Haiti Misconception #4
Haiti is too DANGEROUS to go to…
One of the re-occurring trends that I’ve seen since being down here is that the number of males who have come down to help has outnumbered the women who have come down. Praise God!! Seriously, if you think about it, that’s pretty cool. in the U.S. we have churches filled with women and children. Here not only are most of our Haitian staff quality men, we’re drawing quality men to come and participate with what God is doing. You could say that it’s because men like to be hands on/get dirty and there’s plenty to get dirty with down here. You could also point to the fact that men just like to fix things in general and there is more than enough to fix here for years to come. However, I think an added draw to men and reluctance to some women may be the element of “danger.”
We’ve had plenty of participants who have taken considerable flack from friends, family, coworkers and churches for coming down into such a dangerous area. Parents coming down have been told they are irresponsible. Men and women both have been chastised for leaving spouses and children. Churches have put resistance up for multiple participants including youth pastors. Ultimately there are a number of reasons why all of these things have been said but a huge part of it comes down to fear and misconceptions. One of the largest misconception is that it’s just too risky and too dangerous !!!
For those of you jumping up to check the stats and what so and so has reported or what the official reports on the dangers of Haiti are, I ask you to just chill out for a second. First of all, those are secular reports dealing with just the physical realm. You might say that “yes, benny, BUT we need to be careful of our physical safety too…especially if we’re to bring our son or daughter here.” Yup, I agree with you. Safety is a concern and we’re not ignoring it. Believe me, we will attempt to take precautions to keep everyone safe. We have a guard by day, dogs and another guy by night that are on our side of our locked gate. We’re tucked away in a Christian community that’s completely civil and hard to find. We’ve got barbed wire on the tops of our high walls. There’s a second gate at the bottom of our drive. We go everywhere with translators who are more than translators. We plan on having everyone in by dark. My point is that we will try to put every participant in a place where they will be safe at all times…
BUT…sometimes things happen.
AND…God has ALWAYS been faithful to provide.
I gaurantee you that we could spend months devising “what if” plans and the next day run up to a situation no one has ever even considered as a possibility. This is Haiti. It happens! I want to let you know that the physical danger of Haiti is not what you think.
After being in all the places I have been to in the past year or so in my life, I can tell you numerous places that were far more dangerous than where I am now. I pulled up a few facts from the World’s most dangerous cities and haven’t found anything on Port au Prince quite yet. However, I did find places like Cape Town, Detroit, New Orleans, Los Angelas, Moscow, Caracas, Bagdad, Juarez and Beirut.
(left: picture of Detroit and Bottom: picture of New Orleans)Would you take your kids to New Orleans? Would you let your husband go to Detroit? Would you bewilling to travel to Cape Town with your family? How about if you had an organization that was known for fostering safety? What if you knew they had a place with a guard and gates and barbed wire? What if you knew that you would have a local with you at all times in case of emergency? Doesn’t that sound silly?
(Side thought: Just because we reacted to Katrina with increased looting, stealing, violence doesn’t necessarily mean a “third world nation would react any better. In fact we often think they would react with increased violence. However, the truth is that God has poured out His Spirit here to the point where there is so much peace that the UN has already dropped off the radar essentially except for making more messes with traffic.)Yet isn’t that where the fear that comes in of the unknown? Isn’t that the fear that has put pressure on so many of our participants already? Haiti is unsafe!!! Where does that fear come from?Have you heard of chaos breaking out here?Have you heard of massive attacks on people coming down?Have you heard of violence breaking out?Then why are you afraid?“Fear not, for I am with you…”Do you know that Jesus says to not fear more than any other phrase? Ponder that for a second. Fear is one of the biggest things that holds us back in almost every area of our life and yet it’s not coming from Him.
In all honesty, the question really comes down to control. As humans we like to be in control. Americans especially tend to have an even unhealthier desire to control everything in our lives. We want to have back up plan after back up plan for every possible scenario so that we know how WE will handle the situation that probably will never come. We focus on the fear of the possibilities because if something happens where we don’t have a back-up then it might just show that we really don’t have control. We’re control freaks.
We live in a way where we have to have answers for how we will take care of all of our needs and the needs of those that are in our life and under our responsibility. We become slaves to jobs to support houses too large and cars to oexpensive. We toil for our children’s education and for our own retirement (for the Christians reading this, where in the bible does it talk about saving up for the future?) We even save more and more on the side for the “just in case” fund IF we’ve been frugal enough or blessed enough to get over that perverbial hump where we’re just trying to catch up on all of the bills. Our control comes out in our preferences, relationships, lifestyles, giving, receiving, jobs and families. Don’t believe me? Check your heart and ask God what He has to say about it.
If you stop and listen you might just here Him saying…
“Be still and know that I AM…and I am in control”
“I will never leave you…never forsake you”
“I will be with you always.”
“I am your protector and provider.”
“Let me have your burdens…I know what to do with them.”
“I’ll lead you in paths that are righteous.”
“I’m your strength. I’m your fortress against the foe.”
“I am your defender.”
“I made you and know you.’
” I formed you before you were. I thought you up and said to myself ‘This is good…real good’. I was the one who made you on purpose and with a purpose. I knew all of your days before I put my breath in you. I formed you to transform you. I want you to carry my life. Don’t worry about tomorrow. It has enough worries without you adding any. Do you trust me? I am trustworthy. I am faithful, I am kind. I am full of goodness and my steadfast love for you will be your shelter. I love you more than you know how to love. I am love. My presence will go with you. DO NOT BE AFRAID!!!
-If you have any illusion that you’re in control of your life, you need to let that go. It will only anchor your progress in life.
-If you have any illusion that you are safe on your own strength, you need to wake up.
-If you have pressured someone or been pressured by someone to not come down here because of “safety”, check your fear! Would you do the same about going to Detroit? If so, you really need to check your fear.
He did not give you a Spirit of Fear, but one of Boldness, Love and Self Control.
If you are afraid to come down here because of the physical things, I will tell you that He’s got it all under control regardless of our contingencies. If your trust is in man, you’ll never be secure.
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The only thing worth truly fearing is God Almighty and I promise you that His presence is an all consuming fire. That will strip you, refine you and kill you more than anything that can come against you on this Earth…His pursuit is a terribly, dreadful beauty. He’s real and He’s not tame..but He is good. (narnia)
As a friend of mine once said: “Jesus did not come to make bad people good…He came to make dead people live…”
If your fear of coming down here comes from a self preservation or for your own protection, there is a good possibility He’s provoking you because He wants to kill you…because there has to be a season of death for anything to truly fully live.
