Eye-opening

   

 

 Hello everyone from our guest house in Haiti,

     Today is our first day in Haiti and we are already seeing the works of God here. After arriving at the Airport at 3:45am this morning and two flight's worth of travel, we have made our way to Haiti. Even as we landed on the plane I could tell that this place was like no other that I had been before. Looking out of the window of the airplane you do not see the towering buildings that we are used to in the United States. Instead you see the tent cities of Cite Soleil, which is the poorest slum in the entire world. In these tent cities, people live in houses made of cardboard and other things that they can find. The goal of them is to keep them dry and safe, but as you can imagine, they do not work as well as our homes do in the United States.

     Later tonight, while having our reflection and group devotional time, each of us were given the task of selecting one single word to describe our day. The word I selected was eye-opening. This word may seem like an obvious choice when you come to a place so different from what you know, but that is not why I selected this word. When our group was picked up from the airport we were escorted to our Tap-tap, which is like a car but you ride in the back on benches along the sides of a metal "cage". As we drove along in these crowded quarters, I looked outside at the people of Haiti. I saw their buildings crumbling and breaking, yet people still living in them. I saw people's homes set up, not even in buildings, but instead in the ruins between two buildings as they rotted away. I saw people walking past a government official, armed with a gun across his chest, and not even flinching because it seemed like something they saw regularly. But yet, even as I saw these people who had every right to be angry, every right to be mad at God for the situation they were in, every right to doubt in God's plan, I instead saw something else.


     The people were smiling!


     The people were keeping a grateful attitude even through the worst of these times. The people here were so thankful for all of the minor things they were given, such as food on the table and something, even if it was just a tent in a tent city, that gave them shelter. Things that we simply take for granted at home, the people here are so grateful for here. Everyone, we are so blessed with everything we are given. We are blessed with so much more then we deserve because we are sinners. We are given so much more then we could ever need, and yet we complain about such minor things in our lives that don't really matter.

     In 1 John 4:7 it reads, "Let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves is been born of God and knows God". Everyone, lets all take a moment and think about all that we have been blessed with and have. Now think of all of those people who you might disagree with at times. Lets be thankful for all that we have and love one another as Christ Jesus loves us. Is we lost everything today, but maintained Love, would we have lost anything at all? If the people in Haiti have taught us anything so far, it is that everything should fall back to Love. Thanks and Praises to God for everything he has given us, and our prayers and his good will to all those less fortunate then us.

Here is to hoping for a great week, and for a more thankful and grateful heart.

God's love and Peace to you all!

Ben Giles