Haiti Experience part 3 - Promises

Our long term missionary Melonnie shared with us her favorite Haitian proverb the other day.

Sa ki fe pwomes bliye, sa k'ap espere sonje.
Those who make promises forget, those who are hoping remembers. 

This has become one of my favorite verses too because of how much truth it rings. We live in a society where we make many promises, but keep few. It's true what they say, promises are easy to make, but hard to keep. It's not that we break promises on purpose, they often just slip our mind because of how busy we get. I mean, how many times have we promise a friend that we'll pray for him, but didn't make time to pray? Or we promise to call someone and were just too busy to call? Or we promise to meet up with a friend we haven't seen for a long time, but the date just get pushed back one week after another? We've all done it, many many times. Why? Because we are human, because we are not perfect.

On the other hand, we've all been on the receiving end of this spectrum. I mean, we've all been disappointed by broken promises made to us. We all know how it feel like to look forward to something and only be disheartened because it didn't happen. Then over time, it snowballs into distrust. Why do broken promises hurt? Because we have placed our hope and joy in the fulfillment of those promises. The truth is, we depend on promises, but they are easily made, and easily broken.

I wanted to share about promises because this topic is especially pertinent in Haiti. Haitians are no different from us, they place their hope in promises the same way we do. Actually, they remember promises made better than we do. I'll give you an example. When we walk outside the campus, we often have little boys come up and talk to us. Sometimes they would ask me my name and they would tell me their names, then they would ask me, "will you remember me"? When I say yes, next time I am outside the campus few days later, that little boy would come and find me. I mean, out of over a hundred of us, he would remember me and he would wait for days for me. Then when he sees me outside the campus, and he would approach me with a big wide smile and he would call me by my name. Then he would ask me what his name is. The little boy would look at me with so much anticipation in his eyes waiting for my answer. Unfortunately, for those of you who know me, you would know that I am horrible with names, especially names in a foreign language, so this is not a game I am good at. Half of the time I would get the name right, and a huge smile would break out on his face and he is radiant with joy. The other half of the time, I would have to tell the boy that I've forgotten.. then there is an obvious look of disappointment on his face, he would repeat his name and ask me to remember him again. Why is it so important that I remember his name? One, because everyone wants to be remembered, and two, because I promised him that I would.

 One of the street boys

Melonnie shared with us that one danger of being a missionary in Haiti is that Haitian often misplace their hope in us, the North Americans. They often think that just because we are there to help that we are the answer to all their problems. They put so much hope in us, in our promises... But we are just people, people who make mistakes, people who break promises, people who are imperfect. But our God is different, He remembers every single promise He has made, not one of them is broken. It says in Numbers,

"God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?" (Numbers 23:19)

This is exactly it. God is not man, He is not like us. He actually remember and keep all His promises! He will not disappoint us! David praised God this way in Psalms,

"Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made." (Psalm 145:13)

Therefore, it was really important that in everything we did in Haiti, we gave glory back to God. We needed Haitians to know that we are just like them, simple people who needed to place our hope in God. Because He alone can provide, He alone can keep all of His promises. We are just broken vessels, called to do His work, to bear fruit. We are just people who are struggling to do good, struggling to live a purposeful life. 

 Sweet boys I met at church