Skip to main content

2012 Haiti Team Interview Six: Melody

Before she spoke a word, before the introductions and meeting and planning, it was clear that Melody was a person of kindness. She was among the quiet members of the group, but this did not mean she had nothing to say. Her message was communicated far more clearly in her actions, in the empathy and generosity and interest she took in others. Indeed, it was Melody who sat with others to listen to their stories and struggles, and it was Melody who took the time to ask after others when she thought they had a need.

Melody's contribution to the team went further than her empathy, however. Indeed, it was because of that empathy that she served also as a unifying presence to us. Her friendliness allowed her to reach out to many members of the team, even serving to allay problems that surfaced between them. More than this, she had a nurturing quality that led her naturally to the orphanage children. When not at work, she could be found among them, playing and simply spending time with them.

Melody also grew personally as we prepared for this trip. Being a natural planner, it was something of a challenge for her to let go of some of the responsibility for the planning and allow others to take care of the details. This was as much a spiritual lesson as it was a lesson in teamwork, for her ultimate goal was to focus less on her own plans and allow God to work his own. In her words, she "hoped to learn how to serve and live for God, rather than trying to lean on my own understanding."

This submission of control to God paid off. Always smiling, always optimistic, Melody was to us an example of humility and patience that shone in the way she treated others. This only further emphasized the dignity she carries about herself, for it was this humility and kindness that drew others to her. Indeed, Melody gave much more to this team than she realized. She gave the team its spirit, its unity, and by her example of hard work and the kindness she showed to the orphanage children, she gave to us its faithfulness to purpose. For many of us on this team of eleven, in fact-- both before and during the trip-- Melody displayed a gentleness of spirit that offered peace, a peace more valuable to us than we sometimes recognized.

Comments

  1. Thank you Jesus for giving me a daughter, showing me how to teach her and showing her how to teach me! <><

    ReplyDelete

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...

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...

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...