To you, our wonderful friends! Not long ago marked 100 years since my dad, Willis Miller, founder of Water for Life in Haiti, was born. Dad’s heart was definitely always to help people. When someone came with a need he would hardly ever turn them away; he’d always give them something. This was true even before he came to Haiti. That generosity came back to him in many deeds of kindness from people. I remember one time when he was returning to the village from Port-au-Prince with bags of cement on the back of an old army truck he had bought. Ahead of him, it was getting very dark and Dad could see rain was coming, and he knew he was in trouble because he didn’t have the cement covered. A truck passed him and then blew its horn and made Dad stop. He pulled over to the side of the road; men jumped out of the truck with a tarp and quickly covered the load of cement! They gave Dad a big smile and took off, Dad hollering his thanks to them. Dad didn’t know who they were or how he was going to return the tarp to them! He made it safely and thankfully to the village with the dry cement bags. A few weeks later a truck stopped where Dad was drilling and the driver asked for his tarp. He said they knew he was helping the Haitian people and they’d seen he had a BIG PROBLEM (he sure did!) Dad thanked them again and they were on their way.
In his honor, I’d like to share a poem written years ago by a person who’d come to visit Haiti:
Empty the Ocean
We went to a country faraway and unknown, inexorably drawn, inexorably moved
By our brother’s pleading and our sister’s groan.
It was a land of contrast and contradiction,
At times much more than we could comprehend.
Here was massive poverty, chronic need
That no quick-fix or Band-Aid remedy
Could ever ever hope to mend.
And in the face of this, we asked, Why?
And our eyes watered,
and our throats thickened with emotion.
To respond to this it would be easier to get a bucket and empty the ocean.
We went to a country
Where tin shanties and million-dollar homes
Stood side by side.
A land of cars and ox carts,
Three-piece suits and rags,
Of dreams left undreamed,
Of ideas left untried.
Here were vendors who pushed and prodded,
Did anything to earn their pay,
And in the end their tactics worked,
Because we bought things just to make them go away.
And we laughed and our eyes watered,
and our throats thickened with emotion.
To respond to this it would be easier to get a bucket and empty the ocean.
We went to a country where there was
Poverty. Hunger. Isolation. Despair
Broken equipment. Broken lives.
Water wells that no one could repair.
We saw an endless road that ate cars like candy,
And people, always people,
Who needed food, doctors,
and other kinds of help that simply wasn’t there.
We saw a family whose children were starving,
About to lose their two-year-old daughter.
Their lives might have been different had they only lived a little bit closer to sweet water.
And we were angry,
And our eyes watered,
and our throats thickened with emotion.
To respond to this it would be easier to get a bucket and empty the ocean.
We went to a country,
And found a beauty and peace we had not known.
A simpler lifestyle, a calmer lifestyle,
Something much different than our own.
Here were people in abject poverty,
With no hope, no future, nothing
As far as we could see,
Who could still laugh, sing, love.
We wondered if they knew more about life than we,
And we were glad,
And our eyes watered,
and our throats thickened with emotion.
To respond to this it would be easier to get a bucket and empty the ocean.
In this country we met a God Who said,
You and they are all the same—
Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief,
You all share in joy, you all share in grief.
Some of you say, I cannot do it.
One bucket is not enough.
The mission is hopeless.
The task is simply too large.
I AM telling you, you are mistaken.
It is still one bucket, and I AM in charge.
So we went to the ocean,
And we met a well driller man.
He didn’t have all the answers,
Just had a bucket in his hand.
His bailing was steady,
Neither faltering, nor half-hearted,
And following his example,
We each found a bucket,
And each of us started…
And we were hopeful,
And our eyes watered,
and our throats thickened with emotion.
By the grace of God, one by one,
We could indeed empty the ocean.
~ Clint Petersen
Because of Dad’s kind heart, many people in Haiti have good clean water today. And not only Dad; all of you wonderful friends have been a part of the work also. God bless each one of you! ~Leon