Haiti, June 19-26, 2012 | Blog 3.

Since I have been here, I have seen and experienced so much. I cannot even begin to describe what everything looks like around me. I see so much poverty and so much brokenness. Just by looking into people’s eyes you can see and feel their pain and lack of hope. Haiti is a country where the people have been beaten down so much that it has become very difficult for them to dust themselves off and get back up again. But through all of the hurt there is such beauty in the country as a whole. The people here are simply beautiful.

As we drive through the streets I can hear the cars honking, the people speaking, the dogs barking and the music playing. I can see endless shacks (some being homes and some being stores or restaurants), I see many people, many cars, different types of animals, and multiple vendors lining the make-shift streets. But if you look past all of the commotion, if you look in the distance you can see the shadowing of the hills and mountains. It is such a beautiful thing that amidst all of the chaos you can see something that is this peaceful and steadfast. I feel like I could spend forever here,  observing, learning and literally changing from the inside out. 

In my time here so far I have been reminded of the important things in life; I have had the realization that our life truly is but a vapor. That, in the bigger picture we are only here so long. Each of our lives has a beginning and an end. It is up to us to decide what we want to do in between. It is our job to make sure that we make the most of our lives. I am reminded that in order to do this, Jesus is the must-have ingredient. We are incapable of living our lives the right way without God as a part of the picture and we CANNOT do it by ourselves. We can’t live life thinking that we are making a difference by just being a ‘humanitarian’. It is so much bigger than that; motive is everything. That by being a follower of Christ our heart should come in line with His heart and as it does, our actions should come in line with His plan. I am so thankful that it really is that simple; when we make God number one everything else will fall into place. I am so grateful that the weight is not on my shoulders to live life correctly, that really when I am obedient to the Lord I am doing all that I can do. 

I love that as Christians we are not called to simply live life for ourselves, eventually the focus needs to be shifted off of us. It is not about us, we are called to live life for others. We are supposed to live for something BIGGER than ourselves. I am encouraged that really the whole point of my being is to bless the people around me. In being here, I have had the opportunity to do just that; I have had the opportunity to serve day in and day out. But while I am here in Haiti for one week on the missions trip it is very easy to have that mindset. I am reminded that the spirit and heart of serving and missions shouldn’t stop here. I am supposed to carry that same spirit home with me to the United States. As much as I have learned so far and as much as I am sure that I will learn over the next couple of days, it would all be pointless if I didn’t bring anything home with me. I feel like the Lord has just been saying over and over again that my ‘missions field’ is where I live - what I call my home. By leading a selfless life at home I am making more of a difference than I could ever do here in Haiti for only a week. 

-Summer Zacharias