Today we visited an orphanage. The Director / Founder of the orphanage told me that these children are typically taken in because the parents cannot afford to feed them. The orphanage can't take all children in but if a parent brings a child and the orphanage cannot take the child, the parent will leave the child at the gate or in the streets. The orphanage must and will take the child in at this point regardless of why they could not accommodate the child in the first place. Haiti has an average family size of 6 kids. The average wage is $4.52 per day. The unemployment rate is 40%. It is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. It tugs at one's heart to see these kids at the orphanage who just want attention and love. We will see much worse conditions tomorrow when we go deliver drinking water to the poorest slum in Haiti. We are all praying and preparing ourselves emotionally for tomorrow.
What is needed to help heal Haiti while planting the seed for Christ? A lot of things and many of us (you) have gifts and talents that can make a difference in a place like Haiti. While reading this you might want to know 'what may I give of myself to help'? Well there are the more traditional answers and while all great, we need to search within our hearts by exploring beyond our comfort zones to identify how we can take action to fulfill our purpose for Him.
The poor must be fed and given water to ultimately drink His water of life. If a child is hungry, how can they be intent to hear His word. We need to educate them so they can break the generational chain of poverty....I'll leave it here for you to ponder. More importantly, you've got to go serve, somewhere, and break outside of your comfort zone to know your purpose. Rick Warren wrote "The Purpose Driven Life" and the first sentence in the book says "It's not about you!" It's about serving others. How are you going to serve (to the best of your God given talents)?
We'll be back tomorrow. Thanks for reading this.
Phil
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