HEAVY HEART

Wow. Today was heavy.

The rundown:

6 other interns and I went out in a Haitian village about 10 minutes from our campus with the best translator, Enok (who was from the village) to go speak and build relationships with those in the community. I can say this for sure, I did not prepare my heart for what this day was going to entail.

The first house Enok brought us into, was one that the mother of 6 had passed. I walked into the oldest daughter weeping with her little sister peeping behind her and her brother in the bedroom. Enok explained that it was a very unexpected and hard death for the husband and family as I could imagine. I automatically froze. Death is something that I have never been “good” at, I mean no one is, but my personality just clashes with sadness and hurting and it destroys me to see a family weep a loss. All we could do was pray, love unconditionally, and encourage. As we walked out, I just broke down in tears. It brought back memories and feelings from the past of best friend’s parents passing. I could never fully relate, but I could see and feel all the pain and seeing this girl cry and cry in my arms, I couldn’t hold it back. The next house we visited was an older gentleman who had been in a horse accident, where the horse had fallen on him resulting in a broken hip, knee, leg, etc. He explained how he is in constant pain, cannot walk, and misses being busy and going to church. We were able to pray over his hurts and truly encourage him to be able to find the positivity in resting in His grace. The next house was a women named Island who is three months pregnant and eager for the word. She explained how she had been living in this village for only five months and hadn’t found community or friends, but she knew she wanted to pursue Christ. The one thing holding her back to calling herself a Christian was that she didn’t have “nice clothes” or “money” and was disowned from her mother because her mom was involved in witchcraft and she didn’t agree with her views on Jesus. I was able to share that God doesn’t look at clothes or money, but the Bible says to store your treasures in heaven, not on earth. Then, yesterday I met this little boy Isaiah. Sweetest 11 year old I had ever met. As I learned more about Him, I found out that his dad had too past away last Wednesday. During the day it happened, the women at the church said that every time a person mentioned or told him his dad had passed, he would pass out.

Hearing all these situations, hurts, and stories, it tugs my heart to ask, “Why God?”. Why do you have to take something so special away from these people who already have nothing. For example, every single “house” we visited today was a cylinder block standard American bathroom size with a bed and that was it.

The first house, mom was gone. The next, immobilization. Third place, the women feels alone. And finally, Isaiah, who uses the church as an escape from his life at home.

Like are you kidding me? God, what are you doing here? Why is this happening? Why am I encountering so much sadness?

Moments like these show the love of God though. The daughter expressed her love and strength that God will show a light in the midst of darkness, the older gentlemen shared that all his family lives in Haiti, but the community of the village has taken care of him whether it’s changing him, bathing him, giving him money for food, and cleaning his place, the pregnant women decided to fully except Christ in her heart and became a new member of Gods family [YAY!!!!!!!!!], and Isaiah and his family are being poured into by their church.

~side note: in the DR, when someone dies, they only have a few hours to host a funeral before the body starts to rot, so they have the funeral the day of, weep and mourn for those next 9 days and on the 10th day, they host a HUGE celebration/party for that person’s life~

But, this is why I love to serve. No matter how young or old, Jesus is so powerful. He brings life to the lifeless, brings joy to those in sadness, and gives everlasting life to those who believe.

​Wow. It is so hard to see things that are “hard”, but to see God work His power is absolutely incredible. We cried and prayed for the first family, we encouraged and prayed for the old man, we CELEBRATED with Island and her decision to follow Christ (her thank you to us was giving one of our interns the opportunity to name her child-wudlove-(which means to love strong), and finally me being able to pour love over Isaiah.

God gives us strength to make a positive out of any hurt. He is the light, the path, the life. He is the one and only God that presents his might in these type of situations. Almighty, counselor, king of kings. HUGE Jesus moves.

Stay rad yall,

Cay

Left: OUR NEW SISTER IN CHRIST ISLAND!!!!! Middle: village kiddos. Right: group picture of us and our translator + family.