I didn’t do anything in Haiti. That’s really what it felt like at first. Everywhere we went, there were already people in place that were running a program smoothly or enough volunteers to get a job done. I asked the Lord to use me in a big way everyday, but at the end of each day I felt guilty because it was month 10 of the World Race, and I felt like I was just hanging out with kids and the elderly everyday. I truly felt like I was having too much fun during ministry and nothing to really show for it.
One day, I start saying the words, “Lord, I did nothing in Haiti…”
And God interrupts with, “… except be a friend.”
I started to look through my pictures of Haiti and realized most of them are just of me making friends with someone who seemed like they needed it. Here’s some stories:
DAY 1
First day of ministry, and we are doing a kids club teaching about the Bible. I was off to the side of the main events feeling a little jet lag, a little useless, and lot of missing Africa. Then this little boy walks around the building to join all the kids sitting at the table. His friends try to pull him into open seats over and over, but he saw me standing over there and ignored everyone else. He walked right over, grabbed my hand without hesitation, and started speaking Creole to me like we were best friends. We giggled and played with each other the rest of the time completely ignoring the program everyone else was engaged in. We both just needed to have ONE friend that day that thought we were super special and made it worth being in Haiti for.
SECRET HANDSHAKES
There was a large group of kids in our neighborhood, and every time we left our complex they would all come running from corners we didn’t know existed to say hello. Stevenson came up to me acting all confident with his chest puffed out. Another kid pushed him away and turned to me shaking his head and pointing at Stevenson’s teeth. Stevenson’s teeth were all crooked, yellow, black in some places. It was sad to see someone so young with teeth already rotting away. The other kids continued to push him away from me just because there was something about him that was a little gross. I immediately got so annoyed at these kids being so rude, that I walked right past them all and greeted Stevenson again. Then we made a secret handshake together. Every time I saw Stevenson he ran up and we did our handshake together in front of all his friends. I probably saw him 30 seconds a day, but his whole demeanor changed after he walked away from our handshake. I loved getting to be a part of showing Stevenson just how proud his Father in Heaven is of him!
SNUGGLING IS EVANGELISM TOO
On Mondays we went out to evangelize in different communities and this one day we drove into a small community. We watched as kids ran down the street after our truck just waiting for us to stop so they could say hi. More than 30 children and their mothers immediately came out of their houses to see why we were there, and we decided to just have a kid’s club right then and there since so many children were all gathered together. Meanwhile, the mothers were laughing loudly in the background, making jokes, and slightly mocking us. One woman kept walking in the middle of the crowd and you could smell the alcohol on her from several feet away. The discernment in me could feel all the false joy these women had and how the weight of it fell on their children. One woman called a girl away from the group to pass her this little baby so she could talk with the other women. One of my favorite things is taking babies away from older siblings so that older siblings can just focus on being kids for awhile, so I quickly snatched this adorable little one up. She had been so attentive to her surroundings the whole time she was there, but when I held her in my arms she looked at me for two seconds before laying her head down on my shoulder to close her eyes. I heard the Lord whisper, “She needed a person of peace to rest her head today.” The rest of our time evangelizing, I got to snuggle this little baby and pass on the peace that surpasses understanding into her little body.
JOHN PATRICK
Every Sunday we got to do swimming ministry (yes, that’s a ministry) and just go out and play with the kids in the ocean. John Patrick had followed us everywhere that day, but he didn’t normally come to the ocean with us. As we were all getting in, he kept asking someone to pick him up and eventually I gave in and bent down to let him grab on. He gripped my neck so hard his knuckles were white and immediately started shaking. I asked one of the other kids that spoke a little English, and he told me that John Patrick is scared of the ocean and never comes swimming. I kept asking John Patrick if he wanted to go back to the shore, but he always said no and kept pointing to different groups of people for us to swim to. John Patrick needed a friend to help him do something scary that day, and I am so proud of him for asking for help.
CLARECIA
Oh, this sweet woman. I just adore her. Part of our main ministry in Haiti was visiting two different elderly homes. I mainly went to the women’s house and became friends with this fine lady named Clarecia. Clarecia had a stroke at some point and doesn’t have very good use of the left side of her body anymore. Everyday, she sits in bed near the outside door of a little room with her friend Olecia. Our first day there, Clarecia pulled up a stool beside her bed for me to sit by and started fanning the sweat that was dripping off my face from our walk. She always took such good care of me. The translator was busy with someone else that day, and all I had was some paper and colored pencils in my backpack because who doesn’t always have those things with them? I handed her some paper and then started to sketch Clarecia. She got so excited when she saw what I was doing and just stared at the sketch the rest of the day. Every time I went back to the women’s house after that, Clarecia pulled up the stool for me to sit and had something new in mind for me to draw. My last day there, Clarecia had me pull out an envelope of important papers, forms, pictures, and other papers you need to save and tucked in between the pages were all my sketches. I nearly cried, it was so precious. Then she pulled out a few pictures of her daughter and made me draw a sketch of each one before I could leave. Honestly, most of my sketches weren’t even that good, but Clarecia taught me that good friends treasure and rejoice over every moment someone uses their God-given abilities no matter what.
Not pictured are so many more friends I made in Haiti that taught me so much more such as: Delhi – a bright, young man caught in that age where he still wants to be a kid but his family needs him to be more responsible, Laurence – the sneakiest tickler ever with my favorite giggle, or Olecia – a lonely old woman who needed a lot of care that her family didn’t always have the time for.
None of the stories I have from Haiti are about miracles, casting out demons, or leading someone to know Christ. None of my stories really sound that amazing at all. None of my stories are what I expected my month 10 to look like.
But that’s real life. Everyday doesn’t have an amazing moment. Everyday doesn’t have an opportunity to have a conversation about Jesus with a stranger. Everyday doesn’t give us a new epiphany that changes our lives. Most days just kinda look like small moments where being the friend that Jesus would be to that person is most important.
Thanks Haiti for teaching me how to be a friend like Jesus.
