Love, Our Link

by Linda Lucas, work team participant

 

I paid a visit to Haiti... This visit touched my heart in an unforgettable way, a way that burned it's mark upon my heart and entwined my life into the life of my sponsored child's and his family's forever…

 

Let me introduce you to 'My Boy', he was only five when we took him on; he is now fifteen.  I had visited him and his family many times in the course of our sponsorship and had developed a pleasant relationship with him and his mother as his two brothers looked on; each boy with a different father, not participating in the lives of their sons.  I have three wonderful sons of my own so we had fun in sharing photos and games together, we laughed, we played and we prayed together upon each visit.  I anxiously awaited this year's visit with a new anticipation.... to see his mother and baby brother who would now be close to a year and a half old, about the age of my first grandchild.  Each year's passing drew us closer together and I prayed would bring her into the light of God's mercy and grace. That she would come to know Christ and accept Him into her life, this is what I had so long hoped ad prayed for ... But it was not to be...

 

Upon my visit to my sponsored child's house I learned that his mother had passed away of AIDS four months earlier.  My heart grieved for her soul and her orphaned boy's.  'My Boy' and his brothers were now pretty much on their own.  His big brother, twenty-one and a senior in high school, now faced dropping out of school for lack of funds and his responsibility of his younger brothers.   'My Boy' and his younger brother, who was now fourteen, were junior high students and also dropped out of school.  The baby had been taken by his father so I no longer have contact with him and I pray for his health.  My heart bled for these boys.  What is to become of them as they live on their own?  This time it was I who found comfort and strength in the love and compassion of my Haitian sisters in Christ.  God is so good.

 

I will never forget the day I sat in clinic with 'My Boy' and his younger brother as they were tested for AIDS.   With a boy wrapped in each arm we waited... we shed tears... we prayed...we waited more...together.  Would they too suffer their mother's fate?  Both?  One?  Which one?  Who would be left behind?  What then?  God heard and answered our prayers!   Praise be to God... They both tested negative!  Now we rejoiced and praised God...Together!

 

This was a moment in time I'll never forget.   I know that their culture has hardened them to accept such things as life, yet I know a world that is not so harsh.  With all the best of technology in America at our disposal and social programs for every circumstance to help those who are in need, we not only take these benefits for granted but also think it is our right to receive the benefits of it all.  Not these boys.... Not the people in a country such as Haiti.

 

This is how life is for 'my Boys' in Haiti.  No social programs to care for her people, only the mercies and compassion's of those who witness the peril of the poor, fatherless and orphaned and move to meet those needs.  Many take in those who cannot help themselves and provide as they can out of their poverty until they have no more to share.  As I met the oldest brother face to face for the first time, I could see the burden he carried in his face.  The decision of sacrifice of education that he made to try to provide for his brothers and himself was huge on his part.  With the love and concern of an already overburdened uncle and a wonderful loving saint for a neighbor whose heart for Jesus led her to help in feeding these boys, they were barely getting by. 

 

I cannot help but desire and seek to see that these boys get the help they need and do all I can to help them.  I thank God for raising up Lifeline Christian Mission and other missions and missionaries around the world to reach out to those in need like these 'my boys'.   It's not just the physical needs but the spiritual needs as well.  These boys can still have hope, hope to find and have the salvation Christ alone can give, this is the real need of these boys.  I will continue to pray for them always...this is the greatest gift I have to offer them.  As I share with them the gospel, my love, prayers and what little help I can give, Christ and His Spirit will move in the lives of these boys and work to accomplish the good work that He has begun, in hope that they will choose Christ.  2 Corinthians 9:11-15 tells us: "You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.  This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.  Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.  And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you.  Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!"

If I feel so strongly about the physical needs and the comforts of our nations in contrast to those like Haiti, how can I not be taken back by the spiritual parallel?  The comforts of my soul, that is what they need.  I cannot take the gospel for granted and become complacent; I must be zealous to share the gospel.  If I keep this precious gift to myself... I will be held accountable; Scripture says the complacent will be destroyed.  This is why I continue to return to Haiti.  Yes, the children steal my heart, but it is because of Jesus that I go and will continue to go wherever He sends me until He returns or calls me home.

On my last day in Haiti I walked with 'My Boys' in my arms, as we were enjoying just being together the oldest boy looked me in the eyes and said, 'you are my mother?'  My heart melted...'yes, a mother to them now I am.... Then he said, 'I cannot stop loving you!"  Nor I of them.  God has brought us together and it is to my joy.... He has enlarged my family.  Through His riches granted to me, He has blessed others, to the glory of God.  Yes, Love is our link; He has brought us together.  It is not I or Lifeline Christian Mission who provides for these boys but God and God alone. He is the source of all things!  Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

I don't want to enter God's presence empty handed; I pray that my arms may be filled with all those He has sent my way.  He alone is the source of their salvation, yet He offers me a 'supporting roll', if you will, to work alongside Him and share in His joy.  Oh how I love to walk in the steps of the Savior and bask in His glory!  Oh how I love to see His eyes in their eyes, to feel His touch in their touch!  It is a joy to see, and I have seen the effects of the touch of the Savior's hand to bind up the broken hearted, proclaim freedom to the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners!  Hosanna!  Hallelujah!  Our God reigns!  This is what it's all about!  This is my hope, this is my prayer: That I leave no task unfinished; that we all persevere, together, until the Master returns or calls us home.