Sixteen Dollars

What will $16 buy you?

It was the exact cost of having my medical records copied. It was nearly the exact sum of our matinee tickets to see "Cloverfield." I spent at least that much at Chick-Fil-A one afternoon with the kids. It's less than I spend on a variety of extras in my life.

It's also the cost of a little girl's life.

Take an hour and a half flight from Miami to Haiti and enter an entire different world. A world where a starving mother caring for three children makes difficult choices every day, and every day seems like a never-ending nightmare. A world where she is so confused, unloved, and malnourished that she sells one of her children for--you guessed it--the equivalent of $16 US.

A little girl sold into slavery? Oh, yeah, that's horrible and that happens in all the time in Haiti, but that's not what happened here. This is worse. This six-year-old girl was sold to be a human sacrifice. That's right, her life was to be taken in a Haitian voodou (voodoo) new year's ritual.

I can hardly believe that miles from our borders human sacrifice happens. Just one more bone-chilling sin to add to a repulsive pile that includes abandoned and neglected children and children sold into slavery and sex slavery. But even in this blackness, a light shines. God's light.

The Haitian Children's Home bought back the little girl. She now lives at the home and knows that God loves her.

If you give to any charity this year, please give to the The Haitian Children's Home, or another orphanage in Haiti. There are just too many children and not enough help.

www.helphaitikids.org Haitian Children's Home: Our mission is to provide a safe family environment for orphaned and abandoned Haitian children, where they can experience the love of Christ, equipping them with the spiritual foundation and educational tools they need to lead fulfilled lives.