Haiti - A Child's Most Precious Treasure Can you imagine people eating "cakes" made out of mud to squelch hunger pains? Can you imagine parents forcing grandparents out of their homes to die of starvation and exposure because the family unit cannot afford to feed them? Can you imagine loving parents offering their children for adoption because they cannot bear to watch them starve to death? Can you imagine a 104 year old woman living in a donated tent and sleeping on a thin straw mat rolled out on the tent's floor at night? It is happening in Haiti. I received the child's story second-hand but "close to the original source" who wishes to remain anonymous. It may have been embellished somewhat, but that is human nature. A volunteer woman of a visiting ministry group saw a small orphan child playing with a rusty bottle cap. Fearing the child would hurt herself, she took it from the child. The child began to sob uncontrollably. A sister from the Haitian religious community that ran the orphanage asked for the bottle cap and gave it back to the child. She said, "That bottle cap is the only gift her deceased father ever gave her. It is her most precious treasure." The visitor took a small doll out of her pocket and gave it to the child. She asked the sister to interpret her message to the child since the child only understood Creole. "This is my gift to you. Now you have two precious treasures." The child wiped her tears and gave the woman a really big hug. All was forgiven. |
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