Restavec

A french word for "house slave" Marie Yolene WAS the house slave for a family from the young age of 3 until we met her in 2006. She is now 27 years old, graduate from 12 grade, and has 1 year of nursing school under her belt.( Schooling only costs about $300 a year) We were able to send her to school and eventually our son Dillon, used "spark" money to build a home for her and her parents, who lived in the mountain..Her parents live in a cave because......... there "is no room in the in". ?This is the truest form of poverty. We were able to use spark money of

$100 and turn it into $8000, this turned into hope for a child slave with a dream

Today,I took 3 tap taps,( a form of public transportation which is a truck or bus with too many people in it) and a motorcycle built for 1 (but we had 3). The Hatians are so polite even while being a sardine. There are salesmen on the busses, yelling out advertisements to the people while they are riding from destination to destination. The merchandise passes around the bus, perfume and medications. TV commercials without the TV. 2 hours of this entertainment, one way.

We went into the mountain village where Marie Yolene lives. She is a beautiful young girl who has lived in darkness her whole life unitl 2009. She continues to struggle with the cast society of being a "restavec" and being a women in this country. The vodoo doctor was called to cast spells on her home and her, to make her move.. they did not want a restavec in their community because she surely was doing bad things to have a house built. She has struggled with being accepted even in her church community. She needs support but I struggle to find it for her. She has a home, has an education, she is a free women. She is isolated with no family. But is she really free if she is judged because she was placed as a restavec as a child? She is judged by her past, that which she did not choose. How often do I do this at home to others? Now here I am judging others for what I have done.

She loves Jesus and tells me, that without Him she would be dead. She believes Jesus saved her by sending our mission team and our church family to love her unconditionally. She believes we were sent to bring her out of the dark slave world imposed on her by the wealthier community down here.

Her soul is so beautiful when she smiles, I can see it in her eyes. I see her smile when she talks about God's goodness to her. I can get a glimpse of her smile when I can get her to look at me. She has so much shame in her eyes, it breaks my heart. Lord I beg you to reach into her soul and heal her from the pain of her past. She has no family, no friends and no doctors here. I keep telling her she is loved by our church family and she is a beautiful child of God. I told her she represents hope for so many women. I tell her we are here NOT TO PLACE JUDGEMENT,but to only love her. But she has not experienced this here in Haiti, yet. But, I know God has a plan for her. We will wait in prayer for it to be revealed.