Golden Rule

Like every other day this week, Haiti showed what a multifaceted place this really is. For such a small country, there is much to see, do and experience.

Our travels today took us to a beach some thirty miles up the coast. We arrived at a small resort where some thirty old ladies from an abandoned women's shelter waited for us to arrive to help them enjoy a day at the beach.

This was a new experience for everyone involved. Mission groups regularly take kids to the beach. But never have the elderly women had this opportunity.

I don't know how frequently you visit a nursing home, nor how comfortable you are jumping in to help, play and interact with the residents. I do know how awkward it is when we take our daughter's 6th grade Sunday school class to a local nursing home and how the kids tentatively sing, talk and do activities. In four years of going once a month, it has never been easy but I do know how much the people enjoy our visits.

Imagine taking an entire nursing home of women, in a foreign tropical country, out for a day on the beach. Complete with swimming. It was just about as far out of my comfort zone as I would care to venture. But our team handled it like trained professionals. We helped the ladies down to the water and swam with them, held them afloat, comforted them, helped them out of the water, up into the shade and sang for them. We painted their nails, had lunch (which was another Haitian feast, complete with Prestige beer and cake for dessert.). We shared coconut milk right out of the fruit. 

We did our best to be everything we would want, hope and dream others would be for us if we were 75 years old, living our final years in a small sequestered compound far out in the country, miles away from the rest of the world. And we did it on the day of a rare field trip to a tropical beach.

When I woke up this morning, I had no idea how far I was going to be taken to live the Golden Rule. But I have no regrets in doing so.

Dave Livermore