It has been more than seven and a half months since I have written and honestly I will be shocked if anyone reads this. But something is pulling at my heart again to write down my thoughts and share them.
Since I have last wrote in July I have returned to the states and gone back to Haiti twice. In those two trips God spoke to me in a new thing. That thing is ‘evangelism’.
I have always had a heart to see people come to know our incredible God and that has taken on many forms throughout the years. From giving a good haircut, to a shoulder to cry on; from working hard, to actually laying out the gospel to those who don’t yet know it. This has happened in Haiti as well, but generally when I am there, the intent of our trips is not evangelism, but rather service. Serving is what I’m comfortable at doing. When the Lord really got ahold of my heart when I was seventeen it was through the story of Jesus washing His disciples feet and in Matthew chapter twenty verses twenty six through twenty eight which says “whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, 27 and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” In the moment He really got ahold of my heart nine years ago, I became His servant. And to tell a servant to evangelize can be a bit of a scary thing for that servant. However… anytime our God calls us to do something, He will always give us the strength to do it.
So here is the story. In September on a visit to surprise my Darling for his birthday the Lord simply put the word “evangelism” on my heart. (And to any of you who have not heard yet, I have a Haitian Darling. He is amazing. I hope you get to meet him some day)
In December I went to Carrefour to serve on another Solid Rock team and an interesting situation arose. We were working to build a fence to begin to move some of the tents out of a certain area. Of course no one is going to be excited for their home (no matter how temporary) to be moved, but the things that our team saw weren’t just people being frustrated that they had to move, it was a desperation and corruption of them trying to hold on to something that not only wasn’t theirs, but is not nearly as great as what God could provide for them, if only they would trust in Him. I ended up getting caught in the midst of two almost-riots, and, being the only person to speak Creole ended up being the one in the center of a raging crowd trying to calm them down and explain that God has better things in store than their measly, leaky tent on borrowed property. Praise the Lord they didn’t riot right then, or we may have gotten trampled, but they still did not see any of the hope I was trying to show them. The next day we tried to continue work on the fence, after the people in the village had destroyed our previous progress. This day, instead of rioting, they decided to throw rocks at us in a desperate attempt to see our work stopped. They threw vollies of rocks at us for a good forty five minutes until one of our teammates got hit in the head and we ran for the indoors (praise the Lord she was ok).
Over the last two years I have come into contact with many Haitians who are in dire circumstances and most of them know the Lord and have hope. Either hope of a better life here on earth, a better life in heaven but most importantly, the hope that no matter what the situation, Our God is there with them fighting for them, loving them and comforting them even in the worst of situations. But getting to talk to those people in the village who later threw stones at us, I know that they did not have this hope. The hope of Jesus Christ.
My heart has been re-impassioned (is that even a word?) for the people of Haiti. There is a new desperation in the depths of my soul to see the people of Haiti changed by God’s love and grace. To see them have hope for today.
This is where the story picks up. In ten days I will be headed to Haiti for almost a month. I have the honor of working with the Luis Palau Association in Port-au-Prince at their “Fun in the Son” festival. It will be a week spent doing medical clinics, eye clinics, VBS, prison visits and tent city outreach, climaxing in a two day festival. The rest of my time will be spent in Jacmel with my Darling and the church down there, doing whatever God may have for me.
The trip down there I get to travel with a young man from Solid Rock and am excited to hear his story. And while I am in Port-au-Prince working the festival I have the honor of being the mission team coordinator’s assistant. She is a dear friend of mine and I am so blessed to spend a week serving the Lord along-side of her in my favorite place on earth.
The next ten days will be spent working my tail off to try and make enough money to pay all of my bills to be gone for a month. (I still need a couple grand before I go) and praying for all that the Lord is doing and going to do through us and in the people of Haiti. I don’t know why He chose me to get to have these epic adventures with Him, but I sure am glad He did.
For the most part, I try to keep day dreaming to a minimum, but I take great joy in dreaming of a Haiti where the majority knows Jesus and where riots don’t happen and bus drivers don’t get shot for money. Where the streets resound with praises to The Living God and not to voodoo gods. I will work for the dream of that Haiti.
