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Haiti 2012: June 8

There is a sense of accomplishment and lightheartedness as we ended our final day here at the orphanage. Our perspectives shifted often from outward to inward: a focus on each other and inside ourselves. I personally expected my work ethic to be tested, believing we would be working consistently and hard. While we did work hard at times, though, it was not burdensome. In fact, we took joy in our work together because-- I think-- we worked together. We shared the burden and the satisfaction of our work, the labor and the glory from it. This sense was, for me, just one example of the larger lesson I believe God continues to teach me, both here and at home: that despite our common tendencies to put off and be put off by others, despite our sensitivities and our judgments, our disparate temperaments and differences in social awareness, we are meant for each other. Slight and deep conflicts alike were all overshadowed by the common goal and common faith we shared while here, a reminder that God can redeem our brokenness and heal us, then use his people to care for the orphan and widow.

This current of thought I'm reminded of helps me see yet another, equally important truth: God pursues us. He is after us for our good. He wants us to know him for his glory and our peace, and embracing his commands rather than rebelling against them leads us there. I think the greatest lesson I learned while here is that our God is the same God in Haiti as in Stockton. He seeks our good, writing for us one more page of the story that is our lives when we hear and follow, and no person and no circumstance can change the author. Torn and shredded as these pages may be, God makes it the more decisively his when we truly offer it to him. This is true for people like me, for churches like ours, and for countries like this.

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