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10/29/03 SACRIFICE AND LOVE The Happy House has been a massively bittersweet experience. The constant flow of children coming and going. Like a stream of life they pass through our hands. We have many children that come daily and have become part of our ever growing family. It is like their lives are snatched out of the road they are in and put into a totally foreign route. It is exciting for them to take part in the Happy House world. A world where there is always food to eat. Where there are people that care. A refuge. A safe place where they are loved and begin to feel some kind of significance. A place where people care about their problems. The only place they go that they feel like they matter. The friendships run deep. After tasting this world that we would hopefully be able to call home, their hearts begin to yearn for another rarity. A father. Most of the kids I know in Haiti do not have fathers. Many are dead. Many only stay with the woman long enough to bring a life into the world. Then they go. How sad that your birth is not a time of pride or rejoicing. Your birth was not planned, hoped, and prayed for. You are just the side product of a night of cheap passion. That's a bad way to start. It's very common for a man to have many women and babies scattered all across the country. I know a guy that has over 40. Another that has 36. I asked Islande where her father was, "Li pa konnen si-m la a te-a". "He doesn't know if I am here on the earth.". Many children here do not even know when their birthday is. They just know that each year, they are one year older than last year. So against that little background information, I will share my lesson. The kids at times get jealous for attention. There can be competition for affection. The survival mode kicks in and they guard their status with me (dad) fiercely. We have a TV at the Happy House and from time to time we show a film. It's pretty exciting for most of them to see a real movie. They are often mesmerized. I have seen most of our movies so many times that I rarely sit and watch TV with them. For many of them, my presence is not needed when they are lost in the blue light, but some, have decided they would rather stay wherever I am than go watch TV. They love me more than the TV. I always make it clear to them that they can go watch TV and I will not be mad at them. I do not require them to stay with me. Sometimes when there are too many kids with me in a room and I feel I need to thin out the crowd, I go pop a video in and usually we can cut the crowd in half. There is Sherline, she's one of my top 10 top 3 ers. Don't worry if that didn't make sense :0) She is a very special kid to me. When we go into most villages, the kids come out in swarms and there is a lot of pushing and shoving and fighting for the place closest to us. Kids take my hands, divide up my fingers, and then hang on fiercely. Sometimes it's hard to walk for the press. The way to break up the crowd and get air is to have Reynold start passing out pictures. I take a LOT of pictures in Haiti and I always go back and give the people copies of the pictures I make of them. I give them to Reynold, send him away from me, and let him pass them out. The flock will always follow the pics. One day as Reynold started giving out the pictures, the crowd ran to him. Sherline however, stayed close grasping my arm. "You have some pictures there too", I told her. "I'll get them later, I don't want to lose my place on your arm". I marveled. This is not a rule. Not a command. Not a law. I would have been fine with her if she had gone after her pictures. The other kids all came back after they got their pictures. But Sherline had stayed. I was/am still very touched by this small gesture. So, these kids that just will not go, their love amazes me. There is nothing else they feel that they need as long as they are with dad. I can't help but tend to be closer to the kids that stay. They are dearer in my heart. They know me better, and that matters to them because they love me more. So, the little/big lesson here? I have no laws or rules that would require a kid to choose me over the TV. They do it because they want to. They CHOOSE it. They give up something they could have and NOT to win MY love, but to show THEIR love. As a new Christian, I gave up many things in my life. Some were things that were sin and had to go. Other things were just things I gave up to show my love. I wasn't trying to earn God's love, I was showing Him my love and He responded VERY favorably. What can these kids give me? Money? A new car? A new house? They do not even have the resources to buy me lunch. They have NOTHING physical that they can give me. What they do give me is love, and sometimes in big doses. When they rush to sit by me in church. When they comb my hair. When they give me one of their two pieces of candy. When they choose me over TV. These little sacrifices are the gifts they bare. The story of the "Little Drummer Boy" comes to mind. What can we give God that He needs or wants? They give me things that I do not ask for and those things often matter the most. I'll say it again, they give me things I do not ask for (i.e., choose me over TV) and those are the things that often matter most. Does God only want from us the things He specifically asks for? I think that question deserves some serious thought. If I go to a hut and tell a child to go fetch a chair, and he does, that's nice. BUT, when he goes and gets that chair without me asking, it's worth goes up massively. Sometimes the meaning of a gift can be ruined if it has to be asked for. When people give us nice things that we didn't even ask for, that makes us feel honored. How about the Lord? I think He tells us what to do for basics, but some sacrifices are left to love. Not to try to earn His love for us, but to show Him our love for Him. fre Ed |