This morning our team woke up at 5:30am to attend a local
church called “Church on the Rock”. My
gosh was it so powerful to witness their worship. Although it’s different than what we do in
the states, the beauty is that we all worship the same God. The fact that we were all in the same
building worshipping the same God even in different languages, it was all to
give God the Glory. After church we
walked back to the guest house to have breakfast with the team and get prepared
for another day of water truck delivery.
“What if God really is at work in every moment, in every
place? What if your job is just to jump
in? What if your job is just to figure
it out from one moment to the next, how to stay in the flow, how to keep
yourself aware and submitted to Gods spirit so that rivers of living water flow
through you to the core of your being”- John Ortberg
As we headed out on another water truck delivery day in Cite
Soleil, these thoughts run through my head.
To be in the moment and to see the Haitian people through the eyes of
God and to be reminded of how similar we all are. Not just the basic need of
water, but of being loved. So as we head out again with three stops, we ride in
the tap tap as a group going over our strategy of filling buckets, staying in
line, helping to carry buckets to homes (these are walls/roof of galvanized steel
with dirt floors) we think we have this down to make the process move
faster. However, we find out every stop
is different. Some stops have many more
children who are needing and wanting to be loved and some stops have more of a need
to help carry buckets. At no point are
we without buckets to carry and children to love. When people ask “what did you do in Haiti” it
will be hard to put into words these water truck days of bringing water to people
who have no running water. How do you
describe the hugs, smiles, and love from the children…all I can say is that we
are all uniquely and wonderfully made and loved by God the Father.
At our first stop, we got out of the tap tap (our bus) and
kids were all around excited to be picked up and loved. I look over and I saw another team member
holding a little infant and instantly started beating faster. Here is the “big” sister, about the age of 5,
carrying her little baby brother around who looked to be about 1 month old,
maybe. I could hear his little cry that
to me sounded scared and needing comfort.
I myself have kiddos, the youngest being 5 months old so this really hit
home for me. I walked over and asked to
take this precious little baby and as soon as I took him, his little cry
stopped. I just held him, comforted and
loved him. It was so hard for me to give
him back. This broke my heart so
much. When it was time to head to the
next stop, it was really tough on me, honestly, I broke down and just wept
thinking about this little maybe 5 year old taking care of her little newborn
brother. Thinking to myself “how will he
get his next meal? Who’s going to
comfort him? What if his sister drops
him?” These are just a few of the things
that wrecked my heart. I wanted to bring
him home with me. On a beautiful and
heart filling note, at one of our stops this child maybe around 4-5 came up to
me with his arms just open desperate for me to pick him up and hold him. After I picked him up, he wrapped his arms
around my neck and placed his head tucked into my shoulder and stayed
there. Its such a heartbreaking and
heartwarming feeling that none of us can really ever explain, it can only be
experienced and felt from your own heart.
This has put such a different perspective in our minds and hearts, how
precious water is to these families and how to be even more present with our
own children and families.
To end the day we took a tap tap ride up the mountain to
Fleri for pizza. Wow, who would think
that you would have the best pizza ever in Haiti!! We finally got back…9:15
time for BED!
-
Leah & Steph
