At
the end of February, Mike and Sharon Jette, along with Lindsey Bucher
and I, were able to take a short “vision trip” to Haiti with the
Outreach Foundation. During our time there, I honestly saw a lot of
what I expected to see (extreme poverty and a nation devastated by
decades of natural disasters and man-made turmoil), but what I didn't
expect was how personally God spoke to me during the time we spent
there.
The
Outreach Foundation exists
to find solid, biblical, indigenous churches and ministries who
are doing their work with excellence in
countries all over the world... and
then connect Americans with those ministries to further missions.
The ministry we visited in Haiti is called Haiti Outreach Ministries
(HOM), and I was blown away by all they are doing and their vision.
HOM has bases around Port Au Prince that
each consist of a church, school, medical clinics, vocational
training facilities, and other resources to benefit the community.
We visited each of these bases, spent some time sharing ideas for
initiating micro-finance programs in their communities, and prayed
over two houses which were built for Haitian
families using financial contributions
from friends of the Outreach Foundation. There were certainly
heart-breaking moments, like walking through some of the many slums
and seeing women making “mud pies” (basically
sun-baked mud) to fill their children's
empty bellies.
But there were also moments of great
joy and hope, like seeing the children in the schools who were
thriving and who understood what hope their education was offering
them.
All
weekend long, the Lord kept bringing the story of Gideon to my mind.
When the Lord appeared to Gideon, he was the least in his family,
which was least in all the clans of Israel… and he was hiding in a
winepress from his enemies. But instead of calling Gideon what he
appeared to be, God said, “The Lord is with you mighty warrior.”
He was calling out in Gideon a truth that Gideon didn't even know was
there. I saw Haiti Outreach Ministries doing that with the people
and children they interacted with. One of our Haitian guides,
Fritzno, who lives in the poorest part of Port Au Prince and has very
little, is currently attending school for Political Science because
he wants to “defend what is honorable” in a country laced with
corruption...all because someone from HOM told him about Jesus,
showed him that life has hope, and in essence said, “The Lord is
with you, mighty lawyer” before Fritzno even knew the Lord had
placed that in him.
I
feel that the Lord could do incredible things with Haiti. All
throughout Scripture, God uses the underdog and the “least likely”
to accomplish His purposes; Haiti, the poorest country in the western
hemisphere (and by some measurements, the world), certainly fits that
description. In the story of Gideon, the Bible says, “Midian so
impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for
help.” I wonder, as more and more Haitians turn to the Lord in
their poverty, if God might choose to use the little nation of Haiti
to do something amazing.
I'm
so excited for how Vineyard Church of Rock Hill might be involved
with Haiti in the future. Haiti is so close to us (only a 3 hour
flight from Atlanta!), so it's a cheap, easily accessible place for
us to regularly take trips, even with our kids. I could see us
partnering with HOM regularly to build houses, run medical clinics,
do VBSes, feed children, and a myriad of other things. As we strive
to be a generous church, maybe we could budget to build a house every
year for a family in need, or sponsor a classroom of children to go
the whole way with their education. The possibilities are endless!
One
final thing the Lord spoke to me personally, but this AFTER we
returned home: Ben and I have known for a while that we are meant to
adopt children at some point, but soon after returning from Haiti the
clear conviction came that this was the country we should pursue
adoption from. So this week, we applied with an adoption agency and
are starting the loooong (possibly 3-4 years) and expensive process of bringing
home (hopefully two) children from Haiti. I see the Lord's hand
weaving so much together….with our family, with Vineyard Rock Hill,
with Haiti… and I'm so grateful!
