Its Tuesday night and I just got back from a church service. It is a beautiful summer night in Haiti with a strong cool breeze that is so refreshing after another hot and humid day. I love nights in Haiti.
Everything is going great here. I am shadowing the other interns for this week and so far I have gotten to go to the villages and orphanages around the mission as well as the new Mission of Hope property in Bersi which is right on the ocean. The groups minister to the people especially the children- playing games, hugging babies, and praying for people who are sick. Today I gave some First Aid to a little boy named Maurice with open sores all over his body. Yesterday I brought a few photos that I took of village kids from Bersi last year and they got such a kick out of it. I am pretty sure they have never seen an actual photo of themselves. They passed it around to everyone who had come from the village and it made them all laugh...
A man named Tiny arrived yesterday. He is a white man from South Africa, and unlike his name, he is huge. He is also the most incredible man I have ever met. He has lived his entire life serving the poorest of the poor as well as breeding endangered animals in Africa and combating poachers. He began a program called Farming God's Way, which is completely based on what the Bible says about farming, work, and taking care of creation. He is an extremely humble man who has seen people much poorer than the Haitians we work with here. He is working with the Haitian farmers and Mission of Hope to learn the Haitian way of farming while teaching them how to keep the soil rich so that nutrients will not be stripped from the soil after two years of farming. He also believes that the Bible calls us to take care of the widow and the orphan but for the rest of the poor we are supposed to work with them to empower them to work and take care of themselves- restoring their dignity as human beings the way God intended. God has called Tiny to a life that has broken his heart many times but he has a strong faith and all that he does is because he loves Jesus. He told me today that there is always fruit on the cake, meaning there is always something wonderful and beautiful to his story. We cried together as he told me about the times he witnessed a poor person in Africa buy his first cow or about the children dying of hunger or even just how much Jesus loves us.
The poverty in Haiti is overwhelming, but like Tiny is teaching me, there is always fruit on the cake. I can see that in the beautiful people of Haiti, their love for each other, for us, and for God. Their faith and utter dependence on God reminds me of how spiritually poor I am. They are the ones who have what is more precious than gold, and I have much to learn.
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