Post-Haiti blog: for R&M, but don't worry you can read it, too.

Leaving was harder than I had originally thought. The week before I left I tried to focus on the amazing life I have waiting for me in California so I wouldn't be too sad. Last Thursday night after worship Willie E. and Semi changed that for me. They took turns saying the sweetest, most heart-felt thank-yous to the teachers for coming and spending our summer in Haiti.

Honestly though, how could I not?

The work I did was fleeting. Pictures fade and those origami cars/boats/boxes probably didn't make it back to the orphanage from school. What's beautiful and typical is that I was changed so much more than I could have ever changed anything in Haiti.

One thing that Haiti solidified in me now more than ever is the power of love. It truly is, as Paul writes to the Corinthians, “the most excellent way.” The most excellent way is not being red, blue, straight, vegan, or tithing our ten percent. And it's not just love as we know it, but love God's way. Patient, kind, selfless, persistent, truthful, delighting. The catch 22 is that we can really only love each other God's way if we know God.

Post-Haiti, I've never been so sure in the existence of an all-powerful God who has a plan with our best interest at heart. I am as sure of this as I am that one day I was born and one day I will die. The children that I've come to care so deeply about spoke last Thursday night about being saved from the earthquake, life on the streets, and living through the horrors of life in the days after the earthquake. They know that in a country where the average age is 42, that even if they don't meet the typical lifespan, the minutes, hours, days, and years in the balance of their life will all be orchestrated by God.