Skip to main content

Haiti 2012: June 7

Again we continued our various projects today: painting, building, and installing. There has been a spectrum of feelings expressed by each of us as the week has progressed. Today has been an example of that. In part because of this, one of the most powerful lessons I'm learning on this trip is that it's okay to feel. I see my teammates breaking down into tears, showing anger, and expressing shame. Events like these are somewhat foreign to me. Seeing these moments of pain in others, though-- along with the healing that came through them-- shows me that there is real purpose in our feelings. This trip, in fact, has been as much about understanding ourselves as it has been about serving others through work and time with children. Many of us are seeing ourselves on a level we aren't willing to explore at home, and this in front of-- and perhaps because of-- each other. If I were to summarize this trip into one word, in fact, I would call this a trip of healing: we are healing each other as we help each other process our experiences and feelings; and we are healing ourselves as we allow our respective pasts to surface and as we face those pasts squarely. Listen to the prayers of our group members before we left and you will find a little more about our expectations for the trip: prayer to fulfill the roles we've been given, prayer for safety, and prayer for a willingness to serve. It is clear to me through them that we hardly expected a trip that would be as much about God's work in us as it would be about God's work through us. I suppose life can be so unpredictable, but God, it seems, can be more so. Here is a God who "works all things for the good of those who love him." These moments of vulnerability and feelings have been foreign, but they have also been deeply meaningful.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Savior

This wasteland cold and dark runs free Its fearful creatures speak to me One fateful day one nudged my hand To set my eyes upon a tree He knew I could not understand For I was in his native land His signs became our common speech To lead me through the deadly sand Now stuck I saw him me beseech He could not lift me out to reach The firm foundation of a cave Outside the boundaries of this beach Withal, the beast became more brave To risk his own my life to save To carry me, its life it gave To carry me, its life it gave. This poem was inspired by Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." That poem, like this one, has four four-line stanzas of eight syllables per stanza. Its rhyme scheme is AABA BBCB CCDC DDDD.
Post a Comment
Read more

Soul and Spirit

As a friend told me about a conversation she had with one of our pastors about whether animals go to heaven, she told me about the Hebrew word nephesh ("soul"). I wondered, then, what the difference was between soul and spirit. After a little research, I came across what many seem to agree is a main difference. The soul of a person is that person's being--personality and life--while the spirit is that part of us that connects with God. There are several verses that refer to spirit in this way:* "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14) "But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ." (1 Corinthians 3:1) "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Evil, According to Republicans and Democrats

Please note that the following thoughts are only my observations. Please consider the evidence you see in the behavior of both parties for yourself. In our politically polarized climate, I was thinking about how Democrats and Republicans are different, and where those differences come from. Democrats seem to place more hope in institutions, and seek to reform those institutions when there is something wrong in society. Hence, there is more willingness to levy taxes to offer more social services as a support to those with less than others. They see the state as a way to equalize society. Thus, evil, to Democrats, seems to be a social issue: if there is a problem in society--poverty, racism, climate change, etc.--it is a problem with the structure of society and must be addressed as such: repair the system, and you will solve the problem. They are generally accepting of a larger state bureaucracy because they believe that increased accountability within a state structure will prevent evi...
Post a Comment
Read more