People that believe in you that is.
Today I had a friend buy me lunch. I know how much this man
makes in a month. Surely he has better things to spend his hard earned cash on
then me. At first I insisted that I wasn’t going to let him pay but then he
asked, “Why not, am I not your friend?” He got me there. Of course. I have
opportunities to buy lunch for people all the time, why wouldn’t he, with money
in his pocket want to do the same for me.
We are constantly encouraged. By you from afar…yes!...but
I’m talking about the encouragement which comes from the people that surround us here in
Haiti.
A Haitian woman, turned Floridian, returned to Haiti six
years ago to put her business degree to the test and fulfill her childhood
dream: to build a supermarket and to run a business. Her children are grown and
have left the nest. Now she’s back in Haiti making it happen. Her smile is
contagious and her voice powerful and warm. And she seems to always be at her
store, whose 5 short aisles make it the third largest supermarket in Cap
Haitian. She says “hello” with a smile as she waits for you to say the first
words. You see, while her English is flawless, if you choose to speak to her in
Hatian Creole she is much obliged to cultivate the learner in you, never feeling
the need to show off her own masterful acquisition of a foreign tongue. What a
humble and gracious act! God’s like that isn’t he. Me on the other hand, I can
think of numerous accounts where I’ve crushed the spirit of a Creole speaker
fighting his way through complicated English grammar and thrilled for the
chance to practice this language when, with impatience, I bring the
conversation back to his native tongue, implying that I’m too good to speak
English with someone that doesn’t know English. I disgust myself. But not her.
She is what you could call a Developer. She sees people for their potential and
doesn’t pass up the chance to invest in people with promise.
That’s probably why she shared so much of her story one day.
She spoke for what seemed like forever. I was actually running late and in an effort not
to be rude continued to nod and smile while giving myself silent pep talks
about patience, listening, and being present in conversation. The more I
listened the more I was inspired. The longer I stood there the more I knew that
God was speaking to me through this interaction. She has no idea what we’re up
to, but when it was time for us to leave the store this was her parting
message: “Don’t let anybody get in the way of doing in Haiti what you came to
do.” She added, “…while your young.” Coming from a woman who set off to bring
hope and progress to Haiti while in her 50s, I don’t think the “young” part
matters all that much.
She sees her mission as two fold. Not only is she dipping
her toes in the Haitian economic pool she’s also bringing others along for a swim.
The people she employed while building her store from the ground up have become
successful entrepreneurs themselves. She can be seen carefully checking the
math of the young woman she’s molding into a cash register clerk, likely someone who
never had the opportunity to go to school. She even mentioned something about
teaching business principles to poor people in rural areas.
I latched on to that one.
“Jenn,” I mentioned later, “I think I might know someone
that could teach business classes to our women...” You never know.
That’s the thing about living day by day, you never know if
God has a hidden message for you in the words or actions of someone else here
on earth for the same purpose… Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly.
He has told you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8
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