| Hurricanes & Hope --My Trip in Haiti -- Part 3 |
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After the airport experience (see the My Trip in Haiti part 2 blog), I was afraid I was going to mentally and emotionally lose my girls on the very first real day of the trip. Airports are not the best place to judge a nation, any nation.
Later that evening after we had gotten to Port-de-Paix (by small prop airplane) and settled in our room, we went out to explore a little. We walked down a little alley to the ocean (building were built right up to the waterline) being careful not to step in the trash and general muck mixed all through the sand. After looking at the water we started to walk back up to the street when with no warning at all, it began to pour down rain. (I didn't know it at the time, but this turned out to be the start of hurricane Noel) We started to run towards the mission but were soaked in the first few steps.
Along the mission wall was built a little lean to. It wasn't much, some wood uprights and a ratty old sheet of plastic for a roof. The whole thing was maybe six feet square. It was a vendor shack in which 4 haitian people were cooking and selling food. As we ran by they called to us and by hand signals called us into their shelter and out of the rain. It was cramped before we got there, but the addition of 3 more bodies was accepted with smiles and laughter.
I didn't know how to say thank you. These people had only a plastic sheet and some logs, but they gladly and without hesitation shared them with us. More than that, they unknowingly repaired the damage that had happened to our hearts in the airport. Through their generosity, God showed us the counterbalance to the greed and chaos we had experienced earlier that morning.
My girls got to see the other side of Haiti. The side that is cheerful in the face of want and thankful for the blessings of the moment. All of us got to see the faithfulness of God who not only guided us to safety, but refilled our hearts and warmed our souls.
As I think back on that day, I am grateful for ratty plastic sheets and hand signals and white smiles in black faces and a moment of getting out of the storm. But God also calls us to continue following HIM. He sets up little lean to shelters for us to hide in for a season, but we can't remain there. He calls us to follow him through the rain, through the mud and through the hurricanes of life. He Leads, We Follow. 10:4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. |
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