And, even though they didn't have to, even though it was their day "off," the kids watched the world outside of their windows, took note when huge houses and resorts stood opposite tiny ones covered in tarps, saw that fenced in wealth can exist alongside poverty without changing it.
The thought ate at them a little. They swam, invented pool games, collected shells, swam some more, ate as much food as they could fit in their stomachs, played volleyball on an injured foot, took pictures, and swam still more. But, their eyes still rang with a Haiti that was not here, with little hands and eyes that had never seen this part of their own country.
And, bits of that stress began to slip out in behaviors, words and actions that were harsher than intended or less filled with patience and love. Like any family, they vented on each other.
Unlike most families, they realized that they didn't have to.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk," Isaiah 58:9b
Debrief that night had all sorts of business to attend to - prep for the village we would be at the next day, choosing and practicing a song to sing on Sunday, getting volunteers to give testimony in church - but the high schoolers had one piece of business pressing on their hearts and minds. They wanted to get right with each other.
So, at their request, we ended the evening in separate corners, to give each person time to deal with God in their own way.
No pointing of fingers, no rehashing of events, no requests for the improvement of whatever behaviors were grating on each of them, just eighteen hearts open and ready for healing and correction. Because, we serve a God who delights in making Himself known through right relationships.
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