A Different Perspective

I'd like to take a moment to introduce myself. I'm Jill and I'm the oldest of Randy and Roberta's two daughters. I do a lot of the behind the scenes work here on my parent's blog but today I wanted to step outside of my normal realm and I wanted to tell you a little bit about Haiti from my perspective and I wanted to give you a bit of insight as to who my parents truly are.

When my parents first told me they were going to be moving to Haiti, my first thought was "How utterly absurd....how ridiculous" and "What am I supposed to do here with you gone??". You see, I've been to Haiti. I went with my father as part of a medical missions team. I've seen Haiti up close and personal and to try to comprehend why anyone would want to move there was just beyond me. From the moment you set foot in the country, your five senses go on overload. There is so much to absorb. You hear the people speaking in Creole which in fact is a beautiful language. You see the poverty and the overwhelming number of people taking up every single square inch of available space. You smell the charcoal fires burning and the garbage and the food cooking and the animal waste, all in one spot. You feel the hands reaching out trying to touch you because you're "blanc". You're something rare in the country. You taste all of those smells in your mouth. You taste the dirt and the dust as your driving down the treacherous roads on the way to your destination. I've seen the dangers first hand. I was in the vehicles that were stopped by the Hatian police bearing machine guns. I've heard the voodoo drums late at night and seen the ceremony fires burning on the mountains. I've seen people gathering drinking water from the same river stream in which animals are drinking from and defecating in. This is the same water that the women are bathing their children in and washing their clothes in. Why on earth would someone want to move here and why my parents? Why not someone else's parents?

Then I began to understand. I began to understand the compassion and the love. I began to understand the driven desire to help a hurting people which seems to have been forgotten. I remember back to one of our last clinic days when I was in Haiti. The people had begun to stampede, for lack of a better word. We quickly had to shut down the clinic because we were being overrun and we risked having everything stolen out of their sheer desperation for medications and vitamins. As we're closing everything up, there was a man at the back entrance of the "building". He held a small baby who was obviously malnourished and not well. He said something in Creole and I asked the translator what he was saying. She said that he was asking for help for his baby. I wanted to take the baby but they told me that if I grabbed that baby from him, the chances of him leaving were great. He was desperate. If I took that baby, he'd consider it as an offer to keep the baby and be responsible for it. I was so angry when they kept telling me to keep packing up. I think in the end, we slipped some vitamins and some de-worming medication in a bag to him with some brief instructions rattled off in Creole. I'm still angry when I think of that moment because in all likelihood, that child is now dead. He or she probably died of starvation and it didn't have to happen. It never has to happen. There are people, like my parents, who are willing to go the extra mile. They're willing to forsake it all to help a hurting people. They're willing to leave their comfortable homes, their stable jobs, their children and grandchildren so that they can do what it is that God has told all of us to do. We're not all called to go to Haiti. But we are all called to do are part in spreading God's word of salvation. By you offering up your monthly support to missionaries like Randy and Roberta Arnold, you are going to Haiti. You'll be right there in their hearts as they work to keep children fed, clothed, educated and most importantly loved and filled with God's love.

I'm probably not the best daughter. My selfish attitude still takes over from time to time. You see, I'm very spoiled in the fact that I've ALWAYS had my parents. They're my life's blood. They are my confidants and my protectors. Through the good things and the bad things in my life, they've been there with me every step of the way. They've never judged me and they've never condemmed me. When I fall down, they pick me up and help me dust myself off. When I hurt, they're there with their arms open wide to hold me through the hurts. How do I keep living my life on the daily without them here to be my rock? The answer is simple I suppose. I keep going on daily but I go on with the knowledge that every single day my parents are away from me, a child lives and doesn't die. Every single holiday that they miss, someone is receiving hope for another day. They've done their job with me and now instead of raising another child, they're taking on another country, one child at a time.

So now I'm asking you to help my parents make a difference. They'll never receive recognition or laurels for their humanitarian work. They'll never have celebrity status and receive any Hollywood glory. They'll just have the satisfaction of knowing that another baby didn't die. That's worth more than anything this world could ever offer.

Jill Inmon