“There’s beauty in the dirt. Wandering in skin and soul– searching, longing for a whole.”- Michael Gungor
I’m not a morning person.
In fact, if the morning weren’t necessary for the rest of the day to go on I would find some kind of way to ban them or make them illegal or something.
Anyways, we started our day early and got up at 7:00am.
We all took showers packed our packs for the day, ate breakfast, and then went to meet with Pastor Lionel who would take us to Little Africa.
The team loaded up on to the bus and we began another bumpy dusty car ride. All of the first-timers had their eyes glued out the windows of the bus trying to take in all of the sights and sounds of Haiti– I just wanted to take a nap, so I slept the whole way to Little Africa. I’m not sure how long exactly it took to get there, but we got there. We stepped off the bus and instantly had a flock of children around us.
It’s real.
The poverty.
The hunger.
The need.
It’s not like one of the sad commercials you see on TV with those starving children who you could save with just dollars a day. You can’t change the channel or walk in the other room. You could close your eyes, or try to ignore it all, but the starving little girl will still be there in front of you reaching her hands up, wanting to be held. There’s not a phone number to call or website you can go to and put in your credit card information and make it go away. It’s no longer numbers you hear about, or two-dimensional images on a screen– these are real people standing in front of you.
It’s all very real.
I found myself crying out to God: “Why don’t you do something?”
“Why can’t You just make all of the hunger go away?”
“Why don’t You make all of the hurting, and the sickness, and the poverty disappear? God, aren’t you all-powerful? Don’t you love these people? Why don’t you do something about this!”
And God replied: “I did do something. I sent you. What are you going to do about it?”
Ephesians 1:22-23 says: “God put everything under Christ’s power and made Him head over everything for the church. The Church is Christ’s body. It is filled with Him. He makes everything complete in every way.”
Christ gives us the strength. He gives us the desire. He gives us everything we need to accomplish His will. But we are the body. He believes in and loves the church so much that made us the number one solution to all of this world’s problems. All we have to do is say yes to whatever He asks us to do and He’ll take care of the rest. We don’t have to have a plan to end world hunger. We don’t need to posses the resources to end poverty. All we have to do is say yes. So what did I reply to God? I told Him: “I’m going to say yes.”
We began the day in little Africa by breaking up into three teams– one for each zone– doing VBS style children’s ministry. VBS consisted of a Bible story, craft time, game time, and teaching some fun songs to the kids. After we finished with VBS we went back to our church for lunch and to spend some quality time with the people.
Our goal for our week in Little Africa is to build relationships.
We want the people to be comfortable and accepting toward us so that when we begin to build on our land there we can work and do ministry with the community as closely as possible.
One of the ways we’re doing this is by holding a soccer tournament.
Soccer is life.
It brings hope, joy, and community– there isn’t a better way to bring the villages in Little Africa together than to have them play each other in a super competitive soccer tournament.
And the tournament was absolutely insane.
The women and children danced freely to the music playing over the PA system, while the older boys practiced shooting goals. One of the teams playing had a little while to walk– so the opposing team used the time to stretch and practice passes.
But the other team finally arrived.
The two teams– one in orange jerseys, the other in blue– shook hands and took their positions on the pitch. The opposing players locked eyes with each other, waiting for the whistle… then it blew.
This was some of the most intense soccer I’ve ever seen played– the commentator made the game even more exciting with his unceasing machinegun like commentary. After about 10 minutes of calculated passes and some raw talent, the orange team scored the first goal.
“Gooool! Gol! Gol! Gol! Gol!”
The crowd went nuts and rushed the field– congratulating the players on the orange team.
After 90 minutes of playing hard and giving it their all, the orange team won the first match of the tournament. The blue team had a long walk of shame back home.
After the match we loaded back on the bus and went home to New Life.
We were all pretty exhausted.
We went straight to eat dinner and after that some of the girls went down to the orphanage to play with the kids. But since it was so close to devotion time most of us just hung out and talked.
After devotion we all went our separate ways– some went and got showers, some sat around and talked, and some us went straight to bed. As for me I had just drank two cups of coffee so I stayed awake for a little while and talked. But I think it’s safe to speak for all of us and say: we are ecstatic about getting to go back to Little Africa in the morning and getting to do it all over again.