We are sharing the Healing Haiti housing with Father Talbot and his group. We started our day by sharing a Catholic service with his group at Mother Teresa's. It was a short service and a short walk home. Whether the Church Tent service or Mother Teresa's I so enjoy the early morning walks back. You get to see the city wake up, hear the roosters crowing, goats scrambling for food, parents scrambling their kids off to school. And, to see these young kids in such immaculate uniforms the older kids holding the hands of the younger, motorcycles with 2-3 kids riding just trying to get to school......
After a wonderful breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs, oatmeal, fresh avocado and fresh squeezed passion fruit we headed out to the Elder School in the heart of City Soliel. So many kids of all grades packed into such a small space - but they make it work. Going to school is a privilege. Most of the prayer requests from elders is to somehow find the money to get their kids and grandkids to school.......it is their gateway out of poverty. So if you are reading this, you can sponsor a child for about 40$ a month.
Water truck day (there are three stops). Every emotion can be felt on a day like this. Pure unadulterated joy, sadness, pain, love, anger.....but the greatest of these is love - it is not ironic - its written in the bible. All the other emotions cannot be diminished because its true. You will feel the pain of carrying a five gallon water bucket with the tips of your fingers or carrying it with a wire handle without the comforts of a grip, and it hurts. You don't just carry one bucket and rest, if we carried one, we carried 20 or more. Your neck and back hurt. My word of the day was "Can't" (which contains the word Can). Just when I thought I can't take another bucket or walk another step, God provided the strength and endurance. Not only are we carrying these bucket, but we balance ourselves out with a child on our hip. They want to be held and loved as much as we want to hold and love them. You feel anger that it feels as though these people have been forsaken, you will feel sadness for the children (slave children) and the sheer poverty. Despite that, what outweighs all of the negative emotions and what you will see is the smiles and laughter amongst the people and children. So happy to see us, to be held, to feel hope and to feel loved. Our sadness is ours - they are a happy people.
Two last thoughts on water truck day. At the first water stop, I was handed a naked toddler. I rocked this child and it slept in my arm for the greater part of half hour or more. With all the chaos of a water stop, this child slept. It reminds me of the verse "come to Me all who are weary, and I will give you rest." We as God's disciples were able to do His work of providing rest for a weary child. How amazing is that? It felt wonderful. And just think how happy God is when He provides us the rest we need. What a great provider - thank you Jesus!
My last thought was of an elderly lady that I had seen last year. She stood by a wall with all her water buckets. I was immediately drawn to her and felt the need to help her carry her water. She did not want help at first, but I knew she was there for me as much I was there for her. I did end up helping her carry her buckets, but about 2 minutes into my walk with her, I started to sob. Here was an elderly lady, carrying water twice a day 6 times a week. She is not retired down south, she has no pension plan or Medicare....she is just surviving into her golden years. She set the bucket down, held my cheeks and kisses each of them. She is consoling me. How backward is that? I knew what I was going home to. I had so much and she had so little. I couldn't reconcile this in my head, but here I was being held and comforted by this lady.......That was last year and she was never really far from my mind, in fact I still have her picture on my phone. This year, when I got to water stop #2, I desperately looked for her amongst the sea of faces and chaos. I knew about where she lived, and found a young family living there. My heart sank, thinking maybe she passed away. Thank you Jesus for letting me know her, if even for a few minutes. When we got to water stop #3, I carried a water bucket for a young girl and then I made my way back to the water truck. I looked up and I saw her standing in her doorway. My heart leapt with joy. I knew her face, I knew her. I ran up to her and explained in broken French that I helped her last year and she hugged me hard. What is this connection? I am not sure. I've known her all of a couple minutes for two water stops over a 1 year period. All I know is that I love her!
Our last stop of the day was the Haitian Initiative and Feeding Program. This is a chance for kids to go to school, play soccer and have a place to get some food - Thank you Feed My Starving Children. In order to stay in this program, kids must maintain good grades in school. You may see some of the kids who do come to Minnesota to play in the Soccer Tournaments at Schwan's center.
In one year, I have seen great progress....Thank you Jesus for everything!
~Micki
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