Hello, Supporters!
My team and I have been in the Dominican Republic for almost three weeks now, and a blog update is long overdue. Before I start talking about my experience in the DR, I'd like to do a little recap of the time in Haiti.
Haiti was challenging. The weather was very hot, I got sick twice, and I can say confidently that living in community is more difficult than any of us on my team expected.
While dealing with these things was a challenge, by the time of our debrief on the final day in country, several of us were talking about how we could see God at work in our situation. For example, during most of our time in Haiti, I struggled with why my team was at our particular ministry site, but by the end the month, the answer had begun to emerge. Here's the story:
About one week into our time in Haiti, we visited another team – Team Crash – at their ministry site in a place called Fon Blanc. They were living in an orphanage nestled deep in the mountains; a very serene location defined by forest and quietness (aside from the wakeup call from the roosters). While I was completely blown away by our own home in Port-au-Prince – a huge house where we lived among twenty-eight wonderful Haitian brothers and sisters – I couldn't help but ask God why He hadn't given my team a more peaceful location like this to get to know each other. After all, it was obvious to me, a Bear Grylls wannabe, that being in the outdoors and living in a tent is a much better place for seven strangers to come together than a massive city with all its loud music, constant traffic, and many other distractions. Fortunately, God is in charge and Jake is not, because His plan is always proven to be the right one.
A few days after my team visited Fon Blanc, Team Crash was forced to leave the orphanage because four of its seven members required some sort of medical attention. Because we were established in the city, they joined us at the home of our ministry contact to stay for the remaining time in Haiti. While they were very disheartened by the need to leave the orphanage, I see many blessings of their presence in Port-au-Prince. First, my team was having a hard time, particularly with the daily World Race ritual of healthy feedback, and I really needed someone around with whom I could speak openly about these struggles. God gave me a fellow team leader for that…and not just any team leader, but one of my favorite people from training camp – Lia Frederick. In additional to having Lia around for support and ideas, God used the rest of her team to lighten the mood a bit and bring some much needed humour to the group (thank you, Brittany Smith).
Most significantly, with fourteen people around instead of seven, it becomes even easier to 'slip through the cracks', to not step up, and God used this situation to teach us a very important lesson: unless we are very intentional about the way we live each day, our ministry will not thrive. Being on a mission trip, being in Haiti or in the Dominican Republic, or in any other country in the world, doesn't give us a ministry. Working with an awesome contact, traveling and living and eating with other passionate young people, putting ourselves in a place that breaks our heart and demands our compassion, even this doesn't give us a ministry. Unless we seek the ways of God, we won't experience the Kingdom of God. This is the beautiful truth created in each of us.
Prayer requests:
-
Team City Lights (my team) and Team SOAR are working together this month in a slum community called Guachupita. We're doing about six hours of ministry each day and we walk a total of two hours to be there in the morning and the afternoon. Pray for the physical and spiritual strength and energy we need to be effective in this ministry.
-
God has really been working in my team during the past week. Pray that we continue to grow closer together; united by the love and the call of our Father.
