“The Cry of the Poor”

I thought that I had “seen it all” until the day that we went to the large garbage dump in Haiti called, “Truttier.” Since living in Haiti, we’ve always heard stories “about the children and families” who live in the garbage dumps of Haiti, but we were told that “we couldn’t go there,” that “it would be too dangerous,” that “you don’t have the means of feeding the people there,” and “you may be killed if you go into that area.” The garbage dump of Truttier is located near one of the most dangerous places in Haiti, “Cite Soleil.” There are gangs in Cite Soleil with guns, and the dump is full of diseases, but we really felt the urge to go.

We asked one of the “leaders” in the garbage dump to give a food card to each mother. We had never done a “food distribution” in that area, so we were not prepared for what we saw. It was “less than human.” I fought back tears as I saw little children, barefooted, walking across mounds of freshly dumped raw garbage with pigs eating nearby. Rats were running all over the place, and there were swarms of flies. But the children, the children tore our hearts open. They were digging with bare hands to find scraps of food, fighting against the pigs and goats. Sometimes, they would find half of a piece of bread in the garbage, some crackers that had been leftover, or half of a banana… a “prized possession.”

As we walked through the garbage, piled high, our feet sank into the muck. The smell was horrific. But more than this, the hopelessness of the mothers is something I will never forget. One little boy tried to tell his story, but broke down, hid his face, and just cried and cried.

I thought back to a wealthy pastor that we had known. He had his own plane and was always bragging about wealthy people he knew in the ministry. Back then, before we built our “Love A Child Children’s Home” in Fond Parisien, he would come to Haiti to have a Pastor’s Seminar. At that time, we were so poor that we rented a house for an “orphanage.” But we loved the children and always wanted this pastor to meet them. We also wanted him to visit the poor areas, so that he could see the need. But he would always say, “I didn’t come here to see anyone poor. I don’t want to see them or hear them. I just want to have a Pastor’s Seminar.”

Years went by and although he had started out with a “huge church,” it went down to nothing. I often thought it was because of Proverbs 21:13… “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.” How different would things have been for him if he had read and believed in Proverbs 22:9… “He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he giveth of his bread to the poor.” The closest thing to the heart of God is the poor. Sherry