Sacred Sharing

Friday evening we fly out to Haiti, to do medical clinics, for my third and Ian's second time. 

I am not going to go on about finding food in Haiti.  While in Haiti we will respectfully eat what is served to us while making the best choices possible.

Our ability to choose healthy options and eliminate certain foods as well as run or swim for exercise is put in perspective by a trip like this.

Healthy food should be a human right, but in practicality it is actually a luxury.  Food in any form is all most of the people we encounter could even hope to have.

When fundraising for this trip we did a race; 25km for me and 15km for Ian.  To explain this to one of the children there would be mind boggling for them.  "Why would you force yourself to run for 25km??  People paid you to do that???"  Even exercise for health (or the need for it as it is not supplied by our work) is foreign to the people we meet.  They hold on to their calories, they don't expend them . . . they don't even get enough to maintain their bodies.

All this to say; we are pursuing healthy living because we are blessed enough to have that option.

But, in Haiti, I will humbly and graciously accept every offering of hospitality with the awareness that they are giving me something huge, something profound.  When thinking of it; I feel teary eyed and am aware of something so much bigger than just shared food.  All meals held in community are so much more than a bowl of soup or a loaf of bread.  I am so blessed and privileged to go and give my time, my money, my energy to help, but to receive sustenance in return from someone who has so little overwhelms me.

I will be honoured to share a meal, any meal, with these generous people.
The only word I can find to describe this sustaining and overwhelming sharing . . .


Sacred