I have been absent from posting for some days now, and it has been some weeks since I offered a new post here.
There is good reason. In eleven days I will be embarking on my first missions trip, and I am excited, and preoccupied with all this entails.
Originally we were scheduled to to go to Haiti in August of last year, but this was not God's plan so the date was moved. While this felt disappointing at the time, I looked to the future with anticipation. Now the future is, and there is much to do. Meetings and prayer, finances for the trip to arrange, inoculations, packing, supplies, and the collecting of all I can to bring to the people I will serve and witness to in Jesus name. The team of dedicated Christians I will be serving with will be doing a variety of tasks, assisting in the field clinic ministering to the physical needs of the poor, who may get the only medical attention they will see all year there. We will be hand pouring concrete and laying cinder block walls for a seminary school in 90 degree heat and 100% humidity. We may work at assembling working computers from spare parts, paint, teach and most importantly witness by word and deed of the love of Jesus for His people.
Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere with 80% of it's population living in abject poverty. Violence and crime is a daily occurrence while the specter of disease and starvation looms ever present in the lives of the Haitian people. Kidnappings of foreign nationals, and missionaries in particular are a fact of life here. We have been told to expect anything.
As I do what I can to prepare, I consider that all the material things I can bring to help these people will not last for long. I am packing minimal clothing and personal items, all of which I will leave there, I have ransacked my apartment for hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches, and soap, I am gathering my daughters outgrown clothes from her guardian family, and their neighbors. My fishing buddy builds computers as a hobby and I hope he will donate chips, hard drives, and processors for the missions school. Today I am going to buy socks, underwear, towels and facecloths, as much as I can afford, and hopefully my employer will donate over the counter medicine and first aid items to contribute to the missions clinic.
I am struck with the gross wealth all around me, and am doing my best to pack as much as I can into two 50 lb. suitcases and one 40 lb. carry on. My heart is beginning to break with the realization that all this will be less than a drop in an enormous bucket.
Yet with this in mind every morning I pray and thank God that He has called me to this task and given me an excited heart to do his will, and serve His Kingdom. While I despair in the smallness of my ability to give, and the weakness in my flesh that I know will feel the shock and shame of exposure to a society of the truly materially destitute, my spirit soars and I am brought to tears of joy and humility, that Jesus would choose such a worthless sinner as myself to share the witness Christ has given me, and allow me the privilege to labor for His Glory.
Now that you know where I have been and where I will be going, I need to ask you all to pray for the team, and for me. Please ask The Father for safe travel, protection from disease, and that He will give us great strength of body to labor, and an even stronger heart and spirit to witness to and serve the needs of our brothers and sisters in this poverty stricken land. It is my fervent hope that we will willingly give all that He has provided us to this calling, and that the people of Haiti will see Christ in us, and praise His Name for the helping hands and humble witness we bring by the will of God.
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8 comments:
Mzk, I wish you God's best on your trip to Haiti. The Haitian people are some of the poorest people in the world, as I've seen pictures of people fighting for the garbage that arrives from the "good side" of town. I imagine this endeavor will change you from the inside out in ways you won't even realize until later in life. Confronting poverty always has a humbling effect. And even though we often differ politcally on many issues, I view what you are doing as something that gives glory to God and strengthens your own salvation in the process.
I will commit to praying for you atleast once a day, or whenever the Spirit directs. The weather conditions there may be a bit on the oppressive side. But I will pray that God will give you the strength and the will to be a light in a very dark place.
One last politcal comment, as it seems I can't resist. Haiti could have been a changed island if President Bill Clinton had the political will to finish what he almost started down there. By not finishing the job, he left Haiti in worse shape then before. Stay safe brother, and Godspeed.
Good morning David,
Thank you and God bless you, your prayer will be a blessing and very much appreciated.
I pray that this experience will give me a great desire to continue in the mission field. I have a passion for indigenous peoples. Before I was saved I spent a few years studying Native North and South American Indians, their religious and cultural beliefs and practices, environment and situation in the face of western encroachment. One day I hope God calls me to deep jungle missions in the Amazon.
Funny you should mention the political situation in Haiti. My boss grew up in Port-Au-Prince, and he gave me some interesting insight on his country's situation.
He feels, and from what I can gather his people do too, that President Aristede (sp?) was the best thing to happen to Haiti. He is a Christian with a heart to serve his people.
It seems that shortly after his election he began pressuring France to repay hundreds of millions of dollars in loans that the French government neglected to repay over the past hundred or so years. This caused a stink. The French to handle this, sought the Canadians help, and complicit with President Clinton's administration saw fit to remove the embarrassing thorn by supporting the ouster of Haiti's president, and painting him in a false light. This caused his supporters to be murdered and tortured in great numbers, and when he returned to power a few years later, the US, France, and Canada suspended aid to the nation in protest. Even though the people of Haiti supported the man, because he organized the police force, built schools and hospitals, and attempted to build a working system of national care for it's people. Since he was forced from office again in '05, aide has been resumed, but the country in now in shambles. The present government, while supported by the US, France, and Canada politically, is doing little it seems to assuage the plight of it's poorest people, while it's elite are bathing in the financial favor of it's foreign supporters. I have no reason to disbelieve my boss, he was just there for two weeks in December. And I trust not the media to report anything other than what it wants us to believe.
David, Please e-mail me regarding this mission trip.
myly4him@charter.net
So you want me to keep you informed of the latest blogging skirmishes? I can email you my prayers of encouragent instead. As that will likely benefit you more.
Hello David,
I am not sure what your post means. What blog skirmishes?
Just our friendly fun debates! That's all.
Yes Soj, please stand by. I am yet digesting all I have seen and heard and felt during my time in Haiti. I am trying to reconcile the way I live my life in the face of what I now know of desperate poverty, and the unfettered worship of Christ, by a group of brothers and sisters who out of the necessity of their desperate situation have truly given their undivided trust to Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
MKZ, my prayers are with you brother. I pray that God sorts it all out and you're back posting again. :-)...
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