A New Dress for Church in Haiti

Before Bill returned to MO in December, he had asked some friends what they would like for him to bring them from the states. One young lady, Cynthia (pronounced sen’-see-uh), asked him to bring her a dress so she could go to church. In Haitian society, if you don’t have a nice dress to go to church, you don’t go.

Packages and clothes laid out on the bed

That got us to thinking about bringing some dress clothes for some of the children in our immediate area as many of the children have nothing decent to wear. We told a few folks about the idea and one family in particular took the project to their hearts. They took the list of sizes we estimated the children were, went shopping, and had friends help them. They provided a suitcase full of packages, each with a nice outfit, shoes, underwear, toothpaste, and a toothbrush in one lovingly wrapped Christmas package for each child. Then they personally brought that suitcase to the airport for us to take with us when we flew out!! What a blessing they have been!!!

Our Kentucky friends arrived in Haiti on Friday night and also brought some very nice clothes with them so Saturday afternoon, we laid out all the packages and clothes by sizes on the bed at the base and began to bring the children in. The first ones had no idea what was coming and we knew better than to broadcast it but after the first two groups of four were taken through to open their packages and try on their clothes, the word was out, and children started arriving on the deck!!!

We continued to get the neighborhood children we had specifically shopped for to come in and try on their new clothes. Then we would open the door to those crowding around and pull in 3-4 at a time. When we got down to just a few things left, we would go out and try to find children of the sizes that were left. It took about three hours and the deck was full of children.  Nearly sixty children received new clothes!!

Crowd at the door

At one point when we could not get in or out, I told them that we would stop if they did not back up from the door so we could get in and out. Surprisingly, they did for quite awhile. But I think new ones cycled through, and after a bit it was almost as bad as before.

Four neighborhood girls with their new clothes (Cynthia is in the green dress)

More pretty girls with their new dresses

We finished up just about the time it was getting dark. You should have seen the smiles on those little girls faces when they would open up a package and find an adorable dress! (I don’t know how our friends found such cute summer dresses in the middle of winter in MO!!) The little boys looked so handsome in their khaki pants and dress shirts!

Two handsome gentlemen

I told each group of children the story about the girl who had asked for clothes so she could go to church. Then I told them that we had friends who love God and that because they loved God, they wanted to share with them. I would talk with them a little about how Jesus loved them, etc. I went out to address the crowd a couple of times to tell them the same thing. I also had to tell them that we would NOT have enough clothes for all the children. It is always sad to have to turn people away. It is also almost always necessary in Haiti. The hope is that those receiving the gifts will associate the two, the gift and the love of God!

Children who arrived Sunday morning to go to church with us

I had said nothing about them needing to go to church or anything like that but the next morning was Sunday and many children started arriving on the deck dressed in their new clothes. Such a blessing to have them show up and go to worship service with us at the little church down the road. And right there with them was Cynthia, the girl who wanted a new dress so she could go to church.

We are so grateful to our friends, the Aaron Hymer family, for working so hard to prepare such a blessing for children here in the village of Kakok, and to the friends visiting from Kentucky who brought even more things, making it possible to clothe so many more.  Praising Jesus for His goodness!