We started out on the bus just like every other morning here in Haiti. It was our normal routine by now. Get on the bus with the team. Drive to a community to do evangelism, build a house, move rocks, pray for people, visit homes. It was a somewhat comfortable routine, and we liked it.
But this day things didn’t go as planned.
Just like every other morning, our team loaded up on the old, white school bus we’ve been traveling all over Haiti with, intending to work on a housing project in the mountains we’d been participating in for a while. About fifteen minutes later, we found ourselves on a small dirt road, driving into a community we’d never even been too.
“Why are we here?” we asked the ministry host.
“I don’t know. This wasn’t the plan.”
As it turns out, there was a miscommunication between our host and the local missionaries here. That morning, we were in an unfamiliar area that none of us had ever been to before. The little community of Perisse isn’t much to look at, but the people there—they met us with warm smiles, happy eyes, and a joy that cannot be explained through words.
Immediately lining up in front of us, they started asking for prayers. Some people wanted prayers for protection, others wanted us to give them food and water, and then there were those who approached us wanting to know more about this man named Jesus, and how to have a personal relationship with Him. God showed me a great deal that day.
“Please. You have to come back. The people are starving here.”
“I want to go to church, but I don’t have the clothes.”
“This boy has no parents. He sleeps in the streets. It’s hard to take care of him because we can’t even take care of ourselves.”
“I am haunted every night by nightmares, but last night God showed me in a dream that a man with a Bible would show up today to help us.”
These are just a few of the statements that are still ingrained in my head as I’m writing this. Somehow, through an unforseen turn of events, fifteen Americans in their 20’s ended up in a tiny little town of “the least of these.”
There’s a wonder in the way God works. Moses didn’t plan on winding up in Midian, Jonah didn’t plan on seeing the inside of giant fish, and Joseph had no idea he would end up in Egypt. But in all of those places The Lord had a divine plan in the works that involved unsuspecting messengers, and a group of people that would see God’s glory through it all. I’m sure in the moment they all thought,
“This wasn’t the plan.”
To be honest, we didn’t plan on winding up in Perisse that day. It wasn’t the plan. Not our plan anyways. But the cool thing about God is that His plan and His purpose always prevails.
There is a school in Perisse. And since that day, we have been going back on a weekly basis to the community to serve the school. We play games with the children, teach them Bible stories, and were also able to bring food for all of the teachers and students. It has been a blessing to be able to see the fruit of our labor so quickly. God is moving in that community, and we feel honored to have had the privilege to participate in the foundational movements that took place there this month.
So although it “wasn’t the plan”, we’re glad our plans change. Especially in this case. We trust that through it all, God will continue to shape our ministry and our environment to conform to His plan.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9
If you’re reading this, please be in prayer for the community of Perisse. There are so many material needs that need to be met, but in all of this we want to see people come to Christ and learn more about their Father who loves them. The relationship we have seen between Perisse and Supply & Multiply is secondary in importance to the personal relationship that the Lord want’s with the people of Perisse.
If you want to learn more about the ministry that Supply & Multiply is doing, visit: www.supplyandmultiply.com
NOTE: When we get wifi that is good enough, I will be uploading a video specifically about our ministry with Supply & Multiply, and what they do. It will be posted on the youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsvPwB42Y1TFEd92-P9-kHA
HERE ARE THE LATEST VIDEO UPDATES FROM OUR TIME IN HAITI
