Making The Best of Things

I was blessed with an absolutely stellar team this week in Haiti. They arrived from Decatur, Georgia with much energy and enthusiasm, ready to blaze some trails and make the most of every opportunity.

The majority of our days of ministry were spent conducting a Vacation Bible School in Carrefour, Haiti. And we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. The pastor of the church where we were planning to have the VBS brought us to the site and it was much smaller than I had anticipated. A small home, with two of the partitioned walls broken down to make one large room, not much bigger than the average living room and dining room of your typical home. Also, it had a rusty, tattered tin roof and many of the cinder blocks were crumbling apart. And there was no field available for activity time. Just a narrow gravel road across the street. Nevertheless, these were the accommodations we had and we learned to make the best of it.

Before we arrived in Haiti, we were told we would have a maximum of 100 young children attending. But then Monday came, and to add to an already challenging dynamic, nearly 150 kids showed up. So just imagine if you will, 150 energetic little rascals trying to fit in a space probably smaller than the first floor of your home. And in that space you need to make room for story time and craft time. It was an interesting scenario to say the least. But again, everyone made the best of it.

The locals didn’t seem to mind the vast chaos as much as we did. To them it was just another activity at the church. We even had a few very young ones that we weren’t prepared for. The very first day, as I was sitting in on story time, a woman came up to me with her two-year old baby, plopped her in my lap, and then left. This of course gave me a good laugh.

Learning to make the most of things is often where we find ourselves at many times in life. What we plan for isn’t usually the reality we eventually encounter. And when faced with a difficult set of circumstances we can either sulk and complain or learn to do the very best we can. I would say the latter is exactly what our team did. They had such great attitudes and so much joy. They even managed to put together a snack for the kids!

I trust our efforts and hard-work have reaped results for the Kingdom. Only time will tell I guess. This I know for sure though, nearly every child left after each morning with a smile on their face. And if you asked me, that always means a job well done!