This is from Katie Adams. Great thoughts on her experience in Haiti.
I don’t even know where to begin talking about this trip. Haiti has impacted me and changed me in so many ways, in a good way! I had the thought on my mind that we were going to be playing with little kids and loving on them, which I love doing. When I got down there though, something changed in me. No longer did my mind just focus on the girls at the orphanage. As much as I loved every minute of that, there was something bigger. The first night we had our devotion Mike said, “ As this is a mission trip, I want all of you to become closer to the Lord this week. “ That is exactly what happened. Every day we had a different devotion from Acts, and even though it was only a little bit in the morning, God used those words to give me strength and courage to fulfill the day. We did a lot of physical labor work almost everyday. It was this one day that God gave me the opportunity to bond with the older girls at the orphanage while serving others in God’s name. I got the opportunity to clean a tarantula and cockroach infested closet with four of the older ladies from the orphanage. As tarantulas aren’t my thing, none of that mattered when cleaning this closest. I got to talk to the girls, and laugh with them; I almost forgot we were in Haiti, by how well they all spoke English. The language barrier didn’t seem to matter at that time. I also got to experience the love from this one little girl named Sneidda. I wanted to adopt her myself, even though I am only 14! Kate told us at the beginning of the week to not move towards the kids, but let the kids move towards you. The very first day Sneidda ran up to me with her arms wide open, so I picked her up and loved on her for the rest of my week. One thing I will never forget is the very last day, I was holding Sneidda and I began to cry. Now many people told me not to cry, but I couldn’t hold it in. I began to cry and she looked at me and shook her head and wiped my tears away and said I love you! That is a God thing! Hearing that come from a six year olds mouth was icing to the cake, it made my day as I left the orphanage with a smile on my face. God shows us through these children that it doesn’t matter what language we speak, we can interact and love on them the same. Many of the kids at the VBS were trying so hard to talk to us. I remember this boy named Jeff. He was an older boy and he tried so hard to try and “ show” us what he was trying to say. He would point to it, or if we were wearing something he would point to it. We got to interact with them and speak our language, and then they would say it in Creole. It was really cool to hear the object in Creole, but it was also amazing the see the kids interacting with us. God has blessed me with this amazing opportunity to go on an international mission trip, with my family and the people I’m close with, and I loved every second of it.