Saturday, July 28, 2018

Day 6 - Water Truck and Home for the Sick and Dying

Family & Friends,

Even though we are going to miss 2 episodes of the Bachelorette this week (Mom don't tell me who goes home), there is no place I would rather be. I think everyone is feeling a little bittersweet tonight with today being our last day of serving. It has been such a great and powerful week, but we are sad to leave our friends and "family" here in Haiti.

This morning we set out for our second water truck day. I will be honest with you, my first water truck experience was overwhelming. Everyone kept talking about how much fun water truck day was, but my lower back was saying otherwise :). There was so much to take in that first day that I'm not sure I enjoyed the day as much as I could have. Today, I realized why everyone was raving about water truck day. There is something so humbling when you put aside your body's wants and needs to help a 12 year old girl or 60 year old woman carry a 45 pound bucket of water to her home. You can see Jesus in their eyes and I think they see Him in ours. We are not different in that moment; we are not different races, different ages, or different sexes. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. (Chelsey)



This morning before we left to start serving, I volunteered to say our prayer at breakfast for the day. One part included in my prayer was a request for extra strength to go above and beyond our own limits to fully be able to serve the Haitians we encountered. Just a little over an hour later, sure enough, God came through. It really is a lot harder than you would think to carry these buckets and I usually struggle to carry multiple in one stop, but God gave me the strength to keep going, surpassing my own limits through him. After our water truck stops, through our team member suggesting we do a bit more serving, we had the choice to go to The Home for Sick and Dying Babies. Again God was showing up by giving me the strength and desire to serve once more. (Danielle)

Almost everyone on the trip had been to The Home for Sick and Dying except for me and Nikki, so when we had the chance to go last minute we knew God was calling us to experience this and love on the sick children. I was overwhelmed with peace (not what I was expecting) when I walked in and all of the children were so sweet and quiet -- it was almost like they calmed me instead of me calming them. I was able to feed a few little ones, until moving into the room that held the sickest kids. I'll be honest again, I am not super comfortable around little babies but it was like God changed my heart right in that moment. Even when hooked up to an IV, their strength was so evident that it really grounds you. I love those kids and it was very apparent that God does too. (Chelsey)

Love,

Chelsey & Danielle