Haiti Misconception #3
Haiti wasn’t prepared for this!
Well, again this goes back to the previous blog about what vision you’re looking with. Last year I had an opportunity to look at life through the eyes of orphans, widows, pastors, street kids, dump dwellers, translators and druggies. I saw the world through my eyes and then through their perspectives. However, I was constantly trying to look through His eyes instead of mine or others. He sees things I don’t see and His thoughts are higher than mine. His ways are not my ways…but I want my ways to eventually be His ways. Regardless, if you look at the infrustructure of Haiti (in the physical realm) it won’t take you long to come up with the solution that Haiti has never been ready for such a catastrophe.
However…I’m getting more and more convinced that looking at things primarily through physical eyes instead of spiritual eyes is a distraction and often a waste of time…
SO, if you look at Haiti’s “infrastructure” through Spiritual eyes, you start to see something once hidden. Behind the centuries of voodoo, cycles of dependence, government corruption and the low standard of living you will find something breaking out. With the rains coming down you may see a spread of diseases and rashes and maybe even violence. However, if you look past those physical things, you’ll find something happening in the Spiritual realm that is contagious. Think about this:
In the past year or so in my life I have been in about 25 countries and have worked with quite a few translators. Every once in awhile, I’ve found a gem of a translator who has a pure heart behind the words they speak. They desire to reach their own people perhaps more than us “missionaries” do and it shows in every ounce of their being. Well, every once in awhile you find one or MAYBE two in the same area…To put it perspective we have an abundance of FANTASTIC translators. Are they all perfect? No. But I love their hearts behind what they are doing. I honestly believe a number of them would do what they’re doing with as much joy as now even if they weren’t getting paid. Don’t believe me? In the transition of me coming back I found out a couple of them weren’t getting paid for a couple weeks! That was a mistake quickly resolved but not once did they complain, argue or bring it up. Instead I saw their smiling faces as they pulled crazy hours…
We are connected with almost 300 pastors and over 1000 churches currently. Some of these pastors have pure hearts and are such a blessing to work with. Others frustrate me to be honest as it seems they care more about themselves than all of their congregation. However, the amount of solid pastors who care more about the kingdom to come than the pleasures of this world is astounding and humbling. So many of these pastors when asked what they need responded with “discipleship.” DISCIPLESHIP!!! Not food. Not water. Not shelter. Not clothing. Discipleship! It may be important to not that this response was even mere weeks after the Earthquake where physical needs would be most apparent. Riley, a man bringing discipleship to these pastors met with one for the first time a few days ago. The man had lost his family in the Earthquake. His wife gave birth prematurely and both her and the baby died in childbirth. His response? “God is good, He is faithful…” A few comments later and the pastor made a comment about the voodoo priest who lives next to the church saying: “yeah, God has won over some of his family already…it’s only a matter of time before he comes too…”Talking of churches…these churches followed our example of strong denominational ties for decades. However, this disaster has brought pastors together under one name as one body. They’re starting to form into a group who challenges, encourages and admonishes each other. They’re starting to look like one church with many parts instead of multiple churches with few parts…These people live in community. They share everything in common and help out their brothers and sisters.I also had the blessing of getting supplies for a school to be made for kids that primarily come from 3 orphanages.We haven’t paid the workers, haven’t had to worry about the money or supplies being taken for something else and we’ve seen progress on a school building. In fact, the first time I stopped in with supplies, they already had about 30 men in their prime working diligently to clear rubble and dig a foundation for the school…
So if you look at it, we’ve got pastors from different denominations moving towards coming together to help each other. They are caring more about discipleship than what they can get out of the deal. They’re desiring and willing to be challenged and held accountable in discipling their elders and have them do the same with those in their church. We have translators who are discipling translators who most seem to have a heart after God’s own heart. We have communities who are sharing everything and we have people stepping up to help the fatherless. Add all of that to the fact that hundreds and thousands are coming to Christ with fertile hearts and it kind of starts looking like they’ve got a pretty good infrastructure starting to come into place.
My prayer is that those of us with all of the answers and head knowledge and bible degrees don’t come down and push these people backwards towards strong denominational lines, separation and dependency. We are part of ONE bride who IS being made pure and spotless…Anything less and we’re selling ourselves short.
May we start asking ourselves what would happen if we had more of a heart for own people than others?
What if we shared everything in common?
What if we cared for our orphaned, widowed and fatherless?
What if we cared more about being a part of His bride instead of the denomination we come from?
What if we cared more about making disciples than converts?
What if we cared about either of the above? (stop and search your heart and be honest with what your lifestyle suggests!)
What if we valued life…in this world or the next? Do you realize in America alone we abort about 3,700 children…daily? You know what…I just found another stat that suggests that 23% of all abortions are from women who claim no religious affiliation in the US…it then breaks down the denominations for the rest of the 77% of those claiming to be Christian!!! Is that a wake up call? It should be!
The question might just be whether the US or Haiti has a better infrastructure…Years after Katrina we still haven’t seen revival in Louisiana. Days after the Earthquake in Haiti found thousands upon thousands upon thousands forsake voodoo in search of His saving grace…I’d suggest they were more prepared than I thought…maybe more than you thought?
