Stories & Testimonies

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.

What do you want to be when you grow up? is a familiar question to most of us. We often hear (or said) things like a firefighter so I can save lives or an astronaut so I can explore space. (Ask enough children and you'll probably get one that says firefighting astronaut!) Almost always the answers are fanciful, or extend far beyond the likely reach of that child—or so we think.

I wish orphan care ministry was always smiles, giggles and success, but it isn't. Unfortunately, we sometimes find a "bad apple" orphanage director who isn't honest with us, or due to some other ongoing, unbiblical behavior we must end their support. It grieves me deeply because I know it's the children who suffer most from a director's poor choices. Though we may discontinue our financial support of a particular orphanage, however, that doesn't mean our prayer support for their kids should stop.