admin Here’s a blog post from my wife this evening. Thought I would share.
A Note From Nycki
What an amazing day! This has been the best trip back I could have asked for. Although I am exhausted, sweaty, dirty, retaining fluid in my feet and hands, dirty, bruised, and dirty, I feel great!!! It’s the feeling of being exactly where I am supposed to be at exactly the right time. It’s the feeling of obedience, of saying yes and truly living. What a great God we serve.
The day started with the very early sunrise of Haiti after a wonderfully restful and needed sleep. It’s the kind of sleep that only comes from complete physical exhaustion. I can’t tell you how thankful I am for air conditioning in the bedrooms of this guesthouse! We got up, got dressed and sat down for a breakfast of porridge, bananas, cucumbers and peanut butter. It was sustaining. We were greeted after breakfast by Philemon, our translator, and Pastor Mongerard of Darivager who drove us to the orphanage. Immediately it was apparent that this man had a heart for giving. It started when he handed money from his pocket to the lady that opened the gate at Cambry. He just called her over to the car and handed it to her. She didn’t ask, he just gave, and she beamed.
As we continued the drive, we saw a couple of girls in their school uniforms that were walking AWAY from the direction of school. The pastor pulled to the side of the road and began talking to the girls. I thought they were in so much trouble for skipping school. Apparently American kids skip school; Haitian kids don’t skip school. He told them where we were going and said for them to meet us there. As we drove off, we learned from Philemon that the girls had been kicked out of school because their parents couldn’t afford the tuition and it had not been paid. Then, we found out that the tuition was the equivalent to $5 American each for the YEAR! It cost $10 for both of the girls to go to school for the entire year. So, of course, we paid it. The girls met us at the orphanage where Pastor Mongerard put them in his car and drove them back to school with our $10 to pay their tuition for the year. The best is what Philemon said would happen after school. They would go home and tell their parents about the 3 white people who paid their tuition. He said the parents would be so happy and praise God that their children would go to school for one more year. I like to dream about what that one more year will mean for these girls. But it is God’s hands now, and we may never know what this education means or what amazing things they will do in their world because they got one more year in school.
It makes me stop and think about what I spend $5 on, coffee, a snack, half of a movie? Most of us probably have $5 in change just sitting around the house. $5 made such a difference for a couple of girls and their families. Thank you God for putting us here, now, and for allowing us to be present to make a difference.
And all of that happened before 8:00 a.m. It was only the beginning of a beautiful day in Haiti.
