Skip to main content

Haiti Team Interview Ten: Myra

She likes to mimic others in order to make fun of them, likes the X-Men, and falls asleep in chairs when people are talking to her because she thinks they are boring. Okay, so this last one isn't true, but it is true that Myra enjoys laughing and new experiences, not least this trip to Haiti. Of all the members of our Haiti team, none was affected as much as Myra. Tears fell as she spoke of the things she'd learned from this place. I would learn later that God had answered a prayer of hers, uttered in silence on an early morning walk through a cove. For Myra, Haiti meant change-- renewed perspective-- enough that she's committed wholeheartedly to return some day, perhaps soon.

She first heard about the trip to Haiti from an announcement at Lighthouse, in June of last year. Her first thought was that it would be a good way to spend her first summer without school (she recently graduated with her master's degree). Aside from that was the sense that joining the trip "just felt right," that it was something possible for her, something she could do. She felt calm as the trip approached, ignoring her friends' claims that she would be kidnapped and sold.

Her experience turned out to be very different from the ones her friends-- and the one she herself-- predicted. For Myra, Haiti was a new beginning, "a big reset button," in her mind. She had been baptized for the second time a few years back, but couldn't let go of certain things, guys in particular. She would, in fact, justify some of her behavior, knowing she wasn't doing the right things. Still, there was no sense of conviction in her at the time, and she didn't act to change. In fact, she saw the time preceding the trip as an opportunity to let loose, to do anything she wanted. In her mind, she knew she wouldn't have the chance to do these things afterward, so it was important for her to to do them before. Alongside this feeling, however, was a sense that something was wrong. Before the trip, she felt she needed something to force her to stop the things she was choosing to do. It was this trip, she found, that acted as that wall.

Oddly enough, she never felt forced to stop. Instead, seeing how Christian men acted made her want to stop. She saw, in fact, that the men here were what real men should be like, a perspective that showed her that even the good men she met still had something missing, what she called a "void." This was part of the overall transformation for Myra, but it wasn't all. She also saw that she needed to change how she treated money and material things, including an appreciation of the things she already has. Above all, however, Myra witnessed God's love for her, a love that she found was present even while she was involved in the things she needed to stop in her life. In fact, she had felt closer to God in Haiti, coming from her view that each child here represented a miracle.

Equally moving to her, however, was what had happened at Goat Cove one morning. She'd hoped to find a seashell as she walked, and prayed to find one. Just then, she looked down to find one submerged in sand. Though it was nearly invisible, she stooped to dig, and dug out a large, intact shell. This, however, was more than an answer to a simple prayer. She remembers, as a child at vacation Bible school, the leader telling them that they would give one person a seashell. Like this week, Myra prayed to get the shell, and they ended up giving it to her. This shell, then, had symbolic meaning as a reminder of God's presence in her life, a presence that spanned even years of inaction.

On her return to the U.S., Myra wanted to take the things she'd seen here and start something in her church (though, as yet, she doesn't know what). This is her first summer outside of school, and she would like to do more missions work in the future, feeling more fulfilled in work like this than in any other type of work she'd experienced at home. This attitude is perhaps best reflected in her more specific plans for the future. She would like to pay down her student loans, sell her house, and use the money to do missionary work. This may be in Haiti, or maybe somewhere else. It could even involve working with Hands and Feet within the United States. Whatever she chooses to do with these lessons, she has been changed, and it is this change-- I'm convinced-- that will move her to be instrumental in changing others.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Nice Guy Fallacy

I read part of a poem recently by one of my favorite poets. It reads: I envy not in any moods The captive void of noble rage The linnet born within the cage That never knew the summer woods. I envy not the beast that takes His license in the field of time Unfetter'd by the sense of crime To whom a conscience never wakes. Nor what may call itself as bles't The heart that never plighted troth But stagnates in the weeds of sloth Nor any want-begotten rest. I hold it true, whate'er befall I feel it, when I sorrow most 'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. At base, Tennyson contrasted a life of risk, and consequent pain, with one of security. He sides conclusively with the life of risk, and says he fails to envy those who have faced no hardship. I agree with him; and, for good or ill, his words are just as relevant today as they were in the nineteenth century. Like then, there are those today who choose to live their lives with as little risk as...
2 comments
Read more

Persuasion

At different points in history, governments have devoted men, women, and resources to try to persuade others to their side. One significant example of this occurred in Germany under Adolf Hitler. Hitler knew how important it was to make sure the German people were on his side as leader of the country. One way he did this was by controlling what people heard. Specifically, near the beginning of World War II, Hitler made it a crime for anyone in Germany to listen to foreign radio broadcasts. These were called the “extraordinary radio measures.” He did this to ensure that Germans weren’t being persuaded by enemy countries to question their loyalty to Hitler. He knew that a German listening to a radio broadcast from Britain might persuade that German to believe that Great Britain was the good guy and Hitler the bad guy. This was so important, in fact, that two people in Germany were actually executed because they had either listened to or planned to listen to a foreign radio broadcast (one...
Post a Comment
Read more

Experiment

My social studies students and I are studying Islam right now. The other day, we were reading about one of the Five Pillars, zakat (charity in Islam that means "that which purifies"). Muslims believe that giving away money helps to purify it and also "safeguards [them] against miserliness" (1). I asked the class if this was true, that giving money away makes us less greedy. They generally agreed that it does. I wanted to test whether or not they really believed this, so I handed a volunteer a $10 bill. I told the class that I would ask for the bill back the next day. I said that they should pass the bill around among their classmates, and that as a result, there would be no way for me to know who had the bill. For that reason, whoever wanted to keep the money could keep it. Even if I did learn who kept it, I told them, I would not punish that person. I wanted them to be motivated by their own honesty. The next day, I asked for the bill, and a student handed it to me...
Post a Comment
Read more