Shiny Stars in a Pile of Trash

This morning a team of 13 left to go back home. As soon as they drove off, we began to clean up for the 30 Brazilians who were coming over for dinner. Tomorrow another team arrives.

As we sat outside during a debrief time this morning, one of the girls shared about her experience working at the clinic and she said that place is a shiny star in a pile of trash.

One of the observations many of them had was about how much trash there is all over the place. We were at an incredible beach yesterday and as the wind began to blow, the shore was soon filled with plastic bottles and trash. 

And I have to admit, that as I look around, it can be discouraging. Haiti will not change overnight. As I sat in the Constortium meetings the first few days I was here, the Haitian leaders and Americans talked about how bringing change is a long process. Its about relationship and discipleship and those are a process. Even in these states as I see the brokeness, the evil, the pain that fills this world, and those glimmers of hope, those shiny stars, get harder to see.

I love that I get a mini Bible lesson during my Creole class. Franck, my teacher, finds a way to incorporate it in whatever he is teaching me that day. One day he is teaching me vocabulary having to do with food. Why not have a lesson on what Haitians eat during the Lent season. And if we are talking about Lent, we have to talk about Easter and what and why we celebrate. These lessons are nothing new to me. But there is something different in his voice when he talks about these things. Hope. He has hope in the one who died on this good Friday. He has hope in the one who rose again on Easter. He has hope that God will one day return and make all things right. All that is wrong in this world, in Haiti, will be made whole again. All of the suffering that is seen on a daily basis. All of the broken and sick. All those piles of trash will be gone. 

But until that day comes, there are shiny stars. There are glimmers of hope all around. There is the abundance of joy the Haitians have while they sit in their tent praying for enough food to feed their family. There is a deeper understanding that there is more to this world than things when you ask what they want prayer for and their response is to have a stronger faith. And there are those incredible men and women whom I have met who have committed their lives to living in Haiti to be shiny stars, to ultimately share with the Haitians the one thing that will last, eternal life. 

Sometimes its easy to walk around with your eyes closed to keep from seeing hopelessness all around you. But I am realizing that also means I can't see all that God is already doing. 

Death looks like it wins, right up until it doesnt. He is risen. He is risen, Indeed!