For Jonathan Sake Update

For those of you who don’t know For Jonathan’s Sake is our outreach program to help families who have disabled children in the surrounding towns & villages around the mission to not only survive but thrive by providing them with the resources to provide for & take care of their disabled children. Most of these children come from single parent families because after they have a disabled child they are seen at fault for this disabled child…even cursed. Children with disabilities are looked down upon…seen as worthless, cursed, possessed…These children are often hid away, abandoned…FORGOTTEN…INVISIBLE. The mission of the Miriam Center is to make the INVISIBLE…VISIBLE through Christ, Children, Community.

“I will rescue the lame & gather those who have been scattered. I will give them praise & honor in every land where they have been put to shame” Zephaniah 3:19

As I look back on the summer & the plans I thought God had for this program & the ones I prepared for…I have to laugh because very little of those plans happened. When I was originally planning for Haiti I had no plans of doing much with the FJS program. I had spent a huge portion of last summer pouring into this program. I was planning on focusing on Miriam Home. Well, God had others plans. He revealed to me about a month before I left for Haiti that I was suppose to write a Bible Study based on the names of Christ & share it with the FJS parents & that I was to focus on training those parents in therapy techniques. Well, I listened & began planning for this…I went into Haiti ready to share this new Bible study & with all the supplies needed to make each FJS parent a folder that would have handouts & evaluations in them to help then help their child. When I arrived in Haiti I walked into the Miriam Home Children having chicken pox & having to cancel FJS for 6 weeks. At that point I decided that I would still do the first 4 weeks of my Bible Study with the parents & try to make some handouts. Shortly after that I had a meeting with Janeil where we decided we needed to get each of the kids sponsored (which involves a lot of paperwork) in order to keep this program running. The first 2 weeks of FJS was full of gathering information to get the kids sponsored & I did not get to start my Bible Study or do any training. God had huge plans for my last 2 weeks that I could have never dreamed of (read below)

1. SPONSORSHIP

Earlier this summer I wrote a blog about my heavy heart over some BIG…Hard decisions that we had to be make for this program including no longer being able to feed the families. We had the hard task of restructuring this program to take it from being a dying program to a thriving one.

So the question then became where do we start? SPONSORSHIP... All the programs at NWHCM run off of sponsorship & we realized this is a huge piece we had been missing. The last 3 weeks I was in Haiti I sat down with each FJS family & gathered all the information we needed to make sponsorship packets for each child. I evaluated each child, figured out their diagnosis, wrote a summary of what they could & could not do, had a translator who helped gather family history & other important information from the parents & had a photographer get a picture of each child with their parent. We basically acted like we were starting this program over. We re-entered every family back into the program. We grouped each child in 1 of 5 categories & gave them 1 day a week that they will come to the mission from 1-4.

There is something quite beautiful about sponsorship…not only does it provide financially for that child to receive care & the message of Christ shared with them & their family BUT it also opens doors for relationships to be formed. Someone else called by God takes a step of faith & obedience to God’s call…sacrifices financially so that one of these children who has been INVISIBLE to the world can become VISIBLE…that person becomes an advocate, prayer warrior, faithful partner to that child & their family. HOPE is restored…CHANGE begins…VISIBILITY happens. I am so excited to see these relationships begin to be built over the next few months. Also…please pray about whether sponsoring one of these children would be something God is asking you to do…maybe you can’t do $75 a month …maybe financially you cannot sponsor a child but you could become a prayer warrior for 1 or multiple of these children & their families. God has blessed us so that we can be a blessing to others.

2. Handouts & Folders

I had originally hoped to make each FJS family a folder with some basic handouts on positioning & stretching but with all the events that happened & with sponsorship I decided to wait till next year. I was already overwhelmed with everything I needed to finish up before I left (at this point in like 2 weeks). Well, one day at FJS one of the parents confronted me on the fact that last year I had promised handouts to help them work with their child & they had never received any. I felt bad & so set out to create a generic stretching handout. Well that handout led to me making one for how to use the therapy brush, one for how to use the therapy ball, & one for how to use the bolster. In the end I was able to provide each family with a folder that had 6 pages of handout (some front & back) that were all in picture form with English & Creole translation on them. I trained a Hatian, Presidue who will teach the parents how to stretch their children, brush them, & massage them. I am so excited for the potential these folders have. Each of the handouts was laminated, 3 hole punched & placed in their folder. Their folder was then placed in a 2 gallon ziplock bag to make it waterproof.

3. Sewing
I have always had a dream of starting a sewing program with the FJS mothers. I feel like it would be awesome to be able to teach them a trade that they could then use to support their family. Last summer I took in tons of material & sewing supplies with the intentions of beginning to teach sewing. Unfortunately last summer it never got off the ground. Well, 2 of the mothers who are in my Thursday group confronted me the fact that I told them that we would begin to learn to sew last summer & never did. It was a God moment because as my heart broke as I realized I was going to have to tell them that it wouldn’t happen this summer either. BUT then I realized that Cara was standing behind me. Cara was the one who first brought me to Haiti back in 2007. She just graduated from OT school & passed her boards prior to coming into Haiti this summer. Her main purpose in Haiti this summer was teaching the women in the town of La Fordge how to sew & how to make various other crafts that they could learn to make & then sell at Market. I asked her if the next week she would be willing to teach my FJS mothers how to make something. She agreed. It was a joy to see how excited these mothers were. I still believe & hope that one day this will be an aspect to the FJS program.

4. School
We are tremendously blessed to have Stephanie Mosier a special education teacher in working in the Miriam Center for the next year. Her goal is to get our special education school up & running. She is well on her way which is super exciting!!! Originally the plan was that this school would be for the Miriam Home children but after seeing about 15 kids in the FJS program that would benefit tremendously from having access to education & very capable of learning & growing it was decided that in the afternoon these children would come to school. So in the morning the special education school with run for the Miriam Home children & in the afternoon it will run for the 15 or so FJS children. These children will not come 1 day a week but instead they will get to come to school 5-6 days a week. This is HUGE…considering that in Haiti many kids without disabilities never get the opportunity to go to school because you have to pay not only to go to school but also have to buy uniforms. In Haiti if you have any type of physical disability or mental handicap even if you could afford to go you are not allowed. So these 15 children would NEVER have gotten the opportunity to go to school if it were not for the Luke 2:52 getting up & running. Please pray for the school, pray for Stephanie as she continues to prepare to start the school.

5. Bible Study On The Names Of Christ
I was so excited to be able to do the first 2 weeks of the Bible Study God gave me with the parents. The first week I did the name ELOHIM = Creator. I started all the way in Genesis 1:1 where His name is first used. I then spent most of the time studying Psalm 139:13-14. I copy & pasted a piece of my study to give you idea of what we discussed.

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mothers womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

-God created you…he knit you together
-Have you ever seen someone knit of weave something? How much effort and time goes into it…tremendous attention to detail…none look exactly alike.
-God knit us together…he put much thought into creating you and creating your child…he looked at every detail & planned it out. That’s what makes us special
-Look around at everyone here….do any of us look exactly alike….NO because each of us has been created unique in God…made so we each can uniquely bring God glory.
-Your Child Version of Psalm 139:13-14
-“For God created your child’s inmost being; He knit him/her together in your womb. praise God because your child is fearfully and wonderfully made; God’s works are wonderful, know that full well.”

Then I studied 2 more scriptures of what the Bible has to say about disabled people/children. I told them that we constantly here what others around us think about disabilities & we know what society thinks but really the only opinion that matters is what Christ thinks.

Exodus 4:10 Remember when “Moses said to the LORD, ‘Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since Thou hast spoken to thy servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue’
Exodus 4:11- The Lords reply…”Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?”

John 9:2-3 when Jesus’ disciples saw a man blind from birth, “and His disciples asked Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind? How did Jesus answer…”It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
It was amazing to be able to open up scripture & teach these parents about what scripture has to say about their children! Pretty amazing!

The second name we studied was El Roi- The God who sees. The scripture that we studied was Rahab. Here is a glimpse of what we talked about….

Story Hagar (Gen 16)

“She was Thrown out! Like a soiled, worthless rag! Used for another’s pleasure and then mistreated. It was too much; she couldn’t handle it. She felt like an outcast…She was Hagar, the one who bore the son of Sarai’s husband Abram.

Can you relate? Have you ever been thrown out, cast away? You fulfilled someones pleasure then you weren’t wanted anymore? Or were you unjustly cast out?

Sarai (Abrahams wife) was unable to have children… God had given Abram a promise that he would be the father of many nations yet they were old in age (past child-bearing) & still no children. Sarai had an Egyptian maidservant

so she made her maidservant Hagar have a child for her…Hagar didn’t have a choice she was a slave…she was obedient and did what was asked of her.

Hagar became pregnant & began to dispise her mistress…Sarai had done this too her…Sarai ended up blaming Abram for doing this & he was the reason her mistress now despised her.

Hagar ended up running away

Genesis 16:7-10, 13
“The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert, it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” I’m running away from my mistress Sarai, she answered. Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress & submit to her.” The angel added, “I will increase your descendents and they will be too numerous to count.”
She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her. “You are the God who sees me (El Roi), for she said, “I have now seen the one who sees me.”

Great news…God see you…He sees your pain, He sees your troubles, He sees the trials you face everyday as a parent of a disabled child. HE sees your disabled child…and as we learned last week he is not surprised that they are that way…He made them exactly how they are to fulfill his purpose and plan through them. He sees… He knows its hard…He knows at times you want to run away, give up…

But just like Hagar I believe He is calling you to stick with it…God called Hagar back to the very situation she had run away from…He saw the situation…He knew it was hard…But that was God’s call for her life. God has called you to be a parent of a disabled child…He is going to do amazing things in your life & your child’s life if you let him…If you trust him…He you SEE who he really is…and His names reveal His character

I wish I would have had more time to do more of the names of Christ with the parents but am very thankful for the 2 weeks I did get to share with them. I truly believe God spoke to the parents through these first 2 names to help them see better how God see them & their children.