Cherline and Fredline

     Our summer short term teams have started. We have back to back groups here into July. With the teams here, we are busier than normal, visiting two or more places a day, and inviting extra kids to our house. So far, it is a happy chaos.

    Yesterday was Mother’s Day here in Haiti, and to celebrate I want to tell you about a conversation I had with a mama  in the neighborhood we visited this afternoon. (As always, I apologize, as you can be pretty sure my spelling of the names is totally off.) I met her daughter, Fredline, first when she came up to meet me. I found out later that Fredline is only three, so her coming up to me was significant. Most kids her age here are scared of white people. Fredline and I had a lovely time playing with her packet of crackers and sharing a coconut.

   Later, at the house we visited, I met Fredline’s mama. When Cherline came back for her daughter, we chatted a little about her life. Fredline is Cherline’s only child. She had two others, but they have died. Fredline’s father is alive, although I do not know that he is in the picture. We talked about whether I have children or a boyfriend yet, and about how old I am.

  These may sound like small things to have discussed, and on the surface maybe they are. I was partially excited that I was even able to have a conversation with Cherline in Kreyol, and she understood me without a translator. My prayer is that these kids of conversations are the beginning of forming relationships. I hope that as I learn to ask questions about their lives, people will see that I care, that I want to listen and that we can begin to be friends. Will you join me in continuing to pray for true relationships with the people I meet here, that we would learn to listen and hear one another and that God would be glorified in that? Thank you.