What Did You Do?

With this being a form of mission trip the question of what we did or accomplished has been asked frequently. So here are some of the more tangible things we did:

Thing 1:
Helped the Doster family prepare (and move into) their house on the island.

They had only arrived a few weeks before us and have been living temporarily in an apartment near the center in which we stayed. Their soon to be permanent residence had not been lived in for a few years and needed some TLC. We cleaned the rooms, mopped the mold off the ceilings, moved furniture, fixed fascia boards, hung bug screens, landscaped, painted, fixed some problematic roof spots, and a few other things I am sure to be forgetting.

The Dosters' belongings that flew over with us.

The Dosters' home, Palm Cottage. 

Not a bad view to work with.

The girls room after we cleaned it and moved in their things.

Thing 2:
Worshipped with a local church and hung out with some beautiful children.

We had the opportunity to go to church in a Haitian settlement and hang out with the local children for an afternoon of fun at the beach. We took 40+ children to the beach and a place called Preacher's Cave. I made a few friends on the bus ride there and back. Two of which were sisters Ronisha and Ronika who at first were rather quiet and reserved, but then became bustling balls of energy after they got used to us. I could not have imagined a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

The beach.

 

Ronisha.

 

 Preacher's cave.

 

 The bus ride back after we dropped off half of the group.

I can't remember the name of the girl I was sitting with, but she was great.

 

The bus we hauled the kids in.

(and ourselves most of the week)

Thing 3:
Participated in a Young Life after school program.

On Monday afternoon we participated in a Young Life after school program led by a girl named Sarah who has also relocated to the island. This was a little more awkward and out of my realm of comfort than the beach day, but it was a blast none the less. We danced around and sang songs and tried to chat with students that didn't seem to want to talk to us. I took the opportunity to tag along while taking them back to their settlements. This was the best part of the experience to me. To see where they live and hear them interact with each other without any expectation was a great way to get into their culture a little deeper.

Hanging with the Bahamian Young Life kids.

As far as tangible things go, that is most of what we accomplished.

But if the trip opened my mind to new ideas and affirmed things I have been learning lately, one of those things that is becoming ever more clear would be: although seeing tangible physical evidence of work being done is gratifying, it might not be the most important thing after all.