Soften my Heart…

Today has been an amazing day. This morning, I woke up and looked around realizing that I have become calloused to this environment. I was so distant from the destruction and disarray. I prayed that God would change my heart and take away the numbness I felt. We had a great day as a whole. We ate the usual breakfast of an egg and banana. We did a prayer exercise to help us focus on listening to what God was telling us. I personally got a lot out of the exercise and it set the pace for the rest of the day. After our briefing, we headed out for VBS at Pastor David’s church. It was AMAZING. We sang songs with the kids as a big group before breaking into 3 smaller teams. There was a craft station, and two game stations. Frantzdy and Evenson came with us to VBS today. All of the stations went so well. Sarah ran the crafts station where a lot of the team helped and Dave became the “coupe” man, which means “to cut” in creole, as he got to run the only pair of scissors around to every kid. The other groups played games and we finished VBS with a skit by Dave and Andy while Kristin read the story of David and Goliath and a message by Steph. After VBS we came back for lunch with the amazing abrico fruit that I will be searching everywhere for in America. Once the group finished lunch, we met with Pastor David at the future church building under construction. We prayed for the building and for the church before heading out to homes of different church members. Many of us shared amazing stories from the prayer walk when we got back. At each home we went to, I prayed for what was requested but I also prayed that God would take the callous off of my heart. We got back from the walk and took “tap taps” essentially a modified pick-up truck that wouldn’t pass any type of safety regulation in the U.S. up mountain roads. When I say mountain roads people would think roads of West Virginia or Colorado. But I promise these roads wouldn’t be driven on with 4 wheelers in the U.S. We got to the top and saw the most amazing view I have ever seen in my life. It was totally worth the terrifying drive. Once again, I prayed that God would soften my heart for these circumstances. It wasn’t till we returned, had an amazing dinner (rice, chicken in some awesome sauce, fried plantains, homemade potato chips and a 7 up out of a glass bottle purchased from across the street) and started our debrief that I realized that God was blinding me of all the destruction so that I could see the beauty. I have never known such genuine sincere people in my life. The people on our team, as well as the entire Haitian community that we are in. This country has the Holy Spirit working through it and it is clear after just three days of being here. I love this place.