Haiti: Journal Entry #4

.:We have been given God in our souls and Christ in our flesh. We have the power to believe where others deny, to hope where others despair, to love where others hurt:. Brennan Manning

We arrived at RENMEN this afternoon, after a long, bumpy, dirty, noisy, and joyful ride in the taptap (a covered truck that you "tap" to stop).

The home is in decent shape. It's run by a woman named Florence and Father Michel (a catholic priest who comes here every 3 months from Florida and stays for a month). Florence basically turned the home in which she raised her own family into the orphanage sometime in the 90's. She takes in Haitian children who are not legal orphans - they actually mostly have living parents. Those parents have abandoned them.

They prepared a fantastic meal tonight: Haitian coleslaw (surprisingly spicy), fried plantains, some type of salad, rice & beans, chicken... Spoiled is the only word that describes how we felt.

After dinner we wandered outside to the sound of, of all things, Ricki Martin. The kids had a TV working and were sitting in the open-air courtyard watching an old concert of his.

When we approached them, we were met with curious yes and timid smiles. My heart fluttered the way it did back home when I would look at pictures and read blogs posted by teams on the field. This time I was there. I wasn't reading about it second hand. I feel so blessed to be here with them.

I went up to some of the kids and used some French to try to start to connect with them. Some of the older girls tried their English. At one point, an older girl named Caroline asked if I had met the youngest, Tricia ( two years old). I hadn't.

Caroline took me to her and I felt like it was one of the moments for which I came to Haiti; as Caroline held Tricia and had her parrot my name to me, "Mel, Mel, Mel". And then Caroline said "tell her Je t'aime" (= I love you).

My heart burst as I heard Tricia sleepily mumbling these words back to me. I asked if I could take Tricia and this soft, warm, baby curled right into the crook of my neck without hesitation.

Je t'aime, je 'taime, I repeated back to her as she snuggled in to me. I'm not sure how long I held her, but at one point I could feel her reaching for someone and I turned to hand her to one of the older girls.

And then I met Nella, a 19 year old with big beautiful eyes and a contagious smile, and so full of life.

She approached me speaking English and invited me to see her tent. This is when I found out that they were still sleeping in tents, after 5 months, and still not back in their dorms (I later learned the girls dorms are structurally sound but they were still too scared to sleep inside). Leading me by the hand I walked past a gate and into the courtyard where the relief tents were set up, about 6 of them in a circle raised on cinder blocks. All I could think of was her hand holding mine and this touching gift of eager friendship. We walked back to the TV and other children, still hand in hand.

The most moving moment of this first day came when Tricia ended up back in my arms and we were somehow being carried by a wave of children moving us back towards the sleeping tents and we formed a circle with them. Sammy Jo ended up in an inner circle with the little ones, the rest of us making a larger one around them. And then the singing started.

I can't even begin to describe how beautiful it was. In French. I could make out some of the words, and they were singing of inviting Jesus into their hearts. I looked up the words later this evening and this is what they were singing:

Viens dans mon coeur!

(Into my heart!)
Oh, viens dans mon coeur, chère Jésus,

(Come into my heart Lord Jesus.)
Viens des ce soir, viens pour toujours,

(Come in tonight, come in to stay,)
Oh, viens dans mon coeur, chère Jésus.

(Come into my heart Lord Jesus.)

And then, in French, they recited Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, by heart. Psalm 8:2 came to mind almost immediately - From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise.

All the while, Tricia in my arms looking around at the children and moving her lips, making sounds in time to their words. Then, her head down nestled into my neck and my eyes closed, I swayed as they continued to sing and said my own private prayer of thanks for being able to share this moment with them. and to believe, and hope, and love with God in my soul and Christ in my flesh.

And I have nothing but hope in God's promises right now - that he will make things right for these small ones, the hope for Haiti - the Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion (Psalm 116:5)