Bonjour! I am currently in Jeremie Haiti with a group of college and career folks. I can already see their hearts and know this is going to be a life changing week full of loving on our sweet little friends. Thanks Lisa Hellman for agreeing to guest blog for us today (see below). Please stay tuned for more insights from our team members throughout the week! -Erica
Wow. What an amazing day. After being delayed about an hour at Nashville International, we finally landed in Miami with only twenty minutes to spare. We were all pretty worried that we wouldn’t make it, but our God is good and we were able to get to our gate just in time. When we landed in Port au Prince, Dou Dou had plowed his way through customs and met us right at the gate. I was so happy to see him! (For those of you who don’t know who I’m talking about, Dou Dou is the logistics specialist for El Shaddai Ministries…and is also our stand-in body guard! People joke that he is the Haitian Shaq.) After a few brief words with some “friends in high places” (since Dou Dou has the respect of everyone who knows him) we walked straight through customs. No line for us thanks to Dou Dou! A quick ride took us to a smaller airport where we all took a puddle-jumper to Jeremie…it feels so good to be home! We had a chance to see the kids this afternoon before dinner. We walked all the way up the mountain in the rain to see them, but nothing was gonna stop us from seeing those kids. As we reached the top and came into view of the orphanage, they ran to us and several started yelling, “Lisa! Lisa! Bonswa!” It was the most delightful thing I have ever heard. I wasn’t expecting them to even remember who I was, much less my name! They even asked where my father was and were saddened when I told them he wasn’t with me this time. (Dad led our trip last summer.) I couldn’t believe it. We truly had made an impact last summer. With children all around me, stroking my face and playing with my hair, I sat down on the front porch of one of the houses. Three small children sat on my lap, two older kids hugging me, and one simply hanging onto my hand…Needless to say, I teared up. Not with saddness or even with “happy tears” as my mom always calls them, but with tears of gratitude. I could be one of those children. I could be without a mom and a dad, trying my best to survive. I could be longing for affection and attention from someone I had only previously met once. I could be kissing the cheek of a stand in mom. IT. COULD. BE. ME. Tonight, as I drift off to sleep and perhaps with a few more tears of gratitude streaking my cheeks, I will be praising God for where I was born. I will be praising God that He has burdened me enough to want to care for children who have no one else to love, or to love them back. I will be praising God for the tears I shed this afternoon and for the remembrance of how blessed I truly am. God has a plan for Haiti. And somehow, I’m supposed to fit into that plan. Pray for me this week as I allow God to speak through me and TO me. Pray that I will be quick to listen to Him, and slow to speak. Pray that I will heed His every command. Something tells me that God is about to make a big change in my life. I’m ready for it.
In Christ, Lisa