Just like it says in Matthew 19:29
(And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.)
We have found that we have a chance to be like Fathers and Mothers, and pseudo-Grandparents to some children here in Haiti.
Today for instance, I was helping install some “rock cages” to prevent erosion from damaging the house of Francoise, the young lady we helped after the earthquake. These “rock cages” are about 16 feet long and have four compartments that you fill up with good-sized rocks. When full, they hold about a ton of rock and do a good job of preventing erosion.
Francoise’s children were helping us gather rocks as we worked, but after we had put together the wire cage, I used it as an illustration of the Gospel. I asked the children if they had ever lied or disobeyed their parents, which of course they had to say “yes” or else they would be lying!
So I “sentenced them” to jail and put them in the empty wire cage, one in each of the four compartments and lowered the lid so they would be inside a cage. Then I explained that we all deserve to be in eternal prison because of our sin, but Jesus had paid the price for our wrongs, and by believing in Jesus, our sins would be forgiven and we would be freed from our eternal prison.
So I symbolically removed each child from the wire prison after asking them who could save them: Jesus, of course!
Because they are children, I’m not sure what they actually believe, but I don’t think they will soon forget the illustration made possible by a big wire cage with 4 compartments!
So I encourage all Dads to look for every-day object lessons that can convey spiritual truths! They are all around us if we will just keep our spiritual eyes and ears open!
Recently we had Venita and her four children stay over at our house for a few days. Having three girls and a boy, all under 10, around for a few days is fun, but tiring. We took them all to the doctor for a check up and everyone seems to be doing fine.We had dinner together with Francoise and her 3 children so that was extra fun with 7 children playing together!
Of course this gave me an excuse to play sports and music with them as the picture above demonstrate!
Happy (Haitian) Father’s Day!
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