Opportunities

Opportunities.  Rollercoaster.  Intuitive.  Falling.  Gifts.  Play.  Inspirational-role model.  Warm.  Creativity.  Impressed.  Imperfect.  Ordained.  Break thru.  Provision.  Tattletale.  Tears.

Our words of the day for Thursday.  Every night at team meeting we each share a word to describe and summarize our experiences throughout the day.  We process together.  We cry together.  And we laugh together, sometimes a lot!  This has become one of my favorite moments of every day as we try to make sense of what we experience and what God is doing in Haiti and our hearts. 

We agreed that today was a day of opportunities.  The three places we visited filled us with such hope for the work being done here in Haiti.  We were inspired by the stories of the individuals who started the orphanages and school.  The way God provided specific opportunities for them earlier now yields opportunities for the kids who are currently there. 

Our visits to two different orphanages were filled with fun, joy, play, and hope.  These kids are so well behaved – sharing markers with their friends, picking up every single bead, and giving many hugs. With huge smiles, they play soccer, color, jump rope, paint nails, do back bends, and make bracelets.  We pray that our presence is a gift to them, but holding them and looking into their eyes is truly a gift to us.  Such joy in such simple things.

In the afternoon we visited the school TeacHaiti and heard from its founder directly.  She shared her story of living in Haiti, going to the United States for the time, and returning to start a school in Haiti.  In God’s small world, she attended high school at a school district where one of our team members teaches.   They shared a mutual friend.  I had goosebumps in this sweet moment of discovering this.  God is so good to His children.  This school has grown in size and these students are sponsored so they can learn from teachers with degrees and have access to books, heart diagrams (yay science!), and technology.  God gave this woman a dream so these students can pursue their dreams.

So, while we were impressed with the opportunities of the day, we still had tears over the imperfections in our world.  Being here is an emotional rollercoaster. Yet we will rest well knowing that the world is not falling apart, it’s falling into place.

Lana R.