Here I am entering my last few days of month 1 on the World Race. I do not know even where to start. This month has been filled with highs and lows all around. There are so many different ways to describe Haiti. I am not sure I can put it into words though. It’s hot 24 hours a day. It has beautiful landscapes from mountains to beaches. The people are eager just to talk and stare at you because you are different. The markets are crazy and smelly. I have loved spending time with our host Stephen and Autumn Byxbe. They truly have a passion for Haiti and a passion for seeing missions done the right way. But in this blog I want to focus on what God has taught me through Haiti.
If you do any research on Haiti, it is one of the hardest places to serve as a missionary. Most do not make it past 6 months. Since the 1960’s Haiti has been reached out to more than any other country in regards to missions, but not much to show for it. Why is that? I have pondered this question and asked God and he led me to a passage in the Bible:
Matthew 13: 3-6
“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered away because they had no root.”
There is one thing I haven’t mentioned about Haiti, it is so rocky. If I have tripped over a rock once, I have tripped over ones thousand times. I even cut my foot after tripping over these rocks. This passage made me think of a particular ministry we have been working with in Haiti, the farm.
The farm is hard work. It is hot there and there is no shade. It is a lot of muscle work of constant tilling, hoeing, raking, picking weeds and rocks out. And just when you think you are ready to start planting seeds, you become aware that it needs more tilling and picking out rocks. It is a long process all by hand, no tractors or machines here. But once you finally plant the seeds, you still have to wait you do not get immediate results. It could take days or weeks before you see plants sprouting, but not without their nourishment from the sun and rain. And here in Haiti, you have to be careful because it could come a really hard rainfall and completely wash everything you have been working on away.
The farm reminds me a lot of our own spiritual lives. Sometimes God needs to transform our lives for a new season. It is not always easy or pleasant work, but He needs to take away the old soil, pick weeds out of our lives, get out hard rocks, then continue to uproot and till old soil before he is ever ready to plant something new in our lives. Even then we need to make a firm foundation in The Lord or a hard storm could come and destroy what we have been working toward. We need nourishment through His Word and encouragement from other believers. Sometimes that can seem daunting because it not comfortable having things pulled and plucked from your life but it is a necessary process in order to change and be made new.
Sometimes I dread going to the farm because I know it’s going to be hard work. As I am working, it is so easy to say I give up or quit and find a nice place to sit in the shade. But instead I continue to push myself to dig a little deeper because I know I have it in me to finish and finish well. In our spiritual lives, we like it when God takes it easy on us because we don’t think we can take the transformation he is wanting to produce in us. But continue to dig deeper and don’t give up, don’t let the process of weeding, plucking and tilling cause you to become exhausted and quit, because the outcome will be well worth it when those seeds God has planted come to fruition.
I think that is why Haiti has been so hard to reach in missions over the past several decades. There is so much rocky soil here that it will take A LOT of work to uproot and weed and till until you have soft soil. So many people give up before they ever start to really see a transformation. They may lack the determination to continue to dig deeper into the people. Farming isn’t easy. Missions is not easy. But if you work hard the outcome will be a great harvest.
