This past Sunday, March 1st, was the first one of the month. Once again JJS Missions along with the Mission of Grace provided a Communion Feast featuring a delicious meal of chicken and gravy, rice and beans, salad and a drink. More than 300 people in Carries were blessed by this endeavor. We were thankful to have the assistance of several young ladies from the orphanage, along with visiting missionaries, and the Mission of Grace staff to help feed them. Knowing that many of the children in the village received a substantial meal was heartwarming. What a joyous time!
I try to get to the school each day in time to help serve lunch, and I generally stay until the children return to their classes. A couple of weeks ago I saw Mary France, one of the older kids from the orphanage go into a classroom during lunch. I wondered what was going on so I went into the class also. I was surprised to see her feeding one of the students in the special needs class. His name is Angleson and he has been diagnosed with Downs Syndrome. Occasionally I would see him standing around while other children were running and playing. One day I invited him to sit with me and we quietly observed the mayhem that is recess at school. We have become regular lunch buddies. Angleson routinely seeks me out during recess…if I am upstairs that’s where he will end up. If I am standing downstairs he will come by and grab my hand. And if I sit on the step, his favorite place is on the step right in front of me. The other day as we were chilling I pulled out my phone to take a couple of pictures and did a selfie of the two of us. When he saw a picture of himself on my phone he could not stop laughing…he thought it was the funniest thing he had ever come across. Ms. Lynn said she has never seen him smile before! I know this was one of the God Ordained Moments…one of the reasons HE has me here.
Another God Ordained Moment happened at the soup kitchen today (March 5th). It really started the day before when I was at the clinic. There was a mother with what I thought was her very young child seeking medical help. I later saw her at the soup kitchen. She said she needed to talk with someone about her “situation”. No one was available to talk with her at the moment so she decided to come back to tomorrow. The next day when I arrived at the soup kitchen she was there and decided she wanted to talk with me. My Kreyol is nowhere near the conversational level so I asked Ms. Lynn to stop by on her way back to our guest house. The young lady’s story floored me.
The mom explained that her husband and brother recently died in an automobile accident and she was struggling to take care of twin three-month olds still at home in addition to the child she had with her. She had no income, no home of her own, and no way to provide for her family. In fact she was currently staying with friends and, even though it was a big burden she didn’t have any other options.
It turns out the “very young” child she was holding was in fact her four year old son who had not yet developed the ability to sit up on his own. Right away Ms. Lynn deduced the child has some medical problems which need to be addressed. However, without money no hospital would even give her an appointment, except of course the one operated by Mission of Grace.
After prayer and careful consideration, Ms. Lynn told me to take the child to the orphanage where they would clean him up and do an assessment. They would make sure the child was examined by the local doctor and, if necessary would take him to larger medical facility for a more thorough exam. In short, Ms. Lynn accepted another child into the Mission of Grace and would make sure he was cared for in every possible way. As we circled to pray for the mom and child I felt the warmth of the Holy Spirit and realized this was another one of those moments I was to brought here to witness.
This will be my last post for a couple of weeks as I will be traveling outside of Haiti. I will be back in country around March 21st.
Blessings, Vernon