Me working at the Orphanage with one of the kids. We were doing physical therapy on the kids that had muscular dystrophy.
To be honest, I didn’t have any set plans or intentions to go to Haiti with my church. I heard about it plenty of times, but I would have never put my thoughts to action without my sweet friend Roseann’s encouragement. My friend Roseann didn’t even need to say anything, she just decided one day to go with our church on a mission trip to Haiti and she actually signed up and went! I was inspired by her willingness to be used by God and her faith. I decided that I needed to go too, so I signed up and started saving my money.
When I went to Haiti, I expected to see poverty and gain a new perspective on life like many do, but there is something about actually seeing it in the flesh and serving people who have to live with a lot less than we do in the states that is deeply moving.
Haiti taught me a lot and gave me time to pray and fellowship with God in a more intimate way. It also taught me that I really don’t need a lot materialistically. That is a freedom to know that because it means that God is taking care of you. I have learned to live off less after my time serving in Haiti. We had to take very short showers and the Lord blessed me with a start to something that resembled dreadlocks one day! Haha! I was actually impressed that my hair could do that, but all of us girls were able to laugh about it and bond so much more closely because we were all living a lot more simply together.
Something else I learned is that there are so many children that just want to be loved. They don’t need all these material possessions, they just need you to talk to them, to hug them and to love them. Most of all, and most importantly, they need to know that GOD loves them! You can be used as a tool by God Himself, to tell these children that. To show them how God loves by showing them the same love that He’s shown you!
God is so so good,
Justine King
