My name is Leisha and I am one of the Lee University students who had the opportunity to go to Haiti and spend some time with the girls at the transition house. We visited the transition house, on the last day of our trip. Honestly, I was exhausted and all I had on my mind was getting home. Then, I met Rebecca* and everything changed.
Rebecca is a beautiful girl with such a beautiful heart. Her English was great - much better than she realized - and she is so incredibly smart. She excelled through the typing and math tutorials. When I took the picture (above) I showed it to her and told her how beautiful she is. She looked at me surprised and said, “you too!!”
I don’t know Rebecca’s whole story, but I know that her life could not have been easy before or she wouldn’t be living in the transition house now, and yet, here she was being so outgoing and happy and making me feel welcome!
Rebecca has been through so many trials and yet she walks around the house humming or singing praise songs and being kind and goofy to her “sisters” and visitors like me. Seeing her have the joy of the Lord as her strength blessed me in more ways than she could ever know. I have been through some hard times in my life but the smile on that sweet girl’s face reminded me that there will always be a better day.
As we were packing up to go, Rebecca took my laptop from me, put it on her arm and with a sly smile, told me, “don’t worry, I’ll take it for you.” Her sassy personality is so similar to mine, it made me laugh. I loved being able to surprise her again and tell her that no, in fact, she got to keep the computer.
It truly was the gift of a lifetime for me to be able to meet Rebecca!
*Rebecca is not her real name.
There are 300,000 children living in restavek in Haiti...but not for long. We want to end this form of child slavery in our lifetimes. Join us in Standing Up for Freedom.
