My friend's father visited Haiti last week.
He was a missionary in the jungles of Venezuela for many years, working among Indian tribes that often had little to no hygiene, food or clothing and among whom there was a great spiritual darkness.
He said that Haiti was 10 times worse than the worst Indian village he had ever visited.
My friend said that her dad does not cry, yet in Haiti he cried for the people and the conditions they face on a daily basis - and the voodoo. He spoke about a terrible feeling of spiritual oppression from the moment he stepped off the plane. He described roads that are merely dirt, no sidewalks, an overwhelming smell.
It was a sobering update.
But on the heels of his news, came news about the twins ... apparently their grandmother has so far refused to allow their adoption plan to be carried out. She will not allow them to be taken the village where they will be safe and provided with the food and care they desperately need. This was so very hard to hear! Knowing the conditions in Haiti, the lack of even the most basic necessities, we realize that the longer they are outside of the village the greater the chances that they may become sick or even die. Please pray that God's will be done. We are saddened, concerned, yet we know that ultimately He is in control ...
He was a missionary in the jungles of Venezuela for many years, working among Indian tribes that often had little to no hygiene, food or clothing and among whom there was a great spiritual darkness.
He said that Haiti was 10 times worse than the worst Indian village he had ever visited.
My friend said that her dad does not cry, yet in Haiti he cried for the people and the conditions they face on a daily basis - and the voodoo. He spoke about a terrible feeling of spiritual oppression from the moment he stepped off the plane. He described roads that are merely dirt, no sidewalks, an overwhelming smell.
It was a sobering update.
But on the heels of his news, came news about the twins ... apparently their grandmother has so far refused to allow their adoption plan to be carried out. She will not allow them to be taken the village where they will be safe and provided with the food and care they desperately need. This was so very hard to hear! Knowing the conditions in Haiti, the lack of even the most basic necessities, we realize that the longer they are outside of the village the greater the chances that they may become sick or even die. Please pray that God's will be done. We are saddened, concerned, yet we know that ultimately He is in control ...
5 comments:
Praying for the babies' safety, for the softening of the grandmother's heart, and for His will to be done...
Hugs,
Mindy
i'm praying steph!
1 Samuel 12:16
"Now then, stand still and see this great thing the LORD is about to do before your eyes!
Praying God will do wonderful things in the lives of the twins--and the grandmother.
Hi, I am interested in the poetry, but I don't know your contact info.
I just wanted to write a word of encouragement with regard to the health of the babies. I'm not an expert in this, but I do know that the Gerber family did a study on the effects of malnutrition on babies in severely poverty stricken countries in Africa. What they found was that the babies under the age of 2 were actually as well developed as their American counterparts. The conclusion was that the cultural practices in those villages of holding the baby at all times day and night (constant skin-to-skin contact) and breastfeeding even a severely malnourished mother were more helpful to the infants than good nutrition, particularly in the first year of life. It was after the age of 2 that malnourishment became a severe problem. It makes sense - it sounds like in the womb of this malnourished birth mother the twins got what they needed to live. Even now, the birth mom's body will kill her before it lets the babies go without. I don't know the sanitation issues and such in Haiti nor the other factors involved, and I don't know the cultural practices surrounding the care of little Ian and Eliana right now. But do take comfort in knowing that just basic skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding, if they have that, will go an unbelievably long way in keeping them healthy no matter how malnourished their family is.
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