Blessed are all who fear the LORD,
Who walk in obedience to him.
You will eat the fruit of your labor;
Blessings and prosperity will be yours.
Psalm 128:1-2
When we first arrived, Kerry prefaced us with the fact that
we may never see the fruit of our labor while we are here in Haiti. I was
prepared for that. God had other plans. He blessed me last Saturday with the
fruit of my labor.
All of us girls were asked to take on the task of teaching a
literacy class to the men and women of the fishing village. We happily agreed
and most of the men and women were very excited to participate. By December,
our group had dwindled to a few faithful. When we came back in January, we
actually discussed stopping the literacy program because we did not have a lot
of people coming anymore. We decided to keep doing it for the few that did
come.
Necilia was one of them. She is an elderly woman around 60
years of age. The first day of literacy we learned she didn’t even know how to
write the letters of the Creole alphabet. So we started with the basics. By
January she had filled a notebook up with letters and words to practice. A few
of us didn’t believe it was her notebook because of the vast improvement of her
writing skills. We moved on to sounds in February. She struggled so much every
week but kept coming back without fail. We always knew Necilia was coming. At
one point, we talked about as a group that we were just going to love on her at
the literacy program because we didn’t have much hope for her to do more than
learn the Creole alphabet.
Last Saturday, Kelsea was working with Necilia. I joined in
to help Necilia because she is my favorite lady among the women. I sat down as
Kelsea was showing her a flashcard and asked her to read it. Necilia, without
hesitation read the flashcard. I couldn’t believe what I had heard! We all
screamed in our happiness, looked at each other with awe, and I cried. Neclilia
can read…she can read! Necilia had the biggest smile on her face.
 |
| Teaching Necilia at Literacy Program |
It’s worth it. 52% of Haitians are illiterate. Six months. One
hour a week. Necilia can read. We gave her more than you can imagine. She can
read the Bible. It’s totally worth it.
