More on Venita's Story

On the day of the earthquake, Venita was going out and her two other children were staying home with their father. He told Venita that she could leave the baby with him, too. He loved holding his children and playing with them. But Venita said it was no problem to take Sara because she’s such an easy baby. That is why Veniat and her baby, Sara, lived. God had more plans in mind for their lives. God knew we’d need Sara to cheer us all up. He knew that her Mom would need her for comfort after the loss of her husband and her two other children.

When Venita came to our house, I wondered what she needed. Did she need to cry? talk? be alone? be with people? She said she cried for 9 days after the earthquake. Then she heard a Christian message on the radio about not dwelling on what has happened. She said she decided to try to take courage and go on. She was living in one of the largest IDP camps in the city, right downtown. There she reached out to a little girl named Lusma. Lusma is only 10 years and apparently alone in the world. She was being raised by her Mom and her aunt because he Dad had died when she was younger. During the earthquake, she said everyone started running, so she ran too and hadn’t been able to find her mother or aunt and didn’t know if they were alive or dead. Venita and Lusma helped each other. Lusma said to Venita “you look like my mother.” Venita replied “OK then I’ll be your mother!” with a big smile on her face. Lusma helped her with baby Sara and whenever there was food distribution, Lusma would run over and try to get some. When our friend Elysee met Venita at the Credit Union where he works, he invited Venita, Lusma and Sara to come to the smaller camp where he is living so that he could try to help them, especially because in the larger camps, there’s more chance of disease and crime. Since Elysee’s family was already having a hard time caring for those in their own family, he asked if we could help Venita. When I met Venita, she told me about Lusma and said that Lusma had just run away 5 minutes before I came to her. Venita tried to talk her into staying, but she thinks that Lusma didn’t like being far away from the food distribution downtown. Please pray for Lusma. It would be nearly impossible for us to find her among the approximately 13,000 people at the camp downtown.