2012 Haiti Team Interview Five: Sandi

It's said that leaders are born, not made. The leader of our Haiti team, however, is proof that the opposite is true. Sandi had always known she would be overseas one day, but it wasn't until early January, 2010, when she learned what that might look like for her. It was then when she was approached by Julie, another team member, and asked about the Hands and Feet organization. When the now-famous earthquake razed Port-au-Prince and its surrounding area three days later, Sandi knew that part of her future-- if not all of it-- lay in Haiti.

Still, organizing and leading a trip thousands of miles away was not exactly an everyday event for her, and she recalls that there were definite moments of anxiety as she prepared. These challenges, however, taught her above all that God is faithful. He proved that time and again as obstacles to the first trip were removed so the team could go. As a result, there was in Sandi a sense of calm as we prepared for this second journey to Haiti, knowing as she did that God would take care of the problems that would surface, just as he had the first time. This trip was for her, then, a "significantly different" experience than our trip last year.

She did not know, before we left, just how different it would be. Sandi herself admits she is not an overly emotional person. Indeed, her friends would likely describe her as more analytical than intuitive, more down-to-earth and level-headed than idealistic; but there were key moments in this trip that drew her to moments of sympathy, moments when she understood and even felt the pain others were feeling.

The first of these came during an evening meeting early in the week, when another team member broke down to face her insecurities. When this team member spoke of the pain she was facing, Sandi felt that pain, too. It was not until one or two days later, however, when Sandi would learn that this time of emotional awareness would become more a trend and a lesson than an isolated experience. She found that the parents of the child she sponsors-- Adne-- were not killed in a flood as Adne's sister claimed they were some years ago. Instead, they simply needed a way to give control of Adne to the orphanage, ostensibly because they could not care for him themselves. She made this discovery through a visit his parents made to the orphanage while we were there. Watching the pain on Adne's face after their meeting, and knowing she would be leaving him at the end of the week just as they had left him, Sandi could not help but feel a sense of sympathy for him.

It was through these experiences that Sandi began to learn what it means to "bear one another's burdens" (Galatians 6:2) and to understand that sympathizing with another person's pain allows you to understand that person on a more meaningful level. Going into the trip, Sandi didn't have any expectations, except that she knew God wanted a team to come here. Still, she found herself open to an often-untapped side to her. Indeed, it was her leadership that allowed several team members to experience that side of us as well. Sandi stated, in fact, that she didn't think she had brought any strengths to the trip, but the rest of the team could see those strengths clearly. True, she was an invaluable leader to us as she organized, motivated, initiated, and clarified expectations for us; but quite simply, her more important role in Haiti was as an example of one whose heart reflects the compassion and desires of her Father. Indeed, it was because of that compassion and these desires that we were here at all.