Thankful Like a Haitian

When my Dad came to Haiti, I remember him commenting after mass one day that for a people who don’t have much, Haitians sing a lot of songs that say, “Thank you, God.”

This has stuck with me especially in returning to America. While there are many temptations to say “Well, that didn’t go the way I expected or wanted,” or “What do I do now that I am not a missionary?” I am trying to remember just to be thankful for the past six years that I was blessed enough to spend serving the Lord with every moment of my time.

What a gift.

And when I doubt or struggle or questions what the Lord’s plans are for me next, I am trying to remember to find my inner Haitian and remember to thank God for His many blessings in my life.

While I sometimes feel directionless and confused about where God could be leading me, I have to look back and remember all the ways that He has led me already, and the joy that has come from following Him.

I must thank Him for getting to have relationships with some beautiful, amazing people in another country who have taught me so much about how to love deeper and suffer well and thank the Lord.

Thank you, Jesus.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Does it Mean to Give?

There’s something I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around lately.   I live in a country where people don’t have a lot of material possessions. They also don’t have a lot of food, and the food that they do have is not the most nutritious or balanced type of diet. Their houses are not great; they don’t have cars; many don’t have jobs. The question: What is my response? Many times, people here ask me for things. It seems that I can’t leave our mission base without someone asking me for my water bottle, my sweater, my shoes, some money. I’m pretty sure they see me as a rich white person. What I’ve realized recently is that in many ways, this is actually true. If you look at the big picture of the whole world and all of the people in it, I am rich, even though I am a missionary and I have to ask for money for everything that I have. I am rich, even though I buy almost all of my clothes on sale, and have many that were given to me. I am rich, even though my laptop is five yea...
Read more

My First Dance Class

Image
Picture this: seven Haitians teenagers and a white American girl with no rhythm dancing on a stage to the beat of a conga drum (or "tanbou" as they call in Creole). The man playing the drum is named "Ti-roro". He is in his seventies and is also the dance teacher. Yes, he did teach them their dance moves by doing them himself. This was my first of a few experiences dancing with Ti-roro's dance class. Three or four of the girls had grabbed my hands and pulled me onto the stage after asking me to dance with them. I couldn't say no, so I took a dance class for the first time in the 24 years of my life so far. While I have only danced with them a few times, these girls are a part of most of my favorite experiences in Haiti. They often come by after dance class, and even on days when they don't have dance class, just to say hello or hang out with us. One day I was learning Creole from a book, and it was teaching me actions and body parts. As I was readi...
Read more

From Naivete to Growth

Image
I remember sitting caffeinated, late at night, in the library with a friend in college, talking about foreign mission. One day, we could live in Africa, we said over our lattes and laptops. It seemed a glorious thing to me, this missionary life in a foreign country. At the time, I wanted to travel. I did have a true and real desire to love and live among the poor, but the rest of it was a dream, built on nothing – I had barely left the country then. In fact, I don’t think I had ever met a real live missionary. I had heard about mission trips, but never been on a foreign one. My imaginary life was just that, imaginary. A little more than a few years later, I was moving to Haiti to start a mission there with a few other people from an organization that I loved. I don’t think I could have admitted it then, but it definitely felt glorious. I had read a few books about missionaries, met some missionaries, been on mission trips, been inspired by the passion, zeal, and sacrifice of others...
Read more