Today was the first real day of being in Haiti and working with the mission, and I was blown away with what we did. I am with a group of seventeen people from my church and we started off the day were with a tour of the facility here and it was more then I could ever imagine. I came here thinking that there was a place to eat food, sleeping quarters for girls and guys, and then the staff and interns here just took care of us. But no, there are facilities and rooms here for children with special needs, orphans, and pregnant women. There are medical clinics for the sick, recovery rooms, delivery rooms, surgical rooms, and a place for children for VBS. We got the opportunity to just play and hang out with the special needs children living at the mission. I can honestly say that I had the most amazing time playing with a little boy, Joshua. This boy could not walk so I carried him everywhere we went and I loved holding him and laughing and we just walked around the building. When other kids came out to play with some people on my team I would sit him on the ground and we would crawl around and play soccer, this boy was full of so much life it really convicted me with how I live my life. I could not stop smiling. Playing with Joshua today made me wish that I was involved with the Best Buddies club at school that hung out with the special needs kids and played with them during lunch. I felt so uncomfortable going into this time, but left feeling joy that I haven’t felt in a long time. After lunch we took some of our team money and went out to town with a couple interns and two interpreters and bought four bags of food to give to four random families. We walked through the town and if we saw a family in need we stopped and just started talking to them. After a time of us asking them questions we asked the family if we could pray for them and one of our team members would offer to pray over their family, health, living situations, or whatever else they needed. After prayer we gave them the food, and it was amazing to see that this little bag brought so much joy to them because they literally needed that food to provide for their family. It was these moments of prayer with these families that took my breath away. I got the opportunity to watch my best friend step up and pray for a family, and then when we visited the prison I got to watch her pray some more, and it was absolutely incredible. Before the day ended I got to have one of the most amazing talks with one of the interpreters, I took a leap and decided to ask him about the earthquake. Hearing his story of feeling the earthquake, and hearing the statistics, and hearing him say that he knew people caught in the quake, it left me speechless. Being here, just for one day, has left me in awe. I am in awe of how these people live their lives, I am in awe of the community and the smiling faces lining the street, but at the end of the day I am in awe of this mission, this facility, the heart the people here have for the people in Haiti in need.
-Haley Williamson June 22, 2011
