We packed up to leave. Finally, Will and Sam could give away what they wish. Dumerle promised to take a bag of items to our new little sponsored child, Vinsen. The Lord had a reason for me unknowingly packing two sets of too-small clothes that my boys could not wear. I think they won’t be too big on little Vinsen. I cannot wait to see how God uses him, and he will grow in the light of prayer and care.
The two tiny MAF airplanes take off without a hitch. I watch Madame Bahbawa as she looks over toward the North Pennisula of Haiti, toward the white cliffs of Kaliko, toward the road that claimed her son’s life. When he passed, she declared that “My love affair with this country is finished.” But then she learned, like Jonah, that God loved Nineveh. God loves Haiti. He was good to rekindle love for this place, these people in her heart, and it is spreading!
A friend asked me what was the one thing, the most important thing, that I got out of this experience. I had to think for a few minutes. Haiti has SO many “pwoblems”. It is utterly overwhelming. But I think the one thing I realized was this: Jesus left us with instructions, and the instructions aren’t “Go therefore, and be comfortable. Shelter yourselves and your children and turn a blind eye in my name.” Acts 1:8 says “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Matthew 25:40 says “The King will reply, Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
I stand convicted. I have lived years of comfort and blindness and not been a witness or been kind or giving to the least of these. I have denied the power of the Holy Spirit to fix a single “pwoblem” and I have lived like a pauper when I’m a child of the King. Cladel said to me several times, “Now you have seen Haiti. Now you know.” I can claim ignorance no longer, but, I can trust Him to do mighty things!
Just before our flight from Anse a Galet, Sam and I stood on the dirt runway across from the block factory, looking over the donkeys carrying their burdens of charcoal to the aquamarine sea. I said, “Isn’t it beautiful?” Sam agreed. Then I laughed. We were looking over a sea of trash and refuse and claimed it beautiful. We decided that we think Haiti is beautiful because God loves it. God loves LaGonave. Jesus is the Hope for LaGonave. In the words of Ones, “Mesi, Jezi. Mesi.”