What a treasure to hold my children’s small hands in mine, watch them grow, and enjoy their childhood. It’s not something I take lightly. Especially since I know not every parent or child has the same privileges.

I’m wearing these bracelets my daughter and I made together at the Simi Walk for Restaveks last October. They remind me to pray for Mickenson, our sponsored child, his brothers and sisters in our Children’s Homes, and all the restaveks in Haiti. They remind me to pray for Haiti’s broken government, broken economy, and broken people.

I’d like to be candid that it frustrates me that we’ve allowed ourselves as citizens of the United States to become blind to all the injustices going on in our world. We allow ourselves to only see what we’re “supposed” to see. Haiti is just another pawn on the geopolitical chess board. Meanwhile, its people who have fallen prey to cruelty and become victims of death. I have to try hard to find any news about Haiti’s current events. Why is that? Why aren’t we made aware of the horrifying statistics of what’s actually happening to Haiti’s people—people who are like you and me? Imagine if this were your home country.

I can’t just sit in frustration, though. As a joyful servant of my King, I can do more than sit here and let my frustrations boil. Taking part in the Simi Walk for Restaveks was more than just my job. It was an opportunity to get out and advocate for the children of Haiti, showing the local community that this is important enough for me to give up some of my Saturday. It was also an opportunity to be encouraged, as more than 130 fellow believers gathered with my family and I. Some of these were friends, but most were completely new faces to me. I left the Walk for Restaveks that day more encouraged than I have been in a very long time.