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…
