when i get older, i will be stronger

It was Tuesday morning, we were three days into our trip to Haiti, and it was a mild 90 degrees by 8:30am. Our task set before us that morning was hauling rubble from a crumbled home to the side of the street. Six months earlier the earthquake had turned the two story home with several families living in it, into a one story pile of rubble, and by the grace of God all 14 family members safely escaped the falling home before it was too late. 


No bulldozers, no heavy machinery, just rock by rock, bucket by bucket we walked to the side of the street for a dump truck to haul away the rubble. While we worked tirelessly for a few hours hauling rubble, a group of local Haitians worked along side us. Men, women and little children pitched in to clear away the home in hopes of rebuilding. It was a Tuesday morning and Benson, our new found friend, all of maybe 8 years old filled his coffee tin with rocks from the home and walked it to the street.  His face held a deeper understanding of life and pain than any 8 year old should ever have to know. Benson seemed to time his trips to the street perfectly to Dan's walk back. See, Dan was hauling rubble with a wheel-barrow, and Benson liked to hop in and catch a free ride back.  

Haitians speak Creole, similar to French, which helped me none. There was a distinct language barrier between us and the people of Haiti while we worked, yet there was one song that every child knew and sang that we understood. 


We heard it blaring on the radio as we walked back and forth from the crumbled home to the street. 

Dan would start signing to Benson and he would finish the song while sitting in the wheel-barrow.


As I walked past of group of children playing outside their tent, I heard their sweet little voices, "when i get older, i will be stronger"....and somehow I knew these lyrics had a deeper meaning to these children than just a song. 

Give me freedom

Give me fire

Give me reason

Take me higher

See the champions

Take the field now

You're the fighters

Make us feel proud

When I get older

I will be stronger

They'll call me freedom

Just like the wavin' flag

So wave your flag

Now wave your flag...

In the streets

are exalifting

as we lose our inhibitions

celebration is around us

every nation all around us

Singing forever young,

singing songs underneath the sun

let's rejoice to the beautiful game

and together at the end of day

When I get older

I will be stronger

they'll call me freedom

just like a wavin flag

So wave your flag

Now wave your flag...

Waving Flag by K'naan

2010 FIFA World Cup

That afternoon after removing rubble, we had some downtime before dinner and there there just so happened to be a World Cup game on tv. While the Haitian women worked on laundry by hand, the men took a break from work and watched the Game. The Haitians cheering for Brazil, Dan cheering for Holland. 

And there they were, pouring rain, covered by tarps...huddled around a tiny little tv...

National Adoption Awareness Month

November is national Adoption Awareness month.

While in Haiti this past summer we visited an orphanage that held over 20 children who had no parents. No one to fight for them. No one to protect them. No one to love them. No one to call mommy and daddy. My heart was forever changed. 

Later that week we visited a tent city to pray and care for the people living there. We approached a group of women and children to talk with them, pray with them, & tell them that people all over the world are praying for them.  While talking to one of the women, I asked her if the child on her lap was her daughter...She told me that it was not her daughter, but that the girl's parents were killed in the earthquake and that she was now taking care of the girl on her lap. She had no relation to the girl or her deceased family, but was now in charge of this precious young life. I was speechless, but managed to tell her that the little girl was beautiful. 

She asked me if I wanted to take the little girl home with me.

My heart was broken and forever changed. 

It is estimated there are 143 million worldwide. This number does not include abandonment (millions of children) as well as sold and/or trafficked children. 

Every day 5,760 more children become orphans.

Every 2.2 seconds another orphan ages out with no family to belong to and no place to call home.

Studies have shown that 10% – 15% of these children commit suicide before they reach age eighteen.

These studies also show that 60% of the girls become prostitutes and 70% of the boys become hardened criminals.

Another study reported that it would only take about 7% of Christians to adopt one child for all of the world's orphans to have a home. 

Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us. (james 1:27 NLT)

Check out some awesome adoption blogs here and here.

the oppressed

Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. ((psalms 82:3))

Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud ((proverbs 16:19))

Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. ((Isaiah 1:17))

And to expose our hearts to truth and consistently refuse or neglect to obey the impulses it arouses is to stymie the motions of life within us and, if persisted in, to grieve the Holy Spirit into silence. ((aw tozer))

If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered. ((proverbs 21:13))