In Sharp Contrast- It is Summertime!

School is out, School is out

The hearts of the Children wants to run and Shout!

What a blessed sight to see the joy and smiles on the faces of my niece and youngest daughter as they step off of the school bus one last day!  Chatters of excitement tell me that they got the teacher that they want for next year and the plans for the summer are in full swing. 

My 13 year old is on the diving board ready to jump off with my older niece, already having begun the fun at hand! 

Our fifteen year old son is cutting the lawn with the ipod and headphones in place. Probably shoot some baskets when he gets done.  He has practice tonight.

It is a beautiful day with a clear blue sky and the scent of the Mock Orange in bloom.  The farmers are planting their crops and you can hear the hum of the tractor engines.  There is a smell of fresh cut hay in the air and the birds are in delight as worms are being unturned for their consumption. 

"The Heaven declare the glory of God

And the skies proclaim the work of His Hand"

The Garden is beginning to produce as we picked several quarts of strawberries today, as well as asparagus in abundance.

I am thinking that strawberry smoothies or a fresh strawberry pie is in the making for the evening!

Our oldest daughter and a bevy of helpers are preparing for the first night of her horse ministry which she calls "Unbridled Hope".  There are twenty something girls, ages 8-16 planning to attend this weekly camp in which they learn to ride, bond with the horses, as well as have a worship and devotional time with God.

So the smell of equine mixed with leather is also added to the menagerie of smells of the summertime.

It makes the heart light and the spirit praise filled! The children will be close to God's beauty all summer long and this in turn is the way He draws their spirits unto Him!

The daddy of this place is doing what he does best and that is keeping everything looking nice from the fruit trees to the road island red chickens that are now roaming all over our front yard!

This is what life is about... Summertime and the heart of a child!

Here is the contrast....

Let's now travel over 2000 miles south and another 2 hours of air time to the city of Port au Prince, Haiti where our two additional daughters live.  They reside at "His Home for Children" which houses 110 children who need forever families.  Some are waiting, some of being considered, and some will never leave this place. 

School in Port does not leave out for the summer.  It is a year round education.  The girls begin their day with a five thirty wake up.  No electricity is usually available at this time of the morning but in Haiti daylight is about 4:30. They dress, eat breakfast, and head to school on foot of course.  There are no gardens or swimming facilities close by just lots and lots of people with lots and lots of dust, and lots and lots of smells.

  Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere.  Eighty percent of the population lives in extreme poverty.  Our girls are very blessed to attend school, as 65 % of children never finish elementary and 80 % will never attend high school.

Over half of the adult population is illiterate.

The smells that they have to endure include charcoal smoke ( most people cook with this), sewage, and rotting animals from the streets.

The food they eat consists of rice and beans, oatmeal..!?
Most of the water is not fit to drink for Americans and according to Hal who runs the orphanage... not for the Haitians either.

There is alot of noise... crying babies, shouting neighbors, cursing on the street out front and just a overall drone of human beings, as the city population is around 3.5 million, nearly half of the whole countries population.
Disease is rampant and words such as cholera, malaria, and HIV fill many fearful conversations.  Nothing is taken for granted and tomorrow nothing may be the same. 

The summertime doesn't change much from the winter time, or the fall and spring as well.  The routine is the same each day of the week... Monday- Friday is school....Saturday they get to take a cold shower and wash their hair and re braid it. Sunday is church and grilled cheese and hot dogs, a specialty that they love to look forward to.  They have chores, especially our 16 year old. She does the laundry for a group of children by hand in a pan in the backyard and then carries the clothes up a 6 foot ladder to a flat roof of metal where she lays them out to dry.

Their bedroom is shared with 10 other girls and every bed is made and the room is spotless.  They work very hard to keep it this way.

"I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the poor."

Pslm 140:12

On a recent visit we ask our daughters on their birthday celebration what they wanted to do in their 16th and 13th years.  I do believe we could have ask them if it snows in Haiti, by the looks on their faces!  Dreams, hopes, and future are not words that are understood.  The only answer that we got from them was to "Come Home" ,and we pray every day that this wish will be granted.

Why then we ask, are some of us placed in lives that are so full of blessing and hope and so many others have been put in situations that will never change or prosper? 
The Word of God says that there will always be the poor and the afflicted. 
Does this excuse us then in anyway from helping or reaching out??  I think not!

Perhaps we are seeing it through the wrong glasses... while out blessings are abundant, we are so busy with the blessings that sometimes I think we forget what it is to "be still and now that I am God".  With our prosperous churches and business'  we have learned to take everything for granted and do not appreciate anything that we have or are.  Attending church in Haiti in comparison to America is like a rushing water fall in contrast to a small stream of water in a dried up creek bed.  When our business is doing well we horde are increase and desire for more.  In Haiti if someone has something of value they share with anyone who does not have the same blessings.

Some of the things that our two sets of children have the same are that they can look up and see the same moon every night.  They each have the ability to choose right from wrong.  Each child has five senses and hands and feet to use and walk upon.  They each have the love of A Everlasting Father in Heaven who when they cry out to Him, He will always answer them. 




And they have two parents...a Dad and a Mom who love them and will never give up on getting them home to enjoy all the beauty and blessing that we, their families have been given only by the gracious hand of God!

So until then.... we will pick those strawberries and make those summer plans and get excited about life and the hopes for the future and most of all we will continue to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and pray each and every morning and night that our family be united together under one roof... and with the most certainty we know that our God is faithful and that this to will come to pass.....! Praises to Him on High!