Insufficiencies

As we approached Tortuga Island, all I could think was, This isn't enough. Our rickety boat was laden with duffle bags full of toys, candy and goldfish crackers for the Vacation Bible School class we would hold for the children on this sparse island. But as we approached, I realized the inadequacies and ridiculousness of the situation. These people didn't need toys and snacks; they needed bags of rice and beans, medicine-- real sustenance. They needed more than our boat could carry.

But we had to make do with what we had. So we sat in a circle with fifty-some children in an empty concrete-block building and told them the story of Jonah and the Whale. We distributed our goldfish crackers and played games with them, emptying our bags of balls and dolls before boarding the boat that took us back to the slightly-less-impoverished mainland of Haiti, where we re-packed our duffle bags and headed to the next town.