Saturday, January 16, 2010

Small Things

It has been hard for me to motivate myself to write this week. Everything I started to say seemed so trivial and inconsequential compared to the words and images from Haiti, that have been haunting me. My heart aches for the people there, and also for the people with loved ones there. Like most, I found myself wishing I could help in some way. Luckily, I found one.

If you have been reading That's Church, you already know about Jamie, 30, and Ali McMutrie, 21, who have been running an orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti for three years. The orphanage houses 150 children. Jamie and Ali live with about 25-30 of the smallest and/or sickest children. If you don't know their story, please go to That's Church to read about it.

I don't have any extra cash lying around these days, so I have been seeking other ways to help someone in need. I'm collecting take out containers for a homeless shelter, donating old Christmas cards to St. Jude's Hospital so they can reuse them, and when I learned that the BRESMA orphanage needed warm clothes for the children, I thought, "Well, THAT is what I can do".

I took 3 big bags of Dylan's old clothes this afternoon. As I packed them up, I got sad, thinking about the huge amount of things needed. What I had to give was so small, it didn't even seem worth it. But, then I got to the donation site. As I walked into the room, full of bags, bottles of water, and diapers, I smiled from the inside out. All of those donations were made by people like me, with big hearts but small pocketbooks. Every little bit comes together to make a lot.

Won't you please help? Each one of us CAN make a difference. I know it.

Donations can be made to the BRESMA orphanage here.

We can do no great things, only small things with great love. ~Mother Teresa

4 comments:

feather said...

i love this. and i think i needed to see it. it is so overwhelming to think about the needs over there. incomprehensible. after reading about your contribution, i feel like there IS something i can do. can give.
god bless you. you kind, generous woman.

Lisa @ Boondock Ramblings said...

That's an awesome thing to do . . . I have been reading that story. I want to donate more and do something, but...I just don't know what to do. I think I will donate some to an organization like this one to help! Thanks for the reminder and suggestion!

Anonymous said...

You are awesome! It is so easy to fall into the "I am so small" frame of mind, and it really is those small things that add up to such amazing larger things!

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

I feel blessed to have been able to make donations to several places.

I have been cleaning out closets like crazy. I will have several bags of teen clothes and I take them directly to the school I used to volunteer at-a school for homeless kids, so the clothes go right to them. It makes me feel better about the fact that my kids have so much.