Dream on, Deacon.

Yesterday morning I sat at my favorite place, the second floor porch or galri, as Haitians call it, listening to the quiet.  It's not often quiet here sharing a house with 12 children.  The kids were all at their Saturday activities.  I could hear the sounds of their music lessons coming from the school.  My kids are learning music on a small "fleet", as they call it, a recorder.  My mind wandered back over the years as I listened to the squeaks and shrill notes.  I thought about the very first school at Ste. Marie Madeleine, a one room rented house packed with kids wall to wall.  I thought about the children in Bondeau that were hardly ever dressed in real clothes.  The visions of children wearing over-size dirty and torn tee shirts hanging to their knees, will remain with me forever.  Shoes were only for school and church.  The kids on my mind never gave a thought to ever learning to play music.  They never gave a thought to attending a real school with a classroom for each grade.  What changes have happened over the years!  Ste. Marie Madeleine is now an active parish, packed with worshippers on Sunday.  They fill the church/classroom and overflow to benches placed outside.  The parish is the center of prospering community activity.  And it all began with a simple introduction.  God is good!