I continue to be amazed or should I say embarrassed by the sense of sharing by people who have so little. I have been privileged to hear similar stories thoughout Haiti. Unfortunately the media choose to portral the ungly side of food riots in Port-au-Prince. Ken
Each year when we go to Les Cayes, Haiti on our mission trip, we go out to eat one night at Nami, a Chinese restaurant. I know—it sounds funny, doesn't it? We have to order our food ahead and pay for it, so the restaurant can go and buy the groceries to make the meal. The food always tastes great and they have cold beverages which are also special.
We also use it as a time to treat our hosts…the Izidor family, Pastor Paul Touloute and his family, Nora and Leon, and sometimes our bus driver. These are people who are day-by-day, in very difficult circumstances, living out the Gospel. It is nice to give them a night out.
This year, we were scheduled to go to Nami on Thursday night (the quake was Tuesday). On Wednesday, we talked about it and, knowing that supplies would soon be running short, we decided to give the Izidors the $200+ that we would have spent at Nami. “Please use it however you can…”
I didn’t think about it much after that. Wednesday was filled with keeping the orphans occupied since school was closed and the Izidor family was making decisions about next steps. Thursday morning was the hospital visit (for another post) and Thursday afternoon we did VBS (that felt so good—to be sharing the Word with the children). Dan and the guys worked on handyman projects around the orphanage. Thursday night we slept outside again because there were warnings from the UN about being inside.
As we awoke on Friday morning (you wake up early when you sleep outside), we noticed Israelson’s jeep making repeated trips out of the compound and back in. Yelline went with him. The first trip back he had 400 pounds of rice. The next trip back was other food. And so it went. About the third trip in, Nora leaned over to me and said, “Well, Sue, there’s your restaurant money. We think we can feed the kids for 2 months on these supplies.”
I wept when she said that and I am weeping again as I write it. I don’t really know why. I guess I was just so incredibly grateful that we were able to do one little thing to help in that horrible tragedy. And I am so incredibly humbled to compare the money that I spend on food to what $200 can buy in Haiti.
As Israelson and some of our guys were unloading the supplies, I asked Israelson about the whole thing. He said, “We try to buy as much as we can now, because we know that people will soon be coming to us because they are hungry.” I asked, “Will you give them food?” “Yes,” he said, “we will try to give them just enough to get them by. It will be hard because eventually we will have to turn some away. It is very hard.”
And so, humbled and teary again, I tried to take into my heart the amazing example of the Izidor family, who over and over again, do not think only about how they will take care of their own (including 28 orphans), but how God might also use them to help others. And I ask God to give me that heart as well.
SUE STEEGE
First Trinity DCE
ssteege@firsttrinity.com
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