Johnny and Lovely’s mother

Johnny and Lovely’s mother

There was a knock at the gate this afternoon. Two smiling little faces and an empty bottle of Clorox greeted me behind the barrier. Bam Ti Dlo? Give me a little water?.. they asked. These two beautiful children are familiar faces as their mother has been over to the house before asking me if I can help find her little girl who was adopted to the states as an infant and never heard from again. Later she had asked me to help pay for her children’s school books, and her four kids are regular attendees at our Saturday feeding program.
My heart skipped a beat when I saw that they were asking for water. Things are bad when you have to go door to door begging for your water. And just earlier in the week they had knocked at the gate to ask for some food. Not totally unusual, but it had been the first time for these kids.
I decided I needed to investigate. If a family of five is begging for water to be carried off in a Clorox bottle, how far does that go in this Haitian heat… maybe six hours?
So I threw a big 5 gallon bottle of Culligan in the back of the car, some leftover rice and beans from lunch, and piled the kids in the back seat and drove down to their house.
The white curtain in the front of their one room cinder block house was blowing in the wind. I called out to see if I could come in and a 5 year old girl came flying out of the house and threw her arms around me. I heard a feeble voice call out in Creole that I was welcome to come in and I walked into something so sad that it brought tears to my eyes.
The room was dark and dirty. A soiled one inch thick mattress was on the dirty floor.. a bed for five. No furniture at all, only a few cardboard boxes held everything this family owned. The mother was lying mostly naked on the mattress with only a pair of underwear on as she called out to me to help her.
I went and felt her forehead. She was burning up. Apparently she hadn’t been able to get out of bed to feed herself or her kids for four days now. The only food that I knew for sure they had eaten was the food that I had given the kids three days ago. She had a headache and terrible fevers, which probably means that she has malaria. Something so common here it is almost thought of like we do the common cold.
I gave her the water and the food and she was so thankful that she was crying. I am not medically trained, but I know enough to at least try to give her some Tylenol for the fever. I told her that I would be right back with the medicine. Then my spiritual sensors kicked in and I knew I had to pray for her. I asked the children to join me as I know God’s heart is so tender towards them and I so wanted them to be a part of praying for their mother , so I crouched over this frail little naked woman and told her children to put their hands on her along with me. I asked her seven year old daughter if she wanted to pray. Bondye. Ede Manman. God. Help Mama. I then broke into a fervent prayer in English for this woman’s health to return and for her to be able to have what she needs. Simple things like food and water. Nothing dramatic happened. Simply a few tears.. mostly mine. Nothing really ever happens when I pray. But I know I am called to it and I long for the day when my prayers for physical healing will shoot like arrows to heaven and God’s grace will reign down. It will happen. He will do it. I keep praying because I can’t wait and I know that I am always one prayer closer every time.
I left to get the Tylenol amazed again by my life in Haiti and how much more my faith is becoming with each knock at the gate. Lord Come.

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Marilyn Monaghan

Marilyn Monaghan

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