What are we even doing down here?

     People ask me what exactly we do here in Haiti day to day, and I hem and haw and say something about community health and something about building relationships and generally am unsure how to answer. The truth is I don’t really know how to explain what we do, except to say our focus really is on building relationships, loving kids and helping the people we come to know meet their daily needs.

     We have a couple of short term teams here this week. This afternoon we were visiting a neighborhoods and something beautiful happened that I think might be a way to illustrate we do. Most of the short termers have been to Haiti before, so they know some of the kids and families we work with. Some of us traveled to the neighborhood in the back of a pick-up, so we were out in the open. When we got to the neighborhood and almost even before the truck stopped a girl came running to greet one of the short termers. He hopped over the side of the truck and the minute he touched the ground the little girl jumped up in his arms, flinging her arms around her neck. Our short termer knew this girl from previous visits and she knew him. They were meeting as friends. I could not tell you who was more excited to see whom. I can tell you my eyes were not dry.

   Friends, this is the only way I know to describe what we do. It sounds cheesy and cliché but we do what we can to love the people around us. We hold kids and we become friends with them and with their families. And we do what we can to love them like Jesus loves them and to communicate how much they matter. When short termers come back, they see kids they remember and the kids see that they are not forgotten when these people leave the country. I really believe this is a part of what it means to believe in the communion of saints, to be a part of the Body of Christ, and I really, really love being a part of it. Join me in prayers of thanks and recognition of the goodness of God in all of this? Thanks friends!