Children of Haiti

Kenzy and I have been so busy this past week. School starts the first of October and we have been running around trying to buy an organize school supplies for over 70 children. You can imagine it gets a little chaotic. Every child has a different list of books they need to buy and the cheapest bookstore is in Port Au Prince. We had to drive for over two hours to get there with no air conditioning in the 95-degree heat. The road leading to Port Au Prince is no American highway either. It’s riddled with potholes and giant cracks. And don’t get me started on the dust and pollution. I can blow my nose after a day trip there and all that comes out is black soot. Gross!! That can’t be good breathing all that in. When we finally arrived at the bookstore we had to wait in line for another 2 hours to buy everything we needed. Unfortunately, the books were way more expensive than I thought they would be so we had to wait until more money was wired to us and then make the trip again the following day. It was exhausting!! It blows my mind how hard it is to accomplish the simplest task. It will probably take us a couple of days to sort out which book goes to which kid before we can distribute them. All the children are waiting patiently for their gifts. I know it will be well worth the frustration to see their happy little faces when they receive the supplies. Can you imagine trying to learn how to read and write without ever having a book to look at or a pencil to write with? It would be impossible. I’m so thankful for the Child Sponsorship Program. Without it I would never be able to afford to help these kids the way I do. It’s such a blessing!

It’s been over a month since I started the feeding program at the prison.  It’s been a learning process, but its running more efficiently every week. I’ve had quite a few interesting experiences and met a lot of new people during my prison talks. For the most part the people are always respectful and kind when I come to visit them. Often the women talk to me about their children. Many of them don’t know where their children are or who is raising them. We spend most of our time together praying and I try to give them words of encouragement. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to be separated from you children and not know what is happening to them. 

The teenagers I talk to have proven to be a little more challenging. Its hard to get through to them because….well because they’re teenagers. Yesterday one boy introduced himself to me as, Satan. His teeth were filed down to points so he could look more intimidating. He’s a member of a local political gang that spends their days terrorizing the community with violence and vandalism. He makes money by robbing the elderly. His last offense was firing a gun into a crowd of people. No one was killed but he’s been sitting in a prison cell ever since with no hope of getting out anytime soon. He’s 14 years old…

When I speak to him about the love of Jesus he doesn’t look me in the eye.  I tell him that every hair on his head has been numbered. That he was fearfully and wonderfully made. He looks to the ground. He looks to the ceiling. He looks anywhere except in my eyes. He knows I see him for what he is. A scared sad little boy that is furious with the world because no one took the time to love him, but Jesus loves him. My plan is to spend every Saturday telling him that until he finally looks at me and gets it.

Please pray with me as I continue to work with these children. Pray for the ones on our land trying to get an education and pray for the ones sitting in those cells angry and scared. Pray for the children who have lost their mothers to sin or a corrupted judicial system. Every child has a story in this country and every child deserves prayer.