TOYS

In recent weeks, instead of making laps around the mission grounds, I have been getting my exercise by jogging through local neighborhoods. It gets me outside the walls of the mission grounds and, now and then, a bit of practice in conversational Creole. I always have my phone along - in case of emergency, yes, but mostly for taking photos. For whatever reason, lately many of my favorite photo opportunities on these runs have involved homemade toys.

Here's a soccer goal just across the street from the mission. For perspective, you need to know that Haitian goals tend to be about a tenth of the size of American goals. This one is maybe two feet tall and a foot and a half deep. The "net" is an old t-shirt ripped open wide and anchored with a couple of rocks:

On this past New Year's Day I came across this little guy and his kite made of a black plastic grocery bag stretched over a couple of sticks.

The kite photo reminds me of another I took on a walk up the hillside toward Johnny and Ruysdael's neighborhood about a year ago, when I came across a little boy dragging a toy car on a string.

Only the car wasn't molded plastic mass-produced in China, it was an empty motor oil bottle with bottle cap wheels:

I don't know what anyone else might see in this photo, but to me it is not an image of  the ugliness of Haiti's poverty so much as it is an image of the beauty of human ingenuity and childlike imagination. I don't feel pity for this little guy - I feel admiration.

Likewise for the little boy or girl who sacrificed the waistband of a pair of Hanes underwear to make this slingshot:

One of the sentiments I commonly hear from visitors to Haiti (and I said the exact same thing my first trip here!) goes something like this: "I can't believe how joyful people can be when they have so little!"

These days, when I hear this shocked expression, it gives me pause. Because if we're surprised that people can be joyful when lacking an abundance of possessions, what does that say about what we really believe the true and indispensable source of our own joy to be?

You might be among the many Christians who have John 10:10 memorized. This is where Jesus famously tells his disciples, "I have come that you may have life and have it in abundance." 

I have always interpreted "abundant life" to mean a life filled with joy and purpose, a life lived in right relationship with our Creator and fellow man. The kind of life for which we were originally created and the kind of life which is simply impossible outside of a relationship with Christ.

This word "abundance" that Jesus uses in John 10:10 in a positive sense is the same Greek word he uses in Luke 12:15 as part of a stern warning:

"Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for a man's life does not consist in an abundance of possessions."

Then, Jesus proceeds to tell a parable of a rich man who kicks back in self-satisfaction after building bigger and better barns to contain his crops only to find it is his last night on earth. Jesus concludes, "this is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God" (v 21). 

I'm not sure if it could be said of us first world Christians that we are "on our guard" against ANY kind of greed, much less ALL kinds. And it's tough because American culture encourages all kinds of greed non-stop. Hour by hour, millions of radios, billboards, television sets and computer screens remind us of things we don't currently have ... but how we really, really need them. Immediately! As I finish writing this post, America is gearing up to watch the Super Bowl, famous for its multi-million dollar 30-second advertisements. Who would pay so much for such commercials if they weren't effective?

(As a side note, I don't think my family will be able to watch the Super Bowl here - except maybe the football parts without the commercials ... and then what's the point. I have long considered this to be one of the many blessings of raising our kids in Haiti - the relative scarcity of media choices. For example, if you want to see for yourself how utterly different and simply beautiful the Christmas season can be without commercials and all the extra glitter, schedule a trip to come visit us next December! Seriously.)

So back to the photos of homemade toys. My goal here certainly isn't to romanticize poverty* in any way, especially not the extreme poverty too common in Haiti, but rather to provide a gut-check for those of us living in the midst of abundance: ARE we on guard against all kinds of greed? DO we honestly agree with Jesus in our heart of hearts that our lives do not consist in the abundance of possessions? Does it SHOW on our receipts? In our closets? In our garages? Could WE be joyful and content with nothing more than Jesus' presence in our lives?

We must take action and find some practical ways to "be on our guard" and stem the tide of stuff. It won't be easy - especially when we find it so difficult even to walk out of the local Target with JUST the thing we came for? If you have workable ideas, leave them in the comments below!

I don't have any easy answers - all I know is that the struggle against stockpiling worldly possessions is necessary, because Jesus commands it, and that the more joy we find in the Lord, the less we'll be drawn to the things of this world. The abundant life is not dependent on having an abundance of things.

Here is one more picture, this one from last weekend when I walked to Ma Louis' house to take her a shopping list. (She braves the fruit and vegetable market for us each week and is such a blessing to our family.) These two boys were in the house next door to Ma Louis and they greeted me from the porch as I passed. They were in the middle of a game of checkers - the board was squares scribbled in blue ink on a piece of cardboard and their "checkers" were plastic bottle caps. They gave me their names: that's Alexandre on the left and Steeve on the right.  

I asked if I could get a photo of their game, but what really stands out in this photo, to my eye, is the joy.

"He who has God and everything else has no more 

than he who has God only."

- C. S. Lewis

* Please don't misunderstand my point. I am very well aware there is a poverty that destroys lives, crushes hope and swallows individuals and whole families in great and persistent suffering: no money to put the kids in school, no money to see a doctor, no money to buy food for the table, and no money to provide safe shelter overhead. And no way to get that necessary money. The believer's basic duty to live out a faith that combats both physical and spiritual poverty is what motivates our ministry here.