Before we got in the tap tap this morning to head out for the day’s activities, God put it in my heart while praying (probably because our time here is coming to an end soon) that the ‘us’ in us should seek to leave no trace of our presence here because this country does not need it. That we should seek only for the God in us to leave some kind of lasting, indelible mark.
This was a day of many different perspectives for me. That was my word for this day.
As we drove through the city my mind was very focused on the reality that we are leaving soon and it made me kind of sad. Yesterday I had one of the most powerful, Spirit of God’s presence, moments I have ever had, with one of the elders that we visited. As I had to get up and leave, I began to experience heartache and the enemy started chirping in my ear with one of his lies - ”It wasn’t enough”. I know it’s a lie from the pit of hell but it still affected my perspective for a bit. Today, we Collage Baptiste de la Grace, which is a church and school that was started in 2005 and Healing Haiti has recently partnered with to help feed the many children that come from all over the neighborhood. Upon our arrival, my perspective was immediately shifted to the kids there and my awe for another avenue here that God is right in the middle of in a huge way.
It is really cool to see how the Holy Spirit can enter into a place, and in this case, a room full of very reserved, shy children in the beginning of our visit, be transformed by first a bible study given by our own Mike and Sara and then a meal, singing and ending with a full on dance party. It was awesome!
After this we were scheduled to come back to the guest house but as it was still pretty early, our staff person Smith came and asked if we wanted to go up the mountain, which wasn’t originally on the agenda for this trip. Of course we all agreed we should go!
It was a pretty long ride that took even longer due to traffic, but we got to have another change of perspective as we went higher and higher up the mountain. We got to see some really cool neighborhoods literally built into the side of the mountain.
When we finally arrived at the top, we were treated to a view like none I have ever seen.
We could see all way over to the northern part of the country that makes the kind of reverse C that forms the eastern profile of the country. It was truly breathtakingly beautiful.
My eyes kept returning to where Cite Soleil sits. I wanted to be back there. I will be back there.
As we were reflecting on the day later on, one of our team members shared that he had seen many beautiful vistas around the world before and wasn’t sure how this one was any different.
This was my final perspective for the day. You have all most likely seen the kind of art that is made up of many very small photographs, that are arranged in such a way that makes it appear from a distance like a portrait or picture of some sort, but when you move closer to it, the large image begins to become indistinguishable and you can see that it is actually made up of multitudes of tiny photographs. The large image and the photographs often have no resemblance to one another.
This is what I saw from that high and distant perspective. From a distance you see a sight similar to somewhere else in the world but this is like nowhere else. As you move closer, you begin to see some of the brokenness and then even more as you move closer.
Before we left, I said that I hoped to understand how you can see pictures of people, especially children, from the most impoverished places in the world, with huge bright smiles on their faces. I had to come here to see, to understand, for God to reveal it to me.
Only God can take the broken and make something beautiful from it.
There is brokenness all around this country but because of the God in these people, there is beauty and light everywhere you look.
So, the people of Haiti have so much more to give and teach us then we do for them. Not to say that we don’t have a mission here - we do - but there is a huge lesson for us who are the “haves” in the world versus the “have nots”. These beautiful people are so rich in ways I could only understand by seeing first-hand.
Thank you Haiti.
~ Matt
