By Trip Manager Stephanie Mutert

There are lots of ideas about what to do with the time once you are hanging out with the kids in the pastor’s care at the villages. Soccer is always popular and jump ropes will swing for hours with people switching out slapping it to the ground. The kids also love to color in coloring books, draw and write. However, one of the more popular pastimes is simply talking. With several kids at the villages having two years experience in English class, they are starting to catch on and need to practice. They also love when groups bring Creole picture dictionaries to help them, which helps their new friend learn a little Creole in the process.

This duo sat together for the entire time we visited Source de la Grace over the course of a weekend. They had met on previous visits in years past, but this time was different when each could communicate somewhat in English, and there was more time to spend with each other. Sometimes questions got tossed at a translator, and other times someone ran for a dictionary, but the time intentionally spent focused on learning about each other, sharing their lives with each other, and talking about their Savior was invaluable. Bible verses were shared and passages were read as excellent conversations about Jesus became a focal point. As each day progressed, the conversations got more and more focused, to the point when it was time for us to leave on the last day neither one of them heard me yelling their names that it was time for us to go while everyone else was on the bus waiting.

It was as if God had placed a bubble around them to preserve those holy moments for them and no voice could penetrate the invisible shield. These are the beautiful moments we get to point to and say God was present there. That right there. That was it. When the blessing of that moment is symbiotic, as it was for these two as their time together came to an end. The moments where God points to a new friendship in Haiti and says, “Pour into this young one.” And those of us who get to observe become most grateful for those that say an emphatic, “Yes.”