This past week I ventured to Haiti with 18 college students and 3 other adults for 5 days. We worked with New Life Children's Home in Port au Prince. Our mission for the week was to paint the guest house where missionaries and groups of travelers stay on the property with the orphanage as they trave throughout Haiti on different projects. New Life has over 100 children that they care fore, ranging from around a year old and up. There are also 20 kids there who have special needs. To see more about the orphanage and what they do there you can go to http://www.newlife4kids.org/.
Upon my return people have been asking me "How was Haiti?". I have no idea how to respond to that question. The experience was incredible and I had a great deal of fun. However, I also got my heart broken on a daily basis and I saw things I never want to see again. I saw young kids with bloated bellies from malnutrition, kids who haven't eaten all day, I saw kids who were nine years old that were the size of my 5 year old nephew. I saw rubble from the earthquake nearly 3 years ago clutter the streets. I saw tent cities that were assembled as temporary housing that have turned into permanent residences.
Overall, I feel bipolar. I saw God in the faces of so many people there. I experienced God in ways that I don't think I could have here in the US. However, I was also angry with God, how can God allow these children to suffer like this? How can God's children live in such deplorable conditions? I know that this trip has opened my eyes and given me a fire in my belly to do something, but what? How could I possibly help these kids. I cannot take them home with me, I cannot financially support them and I cannot work to stabilize their government. I feel pretty helpless. Here I am sitting in my comfy warm apartment with central air and my computer typing away. There are so many things that I learned from this experience that I cannot possibly begin to tell you all of them now. My hope is that as the weeks go by I will have a clearer understanding of how God will use this experience.
1 comment:
Sometimes perspective is just as important as empowerment. That is why volunteering is such an important element in a person's character/soul building. I once wrote in a paper, "you have to walk a mile in someone elses shoes in order to understand why they have calusis on their heels". We can't even begin to understand another's journey unless we get out of our own lives and into their's for a moment. I'm proud of you.
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