Fruit of Your Labor

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.