Let Me Tell You
June 28, 2008 2:08pmSaying it was a good trip or an awesome trip doesn't sound right.
I have never seen or experienced what I saw while on this trip.
Television
Pictures
Stories
They cannot even begin to do justice to what poverty is…
At first I was confused.
At the orphanage the toddlers slept on a tile floor and were potty trained on a Rubbermaid tub…
The older children slept on thin bunk beds which looked like cubby holes with bugs all around…and bites on there legs to prove it.
Initially I was in shocked of these living conditions. I guess still stuck in my American perspective of living…
Then I realized….
This type of living though not the best was 100% better then where they were before the orphanage.
I've cried many tears since being back inside the boarders of the richest country in the world. I have everything I need with in an instant grab…shelter, food, comfort—you get the picture.
I would be ignorant if I don't remember what I saw. It's overwhelming to me that I can come home and the way of living in Haiti is a memory for me…and yet for the people of Haiti…that's life…an everyday reality…
in a country dominated by Voo-Doo----they continually live in fear of death and harm to not only themselves but their families.
They live in shanties smaller then my bedroom filled with 10 + people
They make less then a dollar a day.
And eat dirt biscuit.
They live in fear of their government who's way of "cleaning up the park" was lining up the street kids that hung out there at night and killing them.
They don't eat pork because the pigs eat the babies that are thrown in the river.
They say don't look down…because you never know what you will see under your feet
The smell of burning trash and exhaust was in my nose for weeks…and any similar smell reminds me of this.
I met a 10 month old baby whose father paid someone to get rid of her---named by the orphanage "Hope" and at the same time named Chris-stay-la---which means "Christ was here" by the Haitian people that found her---on a plastic bag in a junk yard laying in a weeks worth of her own waste. God has big plans for this little girl!
It's overwhelming to think --what I can do to bring hope to a country that seems to be lost in hopelessness? At first it's hard to see God there. But I know he was. I spent time with children---holding them and loving on them---let them take lots of pictures and smile…I helped hand out flip flops to a community of people who are longing to follow Christ---a rarity in Haiti. I participated in street evangelism. God did big things and open lots of doors while I was in Haiti and definitely put poverty into perspective for me.
The children from the orphanage sang songs like "blessed be your name", "holy holy holy", "what a mighty God we serve" they have there own evangelism team, and pray regularly---there IS God.
They praise God when they have nothing and I ignore God when i have everything...
I'm praying that God would continue to reveal to me what he wants me to do for these people. I asked him to break my heart for what breaks his…and that he did. I know he's not done using me in Haiti and I'm waiting to see what he continues to show me and how he will use me to share his love to these people…
I know God is holding a megaphone up to Haitian poverty.
I believe that these struggles will not be in vain and that there is hope!
It's easy to think that they are far away and this doesn't affect us---this isn't the case.
There's distance in the boarders—in the oceans—but we are all ONE.
"global isn't just a nice idea, global is reality" let us never forget that!
