Worrying comes easy to me. I know I shouldn’t but I do it never the less. This time of the year is always difficult for me. The summer is in full swing, people are away on vacation and the pressures of responsibility for what happens in Haiti creep up on me. Tropical storm Emily, it went away but in my mind I saw the little houses around the feeding centers lose their roofs made of banana leafs. That happens every time I hear of a tropical storm. I want to do something but have no means.
The list of needs for the education of the orphans will come in and it always happens when we are real low on money. I get upset about the cost of shoes and uniforms and dream up better and cheaper ways to do it but it always takes second place behind keeping them alive. All these precious children in the orphanage and the feeding centers, who for every bite of food depend on what is given to Matthew 28. Staring faces patiently waiting for someone to fill their empty plate. Twenty little legs, bruised, scarred and infected, squeezed together on each side of the tables, resting from the long walk to the feeding center. Little lives God has entrusted to us.
A farmer friend and I were passing by a cornfield today in the car. He mentioned how much corn was selling for. All because of ethanol. Just in one year up 90 percent. The children don’t know what ethanol is. But they do understand what it means if a feeding center is closed. They know what hunger is.
Last time in May on our way to the orphanage we passed a house outside Hinche. Pauluis stopped and asked Dr. Doug and me to come with him. We walked up a dangerous set of stairs. In the half dark we found a little boy sitting in a plastic stroller. His name was Jonathan. He had cerebral palsy. The mother did not understand what was wrong with him. Nobody ever told her. She let me pick him up and I laid him on a bed in a back room. He felt like a little tree with fragile branches. Doug checked him out and tried to give instructions on how to keep him more mobile. So little you can do…
If I could not give it back to God, I think I would go crazy. But Jesus said: “You give them something to eat” .Then, when we realize we cannot do it ourselves with what little we have, we may give it back to Him. He will do miracles with whatever we put in His hands. We may put Jonathan in His hands too.
So I am asking you to help put things in His hands. If you can come to Haiti with me. do it! Let’s talk about what you could do there. Let God do miracles with your gifts.
