Port au Prince Bound: 24 hours out.

So I’m about 24 hours out from leaving for Port Au Prince, Haiti. The journey of preparing for this trip and making it happen has been a voyage in itself. Over the past two months our Nashville team has dwindled from 10 to 5 members, we have gone through the application process for 2 organizations who were sending relief aid, we have purchased plane tickets twice, we have reserved and cancelled hotel rooms for layovers twice, we have stood in line for vaccinations, we have collected and/or purchased 500lbs of supplies, we have packed those supplies carefully to make sure each of the 10 bags only weighs 50lbs, we have laughed and cried at the obstacles in our way, we have prayed through our anxiety, and we have become flexible out of necessity....and all these things for the glory of Christ our Savior. I haven’t even stepped foot on Haiti ground and I feel like God has taught me a few priceless lessons. Patience being the first. I’ve really had to let go of control and give God free reign of this trip (as if he wasn’t in control in the first place...how naive I am.) Isn’t it funny how we think we really have it together? Well, I’ll be the first to say we don’t.  It’s actually pretty refreshing to give up command and simply follow God’s lead...however radical it may be.

Isaiah 40:31 But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint. 

Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest. 

                                                                                                                                                             Romans 5:3-4 We rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

I remember watching the disaster unfold on television in the days following the quake. I was in tears watching bodies pile up, families destroyed, a city in ruins...and all of this just 713 miles from our countries coast. I said that night “I have to go and help”. I was unsure of how exactly I was going to make that happen...but if a plane had been immediately available...I would have been on it.  We have been instructed to live radical lives for Christ...and that means following God’s will, whatever that entails for each of us. For me, that means giving God control of my money, my talents, my time, and my comfort - NO MATTER WHAT....even when money is tight, and when it's not convenient  nor comfortable. Just trusting that God will pull through and make things possible has been a huge milestone for me....but so incredibly rewarding. I doubt there will ever come a day in my life when I will say, “Man I wish I had given less.”  

There is a world of hurting people...next door and across the oceans. It is our responsibility to serve and care for them. It is our responsibility to show them the love Christ in tangible ways. 

Proverbs 31:8-9  Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and the needy"

Deuteronomy 15:7-8  If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs. 

God doesn’t instruct us to give whatever is comfortable...he very clearly states to give “whatever he needs”. And this means physically AND spiritually...Basically, It is not enough to put food in front of someone and then pat yourself on the back. This week I read an amazing article from the Contributor, which is Nashville’s Homeless Paper. After reading the front page article about the death of an infant who was born to a homeless woman, I felt completely convicted. Below is an excerpt from this article which can be read at http://www.nashvillecontributor.org/node/26  

“I have no program to suggest to you. I follow the path, albeit very imperfectly, of the Jewish carpenter Jesus, and Jesus never set up a program, didn’t found an institution, and certainly had no interest in reforming the system, so who am I to suggest such things? Rather, Jesus’ “plan” was offensively simple: love. Love God with all of your soul and mind and heart and strength, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. It is you who must love for you cannot outsource love or grace. Love and be transformed, embrace the scandal of an inefficient and even irresponsible love. Seek truth and live reconciliation; that is what we must do from this point forward if we ever expect to experience the full reality and consequence of God’s unbounded grace and love. As Will Campbell so beautifully states: “‘Be reconciled to God’ is the only social action there is for the Christian: life as a thanksgiving to God. Such a life involves the giving of food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, shelter to the homeless, and clothes to the naked—in other words, life as the Good News, life as thanksgiving for what God did for us. Not social action, for this rejects the gift of grace and contradicts the Good News by turning it into the Bad News of programs, strategies, imperatives, laws, and acts of obedience…”  

The church is a living, breathing body, not the bone-filled tomb it has become, an institution designed for the sake of its own self preservation. Do you love yourself by giving yourself a bowl of soup and a sandwich once a week? No you do not, so why then do you think you have loved your brother as you should by reaching across a counter and handing him a bowl of soup once or twice a week only to arrest that same brother several hours later for violating your church’s trespass warrant when he is caught sleeping on the church lawn or the church steps? You say that it is offensive that he sleeps on your church steps. Well God says that it is offensive that you keep your church doors locked tight throughout most of the week. God says that it is offensive that you do not bring that homeless man in, bind his wounds, and allow him to sleep inside your fine building. You idolatrous fools—you worship your buildings and engage in heresy through your locked doors.”

 - excerpt from The Contributor: Unto Us a Child Is Lost by Jeannie Alexander

Tomorrow I leave for Port Au Prince, I hope to not return the same person but be forever changed by God's great plan in Haiti. I plan on caring for the sick, bandaging wounds, giving IV antibiotics, and relieving a child's fever....but first and foremost I plan on spreading the love of Christ to a people who need spiritual aid just as much as they need physical aid. 


Matthew 28:19  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Below I will post a Sara Groves song that I have been listening to in preparation for my trip.

When The Saints by Sara Groves

Lord I have a heavy burden of all I've seen and know 

It's more than I can handle 

But your word is burning like a fire shut up in my bones 

and I cannot let it go 

And when I'm weary and overwrought 

with so many battles left unfought 

I think of Paul and Silas in the prison yard 

I hear their song of freedom rising to the stars 

And when the Saints go marching in 

I want to be one of them 

Lord it's all that I can't carry and cannot leave behind 

it often overwhelms me

but when I think of all who've gone before and lived the faithful life

their courage compells me

And when I'm weary and overwrought 

with so many battles left unfought 

I think of Paul and Silas in the prison yard 

I hear their song of freedom rising to the stars 

I see the shepherd Moses in the Pharohs court 

I hear his call for freedom for the people of the Lord 

And when the Saints go marching in 

I want to be one of them 

And when the Saints go marching in 

I want to be one of them 

I see the long quiet walk along the Underground Railroad 

I see the slave awakening to the value of her soul 

I see the young missionary and the angry spear 

I see his family returning with no trace of fear 

I see the long hard shadows of Calcutta nights 

I see the sister standing by the dying man's side 

I see the young girl huddled on the brothel floor 

I see the man with a passion come and kicking down the door 

I see the man of sorrows and his long troubled road 

I see the world on his shoulders and my easy load

And when the Saints go marching in

I want to be one of them

and when the Saints go marching in

I want to be one of them

I want to be one of them

Please pray for our Haiti team's safety, perseverance, health, and opportunities to serve those in need.

God Bless.