CLOSE THIS ARTICLE HAITI CHALLENGE The Lord is walking beside Haiti helpers 05/10/07 A few weeks ago I received along with the other Haitian missionaries from the U.S. Department of State a travel warning which stated in 2006 there were 66 Americans kidnapped (usually for ransom) and four were killed. Many missionaries around the country had been assaulted, terrorized and threatened by roving gangs particularly in and around Port au Prince. Many were kidnapped by carjacking and home invasions. It is not known how many hundred Haitians, adult and children have been killed or victimized by kidnappers. (I’ve seen several photographs of babies who had been shot, because their parents could not pay the ransom). The warning also stated that Haiti continues to be one of the most dangerous countries in the world and will continue to be until the gang problem is addressed. A person with the United Nations Security Forces responsible for training Haiti’s police cautioned that coming there now was strongly discouraged without using extreme precautions, being in a large group and above all having a secure location to stay while there. Several years ago I didn’t have a clue why the Lord had in His plans for me to go to Haiti; I remember not wanting to go, especially after I found out about how hard it was going to be to get and survive there and hearing Haiti was the second poorest county in the world where most of its citizens were starving, especially the small children, and it was pretty dangerous. I know I’ve stated this before. I won’t ever forget being told once, “There will be times in your life that what you are doing is not your business any more, it’s God’s business and you better get on with His business or you will be in for some miserable times.” With those thoughts in mind, realizing the knowledge of working with troubled children and their families I had acquired over the years was a gift from God and thinking of way I could use them, this for sure was His business, it wasn’t mine and I got busy and successes began to happen. The first thing I found was that almost all of the children and their families in our area of Haiti were poor. I found some of the children were so poor that they were actually starving and many of them were attending our Pre K School. I would later find they were the poorest of the poor. We know without the meal we provide them each day some of them would gradually become weaker and in their weakened condition, diseases like typhoid, malaria, especially diarrhea would invade their little bodies and another child dies. I see it every time I’m there. I thought, Lord these are only 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old babies in our school. And most with rust colored hair, swollen fingers, swollen stomach - all signs of malnutrition. I have no doubt the Lord is walking with us there. I am continually asking Him to direct me and my thoughts, to bless Mrs. Shirley Childers and the Calhoun First Baptist Sunday School classes who are keeping Bill Childers’ dream alive. I am forever asking Him to show us and bless His Mission He has placed our community on and bless all who have continued to support what we are doing there in that small community in the mountains of Haiti. What we are doing there is only a speck of relief when it comes to the Haitians’ multitude of problems. I know we are doing the Lord’s work. We are keeping children alive and from becoming mentally challenged. We have had time now to see what we are doing is working; we have some of the brightest children in the local elementary schools. Children we gave a start they needed. There will become a day that some of them will help improve conditions in that community. Our Bill Childers Pre School has 60 young fellows and is doing well, we teach our little fellows academics and we teach them about the Bible and its principles five days a week, feed them a meal each day, and pay four teachers and the director - all thanks to our caring sponsors. We want to give those little fellows a head start when they enter elementary school. We could do more in the community if we were financially able. Our goal is to give them a beginning chance to learn to read, then some day they can open their Bibles and read about where God promised them a future with hope, because in our area they have very little of either. With the Lord’s help things are really going well; we are now able to communicate with our Haitian friends by e-mail and cell phones we’ve provided. We also have an account in a new small bank 12 miles from our Roi community where we deposit funds and have them transferred to our friend’s accounts when needed. We once had to carry money on our person when we went there, taking a chance of being robbed. We had to depend on the mail for communications and could take two or three weeks to get an answer to a question. Having these conveniences and trusted Christian friends God has provided has made it easier to follow His mission. There is an innocence you see and feel when being involved with those people, they’re survivalist and have told when talking to our kids’ mothers about their families’ futures, “Today is like yesterday, and tomorrow will be the same. I have to work hard to find ways for my family to get along.” The fact is the mothers are the major providers for the families. They get engrained in your mind and memory those people, the look on their faces as they walk past you on the road giving you a smiling glance and a courteous greeting, “Bon swa.” I’ve often wondered where they were going; in the mountains of Haiti you walk everywhere - three, four, five miles are nothing. And if the need arises they will start for destinations that could be 50 miles away, hoping they will be lucky if some vehicle will come along going their way and give them a ride. It is nothing to see 15 or 20 people standing in the back of a pickup truck or buses with people on the tops and hanging everywhere. There are no cars in our vicinity - only bicycles, motorcycles and a few four-wheel drive trucks. Four-wheel drive trucks are the only way to get up there and then to get you out, which you have scheduled several days in advance. Thanks to the Lord, trusted friends here and there, with e-mails, and the cell phone we are in contact quite often, we are doing a much more effective and efficient job than when we first started. Our little fellows are in good hands, and we God willing will continue to support them and the Bill Childers Pre School. |