Wynne Farms: Part I – God Never Fails

Well, the day started out so well…everyone seemed excited! We picked the kids up and started the approximate 2 hour drive into the mountains.

The views were beautiful and the kids were pumped. Lots of chatting and laughter…and even some squeals of nervousness! The roads up the mountain are not easy, to say the least. An hour of traffic soon turns into another hour climb up roads with hundreds of twists and turns, bumps, narrow pass ways, and steep cliffs on either side. I’m not sure if all the kids have even been into the mountains before, so it was an exciting ride and even more exciting to watch their faces!

We turned off one dirt road onto the next and headed to the tippy top of the mountain. We get to the ‘driveway’ of the farms and the locals tell us not to take the truck down that way – we wouldn’t make it back up. So…all 35 of us get out of the truck and start the walk to the farms. It was beautiful! Really steep, but with the sight and feel of being ‘on top of Haiti!’ 

The view from the top...picture doesn't do it justice!

As we approach the entrance to the farm, I see a security guard…for some reason I don’t have a good feeling about this. Immediately, Jacque starts to talk to him and I can just tell that he has NO idea who we are or what we are doing…ugh!! Not a good sign…loooong story short, he has no idea we were coming, he has no idea where Jane (the owner) is, and no way of getting in touch. We have no phone number, he has no phone number, nothing!

Welcome to Haiti, Kimberlee! I have been warned that this would happen… situations where I would need patience, flexibility, a ‘look at the bright side’ attitude, and an understanding that things will just not go according to plan. Well, did Haiti happen to know that I’m not so good at those things? Did Haiti know I would be ready to cry and throw in the towel at the chance that this exact situation might happen? No, probably not, but God did!

After a few minutes of playing some impromptu games, figuring out if we could call anyone, and discussing our options, we decided it would really be best if we just drove home. We didn’t really have much of a choice.

So, we started the steep climb back up to the truck. As the girls and boys were giggling, joking, and frolicking their way back to the truck, I tried my best to not let what was going on inside of me show.

Starting the descent to Wynne Farms...

Twists and turns on this road...

A beautiful view of the mountains below...

The final bend (or so we thought), only to find...

...another, even steeper descent! In the words of Jacque (in the yellow shirt), "We will have Junior find a way down with the truck!" No one wanted to make the trek back UP!

“What was I thinking?” I thought. “How could I not secure a phone number for the place? I knew I should have talked to her on the phone, not just over email? Now the kids will learn nothing. The day is a complete FAILURE!”

And with that word, I knew I had let my thoughts go too far. A light-bulb went off…this is NOT a failure. I am NOT a failure. What is the biggest lesson I have been learning for the past 1.5 months I’ve been here?…that my WORTH does NOT come from what I do. It comes from who I am…who God has made me to be. And He says, I am WORTH it. Regardless of what I do or do not do. Regardless of whether field trips go according to plan, or not according to plan. Now was the time for me to put that lesson to the test, and REST in His love.

As we loaded up the truck, I was still fighting off the negative feelings, wrapping my worth up in what had just happened. But as we began to descend the mountain, I could feel my perspective changing. This day wasn’t so bad after all…the kids were still having so much fun and ‘learning’ (in a way I hadn’t planned) about parts of their country they had never been too; we got to see some beautiful scenery we had never seen before; we got to hike in nature; and, I got to learn a huge lesson!

The day was NOT a failure…and it hit me, that’s what I was reading about this morning…1 Corinthians 13: 4-8. For my quiet time this morning, I substituted the word ‘love’ with ‘God’ in all those verses. And the final one…God never fails.

God never fails…even when it looks like a failure to us, it’s not. He is always up to something good. He knows what He is doing, whether we see it or not, and He NEVER fails. And I got to read about it this morning, test it out mid-morning, and believe it by lunchtime. God never fails….

But wait…as we are driving, I look out and see this beautiful Haitian man with Bob Marley dreads. We are driving through the middle of a small town and he begins chasing after our truck. Then he begins shouting something to Jacque in Creole…

“Kimberlee, he is coming for you. What do you want me to tell him?” Jacque says.

To be continued…