So today was our annual Christmas party at Life is Wealth. This is the third year that I have been part of the team putting it on and it is the event I look forward to most on these December trips. However, today the party went a little different, in the best way possible.
Each year we decorate the dining hall for Christmas and serve them a big meal, which still was the case today. The meal consisted of rice and sauce, chicken, salad, pasta salad and milk. The children were extremely excited to see a big Christmas dinner sitting in front of them, I always love to see even the smallest of children eat their whole plate up. Following dinner we usually take the girls to another room where we give them a Christmas gift that was bought for them by donors to our team from the states. However, not only did we have the gifts today but we also had boxes, and I mean BOXES of clothes and shoes that we set up in a boutique style so each child could come through and “shop” and choose exactly what new items they wanted. We had an entire room full of clothes ranging from tops, pants, shorts, skirts, dresses and jackets, where each child started their choosing process. Once each child received as many items of clothing as we had for that age and size, (sometimes they were given five whole new outfits!) then they moved onto the second room. This room was full of shoes just lined up that they were able to look through, try on, walk around in, and then choose one to keep. Following the shoe selection was the distribution of an actual Christmas gift that consisted of various items depending on the person who bought that gift in the states. Some of the items could have been dolls, new hair supplies, crayons, pens, notebooks, jump ropes, cars, footballs…and so on, just so they could experience what it is like to open an unknown gift for Christmas. It is seriously the best to see the children’s faces light up when they open their gifts.
However, I said today’s party was different than in the past two I have been a part of. I said this because today we allowed the children to have choices. This ministry is not an organization that is known for giving a handout to a person and then leaving without ever seeing them again. This is a relational based ministry that builds actual, lasting relationships with the people we encounter so that true love and friendship can be shown to those around us. We want the people we have relationships with to realize their worth and importance in the eyes of all of us but more importantly, in the eyes of God. One of the best ways to show someone that they are worthy and that their thoughts and opinions matter is giving them choices; letting them show you what they truly want and need. Allowing someone to have a say in what they are being given is acknowledging that they are an individual with individual likes, wants, needs and opinions. It is not common, especially in a place like Haiti, that people are given choices when it comes to others serving them by providing a ‘need’. It is too often this ‘I have this shirt that I do not want and I know you need it so here it is’ mentality to giving that often leaves the person receiving feeling unheard and unworthy of actually being heard. This is not to say that most people are not grateful because trust me they are but as the ‘givers’ we should at least acknowledge the actual thoughts and feelings of those who will be ‘receiving’. This is the hard balance that is often ignored in ministry like the ones happening in Haiti, and all over the world. People want to help and have GREAT hearts for helping but we sometimes miss that the people we want to help are actual individuals that deserve to still be given choices even in their perceived desperation. This is something I truly realized today. I have been a part of both kinds of ‘giving’ and I now know which one truly is more effective in all aspects; physical, emotional and mental. These children today were able to feel that their individual personalities and likes were acknowledged while the providing of a basic need was still met. It was SO exciting to watch each child walk out with a bag full of items that truly fits them in more ways than one. I watched children I have gotten to know really well pick out shoes and clothes and thought to myself things like, ‘Oh, that is so her, I knew she would pick that dress’, which was even more fun to experience than anything else. These thoughts were able to happen because of the relationships I have built with these children over the past three years and was incredibly awesome to experience. God showed me an aspect of His ministry today that has truly changed the way I will look at giving and I am incredibly thankful for that.
What a BEAUTIFUL way to bring in the New Year with an amazing group of children, a hard working team, and a forever teaching God.
Here are just some of the pictures taken from today’s party….
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| Christmas Dinner |
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| Just SOME of the clothes set up for shopping! |
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| Shoes, Shoes, Shoes! |
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| Robinson and myself after he finished his Christmas shopping! (Mike, he LOVED your gift, he opened it immediately and started playing with it! He said, 'Mesi anpil, Mike!') |
That is the best New Years news I will probly ever hear. It is so great that those kids were able to walk away from that having brand new items. I know a lot of work went into it, it's great to see how great our God is! May each of you have a blessed New Year keep up the good work you still got 6 more days!
ReplyDelete-Mike