Hope

I was thinking a lot of thoughts and was wondering if it was really appropriate to put them on my jib. Then I got a Napoleon (Dynamite) complex and said, "I'll put whatever I want on my jib! Gosh!" So, you just never know what to expect from me.

For those of you who know me, you know that my love goes like this, in this order: 1. God 2. Family 3. Haiti

I co-founded and run a small, charitable organization to help educate kids in Haiti called Haitian Roots (so much for anonymity). This weekend I received an e-mail from a lady from Michigan who sponsors two of our children (well, she introduced her congregation to us and they do it together). She wrote:

"I am sending back to you, as an attachment, this year and last years' pictures of our sponsored children. Last years' are on the top and this years' are on the bottom. Please look at them carefully. Our congregation is behind these children 100% so it is not a surprise that many expressed concern. My concern is extreme. Knowing how tenuous any child's situation is a Haiti, and then seeing the dramatic physical decline of these two children evident from the photos, I can tell that something is amiss.

We are committed to these children and we hope you can help us to get some questions answered. Would you please ask your contact in Haiti to visit them, talk with their teachers and check the situation at home. Do they need to see a doctor? ( a good start I think). Has there been a change for the worse economically?

Please help us to find out how to help them."

Isson (our co-founder) responded a few days later:

"As I promised to report on the little ones this week end( Mackenson and Christella), I had chance to talk to my sister Huguette, who is one of our coordinators in Haiti, I hope I can find words to describe their situation the same way she put it this morning.

Mackenson and Christella come from a family of seven children. Their dad is not working neither their mom. The parents don't have any skills whatsoever to fight with the cost of living situation that is developing right now in Haiti. Last event that worsen their situation was the last flood where they lost their little house. According to what Huguette told me, they are living in a ravine (a small narrow steep-sided valley that is larger than a gully and smaller than a canyon and that is usually worn by running water)which is prohibited by the government but they don't have choice. I don't want to be exaggerated here I am describing exactly what my sister told me. Because of their living condition, Christella is diagnosed malaria which she has been dealing with for a long time now. Despite their alarming situation, they enjoy going to school, in fact they are the only ones who have chance to receive an education in the family through Haitian Roots. They were excited when they heard you were coming to see them last December. Since the situation is so alarming for the parents I mean since they are deprived from getting a shelter, food, health, clean water, Christella's mom becomes suicidal. Huguette said they are not the only ones who are living in such condition. She said also if we compare their pictures now, I am talking about the Haitian Roots children, they may look worse than the last pictures we took last year."

So...this is what I'm thinking about tonight. I have hugged and kissed those two children. I know them. I am trying to make a difference specifically for them and still it is not enough.

There are times when I feel so strong and almost rebellious against those who have no hope. The Haitians have a proverb: "Kote ki genyen lespwa, genyen lavi." It means, "Where there is hope, there is life." I want to stand up and shout, as Jedediah Grant once said during his decades of missionary service, "I feel as if I could say to the mountains and to all HELL, get out of my way or I will kick you out! I am NOT going to surrender!" But then there are times when I just sit and cry.

For now I will go curl up on my bed with the OBM. I will pray that Jesus Christ will come SOON to save these little ones. And then after I've wallowed awhile, I will get back up and try to figure out what I can do while waiting for that Millenial day.

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. ~Abraham Lincoln