I apologize in advance for the quality of some of these pictures - a few are stills captured from videotape.
Melissa and I first became aware of this orphanage through Facebook. We had chatted back and forth with our friend Jane over the last few months about the needs of this special place - ever since Jane and Bud had discovered its existence in their neighborhood. They had not known of it until the day after a great flood early last November when 12 inches of rain fell in one night. Mud slides, the eroding of dirt roads and the rushing water left the mountainside in a mess. In the course of helping neighbors dig out, Bud and Jane discovered a cinder block wall that had fallen in the flood, revealing the Potter's House.
It's actually a bit of a hike to get from Jane's house to the orphanage. The path winds through a banana tree grove, then a garden and even through a hedge row...
... and you're still not there. Then it's a short walk down a street.
The wall which fell used to run just to the side of the stairwell in the picture below. It was there for security and to protect the property from the rushing water that sometimes fills the gully to the right of it. With the wall down, rains now continue to erode away the property - if not fixed soon, the very foundation of the house will be undermined. Fortunately, the landlord is a kind and caring man who is willing to use the rent money to get the repairs done - if the rent gets paid. Jane found the man who runs the orphanage in dire straits, barely able to keep the children fed, much less pay the rent. So she and Bud have been working to raise funds to help out the director and the 18 children who live here. (And that is what inspired Dats to action as well.)
As we approached the front door, the kids heard us coming and broke into song! Part of it was in Creole and then part was in English: "Welcome! Welcome! To you, to you! We are ... happy ... to see you ... this evening."
All the kids and a couple of adults were gathered in the front room of the house. In fact, there are really only four rooms: the front room at the entrance which then extends into a dining room with a long table and benches and then one bedroom for the boys and one for the girls. All eighteen kids introduced themselves one by one around the room. Jane asked if any were 11 years old like Dats and several stood up - and it struck me that all of them, though the same age, were quite a bit shorter than Dats.
I couldn't get a good picture of the boys' room since it was so dark (there's no electricity). But below is a picture of the girls' room. The beds are brand new since Christmas time when a church connected to Bud and Jane donated the money for them. Before that, the kids were sleeping on the floor. One of the things Dats' classmates collected was sheets for the beds - another church had already shipped down some blankets.
After the kids had shown us their bedrooms, Jane took us out back to show the backyard where the food is prepared and the dishes are washed. About in the center of the picture is a hole in their back wall where a hose runs in from a neighbor's house. This is their only source of water. The small table and the pans and totes are used for washing up dishes.
The kitchen is an outdoor room about 4 feet deep and 5 feet wide. Jane has been helping with their groceries - purchasing two weeks' worth of rice and beans and sardines at a time. She also makes sure they have chicken about once a week.
Everyone gathered on the front porch for a picture before we had to head back to Jane's house.
Our visit last Friday was way too short. So we were excited to get a phone call from Jane tonight saying she didn't have to teach the English class tomorrow which she usually has each Tuesday, so she was wondering if Dats might want to return to the orphanage in the afternoon and maybe play some soccer with the kids! That was a no brainer! What an awesome way to end our week in Haiti. We are joyfully looking forward to it.
One more thing I have to pass along because it is such an incredible praise: Last Friday night when we Skyped with Melissa and the kids in Indiana, Grandma Trudy happened to be home. She said to Dats, "Did you get the envelope I sent with your Dad?"
"No. What envelope?" Oops! I dug the forgotten envelope out of my computer bag and handed it to Dats. Inside Grandma had written a note about how proud she was of Dats' efforts on behalf of the orphans and she included some money to add to the $65 the kids in our small group had given: $300 more!
Dats was so excited to be able to pass along these generous offerings to Jane the next morning.
Well, tonight Jane told me on the phone that she had received a gift from some foundation in the States (and she wasn't even sure how they knew about her or the orphans). The amount they sent was just short of one year's rent - and so the money which Dats brought was going to make up the difference and enable them to pay a full year's rent all at once which in turn will put enough cash in the pocket of the landlord to get the wall fixed!
God is so very good! Isn't He?
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. - James 1:27
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