Day 3: Haiti

We were supposed to be going back to City de Soliel again, however the government has decided to step in and won't allow us to return there. They don't like us helping because it makes them look bad to the people. What's really sad about that is that they know this and are the ones to point it out. If we truly believed we needed to work there and no where else we could go through a process and get authorization to do so, but that would probably come with limitation on what we'd be allowed to do for the people. It's better that we just move on and be thankful for the time we were able to spend there.

So instead of going back there we were invited by one of the boys from the school to go to his village. Since it was so close we walked there. To him it might not be that bad of a walk, but for us it felt like it took forever to get there! It was probably about three miles away from our camp and very hot. Once we got there though it was worth it. To be able to help the people and play with the kids. They did have more than most people in Haiti though so that was comforting. In fact we set up our work area at the school there. One thing about schools in Haiti, if you want to go you have to pay. There is no free education at all. So just from that you knew these people had more than anyone in City de Soliel had. We did our usual medical, lunch and ministry trifecta. We even had bottles and baby formula for women with small babies that need some for of proper nutrition.

The hardest part of the day came when we gave them the lunch part of our team spent half the morning making. They took the food, but some of them either threw it on the ground or at another kid. It was the hardest time I had keeping calm and showing God's love when they were mocking the work we were doing for them. It felt like they didn't care that we wanted to help, but it was also a good reminder that not every day is going to be easy. Sometimes we will face things that will test us and hopefully if you are fully relying on God we will prevail and be able to show Him through everything that goes on.

Then that night Rebekah, Lauren and I started talking together on the patio. We stayed there for a while just getting to know eachother and sharing things from our lives. Then it started to rain again so we went into mine and Rebekahs tent and contiued talking for quite a while. It was a very good, very sobering talk. We just got to know eachother and some of the so not happy parts of our backgrounds. It never did rain that night and I liked how Lauren put it at one point, God was telling us we needed to spend time together getting to know eachother. My prayer is that there is something in both of their stories and advice that I can learn from and for them from me as well.