Sandra Heska King

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haiti: when not everyone needs to be rescued

December 21, 2012 By Sandra Heska King

Sania and Tami

The children talk about it Friday morning. About the four who left in the wee hours.

“They go on plane with you?” Sophonie asks.

“No.” I shake my head. “They drive.” I clench my fists around an imaginary steering wheel. “New kay. New house.”

They’re on their way to an orphanage of transition where, if I understand correctly, they’ll learn about things like toilets and forks and knives.

Sophonie knows that Sania and Bobby will eventually be adopted by members of our team.

“Sandy. You. Me. Plane?” Sophonie points to the sky.

My heart crashes there on the concrete, and my eyes fill, and I draw her close.

“No.”

It’s another “Haiti moment.” I’ve lost count of how many this week.

There’s the mattress incident when I remember my Tempur-Pedic at home. They sleep on double or triple bunks, on bare mattresses, covered with a single sheet. Someone reminds me that these are children who once had no place to rest their heads.

Bunk

Bunk 2

Bunk 3

There’s the French Nemo Night when I stumble from the church hand-in-hand with two girls. “What do we do now?” I ask Dou Dou.

“We go,” he says.

And so we send them out into the dark to find their ways to their own kays, over the bridge and up the hill. “They have night vision,” Jessica comforts me. “At least I tell myself that.”

The children write me notes, give me their crafts, offer to share Goldfish crumbs and water (I refuse, of course), hold out their hands for squirts of hand sanitizer (and love the cologne-soaked makeup pads I bring one day to stroke their arms.)

Sophonie and Manger

Nadia 2

 

Simple giving.

Simple joy.

And I’m overcome with my own poverty.

Oh, and not to forget Wednesday night worship with tears streaming and arms stretched toward heaven.

Stephanie’s words seal themselves to my cracked heart. “Not everyone needs rescuing.”

But still I consider the possibilities, subtract Sophonie’s age from my own. Add up how old I’d be when she is 18.

We joke about scooping them all up and sneaking them out. And consider the impossibilities.

“The kids don’t need us,” says Stephanie. “Haiti needs them.”

Jeffrey wants to be a doctor. Sanine wants to do something in law, I think someone says. And a member of our team wants to help her go to university. Seriously.

Jeffrey

Jeffrey

And I realize that just as God pulled this particular team together at this particular point in time, He’s drawn each of these children, nearly 200 of them, to this place for such a time as this.

It’s part of His plan for them.

Because He is the One who rescues and redeems. And He can raise them up to rescue their own. And they are orphans no more.

And I must write Sophonie and tell her that God has a plan for her. That plan may include adoption or not. But whatever His plan, it’s a perfect one. I must tell her that He has placed a calling on her life and that she needs to be still and listen.

Yet, I can’t help but wonder if a plane is a possibility.

Bobby and Seth

Bobby and Seth

In the Stillness,

Sandy

 

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Filed Under: haiti, stories and reflections

Comments

  1. Marge says

    December 21, 2012 at 10:04 am

    Sandy, you captured it…perfectly. I miss how clearly I saw, heard and felt HIS presence in everything Haiti. He is at work and we were blessed to be a small part of HIS plan. Who knows where it will lead?
    Margaret

  2. Nikole Hahn says

    December 21, 2012 at 10:37 am

    So true. It’s what many of us don’t think about. God has a reason for having us born where we are and sometimes it’s His plan for those people to make a difference in their country.

  3. Laura says

    December 21, 2012 at 12:31 pm

    Oh, wow, Sandy. Not everyone needs rescued…only every single one of us. These photos leave a lump in the throat and your words leave me quiet. Thank you for the beautiful ways you give, Sandy. For the beautiful ways you are you.

  4. Linda says

    December 21, 2012 at 3:55 pm

    Oh Sandy, it does break the heart. You’ve written your heart, and it is so touching. We want to do everything. We must trust that He can do all things.

  5. Dea says

    December 22, 2012 at 8:17 am

    My boy is in the back of a truck this morning headed to the plane that will bring him home to me. He said his good-byes last night and they left in darkness before the kids were up so the leaving would not be so brutal for everyone. I haven’t talked to him in over a week.

    I think of the kids in the community he lived in last week, and I agree Haiti needs their kids and I love how many Haitians are partnering with others to make growing up in the land of their birth a possibility for so many kids. I know God put them right where they are in his sovereignty.

    The need is enormous but we have a big God, don’t we?

    I so wish I could sit with you and talk long about your trip..thanks for your words and pictures. Mostly thank you for your heart…

    • Sandra says

      December 23, 2012 at 9:31 am

      That leaving. So hard. We stayed at a guest house so came and went all week. But that last day–they knew we wouldn’t be back, at least for a while. My heart is full–and broken.

      Thinking your boy is home now and feeling the same way.

      Love to you, Dea.

  6. Patricia (Pollywog Creek) says

    December 30, 2012 at 7:05 am

    Oh, Sandy…..this is so lovely and bittersweet and heart rending all at once. “But whatever His plan, it’s a perfect one.” How I need to remember that, too.

    { Home today – prepping for endoscopy and trying to catch up on all I’ve missed lately. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and that the new year will be bring joy and peace as you live out God’s perfect plan for you and those you love. Love you dearly, my sweet friend Sandy.}

  7. Sharon O says

    January 18, 2013 at 4:49 pm

    This is so precious reminding me so much of our little girls who we sponsor in Haiti.

Trackbacks

  1. carrying christmas - BibleDude.net says:
    December 3, 2013 at 6:00 am

    […] forgotten that girls wanted the elastic bands from my hair, how Sophonie wanted to get on the plane and come home with […]

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