“The Rest of the Story…”
You have probably seen the story of this precious family that I have been calling, “the Occe family,” but I found out that I have been spelling his name wrong… Seriva Oske… so we will just call him “Mr. Oske.” This is the precious man who has eight children and just recently lost his wife. This had put great stress on him because now he felt that all of the children could not be left alone. He had to let “four children” go to distant families to become “restavek slaves.” (These slave children live and work with a distant family member in order to receive food. They will do hard labor, but never get to go to school. They will be “slave children.”)
Mr. Oske had come to our feeding program in Gobert, high in the mountains, but unfortunately, he did not have a food card. When the last box had been given out, he burst out in tears and didn’t just “cry,” but he sobbed. He sat there on a rock for hours, telling us his story, his shirt wet with tears… it just broke our hearts. He would have no food for his children when he got back to them, and he didn’t know what to do. We gave him “the last box of food,” that we had saved for our Pastor and put some money in his hand. Since then, we have made several trips to take food to his family.
When one of our partners heard this, he offered to sponsor a nice, large house for the Oske family. This would include a plot of land to build a garden, a three-bedroom house, an outhouse, and PVC pipes on the roof to collect rainwater. The family would then be able to go to Pastor Souffrance’s church, we would get “all of his children back from being slaves,” and they would all go to school in September!!!
“Mule Cam…”
The job of building this house “up high, high in the mountains,” where there are no good roads, required mules!! Pastor Souffrance, who is building the house for the Oske family, had to hire 12 mules to carry most of the building materials. We had to send three pallets of food to feed the workers who carried sand, gravel, and other things on their heads, hours and hours up the mountain to the plot of land.
As of this moment, the Oske family “knows nothing about the house or the land, etc.” The people don’t want him to help, because they all want it to be a surprise.
The Bible says that the Lord “lifts up the beggar from the dunghill, and sets him among princes.” (1 Samuel 2:8) Yes, this poor man and his eight children will soon be back together and living in a newly built Haitian house, in the mountains, with a plot of land for a garden. They will all be able to go to school and church. And, yes, he will have a sponsored “job” and will receive funds monthly for his salary. He will be able to take care of his little family!
Wow! What a great God we serve! Thank you, partners, for allowing the Lord to use you! Sherry