Blessings

Author © Scott D. Zachary

Our marriage was not doing well. Among other contributing factors, Bobbie was not pleased with my philanthropic rampage through both of our savings. I had little consideration for our future financial security.
Too many children were suffering needlessly all around the world to be concerned with that.

In early 2005, after having lost a special little girl to a pair of pernicious profligates in the prior year, I diverted the impact of my loss by sponsoring a precious three-year-old girl named Neissa in Haiti through Love-A-Child. A few days later, I sponsored two more children, James and Eduardo. In my usual impulsive manner, I called Bobbie up at the house at 2:00 a.m. the following Saturday night to announce that she would be co-sponsoring another five children. Bobbie questioned my craze with, “Don’t you think you’re getting carried away, Scott?” Nevertheless, Bobbie seemed to settle into our distant extended family quite well, and as soon as the sponsorship packets arrived, she went straight out and bought a calendar to keep track of all their birthdays.

I customarily celebrated my birthday by going on a shopping spree and buying myself whatever I wanted. With eight children to care for, we began celebrating my birthday by going on a yearly shopping spree for them, instead. Once a year, Love-A-Child permitted us to send each of our sponsored kids a maximum one-gallon-size package. Bobbie and I worked and worked to fit all the items we bought for each child into a gallon bag. You’d be amazed at how much clothing, school supplies, jewelry, toys, games, candy, and shoes can fit into a gallon bag! We delighted in seeing the pictures of our children holding our packages and proudly wearing the outfits we had sent them. Their faces glowed with appreciation.

In June 2009, two of our eight Haitian children disappeared. I received a letter from the folks at Love-A-Child informing me that James and Eduardo had left their program. Concerned, I called and found out that the boys left the Love-A-Child school program to look for work to help support their families. The boys were seventeen and sixteen, respectively. Love-A-Child’s school program offered the equivalent of grades 1 through 12; however, the boys had only finished third grade. They told me this commonly happens and that even if they had completed twelfth grade, no technical schools were available where they could learn a practical trade.   

That perplexed me.

Perplexity quickly metamorphosed into a sparkle. This time it became a whirlwind mission to build a technical school on our now 74-acre farm. We didn’t have nearly enough funds to transform our farm into a trade school campus, but I trusted that we could make it happen anyway and that God would provide. What an ideal place to build it: a lake and several ponds, each stocked with different species of fish for teaching marine biology, wild game galore for training wildlife managers, old-growth woods for teaching forestry, and acres and acres of fertile farmland to show future farmers how to work the land properly.

I pulled up the satellite image of Hispaniola Island. The eastern end of the island is dark, depicting the lush jungles and coffee plantations of the Dominican Republic. Except for three small spots, Haiti’s end of the island is gray, denuded of all trees and vegetation. The people have stripped the land of its trees for firewood and shelter. Worse yet, Haiti is in the center of Hurricane Alley, and the bare hillsides cannot slow the deluges of rain dumped by the frequent tropical storms. Mudslides have acidified all the lakes, ponds, and even the coastal waters. Nothing can live in them.

All these big hills on our farm will be perfect for teaching terracing!

On this particular day, though, my attention diverted to sponsoring more children. I had recently started sponsoring children through Children International as well as Love-A-Child. First, a little girl named Maria Consuela in Guatemala, followed by Gabriela in Venezuela, and then seven more children in various countries around the world.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

My friend Hubie and I were walking into my house when I asked, “Why don’t you sponsor a child, Hubie?”

“I’ll think about it,” he muttered.

Agitated by Hubie’s noncommittal attitude, I challenged, “If I sponsor ten more children, will you sponsor one?”

“I’ve got my grandchildren to think about.”

“Won’t you even consider sponsoring one child, Hubie?”

“I’d have to talk to the wife about it.”

“In that case, never mind. Instead, why don’t you come on back to my office and watch while I sponsor twenty more children.” I ushered Hubie into my office. He plopped into the chair in front of my desk and stared at me in consternation while I dialed the phone and punched speaker.

The same lady who registered my previous seven children at Children International answered the phone. “Hello, Elisabeth! This is Scott Zachary. I’d like to sponsor some more children.”

“God bless you, Scott!” Elisabeth lauded. “How many more children would you like to sponsor?”

“Twenty.”

“Did you say ‘twenty’?”

“Yes.”

       “GOD BLESS YOU, SCOTT!”

“Thank you, Elisabeth.”

“Thank you, Scott! You’re giving twenty children hope and a much better life in one phone call!”

Hubie’s consternation corkscrewed into bewilderment.

“For twenty children, it will be $560 per month, Scott.”

“No, I want to pay for a year in advance for all of them.”

“Oh my, the Lord will surely bless you. The total will be $6,720. Do you want to use the same card?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Hubie gawked.

“This will take a while, Scott, because each new sponsor transaction is processed separately, and our computers aren’t designed to handle so many sponsorships in one phone call.”

“That’s fine. I’m curious; what’s the most children sponsored in one phone call?”

“You, now...with twenty.”

“Praise the Lord! How many children are being sponsored altogether through Children International, Elisabeth?”

“We keep all the totals on our board here—323,753.”

“And what’s the most children that anybody has ever sponsored?”

“It was twenty-five by an elderly couple who’ve been sponsoring children for many years. Now it’s you, Scott, with twenty-nine. Blessings galore!”

“Praise the Lord!”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It is profoundly ironic that the tragedy of having lost a special little girl consequently kindled one of my greatest blessings. That’s what it took for me to realize that every child is just as important as any other child in God’s eyes. And had it not been for that awakening, 37 children might never have gone to school, received medical care, eaten sufficiently, nor rejoiced in a ray of hope.