Its a rare thing on the race to come into contact with North Americans, let alone the American church. So you can imagine how surprised my team was when we showed up in Haiti to find that most of our ministry would be time spent with North Americans. During our second week here at Mission of Hope, we met some pretty incredible people who experienced God in brand new ways. This is the story of my dear friend Seth, and his life change during a short term mission trip.
I grew up going to Church every Sunday. I went to Bible school every summer. Safe to say, I grew up in a very religious home. I still pray every day, I’m a good person. I even do a weekly bible study. That means I have a great relationship with Christ. I’m going to Heaven because I do all this, right? This is the common perception or trap that many people fall into. In complete honestly, this is what I thought before my trip to Haiti. I did the right things, I prayed, I thought because of these things that Jesus would save a spot for me in Heaven. I also came to realize there is a difference in your parent’s faith, and your own faith. That is something that changed over the course of my week serving at Mission of Hope.
To begin, I wasn’t originally supposed to go on the trip. About three weeks before the trip was supposed to happen, I felt the urge to call my Mom and tell her I wanted to go to Haiti with the boys that were going. I couldn’t tell you exactly why, but I had a gut feeling that I needed to go. This is way different than my original plan, which was to go down to Florida with one of my buddies to relax and fish for a week right after finals. I figured I could use my abilities to help do some physical labor that would benefit the people of Haiti.
I was eager when we landed in Haiti, because I enjoy meeting new people and I couldn’t wait to build something and see the faces of the people that it would benefit. This lasted for only a short amount of time. I soon realized that we would be doing SVT (Strategic Village Time), which meant we would be traveling to various villages and checking on how they were doing physically and spiritually. Nowhere in the schedule did it say that we were going to be building, or doing any physical labor. I wasn’t upset, but I was confused. It wasn’t clear to me what exactly we would be doing. I went with that I was told to do. We had a tour then we attended Church.
At Church was the first instance the good Lord started working on me. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it didn’t take long for me to start piecing together the information. A 17-year-old boy, Jean Pierre, came and sat next to me. He was excited that I was from the United States and was asking a million questions. I tried answering each one, but the time I did that he was already talking again. Keep in mind this is during Church. I felt guilty, because I wasn’t paying attention to the actual sermon (even though I had no idea what was going on since it was in Creole). However, God was getting my attention in another way. The boy pulls our wristbands. I knew I couldn’t buy one, because we were told before Church that we were not allowed to buy directly from the kids. I tried to tell him that, but he said I could have it for free. That caught me off guard, but I was greatly appreciative for it. I was eyeing the wristband that said “Haiti”, but he gave me the one that said “Jesus”. A little time passed by and he asked if I loved Jesus. I responded quickly to this questions with a confident, “Yes! I do!” He then went on to ask me why I loved Jesus. This question made me start thinking. There were numerous things I could say, but on a personal level, why do I? I responded by saying that he died for us and he loves us even though we are sinful. That seemed to be a good enough answer for him, and then he turned back and said, “I love Jesus, because he gives me life”
This was a powerful statement that stuck with me throughout the trip.
Then we ran into the World Race squad. They were extremely congenial and charismatic. It was hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that they were traveling all over the world doing mission work. They were around my age, and I couldn’t imagine doing that at this stage of in my life. At the beginning of the week, I figured one week would be plenty for me.
Then, members of their team started popping some hard questions our way, “What are your spiritual gifts?”
What does that mean? What is considered a spiritual gift? I had never heard of this, or talked about anything remotely close to this before.
Then they went on to ask if God has ever talked to us. I was trying to process all this and it was hard for me. Another question was asking if we were ready to Evangelize.
I considered myself saved before the trip, but was I really? Did I genuinely have a relationship with the Lord? My actions didn’t reflect my beliefs. I wasn’t living a life through Christ.
I began doubting myself.
Over the course of the next few days, I kept praying that I could fully surrender my life to the Lord and trust him with everything. I wanted to figure out exactly who I was, and what my purpose was. In this time, I was told the Biblical person that resembled me was Paul. I wasn’t sure what any of it meant, but I went with it. I wasn’t sure how I was going to Evangelize. I was still figuring out my relationship with God. How was I supposed to help lead someone else to Christ? I prayed and prayed on this. Ultimately, I knew that IF had to trust that God would give me the words and knowledge I needed to plant a seed.
I wasn’t planning on talking the first day because I wanted to watch and learn from the World Race team. God had other plans for me. Yes, he sure did. I gave my testimony to some guy I just met. He was about 30-years-old and was struggling with his faith. That was the first time I had openly talked about my journey to faith with such confidence. I never had truly thought about the journey, but God gave me the words, and I was able to connect on a deeper level with this Haitian man. It didn’t stop there.
There were these two guys that were in their early twenties. They were rappers, which obviously meant they were some cool dudes. It was hard to connect with them, because they felt as if they were in completely different worlds than the members of my group that were talking to them. Which is a fair assessment, I’m no rapper. Out of the blue, I brought up Chance the Rapper. One of the more successful artists in America, and his last mainstream album had a few very religious songs. I’m not quite sure how I thought of this right away, but it started making their wheel’s spin in their mind. God gave me the courage and the words to truly plant the seed in their hearts. Suddenly, I loved talking about what God could do in everyone’s life.
It was shortly after this, I got told that my spiritual gift was to preach. This was something new to me, I wasn’t sure how to receive it. The more we talked about it, the more it made sense to me. You don’t have to stand behind a pulpit and preach at a church to be a preacher. You can be a business owner, an athlete, a stay at home parent. It doesn’t matter what your profession is. Anyone can be a preacher and make a difference.
On Monday, we met with this wonderful older lady and her family. This is when it first hit me that God uses our past to help others that are around us. She was struggling with the loss of her daughter unexpectedly, as well as marriage issues. The struggles that some of the members of our group have faced in the past were able to come up for us to make an impact on this woman’s life. It was incredible to see the members of my group pour out their heart in response to this woman they just met. That started to give me the courage that I didn’t need to be ashamed of my past. That there was a reason for everything that had happened.
On Tuesday during the day, we talked and met a lot of people. Overall, it was a successful morning. Then we ran into this pastor named Israel. He pulled out his keyboard, and we sang a few songs. His ministry was based higher up on the mountain with a beautiful view. Israel was not only a pastor, but he opened his own orphanage. He said that he had been praying that God would send him a message and help his kids. Keep this in mind for later.
In Church on Tuesday, I felt this overwhelming power. There were two thoughts that kept reoccurring in my mind. It didn’t take long for me to realize that these were two things I had to make amends with and the things that were still holding me back. It’s a struggle to accept the wrongdoings that you have done in your life. I realized that I needed to do this, and this is one of the first things I did once I got back to the U.S. Once I acknowledged these matters, I felt free. My spirit changed. Yes, I do smile and laugh 24/7, but this was a new energy I have never experienced before. I felt saved by the Grace of God.
I had a talk later that night with Madison, and Matt. Madison mentioned something along the lines that she knew I felt something earlier that night at Church. A few questions ran across my mind. How would she know I felt anything because it just happened maybe an hour beforehand? I wasn’t too concerned. I went in and told them everything that was being a burden on my heart and the feelings that I was experiencing. After I talked nonstop for a period, I paused and stated how surprised I was that I just let everything out to them.
Why would I open absolutely everything to people I met 3 days ago? Yeah, I don’t know.
It’s accurate when they say it feels as if you have known someone forever when you become brothers and sisters in Christ. It was a great feeling, and it did feel like we had been best friends for years.
On Wednesday, it was very similar to Tuesday, we talked to many different people. I was gaining confidence and courage each day leading new conversations with the various people we met. It was another great day, but before we left the village for the day some of the older boys in the village stopped us. They asked if there was any way we could do a kid’s club for the little kids in the area. Kids club was essentially a bible study to open and then there would be food and drinks given out to the kids after this. The big group of us talked later that night, and it was something we wanted to do, so we pooled together the money that was needed for it.
On Thursday, we went to the school and performed the kid’s club. It was such a satisfying and positive experience to watch the kids sing along about Jesus. Then when they got their plate of food it was gone in a second, as well as the juice. You could tell how hungry and thirsty they were. That wasn’t it, shortly after this Israel comes walking up with a smile from cheek to cheek. We were feeding the kids at the same school that his orphans went to. We had no idea that there was this connection. Israel believed that God would send a message, and he sure did.
Each day during the week provided new challenges that continued to spark growth in my Faith. The support group of Matt, JT, and Q was second to none. Seeing them grow over the course of the week gave me encouragement. They were always there to provide that helping hand or prayer.
On Friday night, I was debriefing with Mary about the week. Overall, we reflected on the numerous miracles that God produced. He transformed my life in many ways. He opened doors that I had no idea existed. Mary asked me if I ever thought about doing a summer internship with Mission of Hope. I pondered the idea, I hadn’t given it too much thought. I knew I wanted to come back to Haiti, but I wasn’t sure what route I was going to take to do that.
Then the next day Bama Matt (Roll Tide), talked to me about doing the summer internship as well. This continued to work on my mind and my heart.
If this wasn’t enough to get me thinking about this internship, I was handed a letter a few minutes after my conversation by an orphan at the campus we were staying at. This pulled on every heart string possible. I had to walk away and regroup in order to maintain my composure in front of the kids. The main message of the letter was that he prayed to God that he could have a new friend for the week. He said that God sent me to be his friend. He thanked me for always being so nice, playing with him and coming down to help the people of Haiti. Then to close the letter he said that he wants to encourage me to continue to help the people of Haiti. This is all coming from a 13-year-old boy. At the end, he said “God is everything you need” and “May God bless you and your family”
Just take a second to process that.
A 13-year-old boy, with no parents, no family, and living in an orphanage is reaching out to me to give me encouragement…
In my mind, it was all flipped. I should be the one helping him out. God works in miraculous, incredible ways. This young boy gave me more than I could ever ask for. He gave me hope. It wasn’t always clear about who I was, or wanted I wanted to do, but I now realized that God has given me a purpose far greater than I could have ever comprehended.
As Tim Tebow said, “it’s not who you are, its whose you are…”
I am a child of God
My foundation for who I am is grounded in my Faith
In a God who loves me
In a God who gives me purpose
In a God who sees the big picture
In a God who always has a greater plan
I know this is only the beginning. Everything isn’t magically better, and I don’t have a perfect life now. I’m still struggling with the same things as I did before. It’s not an easy journey. However, I know that no matter what God Is with me and will forgive me. We are all humans, we are bound to make mistakes. The thing I realized is how you respond in those times. There’s a major difference in struggling with sin and walking in sin a wise man once said.
God has a plan
You may not be a fan
But it all works out
This one is for Mary, I have no doubt.
