Loading...I have a great job! When Mary Gardner White asked me to help develop a Lenten program for the kids at church, I had no idea what would happen or how much I would learn in the process. It started off simply enough. I work for the Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti, a faith-based 501c3 with deep roots in the Diocese of East Tennessee. We work in three areas in Haiti: children’s nutrition; women’s empowerment; and safe water, which Mary Gardner and I decided to focus on for our program. I put together a kid-centered slideshow and we agreed to kick-off on the first Sunday school of Lent.
After discussing different Bible stories about water and the importance of water in the kids’ own lives, we talked about the kids of Haiti and the challenges they face of access to safe water. We decided to put a huge water jug in the lobby of the Church and start bringing change from home (hitting up the parents and grandparents, etc.). Well, the kids started off “fast.” I was surprised by how quickly the level in the jug was rising. The next Sunday, a young boy ran up to me and said his dad have given him a hundred dollars to put in the jug. We seemed to have gotten through to the kids and be off to a splendid start.
The next week, third Sunday in Lent, I showed up early and learned the bad news. Late the afternoon before, someone had thrown a rock through the glass on one of the back doors of the church, stolen our water jug full of money, and had run away before the police could get there to answer the alarm. My first reaction was shock, then anger. Who would do such a thing?
St. Paul’s is part of a network of churches in the downtown area that help folks who are down on their luck or struggling with one issue or another. All week long, people come through the doors for food vouchers at the community kitchen, or help with a utility bill, or some other problem. Every once in a while individuals are turned away because they have landed on a “do not help” list (shared between providers) for abusing the system. When this happens they often leave angry. So, our minds ran to these disenfranchised visitors on the question of “who.”
As I walked up to the kid’s Sunday school area that morning, I tried to think about the best way to “spin it” for the kids. Mary Gardner already had them seated in a circle and was breaking the news. After giving them time to vent their anger and frustration, MG introduced the biblical notion of forgiveness. The kids decided to respond by putting another jug out and holding a bake sale to make up the difference. At the late service that day, Mary Gardner announced to the parish what had happened and that the kids had a plan. Father Andy Olivo prayed aloud for the person who stole the money jug, whose life had obviously reached a sad point.
The congregation responded: the new jug started to fill up quickly, a lady in the parish raffled off a “dinner for eight in your home”, and the bake sale was a big success. At St. Paul’s each year one local and one international nonprofit is selected to share the Easter offering. This year, CNP and Chattanooga’s Metropolitan Ministries were the lucky recipients. With our share of the offering and the hard work of many, the kids of St. Paul’s presented me with a check for over $3300 to buy Bio-Sand filters to provide safe water for kids in Haiti.
I am not sure if the money we received would have been different if we had not had the setback three weeks into Lent. What I am sure of is the strength and resilience of the kids at St. Paul’s and the valuable life lessons learned along the way. For more information about CNP, check out www.cnphaiti.org.
