“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from the beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11
Cannot begin to count the number of times the phrase “the children are so beautiful” is spoken following a Trinity/HOPE presentation. It is always brought up by somebody and the attached photo taken of a girl in Caredeux probably brings you to think of that now. God has made everything beautiful in its own time, and as John Hall used to say quite frequently, “ain’t God good?” If you have spent much time in Haiti, seeing the children and where they live gives you a different perspective of the verse from Ecclesiastes. The home they live in is typically the size of a single stall North American garage. If the parents have money or support from somebody living in the U.S., their house may be the size of a double stall garage.
No electricity, no indoor plumbing, no kitchen cupboards, appliances, toilet, sink, screen or glass in the windows; their living conditions are primitive. The homes that I visited outside of Port-au-Prince in the rural areas typically had one dresser in the family bedroom and that held every family members earthly possessions. The girl in the photo doesn’t know what it is like to live on your street or what you come home to at the end of your day. She just doesn’t understand and neither can we living in North America comprehend what their living conditions are like. God is in control, from the beginning to the end and we just don’t and can’t understand why that girl is smiling. A few decades ago Ray Stevens had a song out called ‘Everything is beautiful’ and that song has made it into my time on many occasions while living in Haiti.
“Jesus loves the little children, all the little children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world. Everything is beautiful in its' own way. Like a starry summer night or a snow covered winter's day. Everybody's beautiful In their own way under God's heaven the world's gonna find a way. There is none so blind that is he who will not see. We must not close our minds, we must let our thought be free. For every hour that passes by you know the world gets a little bit older. It's time to realize that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. We shouldn't care about the length of his hair or the color of his skin. Don't worry about what shows from without but the love that lives within. We're gonna get it all together now everything gonna work out fine. Just take a little time to look on the good side my friend and straighten it out in your mind.”
Great song, hope that you have heard it and you will be humming it tomorrow. It seems that too many North American folks can’t understand why people living in poverty in other countries can possibly be happy and we then try to make North Americans out of them, giving them money, money, money and making their lives miserable. Thank you for supporting Trinity/HOPE. We are really quite simple; we feed children attending Christian schools, one bowl of rice and beans at a time. We are sensitive to how much they need to keep them healthy as they go about doing His work. We feed His children a bowl of rice and beans purchased from local Haitian vendors; every day, that’s it, nothing fancy, just preparing them to do as we do, take the Gospel message to the lost.
Dear Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you…Jay