Sunday, September 23, 2012

Not a Handout

I've never been one to believe in "handouts" or "entitlements" as some call it. As I sat in my Social Work courses in college I tended to disagree with 100% of my classmates and instructors 100% of the time as they claimed that we all have the right to equal material possessions.  In other words, if you have it, and I don't...I should have it too.  This just doesn't work in the real world.  

I teach my children "life is not fair."  And that would be because it's not.  There is a world of truth to the what Madame Blueberry needed to learn... "a grateful heart is a happy heart."  God created us to be grateful for our blessings, not entitled to what we don't have.   If you are in Christ, by God's grace you have the spiritual blessings of holiness, blamelessness, adoption by God, redemption, and the inheritance of eternal life (Eph.1.)  If that's not enough to keep a person content, I'm not sure what else God can offer.

Before we arrived in Haiti last July, I had told Jude to let Roseny know that our team was willing to help her start her own business when we came. Upon our arrival, I was anxious to get over to see Roseny and hear about her "business plan" for lack of a better word. As we got comfortable with one another again and I introduced her to several new visitors, she explained that she would like to sell snacks and drinks from a stand on the street just outside her house. It was agreeable that there was a market for this in the neighborhood and she should move forward. Then, she asked me to look out her window. Perplexed, I stood up and I saw a half-built wooden structure. Roseny had managed to scrape up some wood to build the stand for her business herself. She said, "I wanted you to know that I'm serious about this. I'm willing to work for it. I want to provide for my family myself." I fought back tears. Tears coming because I see a woman who just wants a chance, a chance to fight for her family herself. Not to be rescued by someone who considers her to be a "project."

I was impressed once again by the strength of this woman. She was excited about the fact that she could provide for her family...that we wouldn't have to support her for a lifetime.  This is a chance she is not going to let slip by.

The guys went over on one of our last days in Haiti and used some of the lumber and materials we had left over from another project to help her complete her stand.


Roseny and Nellie.  This is the stand Roseny had worked on herself.


Tony and the guys  worked hard on the stand on the last day.

The stand completed.  From left to right Tony, Milonia,
Roseny, Jude, Trevor, and Silas (in the front)







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