By Caitlin Dickey
I’ve always said, “You get more out of ministry, than you put in,” but I didn’t fully understand how much more until Haiti.
I had a tough time last year. Every aspect of my life changed at once. It was too much. I literally couldn’t keep going. All I wanted to do was dig a hole for myself and hide from the world for the rest of time. But then, there was Haiti.
In May of 2012, I got to travel to the beautiful, mountainous country of Haiti for a week with a team of four doctors, one dentist, one optometrist, one engineer, one nurse practitioner, one Corban professor and his wife, ten nurses, and eleven other Corban students. Once there, hiding was the last thing I could do.
When I wasn’t giving a breathing treatment, I was filling prescriptions. When I wasn’t running prescriptions to the pharmacy, I was grabbing gauze for the ER. When I wasn’t working in the clinic, I was counting pills. But half way through the week, it hit me: hiding was the last thing I wanted to do. When I wasn’t teaching on hand washing, I was hugging little girls. When I wasn’t directing patients, I was holding babies. When I wasn’t listening to orders, I was listening to the Haitian people praise God.
I’ve missed Haiti ever since I left. Yes, I saw tragedy. Yes, I saw pain. Yes, I saw the mother who couldn’t feed her children, the man who worked on an infected broken foot for two years, and the little boy crying in pain. But all I want to do now is go back. All I want to do is feed more children, wrap more bandages, and hold more hands.
I went to heal others and teach others about Christ. Instead, Christ used the Haitian people to heal me and teach me about Himself. He is worthy of praise in every circumstance.