It’s finally hit. I’ve reached the “I’ll write about that tomorrow”
phase. Tomorrow comes and I’m worn out from a ridiculous day at school, we have
a surprise grocery trip, or my mind is in a thousand other places and I forget.
Tomorrow seems to never come. As a result, I have several stories that I want
to tell, but I don’t want to write a novel. I’ll try to keep each story brief,
but you know how I can sometimes get longwinded!
A few weeks ago, two of my students were on green all week
long, which means they receive a reward of an apple for me. Miss Katelyn, the
house mother at the orphanage, has decided to reward the kids for their great
work as well by taking them to the grocery store with us if they stay on green
all week. Pame, age 14, and J.J., age 7, loaded into the big blue truck with us
as we set off for DeliMart. I wish my eyes could take pictures for everyone to
see; I couldn’t get a good one with my phone because the ride was too bumpy.
But man… J.J’s face. It was absolutely priceless. Here was a seven year old
child whose face reflected my own on my first ride into town in Haiti. Think of
a child entering Disney for the first time and you’ll have a good idea of J.J’s
face riding in a big blue truck down a bumpy road in his own country. It was so
sweet, yet incredibly sad to see him point at all the motorcycles, cars, street
vendors, and small shops. The excitement in his eyes was nothing compared to
the moment we walked into the grocery store and saw Christmas trees lining the
entrance. I thought he might pass out! Though Pame is not as easy to read as
J.J., I could tell he was just as excited. I let Pame push my cart since J.J.
was pushing Miss Katelyn’s. She had promised each of the boys a treat- they
could get something to eat and something to drink. Of course, both boys went
wild when they saw they could buy their very own apples! “Miss Katelyn, I want
some apples!! Miss Katelyn! Look at all the apples!” Finally, the boys got
their very own apples and some juice and it was time for the adults to do their
shopping. Before we split up, I heard J.J. jumping up and down, yelling “LOOK
AT ALL THE PIZZAS!!” I didn’t even care that all the other store patrons were
staring, his joy was contagious.
Pame came with me, and just as one would expect, was full of
questions. Can you imagine being 14 years old and never seeing the inside of a
grocery before? “Miss Brittany, what are these stickers for?” (Those stickers
tell us the prices.) “Miss Brittany, what do these numbers mean??” (The numbers
tell us how much to pay.) The rest of the trip was spent with him trying to put
everything we passed in my cart and me trying to explain to him that a) I didn’t
need all that food, and b) I did not have enough money to pay for it all. I now
know why 99% of mothers in grocery stores look so frazzled and how it’s
possible to wind up paying $40 and not have anything to make an actual meal.
Pame helped me put all my items on the conveyer belt (“What’s that Miss
Brittany?” “What happens now??”) Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Katelyn and
J.J. putting their groceries on the belt to pay. She reached in the cart to put
his apples on the conveyor belt, J.J. suddenly wilted and started to pitch a
fit. “Noooo! Don’t give away my apples, I want them!” The poor kid didn’t
understand that he had to put his apples up there so Miss Katelyn could pay for
them. It was difficult to contain my giggles as I watched the scene unfold.
What a fun and eventful trip to the store! I’m looking forward to more of the children
accompanying us!
Now on to the next story… which I’ve forgotten! Darn it!
Well, I’ll skip it and try to remember and include it in the next post. Moving
on to this week. There has been some intense spiritual warfare occurring at CLS
lately. I feel like every day we’re being beaten down with different problems
that arise. I won’t go into detail with the problems, but I would like to ask
for prayer for everyone here as well as the ministry itself. Monday was a
particular struggle for me. Out of the seven children in my classroom, one
puked, one peed his pants, one spent 15 minutes screaming for absolutely no
reason, and one was sent to the principal’s office. All before 11:00. I was
about 10 minutes away from a meltdown myself. After a quick break for my
sanity, I walked back into the classroom to talk to Magdala about why she was
sent to the principal’s office. I was able to take her into an empty classroom
next to mine where I could keep an eye on my other students as well. She
started off very angry. Her arms were crossed and she wouldn’t look me in the
eye or even speak. By asking yes and no questions, I was able to get her to
open up about what was going on. She had woken up late and was rushed to get
ready, missing breakfast. At the end of our conversation, her anger had
completely dissolved, the arms uncrossed and she melted into my arms sobbing. It
was as if all her strength for the day had been put into being angry and when
we broke through the reason why she was angry it disappeared, leaving her
exhausted and vulnerable. I asked her if she knew that there was someone who
could help her have a better day. She pointed to herself and then to me. I
shook my head. “God can help you have a better day, if you ask. Would you like
to ask Him to help you?” She nodded but wanted me to pray because she was
crying too hard. I don’t ever want to forget that moment. I thank God for
putting me in that moment and allowing me to pray for a young girl who was
having a rough day. I thank Him for turning her day around and ending her day
with a smile. I thank Him for using both my bad day and Magdala’s bad day to
point us toward Him. It was much needed!
I have so many more stories to share and pictures that I
want to post. However, internet here is quite annoying and it takes several hours
to insert pictures onto a blog post and organize them. I’ll do my best to write
again soon! The last story for tonight is a recent one. Yesterday was another
rough day with the children and I was absolutely exhausted. We desperately
needed to go to the grocery store, so I drug myself out of bed and tried to put
on a good attitude. We piled into the blue truck; Travis and I in the cab and Ashleigh
and Cathy in the back cage. We stopped by the orphanage to pick up Jenn, who
wasn’t quite ready yet. We parked the truck to wait. A Mack dump truck came up
the street towards us. Let me emphasize again….we were parked! The dump truck
tried to pass us but didn’t do a great job of estimating how much room he would
need. He caught the side of our truck and drug us to the middle of the road
while simultaneously pinning us between the concrete wall and his dump truck. I
have never seen two people (Cathy and Ashleigh) move so quickly to get out of
the back of our truck! The driver’s side door was pinned shut and the trucks
were stuck at such an angle that neither could move in attempt to get unstuck. Thankfully,
school was just letting out and there were about 30 high school boys walking
our direction. Pastor Lenny was able to organize the boys and lift the blue
truck up and away from the dump truck. I was doubtful that anything would
actually happen when they tried, but the boys surprised me! It was a crazy
experience but there are many reasons to be thankful- the dump truck was not
going fast, no one was hurt, and the damage was superficial. It’s funny that
after all the driving we do down unfinished roads and crazy intersections with
no traffic rules that our first accident would happen while we were parked!
After last night’s small accident, we are all extra thankful for God’s
protection in this country we call home!
"Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and
not for men.... You are serving the Lord Christ." ~ Colossians 3:23-24
