Mr. Beverage

Ok, real quick post.  Not sure why his name is Mr. Beverage.  Pretty sure that's a nickname. Anyway, I said I would post about him, so here he is.

His house is about the size of my living room.  He invited us all inside.  We barely fit in there.  And he has ten kids!  (Not all the kids were around for this photo.)  To be honest, I don't really know if he's their dad or uncle or what, but he's a pretty cool guy.  We gave his family lots and lots of FMSC meals.

If any of you Haiti ladies have any more clarity on Mr. Beverage, feel free to comment.  I guess I don't know a lot about him.  Except I like his name.  :)

Jeffrey

Haiti Day 4 Continued.

Like I mentioned in an earlier post (Sweet Baby Girls), while a couple of us were at each house, the rest of us stayed out in the street and played with the kids.  While I was at the house with the baby girl, something terrible was happening in the street.  I missed it, but the other girls told me all about it.

Bullying.

Bullying sucks, no matter where it is.  This time the kids ganged up on a little boy named Jeffrey.  Jeffrey is one of several children in his family, and is about seven years old.  He doesn't talk much, and he isn't quite as "good looking" as his siblings.  His eyes are a little bit different and his skin has some rough patches on it.  He may have had a slight learning disability of some kind.  Like I mentioned in an earlier post (They Are Weak But He Is Strong), in Haiti kids who are different or have a disability of any kind are seen as shameful or worthless.  I don't think Jeffrey's parents saw his as that extreme, but they definitely treated him differently than his siblings.  They didn't give him the nicest clothes or shoes they had.  The nice, new ones always went to his siblings.

This day (and probably lots of other days that we aren't there), the village kids were very cruel to Jeffrey.  I don't know all the details of what happened while I was in that house, but the end result was he was on the ground getting kicked and hit by the other kids.  Fortunately for Jeffrey, there were several adults in the street (and lots of them were mommas!) and they stepped in right away.  He was covered in dirt and had scratches and bruises all over.

We happened to be right by the ODH orphanage, so Tiroro (one of our translators) took him into the orphanage and gave him a shower and some clean clothes.  Jeffrey was at Tiroro's side the rest of the day.

Jeffrey in the red, resting on Tiroro.  

We saw Jeffrey a lot the rest of the week.  The next day he came with us to visit some other people.  And while I was leading some worship songs from the guitar, he sat on Angie's lap.  

When we left that house Angie looked at me and said, "Jeffrey was singing."  The whole week we didn't ever hear him say a word, except for telling us his name.  But he was SINGING.  How awesome!  That is why I do what I do.  Because people like Jeffrey who have nothing to say can somehow still connect with God and others through music.  WIN.

Throughout the rest of the week, our team took Jeffrey under our wings.  He had a whole bunch of mommas looking out for him!  There were several times that we caught the other kids being mean to him again, but we were quick to tell them "No!" (with the language barrier, that's about all we could say).  One of our girls held him while he took a nap.  We snuck him snacks when the other kids weren't looking (per our leaders' instructions).  We sent Tiroro to the store to buy him some new shoes.  We asked one of the other guys to give him a haircut.  And we gave him lots and lots of hugs.

A few days before I left for our trip, Jack had told me he wanted to get a card for me to give a little boy in Haiti.  I didn't know which little boy I would give it to, but by the end of the week I knew I should give it to Jeffrey.  

Giving Jack's card to Jeffrey.

I hope the card made him feel special.  During that week we got to know Jeffrey, he didn't smile a whole lot, but he was smiling when he got that card.  I showed him a picture of Jack and tried to explain that it was from him.  Whether he understood what I was saying or not, it was something special just for him.

In the card I had written, "Jesus loves you!  I'm praying for you!  Love, Jack"  I'm not sure he will ever actually read those words, but they are true.  Jesus loves Jeffrey very much.  And Jack and I pray for him all the time.

Sweet Baby Girls

Haiti Day 4

Went to Prayer Mountain.  Always a great way to start out the day.

Team photo on our way back down from the mountain.
Coolest tree ever!

Went to the orphanage to start painting the wall.  We didn't get it finished but planned to go back to complete it in a couple days.   The paint wasn't the quality that we were used to, so it was a little challenging, but we got the job done.

Liz with her blank canvas.
She designed an awesome mural!

Happy painters at work!

When we were finished.
We weren't able to add the green leaves on the tree
because of the paint issues.  However....

Another team came a few weeks after us and
brought the right paint to finish the tree!
It looks awesome!
And I love the little kids' feet at the bottom!

So glad we could be a part of making the orphanage a little more cheery!  

After lunch we gathered some medical supplies and FMSC meals and started walking around the village.  When we came to a house, we would stop and a couple of us would go in with FanFan to translate, to see if anyone needed medical care or food.  Heather, our RN on the team, was able to hand out some medicine and give medical advice to several people, and we handed out food to almost everybody.  

While just a couple of us were going into each house, the rest of us hung out in the street (dirt road) with the kids that started following us along the way.  It was so much fun!  Just spending time with the kids and getting to know them.  Teaching them some English and them teaching us some Creole.  And they LOVED carrying our backpacks for us. 

One house we stopped at had a baby girl about Paisley's size.  And her mom let me hold her.  Oh. My. Word. What a sweetie!  The mom said she was about a year old, but I'm sure she weighed less than Paisley (who was six months old at the time).  Everyone is smaller there.  

Giving them FMSC meals.
Nevermind the kid with no pants on.
And isn't the baby girl's half-done hair awesome!  :)

When we finished giving them the supplies, FanFan started praying for them.  I stood off to the side with that sweet baby girl.  And I prayed for her.  And I held her tight.  And I cried.  Not because I missed my baby girl.  She reminded me so much of her.  I cried because I started thinking about how different their lives are. About all the things and opportunities my girl has.  And how this baby girl has almost nothing.  And how their lives will continue to be different as they grow up.  I was so overcome by that thought.  

Praying for the sweet baby girl.

Later that night I was thinking about that little girl.  And my little girl.  And how God loves them the SAME.  Not only does He love them the same, but he SEES them the same.  It's not like He's thinking, "Oh, they are so different, but my love for them is the same."  He actually sees them in the same way.  He doesn't see their surroundings or their possessions or how many opportunities they have or how different their earthly lives are.  He just sees their hearts.  He just sees two little girls that He created and knows intimately.  He loves them both deeply.  That love sent Him to the cross.  For both of them.  Wow.  

This was my prayer in my journal that night:

God, that is one thing I love about You so much: that you see us all the same.  As precious children that You love so much.  Please teach me how to see people like that.  

There's more to Haiti Day 4.  Namely, a little boy named Jeffrey and a man named Mr. Beverage.  But I'll save them for another post.