She herself wasn't certain she could come a second time to help lead. This was not, I gathered, because she felt incapable of leading, but because of the struggles she faced at home. There was certainly much to distract Julie from the purposes of this trip, but instead of allowing those things to divert her attention, she embraced her role here fully.
Part of that role involved what comes so naturally to Julie: prayer. This was her strength, that in moments of conflict or need, she prompts others to submit them first to God. It is this spiritual dependence, which others would perhaps see as a weakness, that gives Julie such intimacy with her Father. You could see this intimacy in the peace she felt here amid the chaos taking place at home, and in the conviction she feels about the church's future role in Haiti. Julie's desire is that future trips would involve not just teams of people, but teams of churches who work together to send larger teams to Haiti. More personally, Julie's dream is to have a family one day and begin serving as a missionary. Just as the orphanage directors serve in Haiti, so she, too, wants to serve.
Such vision for the future is perhaps not surprising. There was in Julie a sense of destiny, of certainty as to God's specific and personal plan for each member of the team. I got the impression, in fact, that Julie saw our trip as a personally-authored story. She saw, for instance, that the trip was announced in several ways on different occasions, giving around 1,500 people at the church the opportunity to come. She noted that the team did not form overnight, but developed over time, which implied an intentionality and carefulness about who would go; and she found that while we could have had more team members join us, no one else did. The clear message, then, was that God had carefully chosen those who joined the team.
The story did not end there, however. God had also personally prepared Julie for the trip in a very unique way. At home, as her sister went into labor, she needed Julie to care for the other children. Being ill, however, these children were contentious and whiny. As difficult as this was for Julie, she began to see the larger purpose God had in mind for it one evening in Haiti. It was on this evening that a child followed her for two hours, asking for candy. Instead of dismissing the child by forcing him away, however, she thought back to her sister's children, seeing in this child the same craving for a parent that her sister's children had for their mother. It was God's way of allowing Julie to see through the eyes of an orphan, to empathize with the pain of not having a father or mother.
Such insight into God's plan and character served to teach me something I did not at first see about Julie. Simply put, it is that she treats each moment as a gift to be cherished. That moment can be pleasant or painful, suffuse with light or flooded with darkness, but it is always a moment to be learned from, to be used to increase her own or others' awareness of God's heart and plan. The teacher, we know, is also the author, and while the stories he writes are not yet fully written, we are promised that we will find in them hope and a future. I am convinced that Julie will take an active role in her story, a role that with her faithfulness and vision will lead her into a life of purpose.
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