Three statements stick with me. Statements that keep me under conviction; statements that call me to accountability.

Statement One
“Miss Yolantha, de chuldrun, dey wait for you like the desert lays in wait for the rain.”

I come from a long Southern heritage of farmers. I remember, as a little girl in Eagle Lake, Texas on a once in a life time summer visit with my grandparents, sitting on the hot, sweltering porch imitating my grandmother fanning herself as we stared off into the horizon day after day waiting and watching for rain. How amazing to think of someone waiting for me with the same energy of expectation.

Statement Two
“We thought that our Black brothers and sisters in America had forgotten us. But because you come, we know that they have not forgotten. Every night Miss Yolantha, my wife and my children, we pray for you, and we thank God for you. Every night we ask God to bless all of America because of the work that you do here in Haiti.”

For years I've found this statement intimidating, haunting, humbling.
To think, that I, a sinner
A woman who often harbors
Hateful secret conversations.
A women who fronts a smile
When she is secretly spitting
In the face of her accusers.
A woman who lays awake at night
Replaying conversations of the day
With the sinful game of …
“this is what I shoulda said…
This is what I shoulda done…
Next time it happens…”
Dare I think or even believe
For one moment
That an act or deed or word
That I have said or done on the mission field
Stands between America
And destruction…
Between America
And her blessings?


Statement Three
It's what I do.

One summer a young man, who had worked with me for 3 years as a translator and disciplinarian of the children couldn't come to assist me because he had other obligations for the summer. The night before we were to return to America he arrived. He had hitch hiked and walked over 43 miles to see me. I was flabbergasted and caught completely off guard. In 3 crushes and 2 marriages, never has anyone cared for me to this magnitude. All I knew to do was to hug him tightly and tell him, “Thank you for coming. It is so good to see you.”
He responded, “Miss Yolantha, you have inspired me. I am very active with the children in my village, because of you.”

Not knowing how to react, I hugged him again.

“Thank you for coming, I can't believe you came all of this way to see me. How long can you stay?

“No need to thank me. I have already stayed my time.” I did a quick glance at my nine dollar and ninety nine cent Wal-Mart watch, barely 12 minutes had transpired.

“I must start walking back now. No need to thank me. It is what I do, Miss Yolantha, it is what I do.”

Every time I get ready to prepare for another adventure in Haiti, I ask myself, “Miss Yolantha, what is it that you do?


A scripture pops into my heart and I hear a voice, “only what you do for Christ shall last.”




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