Haiti Exposed [Haiti Trip, Blog 3]
We've seen all kinds of poverty this week in Haiti: economic, political and spiritual. It's not hidden, like in much of the US, but as if intentionally exposed for all to see.
Every month, Heaven’s Family helps far more people than we could ever highlight in our bi-monthly newsletter. For that reason, this page contains additional photos and stories of some of the “least of these” among our spiritual family whom we’ve recently been blessed to serve.
We've seen all kinds of poverty this week in Haiti: economic, political and spiritual. It's not hidden, like in much of the US, but as if intentionally exposed for all to see.
When militants besieged the Syrian city of Hojaira in 2012, Sabeen—along with her ailing husband and their three children, ages 5, 8 and 15—fled quickly, escaping with only the clothes on their backs. They felt lucky to be alive.
Fight the French! Kayla (my wife) could not believe her ears. She had just returned from a much-needed restroom visit midway through a 3-1/2-hour Sunday church service—which I learned was pretty standard in Haiti—feeling very confused.
"I was sad that I had to bring him here, but I knew he would have a better life." With those words Thessoit Belony, translated through Pastor Wildelson, the director of Mount Zion Orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, told me her story. Mount Zion is a small orphanage crammed into a crowded sea of colorless, half-crumbling cement-block-and-rusty-tin homes on the southwest side of the city. You can see poverty everywhere. You can smell it.
"I was sad that I had to bring him here, but I knew he would have a better life." With those words Thessoit Belony, translated through Pastor Wildelson, the director of Mount Zion Orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, told me her story. Mount Zion is a small orphanage crammed into a crowded sea of colorless, half-crumbling cement-block-and-rusty-tin homes on the southwest side of the city. You can see poverty everywhere. You can smell it.
Jafer told me of his own lifelong spiritual journey. At age 22, he was reading a Bible that had been given to him, comparing Jesus' teaching with what Mohamed taught in the Quran. Because Islam "ran through his veins" as he put it, he suffered great internal conflict, to the point that, one day, he tossed both the Bible and Quran and cried out to God, tearing his clothes and pulling his hair. Jafer told me, "I was beating on the refrigerator, the stove and on the walls and pointing my finger to God and crying out to Him: 'Where are You? How can I find You? How can I find the truth?'"