A Labor of Love

Our very first ever Mission of Hope Haiti Vocation Bible School has begun!  Cute Haitian village children are being dropped at our front gate by the busload each morning!  We are hosting VBS here for the next month and each week we are getting new batches of children from neighboring villages...tots to pre-teens.  We have 5 rotating stations they go through each day: crafts, bible stories, sports, community health, and meals.  The first day we had over 100 kids show up...but then word got out that there was free food and today was a different story!  I don't even know how many kids there were here today, but there was too many to count!

I'm in charge of leading the community health rotation.  This is a blessing...many of these children have never been taught basic hygiene or nutrition.  I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to teach them these life skills.  They are being taught Jesus loves them and cares about their bodies!  Yesterday we taught the kids all about germs and the importance of hand washing.  They totally loved washing there hands!  They went nuts over it.

Today we taught them how to brush their teeth.  Once again, they totally loved it!  They had so much fun with it.  They are so adorable.  It is such a joy to see them soaking up this knowledge.

God is doing so much through this VBS!  He is also teaching me so much through it.  I'd be lying to you if I painted this picture of roses and gum drops!  VBS is chaos.  This is one of the harder things I've done while being here.  Granted, this is our first week and first time doing this here...things are only going to get better and better!  But God is using this chaos.  Not only must I try to command a sea of children, but there is a language barrier, only one interpreter who I wish could be everywhere at one time, only so many resources, and North American teams on the borderline of heat stroke in need of constant direction.  Its safe to say this is a bit challenging...but I'm so thankful for it.  I constantly have to pray for Jesus' strength, kindness, and patience.  I have to pray for the patience to be kind when kids are charging and grabbing me for a toothbrush.  A deeper love from an eternal perspective must rise up.  These kids are accustomed to handouts.  They must be taught order can be accomplished, then to value order, how to work for what they want and how to wait their turn.  That process takes time, but we mustn't give up.   There are many times throughout the day that I want to quit...but we can't give up on these little guys.  Change is a slow process, and keeping a bigger perspective and hope for a better Haiti in the future is the goal.  I truly believe that if we, as the body of Christ, take the time to consistently personally invest in these children...Haiti will be a totally different country in 20 years!  Praise be to God for this VBS!  Everyday hundreds of kids are going home happy with new knowledge of Jesus, their precious value, and a full belly.  It is a labor of love, and it is so worth it.

"That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed everyday.  For our present troubles won't last very long.  Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!  So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.  For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever"- 2 Corinthians 4:16-18