Day four started out like most days. We were up early, ate breakfast and had a morning devotion. We heard from one of our team members about I Corinthians 13:1-3. It doesn’t matter what we do on this trip or back home. If we don’t do it in love, it’s not worth anything. We were challenged to look at our motivations in helping these orphans. We also shared some take aways and what God spoke to us the night before.
We went back to the Gonaives orphanage to continue the paint job. The day before, we had done cut work and trim work. Today, we had to retouch, finish cutting and then start painting the walls. The children loved the bright yellow that we were painting. We also painted the outside wall to the orphanage so that the entrance would stand out on the street. The staff seemed to enjoy it as well.
We took a break from painting when it got close to noon. We loaded up in the trucks and drove across town. We went into the poorest part of Gonaives to a place called Raboto. It sits right on the ocean and is where a lot of fishermen are. The beaches are covered in the filthiest trash you can imagine. There are pigs roaming around eating what they want. Broken boats and boats that look broken are also strewn about the beach. Children are running around in all of it as well. Their houses, made of tin, line the beach and have walls up to keep them from seeing it directly.
It’s in a place like this that our team not only encountered Jesus, but became His hands and feet. We weren’t going just to see how the poorest people live. We were taking them food. About 150 children crowded into the room where we were setting up to feed them. They were singing and laughing. The energy level was high. You sense how excited they were. Our being there meant that they were going to get to eat that day. Their parents have barely enough money to feed themselves, let alone their children. This food is the only meal most of these kids will get.
I watched as a couple of them brought other containers with them. When they were handed their food, they carefully split it up and put some into the other container. I thought, “Wow! That kid is taking their parents some food.” As I watched a couple more kids do it, I remembered that it was Saturday. We typically bring food in Monday through Saturday. That meant these kids were rationing their food so they would have some the next day when we don’t feed them. It broke my heart to see that.
After our team served these children lunch, I took them to the back to show the school we had built. Since so many children were coming each day for food, we decided to provide them with an education that they couldn’t otherwise afford. I had them look at the beach and pointed a few hundred yards away to the salt flats. There, people dig holes so when the tide comes in and goes back out, they are filled with water that drains into the earth leaving salt behind. It was there that our youngest orphan was abandoned by his parents. He had been left to let the tide take him out. God ordained that a fisherman would come into that spot and hear his cry. His life was rescued.
We went back to the orphanage to continue painting and doing crafts with the kids. We came back to the guesthouse to clean up, have dinner and devotions. God moved again during our time of honoring Him. The message we heard was simple. God wants to use what we have. We heard stories of an 8 year old holding a concert in their front yard to raise money for orphans. We heard about a 16 year old who raised $16,000 in two months to be able to outfit and paint every room in the Myan orphanage. We also heard of a dentist who took 100% of what came in on one day at his practice and donated it.
Each of us have something we can give God. The less we have in our hand to give Him, the greater the miracle He can do. He is looking for us to offer Him our everything instead of excuses of why we can’t do anything. He is looking for people who will listen to what He wants to do through them in their community and then to step out and do it. Each one of us are able to reach people that others can’t. Each one of us have God given ideas. If God gives them to you, He wants you to do them. He’s not asking you to tell someone else to do it. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have enough in your hand to make it happen. Step out in faith and let Him work. If He gives the vision, He’ll make the provision.
Devotions by Chris Hendrix 