We had a ball with the children at the kids club. They were so good. They sang from the heart. They thoroughly enjoyed the games, the story of the feeding of the 4,000 and the love that exuded from our team. There were about 75 children all smashed together in a tiny upper room. The schools have been closed since the earthquake, so this was a special treat for these kids. The children from Maple Grove Evangelical Free Church, in MN, sent hand-made cards that we handed out, along with little plastic fish (to go with the story ). Our gals are pretty amazing. (Linda, Barb, Sarah & Trinity – and I (Mike) actually ended up helping, not just playing J ) Remember, they had less than one day to pull this whole thing off, without having a store from which to get supplies. The kids were so hungry for love and attention, they just clung to all of us, holding our arms and hands whenever they could. Their smiles won us over the moment we arrived. They all seemed to have a special twinkle in their eye, even though each one has a tale to tell of survival and struggle.
After the day club was done, we were invited to walk through the neighborhood where these children are living. Pastor Absalon wanted us to see their living conditions in hopes we could do something to help them. One of the streets in this particular neighborhood seems to be between distribution points and not receiving the cards needed to redeem their bags of rice. (Only women who have a card can wait in the lines to receive a bag of rice. We have seen these lines, and some days they are a thousand women in them.) Our teammate Brian Bennetch was at a meeting with international relief organizations while we were visiting the neighborhood, so we called him right away. (Most Haitians don’t have access to these meetings, so they look to us for help.) The contact person promised to look into the distribution of cards in that neighborhood. We brought a box of “Feed my Starving Children” food from MN, that we will bring to them tomorrow to tide them over until the problem is resolved. (We brought enough to feed 216 children one meal. Praise the Lord that we can supply them with a little food until the problem is resolved. We’ll keep an eye on them J)
Pastor Absalon and his wife invited us over . We were able to get to know them better, sharing our life stories and laughing together. We shared about our lives. We heard the story of how they met and their dreams for the future. They are sleeping outside in a tent and have next to nothing for food, but they served us lunch (rice with some vegetables on top) and lemonade. It was hard to eat, knowing the sacrifice it was for them, but we didn’t want to offend them. It was such a humbling experience for us; a living example of the widow and her last mite. We have so much to learn from the Haitian people. We have worked to help this young couple and their church, but I think their generosity has done more for us than we could ever do for them.
Please keep praying for the Haitian people,
Mike and LInda
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