Day 1.5

Hello Friends and Family.  I called this one day 1.5 because we were supposed to arrive in Haiti on Monday afternoon and have a leisurely dinner before serving Tuesday.  However, after 29 hours of flights, unplanned hotels, full airport gates and general testing of the patience our team arrived this morning at 9:35 am.  But they rallied and had a great day of serving.  Here are some highlights.  Craig

At the close of each day in Haiti, we are challenged to come up with a word that sums up our experiences in the last twelve hours or so. Yesterday, my word was “timing,” as we spent most of the day fighting seemingly in-numerous battles against weather systems and flight delays, yet miraculously arrived in Haiti at 9 am this morning. Today, as we sweated out our first water truck day, I was thinking about what my word of the day would be.  “Endurance” kept popping up. We work with the poorest of the poor in Cite Soleil, what the Bible would call “the least of these,” and yet these beautiful people conquer mind-boggling poverty and hardship every single day. They don’t complain. They don’t wish aloud that it was different. They endure. My endurance today was challenged on probably the fiftieth trip carrying water to a house. I had been helping an 8 or 9-year-old girl (also named Katie) carry around fifteen various containers of water to her house several hundred yards from the truck, and I was tired. The sun was brutal, and I couldn’t wipe the sweat off my brow fast enough. My little friend looked up at me, scooped some water out of the bucket that we had just carried to her house, and splashed my face. Over and over, we laughed and splashed our faces with the cool, clean water that Healing Haiti brings daily to Cite Soleil. She didn’t see my discouragement and exhaustion as a “teaching opportunity,” but she did teach me a lesson on how to not only endure but thrive.  Katie

Precious moments with precious people. That describes my day. It’s my fourth trip to Haiti and I fall more and more in love with this country every time. Yes, there is hardship and despair but there is always joy. The joy of a child dumping a small pale of water over themselves, the joy of a mother when you hold her child, the joy of seeing God’s people connect in unexplainable ways.

Today I spent some time with a very sick little girl. I didn’t speak her language and I couldn’t even hear her when she said her name. After sitting with her for five minutes I began to pray over her; for healing, restoration and opportunity for this sweet girl. As I prayed I thought about how God knows her name, he knows her future and he is in control. Haiti has taught me so much and today I learned to cherish the small moments.   Moranda