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2012 Haiti Team Interview Two: Brittaney

No one had visited the orphanage in Haiti more times than Brittaney, and few had the same intimate knowledge of its history, workings, and purpose. In fact, she had a very specific reason for joining us on the trip this year. We knew she loved this place and these children. You could see it in way she spoke and in the time she spent with and love she expressed for little Mackenson, the once-malnourished baby brought back to health by the Hands and Feet directors.

Still, she needed to know. She had to find whether her love for this place came from the camaraderie she had experienced with her friends on previous trips, or whether it welled from the connection she felt to the children here. She never said what she discovered, but based on the way she held Mackenson and the manner with which she interacted with orphanage staff, it is clear her heart is in Haiti.

This doesn't mean there weren't challenges leading to the trip. On this trip in particular, Brittaney doubted at times whether she would go at all. Living an hour away from the rest of us and working two jobs, she was forced to raise some of her own money separate from the team. At the same time, Brittaney started the trip with almost no personal connection to her team. By the time we left for Haiti, the rest of us had worked together and become acquainted with each other. Brittaney's distance and circumstances made that impossible for her. It was through these challenges, though, that she learned just how easily moments of encouragement can come with moments of discouragement. There were, she said, many times she could have felt defeated, but in those times, also saw opportunities to be encouraged. The most vivid example of this came when she learned she was funded for the trip. Having told our team leader that she didn't know whether she could raise the funds to go, learning that she was funded was "like a slap in the face, in a good way."

It isn't surprising. Her desire to serve in Haiti was an example to us of what can happen when you fall in love with the purposes God sets out for us. We know now that one of those purposes, for her, lies squarely in Haiti, among the children and the missionaries who serve them. It is an exciting thing to watch such purpose unfold; and more personally for Brittaney, to watch God quietly work to build friendships between her and her team. I could never have known before the trip that I would be apart of one of those friendships; but looking back, I was privileged to work alongside her, privileged to have seen such devotion to something so meaningful. I get the feeling that we'll see that devotion played out further in her future, and I'm convinced she'll one day-- perhaps soon-- fulfill the role God has for her in Haiti.
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