Fifteen years ago this summer, my husband and I, newly married, walked the mud roads of Haiti together. We were just kids then, I barely 20. We went with a group from our youth church to build a church in the middle of a dump. It had four concrete walls and a roof and that was more than most anyone had. They wanted a Bible to seal into the concrete. I had one. A much loved pocket Bible I carried everywhere.

I gave it up with a prayer. “Bring us back here, Lord. Haiti has my heart.”

And my heart has Haiti. For fifteen years I carried the memory of the nation and a dream. I wondered if God would ever bring us back. And wondered even more, how? I’d sent my husband several times and stayed back with the children. It was hard. And those years the Lord was establishing me in my call as a mama — not to resign to it, but embrace it. And you already know the struggles I had those years believing that my work as a mama wasn’t fit for His Kingdom. I prayed many times, “If home is where I’m called, take the call to the nations from my heart. If I won’t be sent, take away the desire to go.”

To my family IS where I am called, and He never took away the burden for nations. He has opened the door to go — albeit only days at a time. He’s chosen an unlikely route — blogging. And God’s still reconciling this mama’s heart to raise world changers and to also try and be one. Soon, we will all go together.

Husband loves Haiti, too, and the opportunity came for us both to go with World Help. And what I love about World Help is this, “They find where God is working and meet Him there.” Partnering with those who are already doing a great work helping people in relative countries and providing them support.

And Danita’s Children is one of those places. Friends, Danita’s brave story has me undone. Here’s a bit of it in her own words,

“With little more than a few suitcases and a willing heart, in 1999 I set out to pursue a dream,” says Danita. “I knew what God had put in my heart. I wasn’t quite sure how it would, or could, all come together. Many of my friends and family were supportive. But there were a few who told me it was impossible for a young American woman, all alone to make that dream a reality. However, I knew in my heart that ‘everything is possible for him who believes.’ (Mark 9:23) And so I started. With 14 orphans and a rented house, my dream of taking care of orphaned children in Haiti became a reality.” 

Danita’s Children is Hope for Haiti — an orphanage, a feeding center, a school, a medical center and more, that World Help has partnered with. It’s a children’s center where they “rescue, love and care for orphans and impoverished children.” #doJustice

And tomorrow is the dedication of the Hope for Haiti’s medical center World Help helped build.

We get to be there.

In Haiti.

Together.