January 27, 2013
Cela died last night. This sweet, small thirteen-year-old boy just couldn’t hold on any longer. When I saw him in the hospital in Cap-Haitien a few weeks ago, I was afraid that we were going to lose him.
As I knelt down on the floor to pray for him and got up to kiss his forehead, I wondered if I would have the opportunity to see him again. On Christmas Day, I did get to see Cela with his family in L’Acajou, so my hope was renewed that God might still spare his life.
There is a fascinating mathematical theory called the Butterfly Effect. An American mathematician coined the term when he raised the question, could the fierce winds of a hurricane actually be traced back to the distant flutter of a butterfly’s wings weeks before? Now I know some of you are thinking, “Poor Craig! He’s dived off the deep end here.” Perhaps a few of my old friends might remember that I was a math major for part of my university years way back in the late sixties!
But here’s the point. To most people in the world, Cela’s death is meaningless – a little Haitian boy growing up in the bush who will never amount to anything. But let me paraphrase a verse from the Jewish Talmud that goes along perfectly with the Butterfly Effect.
Adam was created alone for this reason – to teach us that whoever destroys a single soul is as guilty as if he destroyed the whole world. And whoever rescues a single soul is as worthy of praise and reward as if he has saved the whole world.
Last evening around eleven o’clock,
on a barren floor in a small wood and concrete hut,
in one of the poorest places on this planet,
a spinning blue globe in the midst of infinite space,
a little boy named Cela died.
And it mattered. It mattered to his mother and his father and his seven brothers and sisters. It mattered to Joseph and all of his friends in Aslan’s Sunday Bible Club. It mattered to me. And most of all, it mattered to God – whose plan it was for this little boy to be born.
Now that you know, I hope it matters to each of you. We did our best to “rescue this single soul.” 
With help from our friends at Step of Faith Ministries, we sent him to numerous doctors over the last year. We paid for all his expenses for several long stays at a good hospital in Cap-Haitien, where each time he went they had to stick a long needle into his stomach (pictured right) and remove quarts of fluid. Whatever he needed – doctors, medicine or the hospital – we paid for it, all $1,500.00 of it. We could not stand by and do nothing, while this sweet little boy slowly and painfully wasted away from congestive heart failure and tuberculosis that ravaged his body, until he breathed his last breath.
Now we must bury Cela Ichnadin, because his parents have no money to lay their precious little boy to rest. His funeral costs will run about $750.00. Cela’s mom and dad and their children live on less than $300.00 a year. So you can see it is impossible for them to find a way to bury their son.
I hope all of you who read this tribute to Cela will want to become a part of helping the children of Aslan in Haiti. Just as we have about 200 kids involved in our New Jersey programs, we have another 200 kids involved in our Haiti programs. Each of our 400 children has a name. Each has his own fingerprint. Each of them has hopes and dreams for a better life. Each of them is a beautiful butterfly, gently flapping its wings and causing a change somewhere in this world.
Please follow this link https://aslanyouth.org/donate/ and designate a donation to “Cela’s Fund.” Or write a check with “Cela’s Fund” in the memo, and send it to Aslan, P.O. Box 270, Red Bank, NJ 07701-0270. This money will be used specifically for medical-related expenses for Aslan’s children of Haiti. Remember, whoever rescues a single soul . . . .
Sincerely in Christ,
Craig
P.S. The first picture below is of Cela at Aslan Bible camp a couple of years ago. The second is of Cela being treated by Dave McLaughlin, a wonderful doctor from Grace Bible Church in Bozeman, Montana. The third is of Cela being treated by Nurse Practitioner Colleen Ward, who has been an integral part of our work in Haiti since its beginning in 1996.
