Have you ever had a time in your life that you just wanted to be loved? Just a time when you wanted to know that someone...anyone...cared about you? One of the things I believe God revealed to me most during my week in Haiti was that this is a country of the most beautiful people on the planet. A people group that just wants to know that someone cares. To just be loved.
I saw some really amazing things. Homes that when photographed look somewhat like an unfinished set from Lord of the Rings, but looking closer you begin to see families on the roofs of these unfinished homes. Children playing on the roofs of this concrete jungle. Homes built like compounds, surrounded by walls with broken bottles cemented to the tops of the walls to keep people out.
People on the streets. I wish that I could really put into words what life is like on the streets of Haiti each day. People lining the streets selling just about anything they can to provide for themselves and their families. Women caring buckets of water on their heads to sell by the cup to others on the street. People wearing live chickens, tied together by rope, around their necks like a nice fashion accessory, Selling them to whoever would buy. Men rummaging through mounds of trash on the sidewalks looking for food as a stray dog ,that looks as though it hasn't had a meal since birth, urinates on that same mound of trash. Children just wandering the streets because their parents can't afford for them to go to school....and yet... in the midst of all this, what we would consider beyond chaos, and despair there is more joy from these beautiful people than I have ever experienced in my life. In the midst of shear poverty they are happy...joyful...and giving. They have servants hearts like I have never seen.
God has forever connected me to the hearts of these people.
So amazing...so beautiful...so brilliant.....and just longing to be loved.
I pray that as you seek Gods will in your life, that you would keep your heart open to where He might lead. As a good friend recently wrote let God write the story of your life. (Thanks Shawn) I pray that as this year comes to a close and a new one begins, that God starts a new chapter in the story of your life, and that it is a great adventure.
I saw some really amazing things. Homes that when photographed look somewhat like an unfinished set from Lord of the Rings, but looking closer you begin to see families on the roofs of these unfinished homes. Children playing on the roofs of this concrete jungle. Homes built like compounds, surrounded by walls with broken bottles cemented to the tops of the walls to keep people out.
People on the streets. I wish that I could really put into words what life is like on the streets of Haiti each day. People lining the streets selling just about anything they can to provide for themselves and their families. Women caring buckets of water on their heads to sell by the cup to others on the street. People wearing live chickens, tied together by rope, around their necks like a nice fashion accessory, Selling them to whoever would buy. Men rummaging through mounds of trash on the sidewalks looking for food as a stray dog ,that looks as though it hasn't had a meal since birth, urinates on that same mound of trash. Children just wandering the streets because their parents can't afford for them to go to school....and yet... in the midst of all this, what we would consider beyond chaos, and despair there is more joy from these beautiful people than I have ever experienced in my life. In the midst of shear poverty they are happy...joyful...and giving. They have servants hearts like I have never seen.
God has forever connected me to the hearts of these people.
So amazing...so beautiful...so brilliant.....and just longing to be loved.
I pray that as you seek Gods will in your life, that you would keep your heart open to where He might lead. As a good friend recently wrote let God write the story of your life. (Thanks Shawn) I pray that as this year comes to a close and a new one begins, that God starts a new chapter in the story of your life, and that it is a great adventure.
posted by Todd at 12:08 PM
2 Comments:
wow, todd! somehow i missed this post! what a good perspective. it's so true, how? how? do they have such joy? and such a willingness to give you the little that they have? how?
great post! so true. would that we, in our abundance, gave as they do and had the joy they do. we need to have the joy of Christ overflowing. why don't we do this more?
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