There’s a million unknowns running through mama’s head. Anticipation builds because she’s never been without her adored husband for such a long time. To help calm her soul, she reasons that 11 days will pass quickly. Part excited and part nervous, mama reaches for the finest pastor clothes she can find hanging on a metal rod in the corner of their small room. She gently folds Pastor Nahum’s suit hoping it will not get wrinkled and carefully places it in a big duffle roller bag. She never imagined she’d actually be packing for my papa to come to America. You should know, opportunities for a Haitian man like her husband to take off in an airplane, fly across the ocean, and visit a world of luxury and excessive abundance just hardly ever happens. But God looked down on this humbled couple fighting to care for the orphaned, poor, and forgotten children in their village. He saw all of this and His heart swelled. Then He reached out His hand and opened wide a door that doesn’t normally open for people like mama and papa. Mama feels God’s presence. She knows God loves her and Pastor Nahum and all of the children they care for. I personally think mama is a rare treasure of great value. There are hundreds of children mama never birthed but still she sacrificially mothers them as if she did. Quietly she hums praise songs as she zips up Pastor Nahum’s duffle bag.
You’d think stepping out of the only world you’ve ever known and into a new unfamiliar world would be a bit scary. But my papa isn’t scared. He’d been praying and waiting for this opportunity. Finally, he’d be coming to the US to meet all of the people who support his ministry--at last he’d go beyond Facebook and enter face to face reality. His first purpose for going to the US is to serve his Lord Jesus. He’d share his personal testimony of his faith in Jesus Christ and be a voice for the hundreds of suffering children living in his village. God called him to serve the little children in this way and some may think this is an insignificant calling but that’s just not true. In fact I don’t think I’ve seen a greater calling. Prepared to speak out on behalf of his children to anyone here in the US who’d open their ears and hearts to him, he grabs his duffle bag and loads it into the car that would take us to the Port-au-Prince airport. My papa hugs mama tight and gets in the car. He wants to look at her one last time. He glances over his shoulder out the back window of the car where he sees mama standing in the curtained doorway. I look too. A small boy child clings to her leg and I can see she is worn from living the Haiti life. She’s beautiful. I want to be like her. I almost cry, but instead I break through this moment by reminding papa that he’ll be back home and in mama’s arms real soon. We drive off not knowing my papa would suffer a stroke 3 days later. Those 11 days Pastor Nahum originally intended to spend in the US painfully stretched out into 51 days and this isn’t the way we planned things. This isn’t easy.
When titanic sized tragedy hits, people will grieve the devastation for a short while, eventually accept it, and then move on. Some will sympathetically remember the tragic event from time to time while others altogether forget it. In 6 months, maybe the remembering ones will reflect on my papa’s stroke saying things like, “Remember when that Haitian pastor had a stroke during his first visit to America? So sad. His ministry was a beautiful thing but after he suffered that debilitating stroke, everything fell apart...and all of his needy children... well I heard they slid right back into their gross poverty with no hope. What a tragedy.”
But does it have to be this way? What if, instead, my papa’s stroke breaks all of the rules of tragedy? What if God takes the very thing Satan intended for destruction and transforms it into a full blown God-glorifying blessing? Do you believe God can do that?
I do. I believe it with every fiber of my being.
And if God can, is it too overwhelming to fathom, while He is transforming the loss into gain, that He’d invite us to participate in some small way?
Would He pull us up so close to His glory if only we’d accept the invitation?
The answer is, yes. He would.
The invitation is an invitation to love and love involves giving up something but it’s always worth it. I hear my Jesus whisper, “Whatever you do for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you do for me.”
The glory of God can rise straight up from this tragedy. My papa’s mission doesn’t have to end. It can’t end. How can we sit and watch as hundreds of helpless children sink back into absolute poverty? This sort of poverty kills. The right thing to do is to do something.
I think of what a joy-blessing it would be for my papa if one day soon I could call him and tell him that his dream of getting all of his children sponsored has come true. I think of the smiles spreading across these 200 child faces when they find out someone saw them valuable enough to reach out and take their hand. I stare straight up into the deep blue sky, dreaming, hoping, praying. Surely out of all of the people who have been following our journey and know about the devastation...surely some of you out there have a heart to participate in my papa’s Take-A-Hand sponsorship program. He wakes up every morning and the eyes of these 200 children pass by looking to him, hoping he will provide for them spiritually, physically, and academically. These children are close to my papa’s heart and he wants to help all 200 of them but he can’t do it alone.
Here is our Take-A-Hand page on our blog site: http://back-to-life-ministries.blogspot.com/p/gilbert-christian-school-sponsorship.html
You will be able to scroll through some of the faces of the children who still do not have a sponsor. There’s about 20 children to choose from up on our site and each day we will add more pictures (we are at the mercy of our obnoxious turtle speed internet out here in the country) There are still over 160 children who need sponsors. That’s a lot of kids and no one has taken their hand. Will you please do it?
Signing up to sponsor the child of your choice is easy and your small $30 monthly love offering will make a lasting change in the life of your child and my papa’s village. Just click on the Google checkout button under the picture of the child you want to sponsor and it will guide you through safe and secure payment processing that can be done with your credit or debit card. Please be sure to include your full mailing address as we will mail you a beautiful 5x7 picture and the actual handprint of your child in your welcome packet.
These children are waiting. Click here and Take-A-Hand now.
"For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you." Isaiah 41:13
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