The Timeline and the End of Time

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

10:34 AM

I did grocery ministries with Hannah, Caitlin, Emily, and Evaline.  We have several really awesome cooks here in St. Louis that make food for all the Americans and Haitians on campus.  They eat.  They get paid.  They go home to their families who have no food to eat.  All of our leftover food goes to feed the pigs because we just can’t afford to feed everyone’s families.  That’s just how it is.  So Hannah and Caitlin wanted to bring some food to one of the cook’s families, and the rest of us came to help.  We told her husband and kids who were at her house not to tell that it was us… but we think she might have caught on…

11:48 AM

Some Haitians are really mean me.  And that makes it really hard for me to love them.

“But I say to you, love your enemies.  Pray for those to hurt you….If you love only the people who love you, you will get no reward.  Even the tax collectors do that.  And if you are only nice to your friends, you are no better than other people.  Even those who don’t know God are nice to their friends.” –Matthew 5:44,46-47

Thursday, July 21, 2011

5:36 AM

Headache Day #3

4:56 PM

My new group came in!  And they’re from Ormond Beach!  The end.

Friday, July 22, 2011

2:17 PM

We arrived at La Baie.  A little late.  In fact, due to a lot of miscommunication problems, everything seemed to be going wrong today.  At least we got to play with the kids a little bit.

3:24 PM

Still grumpy about time issues.

4:47 PM

My group has felt called to “pamper the workers” here at the mission.  In other words, all of the Haitian women that work so hard and never seem to get noticed are getting their feet and hands washed and massaged and their nails painted.  So my group rounded up the women at La Baie and started their own little Haitian salon.  It was awesome.  Many of the women had never had a massage before, and they loved it.

8:28 PM

I prayed that God would help me die to my need for a schedule and staying on time.

Friday, July 22, 2011

(sometime in the middle of the night)

I got up to go to the bathroom.  My watch ran out of batteries.  Be careful what you pray for…

Very funny, God.  Seeing as I have no watch anymore, I’ll drop the timeline act.  Grant took us all out fishing after breakfast.  Well, he was going out to get the fish from his nets and we tagged along.  We got to jump in the middle of the Caribbean and swim around.  It was pretty fantastic.

After that, we headed out to Salines Mayette to visit the orphanage.  The women went off to pamper some workers while I stayed behind to help set up the soccer nets and play with the boys.  Well, as many of you probably guessed, I got hurt.  (Why can I not play sports without getting hurt?)  Basically a leg smashed into the top of my foot, which caused a lot of limp-tastic soccer playing until I finally swallowed my pride and sat down.

Soon after I sat down, a little girl came and sat right on my lap and put her head against me.  And that’s when I realized how much I’m going to miss when I leave here.  I’ve been getting so excited about going home lately that I haven’t realized how much I’m going to miss Haiti.  I teared up a little… not gonna lie.  :(

My group also did a short VBS for the kids.  They did a skit on the Good Samaritan and handed out these little books written in Creole.  Basically, it’s a father telling the story of Jesus from birth to resurrection to his two kids.  I sat down with some of the girls and had them read to me, and they made me read to them also.  I am by no means an expert at reading in Creole, but they cheered for me nonetheless.  Plus, the group let me have one of the books, so I’ll be able to practice.  :)

We stayed in Beauchamp and went to church there this morning.  It didn’t seem like we were away from campus for very long, but when we came back… everything seemed different.  Cholera broke out in La Point today.  There are about 400 patients pouring out of the hospital right now… please be praying for the Haitian people as they go through another horrible outbreak of this disease.  Guys were sent out today and will be sent out tomorrow to set up tents for the patients to stay in.  The rest of us feel pretty much useless.

By the way, please don’t worry about me.  The water on campus is completely safe.  I promise.

Cranglish lesson:

During VBS at the orphanage, they gave little coloring sheets out to the kids with the books.  One girl wrote a sentence on hers in half Creole and half English and gave it to a member of my group.

Roughly:
"Mwem la paske Jesus love me toujou."
"I am here because Jesus loves me forever."

That's pretty dang insightful for a kid that can't even spell yet.  The girl gets it.