Why in the World Would We Go (back) to Haiti
The burning desire to go to Haiti and serve at GLA was too great to ignore any longer. It was September of 2010, and my busy summer of commuting to Nashville to love on my Muslim family had passed. Brennon and I went to lunch one afternoon, and I got up the nerve to spill my guts. “I can’t ignore the call any longer. I’ve got to go to Haiti. And since we don’t do well apart, we just need to go together.” I squinted, cringing, waiting for his eyes to roll and the dismissal to flow. But that didn’t happen. His response was simply, “Ok. Let’s go.” I nearly fell out of my seat. We were gonna go to Haiti! How crazy is that?! My heart swelled with excitement and joy....I had no idea why. I just knew God wanted us to go, and we were being obedient. That’s how to live radically. Pretty easy, really. When you pursue God, He’ll take care of all the details. And it’s a good thing, because I didn’t know a soul in Haiti, or how to go there, or what in the heck to do once I got there. Bring it on!
Two weeks after our lunch date, our Haitian Creole study guide arrived in the mail. Brennon began to dive into studying the language, and I noticed his intensity. “Gosh, you sure are working hard at that,” I noted. That’s when he dropped the bomb on me. I don’t remember his words verbatim since my head began to spin a little, but his reply was something like, “I wouldn’t do this unless I felt like it was going to lead to a long-term commitment.” Huh?! I had merely suggested spending a week or two serving in Haiti, but Brennon had already opened his mind up to the possibility that God was calling us to do something greater in that land filled with hurting people. So we got serious. We totally surrendered to our Lord. Our answer was “Yes,” even though we still had no clue what He was going to ask us to do. It’s crazy. And boy, does it feel good!
It’s nothing extraordinary, it’s just obedience.
But why Haiti? Here in our own country, our own state, even our own town, there are plenty of opportunities to help hurting people. So why go to a dangerous country that’s plagued with famine, cholera, and who-knows-what? Why go to Haiti?
Because God said to. That’s enough for me.
Next: I’m not a good Christian. I’m just me.
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