A "Beautiful" Day

Today we made three water runs into Cite Soleil. Very dry, very dusty, very, very dirty. A 3.5 square mile area with over 300,000 people living in tents, shanties or under tarps. My prayer today was to see with God's eyes, not mine. And He delivered. If I were seeing with my eyes, I would have seen rust, rot and waste. But instead, I saw beauty. People live here, work here, and raise families here. Beautiful parents that want the same things for their children that we do but due to longitude and latitude have a much steeper hill to climb than you or I. But that doesn't stop them from trying. Beautiful children, with eyes that will melt your heart, and a smile that will pull you in. They would either run boldly up to me with a "Hey You!" or cautiously wait at arms length to see if I would be approachable. A simple extended hand, or a stoop down, and they begged to be lifted and hugged. The children do most of the water-fetching. Young boys and girls (mostly), struggling to put a 50 lb bucket of water on their head, when many of them didn't weigh much more than that. They were thrilled to have any of us carry the water back to their shack, and happily invited us in to put the bucket down. Many of us were amazed at the pride of these families. In what to us is some of the most inexcusable and inhospitable living conditions, were full bedroom sets, dining room tables with lace tablecloths and other things one would expect to see in a brick and mortar home, but not here. Once again, beautiful. Despite starting the day with a nervous apprehension and a combination of not knowing what to expect I never felt unsafe. With every water bucket delivered, and every "bonjou" extended to those we passed by, peace and confidence grew. Only God can pull off something like that. My world became smaller today, as my eyes were opened wider to the needs of my neighbor to the south...and that's a beautiful thing.

Jim Rickard
Healing Haiti Team Member