Close to the equator, where the tranquil waters of the Caribbean Sea meet the angry waves of the Atlantic Ocean, lies the little island of Trinidad.
One hot, sultry night, on this particular island, a young mother wiped her sweat-filled brow and heaved a sigh of relief as another screaming bundle of humanity entered this world. A cute, dark-haired, dark-skinned newborn, this tiny baby had no idea of the pain and trauma he would endure, neither did he know how he would use his pain-filled past to bring glory to God and lead others to Christ.
The mother was from East Indian descendants, as well as the man assumed to be the father of this child. As the child grew though, distinctive African American features emerged. After being questioned, the mother relented and admitted to an affair with the local shoemaker, an African American man. Enraged, the man, previously assumed to be the father, gave the mother an ultimatum. "I will stay, but the baby must go. If the baby stays, I go."
There is something about the mother/child bond that is stronger than life itself and most mothers, if given the choice, will choose their own flesh and blood over their lover. Sadly, in the life of Daniel Pollard, this was not the case. At the tender age of 3 months, this mother not only chose her lover over her baby, she selfishly wanted this child out of her life for good. Nestling the small child on her lap, she fed little Daniel bitter poisoning, hoping to kill the baby and be rid of him forever. Praise God, in a moment of clarity, she realized the awfulness of her deed and rushed the dying child to the nearest hospital where doctors worked frantically to save his life. God had an amazing plan for this unwanted, unloved child and he spared the wee child for a purpose.
As Daniel grew from a little baby to a young child, he bounced from home to home, many of them abusive. A root of bitterness took hold and as he heard more details of how his mother tried to kill him, it grew till it filled his very soul with hatred and rage.
Around 10 years of age, he saw his mother one day at market and just the very sight of her filled him with such rage it threatened to consume the young lad. Desperate for something to numb the pain, he turned to alcohol and drugs at a very young age. After a night of partying and drinking, he would wake up to throbbing headaches with the void in his aching heart deeper than it had ever been.
At 14 years old, trying to eke out a meager living, he sold mosquito coils and nets and other accessories at the local market. One day, he turned to a lady and said, "Ma'am, would you like to buy a mosquito coil?" The lady turned, and only then, to his shock, did he realize it was his mother he was speaking to. The lady looked at him and replied, "No, son." Devastated by another rejection, he firmly vowed to never speak to his mother again. Not only had she refused to clothe and feed him, she refused to even help him support himself.
Time went on and, through lots of hard work and determination, he managed to secure a well paying job at a hospital. One day, someone came to Daniel with the news that, due to septic poison from an attempted abortion, his mother had died. His heart hardened as he relived how his mother had tried to kill him and now she herself had died from having tried to kill one of his siblings. Again he felt intense hatred for her and, instead of mourning her passing, he went out that very evening to another party.
One evening, at the age of 18, he stood on the curb waiting for a taxi. As he stood there, in the pouring rain, along came a group of girls from the local convent. There was one in particular that stood out to him and, in an effort to meet this sweet, young women again, he made sure he was at the same place, at the same time again the next day. It worked, and he tried inconspicuously to make it happen again a few evenings in a row before he got the nerve to ask this pretty young girl out for a date. She accepted, but because of his poor background the girl's mother did her best to stop the budding relationship. One thing Daniel had vowed in his heart, because of his sad growing up years, was that he would never father a child out of wed lock. Unfortunately, his resolve was not enough to keep this young lady from becoming pregnant, but, now that he knew a child was on the way, a wedding was planned so the child would not grow up as an illegitimate child. The day of the wedding arrived but Daniel was so busy smoking weed that, until a friend reminded him, he forgot this was the day he was planning to get married. In Trinidad, the tradition is that the bride doesn't go into the church before the groom. Anxiously, the young bride paced in circles before, finally, in a cloud of dust and smoke, a wildly careening taxi delivered Daniel Pollard at the doorstep. And so, began the wedded life of Daniel and June Pollard.
We were honored and blessed to have Daniel & June Pollard and their son Joziah with us for our week of crusades. Above is part of the story that Daniel shared with us bit by bit each night of crusades. He shared just enough to keep us all in suspense, wondering what was going to happen next. And when he said, "and then something happened", we all groaned because we knew that was the end of what he was planning to share that evening on his life story. Somehow he always managed to stop at an exciting place that had everyone wondering what was going to happen next. Now don't get me wrong, we certainly weren't bored the rest of the evening. Daniel has a way of presenting the Word of God in a clear, easy to understand way, that left many hearts encouraged and convicted, including mine.
Above is only some of the story he shared. Unfortunately, I stopped
taking notes the last few evenings and I don't remember enough of
details to make it into a story. I did take the liberty to add a few
small details to make it into story form, but all characters, events and
locations are nonfiction and actually happened. The rest of the story,
as well as I remember it, goes like this.
Their first child, a daughter, lived only 6 short months. Sometime during their early years Daniel visited New
York City and loved it so much he decided to stay there and only go home
to Trinidad for occasional visits. The main reason he loved New York
City so much was that drugs, women and booze were cheaper and more
easily accessible there.
Somewhere around this time, June became a
Christian. I don't remember the details of her conversion but she
thought she will move to New York City to be closer to her husband.
Loving him in a way that could have only been God through her, she
catered to him, even laying out his clothes and getting everything ready
for him before he left to party the night away. Later on she admitted
she kissed him and waved goodbye till the taxi took him out of view, all
the while quietly praying, "God, I hope he has an awful night."
Even
through the haze of sin, smoke and adultery, God was doing a work on
Daniel's life. Through the faithful love of his wife and a series of
events, with the final one being a visit from 2 men that witnessed to
him, he finally committed his life to God. God blessed them with 6
children and the children are blessed to have wonderful parents.
LaBorie worship team
Amanda Eberly, Natalie Martin, Janisa Nolt, James Brubaker & Ryan Horst
Daniel sharing at the children's meeting
Now I'm resting, sweetly resting....
church 8 evening in a row did these little people in
Daniel & June love to make food for large crowds and offered to
make the hot food for the fellowship meal on Sunday. Collin &
Carter are helping them cut the speck of the chicken. We hosted
the Pollards at our house the week they were in Grenada and I
learned some good cooking tips from them!
We shelled alot of pigeon peas for the fellowship meal.
Here we are working at it one night after crusades
Kendall & Ginger brought their guests and food up to make a pot
of oil down, a Grenadian dish. It was very tasty.
Yea, it's what it looks like, a pig snout.
If only I could get past the thought of
what all the nose rooted through in it's life
it wouldn't be so bad. It does give it good
flavor though!
Fellowship meal, I'm not sure exactly how many
people we served but it was alot! Strewed chicken & rice and
peas were the main dishes
To maintain portion control, we serve the food
With the boys having to wear white dress shirts to school,
it seems there is always ironing to do. The week of crusades
I ironed 22 shirts for one week.
We laugh at the monkey's strange antics.....
and they probably laugh at our strange antics...
Paper airplanes fly better from heights
The High family band....we will let
you know when our CD will be released
Lynford & Erma Rutt were visiting Geneva the same
time Jeremy & Sheri Martin were visiting
Kendalls so I had the clan here for supper
Church picnic for Limes, LaBories & Laura churches
Beautiful sunset after an afternoon hymn sing
Kaylah's class is one of the lucky few that
are back in their original classroom
due to the remodeling project
All school chapel....Chris is responsible for them every
Monday morning the month of March.
Kaylah's class and teacher are on the back bench
(she's trying to duck but was a few seconds too late:))
Kaylah's classroom
For those of you that were familiar with our children's
mild taste buds before, you will be shocked to know this hot sauce
has become a staple on the table...
(still didn't get their momma convinced yet, though)
The children keep very close track of who's turn it is to get
a ride to school the mornings that Chris is working down there
Practicing for sport's day, the American
equivalent of track and field
Bag races...if I had to do this
the distance they do, I'd croak!
400 meter dash
Since Chris had the honors of busing students to the
playing field, he stayed to help supervise the games
L-R: Austin Smoker, Sammy Mapson, Chris,
Kaylah, Justin Zimmerman & Ryan Horst
I took a snack down to the men working at the school...
the school had break over this time so the teachers got
lucky too:) L-R: Mark Brubaker, (from Canada) Chris,
Mr Moses, (Kaylah's teacher) Mr. Conhi (pastor from Laura),
Johnny (from Canada) and Mr. Bill Coutain (principal &
teacher at LaBorie School)
Trying to figure out something.....
Moving the scaffolding....Chris, James & Mark
(brothers from Canada) & Johnny
This picture shows the height of it and the reason
for the grimacing on the picture before....
also they were hoping the paint bucket
on it wouldn't fall off and land on their heads:)
Senior youth night...we play games, then
have devotions and a snack
If nothing else, being down here should make
professional dishwashers out of the children
(maybe in my dreams, they have a long way to go!)
This is what we do for fun on week ends; the poor animals
get the brunt of our children's bored minds
"Low riding pants...I think I'm in style!"
"I affirm if I get out of here alive
I'll never chase another mouse!"
Thank you for your prayers and support! We appreciate you all so much!
