Looking
back on this week, there is so much to think about. We learned a lot, grew
closer to each other, and grew closer to our God. For many of us this week was
a bit of a surprise. We knew that we were going to be bringing water to people in
City Solei, we knew we would be caring for children and for the orphaned
elderly. We did not, however know what that was going to look like.
Our
first day was water truck day. On water truck day, we drive into different
parts of City Solei and fill up buckets of water and help bring them to the
people’s homes. While some of us did do the physical labor of helping the
people, many of us spent our time holding children. This was unexpected to many
of us. We were in one of the poorest slums in the western hemisphere, and the
most helpful thing we could do was to hold the children.
As the
week went on this theme continued. We went to a house for sick and dying children,
orphanages, special needs orphanages, a home for deaf children, and at all of these
locations our job was to interact with the children. Remember, none of these
kids speak English, so it’s not like we were having deep conversations with
them or sharing the gospel. We are there for the purpose of showing Gods love
in a way that is often taken for granted in the environment we come from.
As the
week went on we really saw their mission statement, “The world is a better
place when families are strengthened,” shine in what we did during our time in
Haiti. The orphanages that Healing Haiti supports are family styled, where there
are houses, and each house has “Mommies” and “Poppies” who are the primary care
takers for the children in their house. Healing Haiti also partners with organizations
like Papillion whose goal is to prevent kids from being orphaned by providing
jobs to parents in order to keep families together, as well as running small businesses
near Grace Village that do the same thing.
As we
did our job of loving on children throughout the week and I thought about
Healing Haiti’s mission statement, it dawned on me, that we are a part of the
families of all these people. It is our job to be the loving supportive “big cousins”
for all of these children who are starved for love, because of their
unfortunate circumstances.
At the beginning
of the week I know that some people felt that we were not being as helpful as
we could be, and felt that we really were not doing much. We were hanging out
with kids for a week. That’s it. As I struggled with feelings of uselessness I realized
that Healing Haiti is so much bigger than myself that it is hard to see the
impact I am having. I am only here for a week being the “big cousin” to these
kids. But healing Haiti has teams here every week, and these kids have “big cousins”
loving on them every week. Healing Haiti the organization is a crucial part of
all of these families for their entire lives, and when I was a part of healing Haiti,
I became a part of all of these families who see people every week from Healing
Haiti.
I am so glad that Healing Haiti is
there for them, showing them God’s unconditional Love every single day of the
year, and I am honored to be an honorary “big cousin” as a part of Healing Haiti
for this week. Thank you to all that made it possible for this team to be here.
We learned a lot, and had the wonderful opportunity to show God’s fatherly love
to those around us.
Jack
