The following post was written by a young girl, Hallie Odell. I had the pleasure of meeting Hallie and her family while they were visiting Haiti for a week. I really liked what she wrote, and got her permission to share it here.
For every mission trip I've been on, I've been able to find just one or two words to describe the things I saw, experienced, or learned. This trip I came up with two words: The Undermining. I didn't actually start thinking these words until Sunday, the day before we left. Throughout the week, I had seen generous, devoted people who had dedicated their lives to bringing the Gospel to the Haitians, in order to bring the hope of a better future for the people.
And in the midst of tension, rubble, and rioting, I saw two truly gracious girls and their mother pull up the four chairs they had in their dining room for our family to sit in, because that was their way of thanking our family for helping them. Then, they gave us a tour of their home- which was about the same size as one of our backyard shed- and told us how grateful they were that they had such a nice house to live in (that was sobering). I saw a mother walking her five kids to school- each of them trying to hold her hand and hug her. I saw Haitian nannies cooing over a little, disabled orphan and giving kisses to a little baby with AIDS. I saw a young man walking his grandma gently down the street. I saw a boy about Reed's age come up to him to ask for money, but after talking to him, walked away, happier to have made a new friend than he would be if he had gotten pocket change from Reed. I saw a teenage orphan girl leading a bunch of street kids in the Creole version of 'Jesus loves me.'
And on Sunday, I saw street kids worship God with reckless abandon at their church. All I could think was, “Look at all this hope. This is the future of Haiti, these are the ones God has chosen to make a stand in their communities. All these people this week have been so loving and full of God's love. It's like God is slowly undermining all the bad things and raising up a new generation to carry out his plan for Haiti.”
God has great things in store for the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. That's what I saw this week.
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