A Child's Prayer

My husband, Pierre, always traveled back and forth to Haiti. I didn't understand why he would leave his wife and young family for weeks at a time, sometimes months. Each time he went, some catastrophic event would occur. He was there when hurricanes hit and then circled back around and hit Haiti again. When floods washed away bridges and roads that connected him to the nearest exit route to get to the airport, and find his way back home to me. Once he came back with Malaria and spent a week, on what looked like his death bed, in the hospital. I couldn't understand why he kept going back and leaving me, his wife and young family! When he returned after the earthquake in February, he showed me a video of an unreached village in the mountains he and Pastor Damil stumbled upon while trying to make it to Haiti by detouring through the Dominican Republic (an awesome testimony he will have to share). In the video was a little boy, about the age of our oldest son-- 7, 8 or 9 years old. He was sitting in a dirty, white plastic lawn chair. He had on a blue t-shirt, but was naked from the waist down. One of his hands was crippled and shriveled, curved up to his chest. His tummy swollen, and head oddly swollen too. While he was sitting in the chair, he was rocking back and forth, head tilted slightly sideways, and singing. Now, I don't speak much Creole, but my spirit was moved by his song. Because I'm such and inquisitive person, I bombarded by husband with a string of questions: What is he singing? Where are his parents? Why is he naked? What happened to his arm? Pierre began to unfold the story of this little boy's life. A life I thought was traumatic and neglectful. He was born with normal arms, but became crippled a short time ago because of a fever. He didn't have access to medical care, so his fever spiked causing a seizure and resulted in a disfigured arm. He lost his parents in the earthquake and was living with his grandma. They didn't have clothes or food. So I asked Pierre about the song, the song that awakened my spirit...the song that transcended languages. My husband told me he was singing a song about how he loves Jesus. That rocked me. In the midst of his 7, 8, or 9 years and all he has suffered, he was singing about his love for Jesus! I asked Pierre if he was able to give him anything before he left their village. He said he got them food and gave the little boy all the money he had in his pocket. Pierre said that after he gave him the money, the little boy grabbed his hand and looked into his eyes. The little boy said a prayer for Pierre. This prayer took the scales off of my eyes and put my life into perspective. The little boy said: I pray that God will bless you, so that when you come back you can bless more children the way you have blessed me. Because I'm such an inquisitive person, I bombarded myself with questions: Would I have such love for Jesus if I lived that life? Would my children? How do I act when things don't go my way? How often did I skip church because I didn't feel like going? How selfish was I to not see how my husband was a blessing to such and impoverished people? How spoiled was I?  The power of this child's prayer made me rededicate my life to Jesus. And yes, understand why my husband had to leave me, his wife and his young family to share the blessing that God gave us with Haiti.