What Am I Supposed to Do?

This is not a hypothetical question. This is a question that I have been asking the Lord for the last 72 hours every chance I get. Because I have no doubt I'm supposed to do something and only God knows what it is or how.

Some of you may have read a post that I wrote back in January. In this post I told a story about meeting two "street boys" in Haiti (last October) and the impact that the generosity of one of them had on me. I have not been able to put this boy out of my mind. I think I asked his name, but I don't remember it. But his face is often with me. I have thought many times about the short experience I had while meeting him and the impact it has had on me. I have also felt a pain in my heart whenever I have thought of "my street boy" (well, to Kelly I refer to him as "our street boy"). It was painful to feel that this child entered my life, made an impression, and then left with out me having a chance to do anything for him. Kelly gave him her trail mix and we gave them a little money and then they were gone. We didn't know what else to do. And I have always felt some regret in my heart. It's strange because there are so many children in Haiti that need help, but sometimes a certain situation just touches you and a connection is made, for whatever reason. Whenever I thought about my street boy I would feel sad knowing that I would never see him again and would never know what became of him.

While in Haiti last October we took a couple of donated digital cameras to our coordinators in hopes that they could figure out how to use them and could send us updated photos of the kids in our program from time to time. A couple of weeks ago I made specific request that they send me photos of some of the children I hadn't seen in quite some time and felt a little worried about. On Tuesday I received the photos of 7 kids in our program. What a joy it was to see Samantha...
andI truly love these children and was happy to see photos of them to know that they are okay.

But then...there was another photo..was just marked "photo" because the boy didn't have a name. And he's not a boy in our program. The photo was sent "by accident". I gasped when I saw it. Then I just sat kind of in shock. Maybe this isn't him, I thought. He doesn't look exactly like the photo I have of him. But I had recognized him immediately, hadn't I? I sent the photo to Kelly and simply asked, "Do you recognize this boy?" She wrote back and said, "Yeah, is he still on the street?" She, too, immediately knew who this "mystery" child in the "accidental" photo was. It is our street boy. But how? After nearly an entire year, in a city of 2,000,000 people, with an estimated 10,000 street children...how does one of my coordinators take a photo of him and "accidentally" send it to me? All kinds of thoughts are coming to my mind...the place where these photos are taken looks a lot like the park across the street from the hotel where we stayed in October. Did our coordinator ask the children to meet her there for photos? She lives near there. It is very possible. Does my street boy stay in or near that park? Did he see kids congregating and decide to come see what was going on? Did he see them all getting their photo taken and want his taken as well? Did she take it just to be nice? Has she seen this boy around? Did she have any reason behind taking the photo other than the fact that whenever a camera comes out in Haiti the kids usually like to come around to see their image on the digital screen? How did this possibly happen? How did my street boy's photo suddenly appear in my mailbox? The more I wondered about the craziness of this "coincidence" the more I felt a peace come to my heart telling me that I was being given a second chance. For whatever reason, the connections that Kelly and I made with this boy are not coincidental. And it is no coincidence that his photo ended up in my inbox this week. That thought brought me joy. But also more questions. I called Isson and told him about this. He was in just as much shock and awe as I was and said, "The Lord works in mysterious ways..." He is going to call our coordinators tomorrow to ask how and why they took this photo. And in the meantime, I am going to continue to pray. I do not want to live with any regret. My street boy is now not just another child I met in Haiti. How could he be? I just don't believe it. Do you?

If any of you feel like offering up prayers on this boy's behalf, it would be much appreciated--and on my behalf that I will be able to receive the inspiration necessary to know what I am supposed to do. I promise that once I find out, I WILL DO IT.