Celebrating 100 Years with 100 Smiles

9:00 AM Saturday morning.

I looked up at the vast Haitian sky that spanned above me.  Although the sun was beginning to peek through the gloom, gray clouds cast ominous darkness all around.

Many Haitians believe that rain makes people sick, so we knew if it started raining, no one would come to the events we had planned for the day.  It was imperative to our day of ministry that the heavens hold back the water until we were done.

With fingers crossed, we climbed onto the Kids Alive bus.  I was among a handful of adult chaperons who were taking our 30 high schoolers to Phaeton, a community with great need.

At Kids Alive, our children are on the receiving end of a lot of gifts and donations.  To celebrate 100 years of ministry for Kids Alive International (and 14 years of ministry for Kids Alive Haiti), we decided it was the perfect opportunity for our kids to give to others in need.  So we packed our school bus with 100 bags – each bag filled with toothbrushes and toothpaste, soap and shampoo, rice and spaghetti, pencils and notebooks – to donate to children living in abject poverty.

I smiled as I took my seat on the bus, watching the high schoolers file in.  Breakfast in one hand, hair brushes and last-minute makeup in the other.  Teenagers, I thought.

I had never been to Phaeton, so I didn’t know what to expect from the bus ride.  I certainly didn’t know to expect 2 hours of traveling through everything from city traffic to seemingly-endless Caribbean wilderness.

When we got to Phaeton, I was in for another unexpected twist: nobody knew we were coming.  We all filed out into an empty school yard where we were told that we would have to go into the community to invite children to the event.  Splitting into groups, we went out in search of children and families in need.

We had no trouble finding them.

Although I got to interact with the children and families, my goal was to step back and let our high schoolers do the work.  It was a beautiful thing to watch some of our girls hand out tickets as they invited people to come to our event.

 

When everyone finally showed up, there were well over 250 people present.

We joined together in prayer and singing, then Robenson shared the Gospel.

Finally, it was time to shower those sweet kiddos with blessing bags.  Forming a line from the bus to the school, our high schoolers passed 100 bags, one by one, into the hands of children in need.

What a blessing it was to share this experience with our high schoolers, who have both been in need and been blessed with donations.  It was so beautiful to see them have the opportunity to be on the giving side of it.