Not Finished

It's hard to believe it was our last day of class today.  After a refreshing night of rain and coolness, we were ready for the day.  Our morning group was more of the "target audience"we had imagined back in Andover.  We were so excited to see that everyone had kept knitting and completing their bags and had a lot of creative touches of color and detailing.  We were able to work on making handles for the bags and finishing them.  We oohed and ahhed over everyone's creativity.  The message today was about how God has a plan for each of us and we need to keep praying for direction and turning our lives over to him.  I ended by telling each of them what an impact they had on us and that we are all knitted together as sisters in Christ.  Each time they pull out their knitting I asked them to remember to pray for God's direction in their lives and for their US sisters.  We promised to do the same.  We handed out official diplomas and called out each woman's name and took photos and clapped.  You could see the pride in their eyes!  Maude, the oldest woman of the group at 33, is an artisan and already sells her handmade necklaces and bracelets.  This new skill will help expand her reperatoire.  The other ladies talked about continuing to meet and knit together and possibly selling their goods as well.
We came home from lunch and toured the nearby clinic, Haiti Health Ministries.  They are making progress since I was here last in the construction of their new building.  Our hearts went out to all of the  crowds waiting in the hot sun to be seen.
We were wondering if we would have a return of the mob scene and chaos of yesterday afternoon.  About a half hour after our start time we had a nice group assembled in the church and then the heavens  opened up and it poured.  There is nothing like the sound of rain on a tin roof!  Again, this younger crowd surprised us with the progress they had made on their bags.  Some had already sewed them up and just needed to make handles.  Some had even made a bag out of their beginning swatch from the first day!  It was awesome to see their creativity at work as they planned out the remainer of their project.  Some crocheted a decorative edging ruffle and many had interesting and beautiful color combinations.  Some had many holes/knots and others were nearly flawless.  We lavished praise on them all and offered some "complimentary"knitting to get them close to the finish line.  We noticed one girl who kept finishing the others' projects but arrived on day 2 after all the bags had been distributed.  We cobbled together the remainder of our supplies and presented her with a bag of her own along with enough yarn to create her own bag.  Again, the diploma ceremony was very touching and we had all of the girls pose for a photo with their bag.  The tye dye TShirt yarn was a huge hit (thanks Sonya)!  We also greatly appreciated the nice quality needles (especially in the humidity with sticky yarn!) and other supplies provided by All About Yarn in Coon Rapids (thanks, Rox!)  This wouldn't have been possible without all of the help from our generous supporters.
As our time draws to a close and we were debriefing tonight, we reflected on how this experienced has changed us and our worldview.  How to reconcile how we in the US have so much and live on an average of $90 a day while Haitians live on $1-$2 a day.  About why this country has been in turmoil for so long and the possibility of things ever changing seems so small.  About how we want to spread this message to others who have never been here or seen poverty like this.  About how the Haitian people are so welcoming and loving.  We talked about the spiritual darkness but material abundance in the US.  It is hopeful to see many believers here in Haiti who know this life on earth is not all there is and how they come to depend and trust God every day for every need.  We Americans with our self-sufficient mentality could learn a lot...
Our knitting was just a tool God used for us to meaningfully connect with other young women and girls in this country.  We were able to find a common connection and communicate our love and God's love for them and they know they are not forgotten.
God will use this experience to continue to shape us and them.  He will continue to knit our lives into a beautiful master pattern.  We are not finished....