Ayiti:dust on my feet

My last night consisted of fresh guacamole, oven pizza, Step Up, and an ensuing dance party. It was just what I needed, and it involved two incredible people. Today I would like to tell you a little bit more about the aforementioned Diana:



Seriously, this girl is a life saver. I don't know that I really saw how much she would mean to me until yesterday. She has been around almost every dinner time, asking about my day and getting to know me better. She is incredibly generous with all she has, and she is full of life. In all ways, Diana is like a breath of fresh air for me.

My parents are still able to teach me lessons from far away. My mom has been the consistent source of encouragement, offering eloquence and calm when I feel as if the world is more chaotic than it actually is. My dad's most recent e-mail reminded me that "you have a few lines to speak; say them well, and then get out of the way."

I feel like I am so often under the impression that my life, as a whole, matters more than it really does. Not that it doesn't matter, but that I am one in a cast of characters, that I have a purpose and role where I am, but that ultimately, the story is never really about me. So I try to take on more responsibility that I ought to and unfortunately I try and give myself more credit when it doesn't belong to me.

If anything, my time here has taught me that I can't change very much in the midst of the pain and brokenness that surrounds me in Haiti or in Kansas City. But what the Lord continually reminds me to do is to serve, serve zealously, relentlessly, lovingly, instill value into who you can, and understand that it's never really about me.

So Diana introduced me to Brooke Fraser (finally jumped on that wagon), and Albertine has been playing over and over. I have been asking the question "what do I do when I go home?" every day, knowing that living in light of what I have seen in Haiti would be harder than living in the midst of it.

The little girl from Bon Samaritan is someone who will never get out of my head. She's stuck there. I find myself wishing that I could bring her home with me. But for every Wendolyn, there are countless others with the same story. So how do I live in light of what I have seen? I have been given a responsibility, my faith without deeds is dead. How that looks in my life now, I don't know if I have figured it out yet.