Today I stayed after school to work with some of the students with Algebra. One of the freshmen, Jonathan, had his Nokia phone with him. He was fiddling with it and couldn't get the battery to stay in. Our students cannot bring their phones to school, but I don't mind if they bring them to tutoring as they might need them to call for a ride. I told him to hand it to me and I would keep it until the end of the tutoring session. I noticed that the battery which went into it wasn't the right size. It was a Nokia battery, the connection points were in the right spot, it was the right width, but the length wasn't right. It was too short, therefore it was sliding up and down. He had found a little round rock that he was trying to wedge in the gap, but the cover wouldn't stay on. He was telling me with a big grin, "Mr. Doug, Jesus didn't make this rock for no good reason." He was serious about fixing his phone with the rock he found. I am amazed at the way Haitians improvise here to make things work.
Since the rock wouldn't fit quite right, I grabbed an unused pencil and broke the end off. I then took a razor and shaved down the side in two places so it would fit nice and snug and wouldn't stick up and prevent the cover from sliding on. I then tossed the rock aside and he looked at me and said, "Jesus didn't make that rock for no good reason." I was cracking up because though he was happy to have a fixed phone, he really did attempt to make use of something so small as a single rock.
Later that night I was talking to another teacher here who said she saw a student who was using a match stick to operate their phone. He had lost the rubber keypad (I have no idea how), but had to use a match stick to press the buttons to make calls.
It seems to me that nothing gets thrown away here. People use things until they can no longer be used, and then they scrap them for some unknown future use. It sometimes reminds me of the movie "Mad Max".
About Me
- DJodts
- I have created this blog to share the stories of my trip to Haiti as a missionary at Sonlight Ministries as I will be teaching Algebra, Geometry, Adv. Math as well as 6th grade math. Sonlight Ministries was started by Roger and Norma Alexander in 1985 after their second year in Haiti. Before moving to Haiti I have visited four times on one week trips to volunteer with anything that was needed. This mainly consisted of construction work as groups from my church, WRCC, have helped build a new multipurpose building for Sonlight which will be called SonCenter. Construction isn’t the only type of work. Some like to spend time in the classrooms interacting with the students as teachers aides or sitting in the hall with a student one-on-one to help with grammar, math, etc. Groups have also helped with numerous tasks such as painting inside houses, outside houses, and rooftops. If you enjoy helping others and would ever consider visiting please let me know; it is a life changing experience.
1 comment:
I think this little boy has great theology. There's a lot behind his statement "Jesus didn't make this rock for no good reason"- Jesus is Creator, and all things exist for His glory (Colossians 2); He is our Provider; He delights in using weak and small things to show His power; He is Sovereign- the "blessed controller of all things"... , and works everything together for our good.
Perhaps all this is hidden in his statement, althougth he might not say it like that ;o) but his child-like faith shows through in an every-day struggle of life.
I think sometimes we have intellectual understanding of God, but when trials come in life, our unbelief shows through...
My prayer would be to have a faith as simple, and a confidence in God as steadfast as this boy in my day-to-day life...
Post a Comment