A child's selfless act

James sharing his popcorn

Right in the middle of my midafternoon shower, one of the girls comes into our dorm annoucing that anyone who wants to visit an orphanage needs to be ready soon because they were leaving in twenty mintues...There are few occassions that I have gotten ready as fast as I did today. We quickly ate lunch then down the road we went. I have visited an orphanages in the small mountian villages of Haiti and was well aware of the possible poverish conditions but I was pleasantly surprised at what I walked into.

Taking a step back... I don't do New Years resolutions, but this year I decided to make Michael Jackson's song “The Man in the Mirror” to be my theme song for 2012. The lyrics “I'm gunna make a change, for once in my life. Its gunna feel real good, gunna make a difference, gunna make it right... I see the kids in the street without enough to eat, who am I to be blind pretending not to see their needs...I'm starting with the man in the mirror, I'm asking him to change his ways. No message could have been any clearer, if you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself then make the change” really inspired and motivated something inside of me … almost putting into worlds the calling I was feeling.

So, thats what I am doing this year, and hopefully will have the opportunity to make a change in someone else's life (and my own) on this trip.

Back to the orphanage...

I spent some time with one of the other students playing with a few little kids on the playground. While we were on the jungle-gym, a women and her little girl approached the fence. She began talking to us, telling us that she didn't have any money to buy her little girl food or milk. We could tell that this women wasn't just trying to scam us and was truly in need. While she was talking to us, one of the little boys, James, that we were playing with reached in his almost-empty bag of caramel corn and was giving the little girl handfuls through the fence. It was an amazing and selfless act to witness this little boy who doesn't have much himself sharing with this little girl he didn't know. Courtney and I went to back packs and got our money to give to her... $15.00 isn't much, but hopefully that will be able to help her and her family in the ways they need it most. 

Another part of our visit that tugged at the heart strings was meeting a youngman named Mike. He appeared to be our age and had a very heavy accent so I asked him where he was from and how he ended up here. He is originally from England, moved to Canada and decided he didn't want to spend his winter in Canada and sent out 100's of emails looking for a place to volunteer for X amount of time. After listening to his story, I was amazed and felt immediate respect for what he was doing at the home and I pray that God continues to bless him wherever his road may lead (and that there are more Mikes in the world).