The Broomstick Man
This past Thanksgiving, I had the privilege and opportunity
of spending my time in Haiti with AIM for the week. My family and I made the journey there to
spend our break thanking the Lord and reflecting on all He has done for us throughout
the year. I knew the journey would be
good for me jumping back into the full time day to day ministry and I was
praying for the unexpected knowing God would show me new and different things
as I walked back into the field. He
definitely showed up in every way possible and allowed me a wonderful
opportunity that I will never forget!
We started out the week doing door to door ministry in tent
cities and getting to know our new teams.
My team was absolutely amazing and it was awesome to experience their
new, fresh views of the field. It was a
blessing to see them growing day to day in prayer with others and pouring out
God’s love to everyone they came in contact with. I tried to step out of the way from time to
time to allow them to experience some of the things I had on the World Race
while also still showing up when I was needed.
The very last day on the field, we prayed for the unexpected
and to really have divine appointments with God’s children that He was really
fighting for at the time. I always pray
for God to bring me in contact with that one person that is so important to Him
that He sent me specifically to speak to.
I mean, try to wrap your head around that! We are so important to Him, that He would
literally send a person on an airplane around the world just to come in contact
with His ONE son or daughter to let them know who they are. How important are we!?! What a privilege and honor it is to have such
an amazing Father fighting for us!!
My team stopped to pray within the tent city that we were in
and asked God to really show us where to go next. The tent city was full of people from our
group and one of the guys on our team thought we should walk right outside of
the tent city onto the street. As we
turned the corner, I asked God to show me the one person on that dusty, dirt
road that He would like for us to speak with.
There was a row of little wood huts on that street with vendors running
their businesses. As we walked past the
first man sitting on a bench leaned up against his shop, I asked God if He was
the one. I did not hear a response and
kept walking by while also asking why it would not be that man, considering he
was just sitting there resting. We
walked past a few more shops with no one working and then, I saw him. God said, “there he is, my beautiful
son!” I knew he was the one as I walked
towards him smiling and watching him slave away over his broomsticks! There he was, “the broomstick man,” as I
refer to him quite often! He was hard at
work, chiseling away at long pieces of bamboo, carefully shaping them into a
perfectly smooth stick for a broom. He
appeared to be very old with an old straw hat, work clothes, sun scorched
wrinkles upon his face and rough, hard working hands. He was beautiful! I walked up with a smile on my face feeling
totally honored to speak with such a hard working old man of Haiti. I asked him what he was making and he told me
broomsticks. He showed me the brush for
the end of the brooms and showed me how he puts them together. I asked him his name but it was so long that I
never could get it right and ended up just calling him “the broomstick
man!” He told our team that he had been
making brooms for many years and I told him that I could tell that he was a
really hard worker by looking at his hands.
He smiled and continued to carve away.
I asked him if he had any family and he proceeded to tell me that he had
lost two of his children in a motorcycle accident a few years ago. I asked him if he had relied on the Lord
during that time to get him through and he said no! “Oh, my Father is so amazing!” Here it is, I thought, as I asked him if I
could share who the Lord was with him and he said yes. One of the girls on our team offered to share
her testimony with him of how the Lord has changed her life and another girl
offered to tell him who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for us! As they were speaking, the Lord told me to go
to Psalm 139:13 in which I had read that morning before leaving for the tent
city! I opened to that page and God said
go!! I waited until the other girls were
finished and told them that I had a few more words to say. God said to get down on his level and I knelt
down on my knee and started reading to him.
I recited the word as follows…
For He created your inmost being;
He knit you together in your mother’s womb,
I praise Him because you are fearfully and wonderfully made;
His works are wonderful, I know that full and well.
Your frame was not hidden from Him
when you were made in the secret place.
You were woven together in the depths of the earth,
His eyes saw your unformed body.
All the days of your life ordained for you
were written in His book before even one of them came to be.
As I was reading to him, I realized he was staring right at
me. I had his attention and I saw a
smile come across his face as I read him his worth and told him how important
he was. I noticed I had my sunglasses on
and I ripped them off of my face knowing this was a moment, looking into this
man’s sun scorched and dingy dark eyes telling him who he was in Christ, that I
would never forget. As his smile
lingered and I felt the touch of the Lord on this moment, I thanked God for
allowing me this opportunity to tell this man just how important he is to his
Father and Creator.
We continued to tell him more about his Father and how he
could come into relationship with him. I
also read him Galatians 5, telling him how free in Christ he was as he accepted
Christ into his life as his Savior. All
of his sins were washed clean by the blood of Christ and that through this act
he was set free. He smiled again as he
accepted Christ into his life and we welcomed him into the family of the
Kingdom of Heaven! We were able to give
him a bible in Creole, the Haitian’s native language, as well as a bag of rice
for his family. He was so happy to know
of his Father and said that he knew of people in the area who knew Jesus but
did not keep a personal relationship with him and that his desire was to really
come to know him personally. I shared
some of the ways that I continue growing with the Lord such as reading His
word, praying and talking to him. He was
extremely excited and thanked us as we hugged him and told him our goodbyes.
We walked away to go back to our home away from home and I
screamed out a “woohoo” to the Lord rejoicing with Him as He welcomed the son
that he has loved so much for so many years into his Kingdom finally!! I looked back to see him holding his bible
tight as he sat back down to chisel away at those broomsticks and I
smiled. “The broomstick man,” I whispered
as I walked away thanking God for such an honor and privilege in working for
His Holy Kingdom. I could not think of a
better job in the world than telling people who they are in Christ and how
loved and important they are.
“The broomstick man” is a man of God and a moment in time
that I will never forget. There are no
pictures and no real name that I can remember.
I will probably never see him again in this lifetime but I will remember
him when I pass by him in Heaven and our eyes meet again as we praise our
Father side by side in his Kingdom. I
have learned to be thankful for the eyes and the memory that the Lord has
instilled in me as my own personal camera for moments like that. There are no pictures in this blog, just your
imagination that God gave you, just the picture image that will come to your
mind as you read these words and learn about this man in Haiti who came to know
his worth on Thanksgiving Day. So… thank
you. Thank you for supporting me on this
trip. Thank you for praying for me and
for allowing me the opportunity to go.
To go again, out into the great wide open and experience the honor of
working for my Father. The Creator of
this world and the Marvelous Most High King!
