While in Haiti, we got to partner alongside Mission of Hope. They were amazing and we met people after God’s own heart and vision for Haiti. We spent the majority of our time in villages. Whether it was for strategic village time or regular village time; simply spending time with the kids or painting. We got to see what their living conditions were like. Seeing some families anywhere from 1-8 living in Samaritan’s Purse Tents, which were set up 5 years ago for them after the earthquake happened. It was a humbling experience to be in the middle of it, to walk through it daily. To see they really don’t have much to offer, but what they did offer was all they had. Times I got to sit for hours with an older couple separating beans out of their pods, when we got to play soccer with the kids, when we got to sit and worship together with a family and sing “Here we are to Worship.” It was never about if their house was put together, but their time and heart for us, was all i needed to fall in love with what God was doing in Haiti. I enjoyed the moments.
However it wasn’t until the last night before we left, that my heart began to doubt and question what I was doing. “How am i supposed to relate to them? Who am I to come in here, tell them that God loves them and be the one to leave at the end of the month? To tell them God has a plan for their lives, but to see the hopelessness in their faces, as if they were questioning if anything in their life could ever change?” So i was leaving the next morning…I’ve told others of this God that loves them, but doubting my time had made event the slightest impact. I know they made an impact in my life, but i wanted them to know the joy and hope and love that i knew of. I think it’s easy for me to see and to speak of. But how was i to communicate to the woman sitting there with no way of providing for her children? That material possessions don’t matter, and it’s not things that five them joy, but its from God alone to give them life to the full? I was somewhat sad but also angry because i signed up for the Race and i had 9 more months of saying bye.
We started into worship as a squad and words from a song stuck out to me in a new way. “YOU could love me more in a moment, than other loves could in a lifetime.” It was as if God was speaking that over His children in Haiti. “I have the ability to love them more in ONE moment, than all others could in a lifetime.” And the moments He loved them, were the moments i got to be apart of and share with them. God could use one moment with a woman sitting on a dirt ground, God could use one moment with a man in a wheel chair, God could use one moments spend in a house with a widow, God could use one moment of holding a child with no clothes. In ONE moment, His love has the ability to comfort, to restore a hope that is broken, to heal, to embrace. And it’s those moments that last long after I leave.
I’m not saying it made it easier to leave or that the next 9 months will get easier, but it did give me a new perspective on what it looks like to love his sons and daughters in the midst of their lives. That although i most likely will not get to physically change their lives, i can share with them a moment in time that has the ability to do so because of the ONE who can. I can share with them a hope and love that will never leave them. A love that is gentle yet powerful. Gentle enough to meet them where they are at. Powerful enough to change their hearts and lives forever.
God is good.
God is faithful.
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March 31st – $11,000
July – $17,000
