Transformations

In our visit to Grace Village today, we saw the transforming hand of God.

At our arrival we were greeted by Pastor Rob and his family and given a tour as well as the back story to their arrival in Haiti as the new site director and going through the process of moving with his wife and two children to their new post earlier this summer.  While it has been a transforming lifestyle change for them, they have also been used by God to continue the transformation occurring throughout the site. 

The site has transformed dramatically since my last visit a year ago when no one lived there and only a few buildings were complete.  Dormitories and a lunch/gathering room are complete as is the director’s permanent home.  The playground (likely the biggest in Haiti) is complete and court space is nearly complete for basketball and other children’s games {We took on the project of painting lines for four-square and hopscotch around the edges of the half-court today}. 

You’ve also been able to read about the new aqua-ponic farming system installed this week.  Their temporary school quarters are nearly completed for their new term beginning in October.  Other exciting things are also planned – all designed by their team and inspired by God to aid in the transformative process for not only the kids in the orphanage, but the people of the local town, some of whom will be working for the site or with the new farming system.

The transformative efforts on the children are easy to see as they are beginning to recover from the difficult housing conditions they came from last Christmas and this spring.  Not just their physical and emotional needs, but most importantly, their spiritual needs.  Assisting Pastor Rob in this process is a local Haitian pastor, Wesley who will be able to mentor them in every dimension of their lives as they become a new family group together.

Wesley and I spent some time sharing our own transformations in faith stories with each other too.  While I grew up in the church and have had several renewals of my own faith over the years, he has had some especially transforming periods of time in his short 28 years.  He grew up with a father who was a voodoo priest until he died when Wesley was 14.  His grandmother finally convinced him to seek out God at her church after that and Wesley became a Jesus believer, despite his mother continuing to support the voodoo practices.  He continued to grow in faith and become so totally transformed in his life that eventually his mother and siblings became believers as well – with several miraculous events that demonstrated to his family how strongly God was working through his fully transformed life.

Wesley translated for our team as we led their Sunday School teaching time today.  I taught on Ephesians 5:1-2 which speaks of our need to imitate Christ with our lives just as dearly loved children.  We played an “imitation game” to demonstrate what that word means {imagine 60+ kids having to imitate my every move as I jump around and make various animal noises for them}, and talked about how there are sinful and bad things we wrongly imitate as well as proper ways of loving others as Christ loved us.  We ended with an extended period of crafts and activities in smaller groups of 8-10 to allow our full team time to reinforce the concepts on each child.

After lunch we continued with our project and a great deal of informal fun with the kids all afternoon.  A big hit were the kites we brought that never left the sky all afternoon and even after we left at dusk.

It was not just an amazing day, but one that demonstrated how God can and does transform people who are fully and completely dedicated and given over to Him.