Day 6 – Thursday’s Thoughts…
Our team was excited to get another early start today, but this ride to the village was just a bit different from our previous bumpy, heckling each other rides. You see today will be our last day in the village for this trip. As we sat waiting to arrive, we all found ourselves reflecting on the amazing experiences we’ve had and sharing with each other great feelings of gratitude for what God has allowed us to be part of. The ride was just as difficult but there was an air of excitement to get to work. As early as it was when we started the heat was not letting up and the sun felt draining but regardless we were thrilled to be able to lay even one more block, raise another sheet of roofing, sweep one more floor, sing as many songs as we could fit in and color one more picture with the kids. Team Optical was geared up and excited to test so many more sets of eyes and pray with more villagers, Team Sparky couldn’t wait to get going to wire more rooms… in fact the whole team felt blessed to be able to ride up this bumpy road… in a cattle truck, to be with “OUR” village.
Pastor Jeff from Iowa shared with us from Titus in this mornings devotions challenging us all to stop and take time to see Christ in all things big… and small. A great message for this day in particular as we are all so grateful to Him to be a part of this life changing journey. We will certainly be savoring every last moment we have to share Gods love with our Zoranje family before we head back.
Goodbyes are difficult…
We’re starting to realize that it gets more and more difficult to say goodbye each time we have to leave this wonderful village. Knowing that many of us will return again helps lift our spirits but the final wave goodbye before we hop into the truck to head back is one that tugs hard on our hearts.
I know I’ve said it before but our teams worked tirelessly again to finished so many of the projects today. There was almost feeling of shock as we all stepped back to see all we had accomplished together in such a short amount of time. All we could do was praise God for the energy He gave and the safety over us He provided during this week. We give Him all the Glory knowing He is the great coordinator of it all and we took time as pastor Jeff mentioned to Stop and see His hand in everything done here.
We’re excited to report that many more people accepted Christ today as our prayer team witnessed with them. Our Kids Team had even more children show up for camp today… over 50 new kids learned about Jesus, sang songs and were loved on like they were our own! We had so much fun handing out nearly 100 backpacks to smiling little faces. Team Optical gave out more glasses and some of us even treated a few wounds.
The Finish Line…
Team old Guys & Team Young Bucks finished the interior walls of the clinic… if I tried to count all the blocks that were laid down this week I’d be here for days. We also had the opportunity to bless 7 farmers with work gloves. Work gloves… something we probably all take for granite back home because you can basically pick a pair up at almost any store, but here it was as if we’d given them bars of gold! They hugged us and smiled ear to ear! We gave baby blankets and booties to a set of twins, flip flops and sneakers to the kids. It was overwhelming the gratitude these people gave for such small items, and time after time we found ourselves pausing to enjoy moments with these loving people.
Team Bethany won the “Work Force” award… they spent the entire day scaling steel bars and scaffolding determined to finish laying roofing on the new house! The first Operation Hope house is almost finished now and tomorrow some of the returning team will put on the final touches!
What an emotional day for us all; rewarding non the less and once again every one of us feels blessed beyond words to be a small part of what God is doing in the mountains of Haiti!
Oh… I almost forgot to mention that I had the pleasure of marking off one of the items on my bucket list today… I drove one of the trucks down the extremely winding, cliff hanging, no guardrail having, one lane, bumpy pot hole riddled rock slipping hair raising road from the mountain today! Nooooo problem… somehow my passengers were able to put the sadness of leaving, out of their minds for a bit 😉
Until tomorrow,
Andy & Team Operation Hope
Onward – Upward – Outward!
OPERATION HOPE - Haiti 