Greetings!  As I look at my two daughters, four and eight years old, I see how much they enjoy learning at school and playing.  They eat their favorite foods, when they want to eat them.  They know if they really want something they see in a store, I will work hard to get it for them, if I don’t currently have the money to buy it.  They enjoy their carefree lives and don’t have to worry about things they shouldn’t have to worry about.  Even at their young age, they love Jesus and pray to him.  They are learning right from wrong.  They sing songs to Jesus and love to hear Bible stories.
           I then think about our brothers and sisters in the country of Haiti.  I know they love their children as much as I love mine.  I know they would give their children everything… if they could.  Unfortunately, life in Haiti is so much different than life in the United States.   Haiti is the poorest country on this side of the world.  The average income is $300 per year.  Food, clothing, and life’s other essentials are at least the same price as they are here.  Therefore, you can see how difficult it would be to provide even the very bare necessities for their children. 
            In Haiti, most people have to pay to go to school, the public school system does not extend out to everyone.  When the children can attend school, many of them cannot afford enough food to sustain their growing bodies and to nourish their minds.  Imagine, walking a few miles to school, carrying your books, sitting in class all day, feeling the gnawing of hunger in your stomach, then walking back home, only to find a little rice or bread to eat before studying and going to bed hungry.
            Think of the heartbreak the parents must feel as they hear their children crying for food or moaning in their sleep as the hunger continues through another night.  In Haiti, the majority of parents can’t just go out and find a second job (or even a first job) due to the lack of industry and the economic depression there. 
            It will be 32 years ago, in February, that I first went to Haiti.  Between the airport and the mission house, where we were to stay, I had already fallen in love with the country and its people.  I immediately began trying to learn the French and Creole languages.  It was another 10 years before the Lord opened up my mind and allowed the beautiful Creole language to fall into my mind…I knew it was there when my dreams began to be in the Creole language, instead of in English.  I now help to translate our services into Creole in the church we attend in Lakeland, Florida, which is attended by both people born in the U. S. and Haiti.
            Even though the country was very poor at the time when I first began going there, the crime situation was very different.  Now, it is dangerous to even be in the streets, if the criminals think a person has money.  There is a great lack of security and police authority.  The poor, as in most third world countries, have absolutely no say in their destiny.  If someone doesn’t give them a hand up, they just suffer until they die.  There are no social programs there, unlike here, where poor people can live practically as well as anyone else.  In Haiti, though a person is willing to work hard, day and night, to pull himself and his family up, he many times still can't find enough money to survive.  (Continued)