Friday, January 18, 2013

Day 6 The Hands and Feet of Jesus

Our internet went down on our last night in Haiti. Our team was unable to blog but I asked Bob to please put in to words what he had shared during our team sharing so that we could add it to the blog after the fact. Here is what he wrote:


Haiti Day 6 ~ January 12, 2013

Cold shower, hot tea and breakfast. I made pancakes this morning and they looked (and tasted) pretty good. We spent this day at Grace Village attending to the elderly from Titanyen. They were all brought to Grace Village for their quarterly visit with Dr. Sem, a Haitian doctor who was sponsored through medical school by a couple from Wayzata, Minnesota.  He brings his gift of healing in God’s name to the poor and elderly in Titanyen and the orphans in Grace Village.


I and one of the other men on our team took each of the men who wanted a shower to the boy’s dorm showers and helped them to clean up. Some were able to shower themselves and others needed a lot of help as they were frail and unsure of themselves in the wet and slippery shower stall. Edmond, a 69 year old blind man, required a lot of help ~ I had to lift him off the floor so he could get out of his shoes and over the curb into the shower. I was in the shower with him and assisted him in shampooing his full head of hair and parts of his body he could not reach. We then applied lotion to their skin and some baby powder as well.  They reveled in this treatment and left feeling very good about themselves ~ we even kidded them about smelling good and being more attractive to the ladies. It was a very rewarding experience for me and helped me to see God as He blessed these men through our work. Edmond, in particular, is a man of incredible faith and gratitude. While the others thanked us profusely for what we had done for them, Edmond never thanked us but could not stop saying “thank you Jesus”.  While I certainly felt blessed to be in the company of these men of faith, Edmond brought it clearly home to me as he recognized that we were truly Jesus' hands and feet doing His work and delivering His love. Edmond and the others had allowed us to open our hearts and hands to the Holy Spirit and, as always, God waits for the open heart and never fails to respond with love.
 
As we were gathered in prayer and recollection later that evening at the guest house I was reminded of the difficulty I had in seeing God’s hand the day before at San Fil, the Home for Sick and Dying Adults. Today’s experience with these men, and Edmond in particular, revealed to me that God’s love for each of us is unconditional ~ whether we are old or young, at the beginning of life or at the end of life, soft skinned or wrinkled and dry, rich or poor, athletic or clumsy, beautiful or plain ~ we are all precious in His sight and valued above all in His heart. God loves equally the beautiful smiling children, the elderly and lame, even those near death ~ it was only I that was troubled by their plight, God knew He was calling them home, and so did they.

Written by Bob


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