As promised and a long time in coming, I begin my account of my missions trip to Haiti. Over the past few months I have thought a lot about the experience, how God used me and the humble work of the hands and hearts of our team for His Kingdom.Even more dominating in my thoughts is how mightily He blessed us by the tasks that were provided, and how we are humbled by the awesome faith of the people of this island nation, the poorest in the western hemisphere. I hope through the next three blogs,( it will take that many at least!) that I am able to impress upon you the vastness of the gulf that separates the wealth and faith, joy and sorrow, hope and despair in the existence of these amazing people, and the comparably tragic state of the soul of our own nation in regard to our mutual faith in the same God, and the same Saviour.
I also hope to goad you to spiritual self examination, as I was by the reality of what I saw, and maybe even exhort you to action in your faith in Christ beyond Sunday service attendance, weekly giving, and an occasional Bible study. I do not condescend, the scathing tone is for myself as well as for the comfortable Believer. Since I have been home I have settled into the familiar comforts of running hot and cold water, adequate clothing, shelter, medical care, and abundant food quite easily. This is natural for the average American Christian as we know little of hardship, and are prone to whining when the price of gas jumps higher than we feel we deserve to pay, or our favorite ice cream is out of stock on a given day.
while these things may sound trite, it is the truth. We are a spoiled and wealthy beyond reason and the soft, easy life God has blessed us with in this season is not the reality for our brothers and sisters in Haiti. Or for most of the rest of the world for that matter.
The next blog will be uncomfortable I promise. I will attempt by the Grace of God to rip you from your emotional and spiritual comfort zone with images and words that are the daily truth of life for millions less than a days' plane flight away from your home. My only sorrow is that I can not transfer the feeling of the heat and humidity, the smell of burning garbage and human waste, and the desperation in the voices of children begging as a way of life.
The second post will be on the natural beauty of the island and the potential God has put there. Despite the wreckage of most of the land there is the breathtaking glory of The Lords' love of good things to be seen, this will be soothing ice for the wounds your eyes will endure just before.
The third will be on the hope of Gods' people in that land, the work being done in faith by the hands of full and part time missionaries for the glory of His Kingdom, and stories of perseverance in the field, and in the face of kidnapping, human tragedy, Voodoo and death, all of which took place in and around the week we were there. It is my fervent hope that you will be moved to tears, feel the heat of shame, be overcome with the need to reach out and take action in your commitment to Christ to some degree. Weather that is to sponsor a child in Haiti or elsewhere, donate money, goods, time, or heed the call of our Saviour to go into the world and proclaim His Truth in person to people you have never met is between you and Jesus. Be assured however, that it is between you and Him if He is your Saviour, and the call sounds every day in the life of a Believer. We have only to pry our attention off of ourselves for a moment and it is easy to hear.
In love in Christ, Mike Z.
4 comments:
Nice! I appreciate your zeal to reach out and serve. And there are so many areas of service- from Haiti to the public school in your local town! This is, after all, the kingdom of Jesus Christ, so let us serve well and may He transform and renovate our hearts to that end.
It's good to have you back on-line, Mike! Since your initial remarks about the Haiti trip, I have looked forward to reading what you write about it--even the uncomfortable stuff. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for reading. I have been greatly changed by my experience in the mission field, and hope to return to Haiti in February '09 at the latest for at least a month. My time in the Caribbean nation has taught me an appreciation of the things God has given us here in the US, and brought to light the frightening shallowness of our dependency on Jesus Christ as the center of our lives. I feel for myself that the abundance of wealth and opportunity in my life, in comparison to that of the majority of the Haitian people, distracts me from God's purposes for my life. I hope to examine this truth more closely in this blog series, and over the coming two years in a more personal assessment of what I want, and what God wants for me.
I hope to help shed a little of the reflected light of our Saviour through this blog, that it may illuminate the footsteps of the faithful on the paths of service to God's Kingdom, wherever that service may lead us.
What an amazing post! Lost of info and detail. A well done expose on your trip and the plight of the Haitain people. It's obvious that your life has been altered due to this experience. I think what happened was you experienced the Kingdom here and now. That's what happens when we step away from our worldly pursuits for a time. God becomes a much greater force when we are in service to Him in this manner. Praise God and thanks Mike, for your service to the King!
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