Give it up for the peeps!

 I want you to imagine quitting your job, moving out of your house and taking you and your family (or just you) to a new job at an orphanage. There you are a house mother or father to roughly 20 children, in one small dorm area, maybe you have your own room. 10 others share this task with you. There are a total of 200 children.   Would you do it? I can say that not too many people would, so that is what makes the men and woman here in this orphanage so special.  

Some of these people came to be here because they lost their homes in the Hurricane or their husbands. Some are single moms. While others just came out of love for these kids. They are here every day, cooking, hand washing laundry that never seems to end, wiping noses, changing diapers, (or wait they don’t have diapers) and constantly wondering if they will have running water soon, or if the children who are sick will get better.

These men and woman are tired, they have both suffered great losses, and been a witness to the suffering of many, but on they work.   I had the amazing opportunity of sitting with some of these women and hearing a little of whom they are one afternoon as we all shelled thousands of peanuts.   I asked the one lady who spoke some English. She explained that in Haiti most people give up their children because they know that they cannot raise them. Some of these children have lost parents to illness, crime, and some simply were abandoned. I expressed to them that we have seen how hard they work, and we are grateful for men and women like them, who pour out so much to love on these children, and try to give them a sense of family and home again.  When she translated, I saw the relief of tired woman, the look of gratefulness that says someone gets it. Someone understands how hard we work and they appreciate me.

The Bible says that we should do things in secret as we are not looking for the praise of men, which is true, but today I saw how far a simple “good job” can go. The mood in the room changed from tired drab conversation to four women chatting my ear off, opening up, laughing and picture taking.   It was moving. There is power in our words. They have the ability to hinder of to help.   Just a simple thank you had every one of their spirits lifted, they worked harder, and they worked with more joy.  Proverbs 12:25 – Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up.   Let us be a generation that edifies the body. That builds them up and encourages them to keep on going, to keep up their hard work, not for our glory, but so that the glory of the Lord can be revealed.   AMEN