Another beautiful day of serving in
Haiti! We started the day off on a rough note with three of our team members
not feeling their best. Kathy and Raena stayed back at the guesthouse to care
for our other members of our team as the remaining 8 of us headed off to Grace
Village in Titanyen. Located in a city meaning “less than nothing”, Grace
Village truly showed the locals that they were so much more than the name of
their city. A long term missionary showed us around the grounds where we saw
their gardens, family style homes, school, library, clinic, and kitchen. The family
style homes provided the children with a family and gave them a sense of
responsibility. The clinic has two doctors, who treat around 100 people during
the days that they are open. It is an incredible blessing to a place with
little access to health care. While touring the grounds we got to see the
amazing view that Grace Village had since it is overlooking the city,
mountains, and ocean. After the tour we visited our first elder who was
currently living at Grace Village. The man had battled leprosy earlier in his
life and had lost a leg, but that did not stop him from being filled with joy.
As we cleaned his feet and put on lotion, we were helped by a young girl who had
been living at Grace Village for only a week. She was wise beyond her years and
truly had a heart full of compassion. She took up every opportunity to help
serve our team while we were there.
We then left for Fleri to take a
tour and see their cooking facility. Fleri
is a new restaurant who employs older orphans as a transition to integrate them
into their community. Seeing how everything is made from the start made seeing
the final product that we ate the previous night so much more impactful.
Following Fleri, we had the
opportunity to visit and serve the other three elders of the day. All of the
elders welcomed us into their humble homes with welcome arms no matter the
conditions they were in. They made it very clear that their way of life was
much different from ours seeing that the conditions of their homes did not cross
their mind when welcoming us; they were simply glad to see and feel the love
that we were going to provide them. When washing the elders feet, we overcame
our own personal boundaries and were able to love them in a more intimate way.
Along with that, we were able to worship alongside our Healing Haiti guys who
played guitar and keyboard. We had the opportunity to lift them and their
families up to God by prayer as we left each of their homes.
To end our day, we made a stop to
the Mass Grave Memorial of the 2010 earthquake. The earthquake took the lives
of an estimated 300,000 family members and loved ones largely due to the lack
of knowledge on how to protect themselves during natural disasters. Some of our
staff shared their personal experiences during the earthquake which made the
event much more emotional instead of statistical like many textbooks today.
Although we wished our entire team
could have participated in today’s events, we knew it gave others an opportunity
to step out of their comfort zones to serve in new ways. While many
circumstances we endured were difficult to understand, it allowed us to see the
world through God’s eyes and to change our own perspectives.
-
Jordan, Sydney & Annie
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