{"id":2444,"date":"2013-02-03T10:07:27","date_gmt":"2013-02-03T15:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/activistfaith\/?p=2444"},"modified":"2013-02-01T10:07:58","modified_gmt":"2013-02-01T15:07:58","slug":"on-the-importance-of-coming-back-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2013\/02\/on-the-importance-of-coming-back-3.html","title":{"rendered":"on the importance of coming back"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bibledude.net\/yahve-shamma-playground.jpg\" alt=\"haiti, orphans, playground\" width=\"640\" height=\"374\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Playground at Yahve Shamma Orphanage by <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.scottwade.com\" target=\"_blank\">Scott Wade<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<div>\n<h3>You&#8217;re reading\u00a0about the #Help1Haiti Bloggers Trip.\u00a0Read more:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"here we go... @helponenow haiti bloggers 2012\" href=\"http:\/\/bibledude.net\/helponenow-haiti-bloggers-2012\/\">here we go&#8230; @helponenow haiti bloggers 2012<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"three reasons to follow the @helponenow haiti bloggers\" href=\"http:\/\/bibledude.net\/haiti-bloggers\/\">three reasons to follow the @helponenow haiti bloggers<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"sometimes it's messy work\" href=\"http:\/\/bibledude.net\/messy-work\/\">sometimes it&#8217;s messy work<\/a><\/li>\n<li>on the importance of coming back<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"in which God is up to something\" href=\"http:\/\/bibledude.net\/help-one-now-legacy-project\/\">in which God is up to something<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>I can\u2019t remember the last time I cried like this. As we entered the gates on the opposite side of the property, all I wanted to do was run as fast as I could to see the completed <a title=\"how to build a playground\u2026 in haiti\" href=\"http:\/\/bibledude.net\/orphanage-playground-haiti\/\">playground that my son helped build<\/a>. But I showed patience. I contained myself as we went\u00a0through the formalities and greetings a team normally gets when they arrive at the Yahve Shamma orphanage.<\/p>\n<p>The waiting wasn\u2019t all bad.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an amazing experience when you get mobbed by a few dozen kids who all just want to hug you and touch you. Even during our initial briefing, the kids waited patiently holding on to any available member of our team that they could.<\/p>\n<p>Chris Marlow (of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.helponenow.org\" target=\"_blank\">Help One Now<\/a>) and Pastor Gaetan (of Yahve Shamma) shared for a moment while we calibrated our minds to the heart of this mission. This time something important stood out to me. It was a story about dedication and commitment.<\/p>\n<p>The story goes something like this\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after the earthquake Chris Marlow and some other Help One Now leadership met with Gaetan for the first time. He\u2019s a local pastor who cared for 16 orphans prior to the earthquake, but quickly added 14 more in the wake of the disaster.<\/p>\n<p>During that first visit, the children wouldn\u2019t even engage with the members of the team. One of those leaders describes the children as being \u201cdistant.\u201d Some even hid behind trees as these strange visitors talked about the possibility of getting involved in this community.<\/p>\n<p>Then Gaetan said something that struck a nerve with the Help One Now team that day.<\/p>\n<p>He said, <strong>\u201cMany churches send teams to come spend time with our orphans, and they say they want to work with us. But then they leave and we never hear from them again.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No wonder the children seem distant when another group of strangers shows up promising to help\u2026 probably to never return. Why should the children invest emotionally, only to be left behind and forgotten\u2026 again?<\/p>\n<p>As if these children didn\u2019t already have to deal with loss and abandonment issues.<\/p>\n<p>At that moment the Help One Now leadership team decided that they had to be different. They <em>committed<\/em> to coming back.<\/p>\n<p>This \u201ccoming back\u201d thing is a theme that keeps popping up. Even yesterday as we walked around a small community in mountains we were told, \u201cIt\u2019s okay to walk around here on your own, because they know us. They always say, \u2018<strong>you are the people who always come back<\/strong>\u2018.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And as I listened to them share this story today, I realized that <em>I\u2019m<\/em> coming back. This is my third trip to Haiti and my second one with Help One Now. But my story with this sacred place, with this orphanage, goes back well before my earlier trip with Help One Now.<\/p>\n<p>Two years ago, my son wanted to \u201csend <a title=\"all i want for Christmas\u2026\" href=\"http:\/\/bibledude.net\/all-i-want-for-christmas\/\">Christmas to Haiti<\/a>.\u201d He wanted to build a playground. So we had a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.garagesale4orphans.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Garage Sale 4 Orphans<\/a> and raised over $1,300 towards that project. I then got to watch them breaking ground on this project during my last trip to Haiti, just eight months ago. And today <a title=\"Photo on Facebook\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=4758475442068\" target=\"_blank\">I stood weeping<\/a> at the completed playground project.<\/p>\n<p>Coming back is <em>always<\/em> worth it.<\/p>\n<p>The children in this orphanage are some of the most beautiful, spectacular children I know. It was good today to see them all <em>again<\/em>. I sat on the swings in the new playground with them. I played football (soccer) with others. It was good to be back.<\/p>\n<p>And I\u2019ll be back again.<\/p>\n<p>The reason these programs work is because of the commitment we have to be there. Help One Now isn\u2019t going anywhere. Commitment changes things. You can see it in the eyes of Pastor Gaetan. You can see it in the hearts of the many orphan kids who he cares for.<\/p>\n<p>+++<\/p>\n<p>From Dan King, chief instigator and co-founder of Activist Faith. Dan is a Christ-follower. husband. father. author of <a href=\"http:\/\/theunlikelymissionary.com\">the unlikely missionary: from pew-warmer to poverty-fighter<\/a>. school of ministry and missions instructor. facebook channel editor for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehighcalling.org\">thehighcalling.org<\/a>. co-founder and media director for the <a href=\"http:\/\/activistfaith.org\">activistfaith.org<\/a> movement. social media dude for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.helponenow.org\">help one now<\/a>. chief instigator at <a href=\"http:\/\/bibledude.net\">bibledude.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Playground at Yahve Shamma Orphanage by Scott Wade. You&#8217;re reading\u00a0about the #Help1Haiti Bloggers Trip.\u00a0Read more: here we go&#8230; @helponenow haiti bloggers 2012 three reasons to follow the @helponenow haiti bloggers sometimes it&#8217;s messy work on the importance of coming back in which God is up to something I can\u2019t remember the last time I cried&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-christianity","category-church-in-action"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>on the importance of coming back - Activist Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2013\/02\/on-the-importance-of-coming-back-3.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"on the importance of coming back - Activist Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Playground at Yahve Shamma Orphanage by Scott Wade. 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You&#8217;re reading\u00a0about the #Help1Haiti Bloggers Trip.\u00a0Read more: here we go&#8230; @helponenow haiti bloggers 2012 three reasons to follow the @helponenow haiti bloggers sometimes it&#8217;s messy work on the importance of coming back in which God is up to something I can\u2019t remember the last time I cried&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2013\/02\/on-the-importance-of-coming-back-3.html","og_site_name":"Activist Faith","article_published_time":"2013-02-03T15:07:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-02-01T15:07:58+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/bibledude.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/yahve-shamma-playground.jpg"}],"author":"Dillon Burroughs","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2013\/02\/on-the-importance-of-coming-back-3.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2013\/02\/on-the-importance-of-coming-back-3.html","name":"on the importance of coming back - Activist Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2013\/02\/on-the-importance-of-coming-back-3.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2013\/02\/on-the-importance-of-coming-back-3.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/bibledude.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/yahve-shamma-playground.jpg","datePublished":"2013-02-03T15:07:27+00:00","dateModified":"2013-02-01T15:07:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/d931a1eb5dc2e7bf29e30bb1ea7d0311"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2013\/02\/on-the-importance-of-coming-back-3.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2013\/02\/on-the-importance-of-coming-back-3.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2013\/02\/on-the-importance-of-coming-back-3.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/bibledude.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/yahve-shamma-playground.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/bibledude.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/yahve-shamma-playground.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2013\/02\/on-the-importance-of-coming-back-3.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"on the importance of coming back"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/","name":"Activist Faith","description":"Christian Inspiration, Christian Blogs, Christian News, Top Christian Blogs","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/d931a1eb5dc2e7bf29e30bb1ea7d0311","name":"Dillon Burroughs","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e7e\/e7e0e064c658f0c59bfb3c9a1a05121bx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e7e\/e7e0e064c658f0c59bfb3c9a1a05121bx96.jpg","caption":"Dillon Burroughs"},"description":"DILLON BURROUGHS is an author, activist, and cofounder of Activist Faith. Dillon served in Haiti following the epic 2010 earthquake and has investigated modern slavery in the US and internationally. His books include \"Undefending Christianity,\" \"Not in My Town\" (with Charles J. Powell), and \"Thirst No More\" (October 2011). 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