to fill their pockets. 

Lea - Rememeber

The image that sticks out in my mind is the mama who welcomed all of us at the orphanage. I walked by her several times as she was washing clothes. I was thinking, there are 45 kids who live here and this is her life washing clothes. I have talked to so many Haitians who say, please just remember me. I want to remember her washing clothes in a bucket. I want to remember that her life matters and pray for her because she is my sister. 

Tori - Watching 

These kids weren’t jumping up into our arms today. There were lots of moments of sitting and watching. Cool moments, fun moments, funny moments, sweet moments. I loved watching the rest of my team instead of just having my own experience. 

Abbie - Eyes

I found myself sitting back and taking it all in instead of being in the middle of it. Like when the kids sang to us when we first arrived or when we first blew up the balloons — all the beautiful colors and the smiles. 

Emma - Understanding 

In the time where I am trying to figure out what God is telling me and what God wants me to do is to be present. When I went to bed this morning and woke up I have been praying that I will be present. When we got to the orphanage God reminded me that being present is about God’s plan and not my plan. I was reminded of words from one of my speech coaches who said “be where your feet are.” In a spiritual sense, being present looks like being where your feet are. I looked down on my feet and got pulled into a game of duck, duck grey duck. 

Graham - Talent

Watching those kids I could see that they were so talented at soccer. God blesses us all with talents and one of theirs is playing soccer. It was awesome to see that.

Katie - Smile

When I first got to the orphanage I started playing with this one little girl. She tried to talk to me and I couldn’t talk back so I would smile and then she would smile back on me.

Bella - Trusting

I got to see a lot of people put their trust in me today. A little girl at the orphanage sit with me and let me braid her hair. When we left she gave me a hug and said thank you. Then at the metal market we were in one shop looking at turtles and the guy bagged it up and told me to hold onto it and think about it and said, “I trust you.” I trust you’ll bring it back. 

Lauren - Chase

There was this little girl at the orphanage who was sitting next to me and Abbie started tickling her, then I started tickling her. She stood up and refused to sit down. So then I started to chase her. She was really fast. Also, all the people at the metal markets chase after you. They really want your business. Also during worship I realized that I am always chasing after something and I never take a minute to be and think about what God is trying to tell me. 

Annika C - Braids

Getting my hair braided by the orphan girls was my favorite part of the day. It was fun to have my hair braided and it was cool to see how happy the girls were after they did it. 

Brice - Relationships 

I feel like today I thought a lot about my relationships that I have with people in my life. And my relationship with God on the tap-tap during idle times I met with God and I felt like God was showing me highlights of our relationship and the journey that we’ve been on. Also the many conversations I’ve had with some of you today were awesome. 

Ann - Fun

I felt like even though we didn’t speak the same language we totally understood each other today at the orphanage. I really enjoyed the kids we played with today and all the games we dreamed up in our heads.

Austin - Protected

There is not a moment when we are in Haiti that we are not protected. We are protected here, in Citi Soleil and today I was reminded of the first time I was in Haiti and I delivered a bucket through a dark alley. If I had gone alone I would have been totally lost but one of our translators was with us and I knew it would be ok. 

Today when we went to get the soccer ball one of the translators and I walked along a big wall. Our translator put his hand out and told me to wait to make sure it was ok for me to come with. It reminded me that we are being protected and looked out for. Because of those guys we can be present. And with God, because God is with us we get to do great things for the kingdom.