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The Haves and the Have Nots

The most difficult thing about living here in Haiti is not the violence, the kidnapping, the roadblocks, or burning tires. It’s trying to comprehend how some rich Haitian families can own an exclusive gated home in Haiti, in addition to one or two in the States and one in France and send their kids to the best schools, leaving Haiti in shambles and take and take and “close their eyes to the poor.” Every day, I see the story of the “rich man and ‘Lazarus’” over and over again.

This is Madamn Julia. She has been coming to our gate for food and a little money for quite a while. She is soft-spoken and timid. Her husband left her for another woman but left five children behind to feed. She began to tell me today that she and her children are living on the porch of another family’s home in Miracle Village, but the family wants her to leave. After all, six people living on your small porch is a lot. I decided to take Jessica (one of our missionaries) with me to check out the situation. Sure enough, there was a cement porch with a place for her to cook on a charcoal fire for when and if she had food. I admit that I stood there trying not to cry but feeling so angry. How could you live in Haiti and not “see” the poor? Or how could you drive by them and pretend that they don’t exist? Or how could you hear their stories of hunger and not do “something” or “anything?”

I understood what the Bible said about the rich man who didn’t even want to share his “crumbs” with Lazarus! Both died… Lazarus went to the bosom of Abraham, but “in Hell, the (the rich man) lifted up his eyes.” I hope some of those rich families are reading this post! God will give us a plan to help this poor woman and her children and give us the wisdom to help her “stand on her feet.” She asks for very little. This really breaks my heart. Sherry

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