It has taken me a little while to compose my thoughts, but nonetheless here they are.
Here are the top three takeaways from our missions trip to Haiti:
1. God has convinced me that what Haiti needs are willing Christian people/leaders to pour into their Christian leaders. Â What they do not need is an army of people telling them how destitute they are and doing every thing for them. Â Here is some scripture to consider with respect to this:
Matthew 4
18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,â€Â Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.â€Â 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
Notice that Jesus declared that he will send these brothers out to be fishers of men. Â I guess to cut to the point, I felt convicted that as non-haitians we should be pouring into the lives of those who are called to ‘fish’ in Haiti. Â In essence to support the missionary.
2. The Haitian people are very charismatic by nature. This was observed in their dialog with each other and most certainly in their worship of God. Â They are a very joyful people when it comes to singing about God. Â This is a great thing since our eternity will be spent worshipping God (see Revelation 4,5). Â My prayer once I got settled in (about day three) was that the Haitian church would develop a hunger for God’s word. Â I prayed that they would take their enthusiasm for worship into their study of God’s word. Â The last day of the Crusade, I had the opportunity to pray with a young man (15-16 years old). Â All he desired was to own a Bible. Â Sounds crazy but he asked if we had any. Â Although we did not have any Bibles (in a language that he could understand), I found a local Haitian pastor who just placed an order for some Bibles in Creole. Â This warmed my heart to see this young man seek out a Bible. Â This is something that you don’t really see with American youth. Â My prayer now is that we would see God’s word land in the hands of the students in our very own county. Â Just imagine the ‘holy’ revolution that could take place when thousand of youth are armed with God’s Word.
3. On a personal note, I spend a lot of time looking at
Matthew 14:28-33. Â Was reminded of how I constantly have to be willing to do what God call’s me to do. Â He called Peter to come to Him in this scripture. Â The difficulty was that it was over water. Â Peter didn’t bat an eye, he immediately went. Â When Peter took his eyes off of Jesus and focused on what was happening around him, he sank. Â The cool part is that Jesus was right there to pick him up. Â It’s a reminder to me that when God call you to do something we need to do it. Â Yeah we may slip, we may lose focus, but when we are called, He will be faithful to lift us up. James 4:10 paints a great picture of this as well. Â It says to submit yourself to the Lord and HE will lift you up. Â What an awesome reminder of how great our God is.