Trusting on Day 6

Today's devotional set the tone for our visit to Grace Village, the mass grave site, and an impoverished tent city. The devotional calls out scripture from Matthew where Jesus was preaching about the importance of having trust in God. What we have learned in Haiti is that not much is needed to serve others apart from the gospel and trust in God. 

Grace Village, the orphanage operated by Healing Haiti, is truly a diamond in the rough. This beautiful place has been uniquely constructed to bring opportunity and education to the children attending. Pastor Wesely had a unique and animated approach to introduce our Healing Haiti team to the children, and by the time he was done, the children knew all of our names. Pastor Wesely also engaged us in a friendly battle of "We love Jesus yes we do, we love Jesus how about you?!". Pastor Wesely and Jeff then led the energized group in a lesson of the day from Acts 2, in which children had the opportunity to choose from a bag of props that would help them understand the message of Pentecost. Then we split into small groups. Some of the children went outside for a spirited game of futball while others stayed inside making necklaces and painting toenails. However, no matter how beautiful the new surroundings appear, it is difficult to fix the emotional suffering that has already been endured.

After our visit to Grace Village we had the honor of visiting the mass grave site. This trip was truly unique in that we were able to hear first hand accounts of survival from our three Healing Haiti guides. The visit hit close to home listening to these moving stories. One guide was spared his life by leaving his school building for a bottle of water only to find the building turned into rubble upon his return. The mass grave site was the result of the 7.0 earthquake on January, 12th, 2010. Approximately 300,000 perished in this terrible earthquake and this mass grave site is the burial grounds for at least150,000 Haitians. We found the gravity of loss during this catastrophe incomprehensible. In an act of respect we were joined by Haitian children as we held hands in a circle and prayed for this tragic loss of life.

Next, we visited a tent city with several meal packs provided by Feed My Starving Children. The tent city was built into the side of hill and was packed with God's children looking for relief. The tent city is within walking distance of our guest house where we sleep and eat comfortably. We delivered 240 meal packs that feed 6 people each. As desperate as the conditions were, we followed important rules regarding the distribution of the care packages. Unfortunately, we did not have enough care packages for every family in this tent city. We all felt the emotional impact of leaving some of the families empty handed. Our saving grace is that there will be future teams from Healing Haiti visiting this tent city to distribute additional manna packs to these families.

Whether you are serving water, holding children, building relationships, rubbing a persons feet, feeding small children, praying for the hurting, changing a bandage or playing a a game of soccer you have the ability to be present and communicate the love of Christ to others.

          The Boyz