In the midst of confronting situations and hard work, the Haven CRC team share the little moments that God is using to open their eyes and see Jesus face.

By Taylor Kraal and Rebecca Kraal

Catch up on the team’s first day here.

In Haiti we’ve all been learning to count our blessings. Yesterday we were required to wake up at 5am. This morning our blessing came with the sound of alarm clocks resounding at a glorious 6am! (It’s the small things in life, always the small things).

Today, our day could be summed up in three words: full body workout. Between hand-pouring concrete and painting houses we all burned more calories than we ever have at our nearest YMCA. Even though the labor was strenuous, God once again brought amazing people into the “little moments” and began to form, hopefully, lasting relationships.

The first house, painting doors and windows Family team and concrete crew Learning more about the family Front porch Helping to pour a concrete floor The second house Psalm 27 was chosen by the man of the house

One man from our group lived near this city for a year about 30 years ago. One afternoon, 30 years ago, he saw a broken and starving toddler on the street and brought him home and fed him. This morning, they were unexpectedly reunited when the same boy turned up to pour concrete with our team. The utter disbelief in our group member’s eyes was a touching confirmation that God has a purpose in every situation we face.

Every one of us has seen Jesus in so many ways in such a short amount of time. Whether it’s working face-to-face with the people, holding hands with a small child, or meaningful conversations within our group, we continue to realize that we are here to be the hands and feet of Jesus and our best moments come when we look to His face.

The next morning, we beat the sun up and were on the road by 5:30am headed to hike Mt. Pignon before it got too hot. The endurance it took to get to the top was rewarded by the amazing view of the valley surrounding the town of Pignon.

Later that morning we exchanged the quietness of the mountaintop for the chaos of the marketplace. We went to the market to buy clothes, food, and a bed for a couple of families in need but were quickly faced with the needs of even more people: an elderly woman who was starving, a young boy with torn shoes……..the experience left many of us wrestling with questions about how to meet such great need when it’s everywhere you look.

New friends with a gift of boots to work in Gifts for the family who received the concrete floor Praying with the blind lady and her family New bed frame and mattress

That question would only work its way deeper in our hearts and minds as we spent the afternoon at an orphanage playing with the kids. How can we help when the need is so great? In the midst of wrestling with these difficult questions we all recognized that although we can’t do everything, we can all do something. For us today it was playing games with kids, holding babies, praying for a family, dropping off shoes and giving out some bread and peanut butter.

Water Balloons Kds at the orphanage with water balloons

One thing that continues to be apparent as we face the needs around us each day is how much we need God. We need Him to guide us to the needs, give discernment over which are the greatest needs, give the resources to meet the needs, and change our hearts to be more like His which breaks for the needs of this world.

Catch up on the team’s first day here.