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Haiti Day 3

This morning I went to church. That’s nothing new to me since I’ve been going to church almost every Sunday since I was a child. And the fact that I went to church in a developing country wasn’t all that new to me either since I’ve worshipped with believers in Senegal, Tanzania, El Salvador, Kenya and other developing countries. What made going to church today unique is that I’m in Haiti, and today I worshipped amidst the ruins of a church building where Believers gathered to sing praises in the midst of their own ruins.

Numerous blue tarps were strung together to provide some protection in case it rained. The tarps were hung by ropes attached to exposed rebar or pieces of cement blocks that had toppled. As the worship leader began to sing he used a bullhorn as his PA system. The singing began. We sang. Boy did we sing. The choruses were familiar but the words were sung in Creole. It didn’t matter, I sang quietly in English with tears welling up in my eyes.

The pastor spoke from Matthew Chapter 24:7-8, “Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this is only the beginning of the birth pains, more will come.” Then much to my amazement, four young men came forward to be commissioned by the church to go, as missionaries, to other parts of Haiti where the earthquake damage is even worse. Even worse?! I was humbled.

Do you know how hard it can be to motivate American Christians to go – even short term – to the mission field? I know I can get pretty comfortable in my nice home and in my Sunday morning church experience…yet here was the Gospel being lived out by people who know pain, who know loss, who still grieve, and yet in the midst of it had the maturity and perspective to see the plight of others. In essence saying “we are hurting, but others are hurting more so let’s go bring them some Good News.” I wish every American Christian had been there.

So today I’m thankful for yet another experience of seeing God in action among His people. I feel like God just made another “Experience Deposit” into my life (see yesterday’s blog entry). My prayer remains that I live my life in such a way as to give God a good return on everything He has invested in me.