After nearly a year of preparation and fundraising, The World Race has begun!
I have been in Haiti for 5 days with my team, Free To Be and team R.O.A.R. working with Together We Can which is run by an awesome guy named Stephen and his wife Autumn, along with their children Josiah (Jojo) and Asher, who are absolutely adorable. He has quite a few ministries going that we have been able to be apart of, including: a farm, carpentry, a community water project, and lastly an orphanage.
Our accommodations have been absolutely fantastic! We stay in the same house as Stephen and his family, but in the upper story of his home. It fits both our teams with room to spare for a kitchen and living room, which is great for team time and meals together.
Just about every morning since we arrived we have gone out at around 8:30 am and played soccer with Haitian kids from the community. We always play Americans vs. Haitians but they completely destroy us haha. It is so much fun. There is absolutely no other way I would rather spend my mornings. We get to know some of the kids and even their older family members and friends, as we have gathered quite the crowd of both adults and kids throughout the week. After the games, we generally try to do some sort of biblical skit for the kids.
But my favorite part of Haiti has definitely been the time spent at the orphanage. One boy who has only been at the orphanage for 3 weeks named Dave and another teenager who aged out of the orphanage and now is 19 and works as one of Stephens helpers and security guards named Adelson, have taken special places in my heart. Because we all separate during the day at the different ministries, we all meet up for dinner at the orphanage and I get to spend time with Dave and Adelson every night. Most of our time thus far has been spent on the trampoline and just playing different games in the yard.
Our main point of bonding has been teaching each other our respective languages, Haitian Creyol and English. They are both very interested in learning English and are both very intelligent. It seriously has been so much fun learning Creyol. Their friendships have motivated me to spend considerable amounts of my time studying, learning, and practicing Creyol on my own time so that I can communicate better with them and teach them more English. I honestly have always thought I was terrible with trying to learn languages but being emersed in this culture and language, coupled with the satisfaction that comes from communicating in their native tongue has allowed the process to be easy and so enjoyable.
I am so excited to see how our relationships grow and how much Haitian Creyol I will be able to grasp!
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Please be praying that I will be completely open to what God has for me. That I will humble myself and put my pride that I continually find myself being held down by, aside. Pray that I will continue to strive to a greater intimacy with Christ, therefore allowing me to love these people with everything I have, displaying a glimpse of the infinate love of God.
