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- Written by Tom Miles Tom Miles
- Created: April 16 2012 April 16 2012
Respire Haiti is a really inspiring website about Haiti. One of their writers is a young woman from Louisiana, Megan Boudreaux, who started a school in Gressier, Haiti, a little over a year ago. Her website is amazing and she has one article there everyone interested in how we can best serve the people of Haiti should read: "No More Orphanages".
She talks about how building more and more orphanages in Haiti is actually counterproductive to keeping families together. Mothers who are very poor tend to give their children to orphanages in hopes of the children having a better life. The children then grow up without a family, and often perpetuate the cycle. Megan believes that the best hope for Haiti is empowering women and families through vocational and educational programming—such as at Heartline Ministries. She even has a link at the end of her blog to Heartline! It's amazing that this 25-year-old from Louisiana admired and referenced the same empowering ministry that Saint John's team will be supporting.
If you have time, browse Megan's blog, particularly her views of what is helpful for changing a culture and truly helping a nation, rather than more of the "band-aid" fixes they have endured for centuries. She believes in adoption for true orphans, children with no living parent. As well-meaning Americans, it is important to hear varied views of what can be done to really assist others!
“Hesed” is a Hebrew word that means “kindness”, “mercy”, “loyalty”, “loving-kindness” or “steadfastness.” It’s the way God intends us to live together—a “love your neighbor as yourself”, active, selfless, sacrificial, caring-for-one-another brand of living contradictory to our fallen natures. The “Heseders” are continually looking to work together to share some small measure of God’s extraordinary love. Won’t you join us?