Put your back into it! Monday, Dec. 30th

Our morning began with a nice 5 mile walk (some did take the car), to see how the jatropha plants and the other farming operations work.  The scope of all that they have done here is amazing.  The scope of all that are doing is inspiring.  We spent our evening packing food for the food distribution that we will be doing tomorrow.  It is work that can tax one’s back, but wonderful work.  Someone said, “This is why we are here.”  

The scope of the food distribution is difficult to explain.  We began with 30, 50 Kg bags of rice (5 of which were bought by Peachtree Academy - THANK YOU - Peachtree!!).  The others were bought through donations of all who supported our trip - Thank you to each and every person who gave.  You are making a huge difference in the lives of people who are desperately poor.  3300 pounds of rice - something around 1.6 tons of food.  This New Year’s Day, they will have something to eat.  

Can you imagine celebrating New Year’s hungry?  Not knowing when or how you will get food for the new year?  Who will survive the year because hunger makes the littlest ones more vulnerable to disease?  We poured rice into large bins and scooped the rice in large cans and measured it into black bags.  We added two sleeves of pasta and oil and tied the bags up.  We packed the individual bags into the large rice bags and dragged them around to stack them for storage until tomorrow.  

I will try to post pictures tomorrow.  This is a case where a picture is a worth a thousand words.  This is why we are here.  

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Sunday, December 29 - Part 2 - Abundant Love

Sunday, December 29, - Abundant Love

I think that God’s love is abundant and it is a joy to share more about how that love moves and works in us and through us.  Our day today which began with worship continued as we went out to several farms.  We saw firsthand how the projects of Bethlehem Ministry are teaching people how to farm in ways that deal with the difficult soil and the desperate need for food.  We stopped by Father Bruno’s farm and enjoyed moments of peace and fresh mangos picked directly from the trees.  

One of the beauties of the day was the pace of life in Haiti and the opportunities for fellowship, not just among our group but with our Haitian brothers and sisters.  Anna Scott said today something to the extent of - she thinks many of the world’s problems could be addressed if there were one big front porch or maybe she said it was if everyone had a front porch (don’t want to misquote).  There is much wisdom in the idea, however she said it.  

Time spent on our front porch here is sacred time.  Time laughing and sharing and building relationship with whomever comes by to sit.  Other sacred time is around the table.  It is not the rushed, hectic kind of dinner we may be accustomed to in the states.  It is time to share our thoughts about the day and share in a wonderful meal.  

One of the profound traits of the Haitians that makes it such a joy to be here is their hospitality.  It is a biblical mandate - to show hospitality, especially to travelers and this is one of the many things that Haitians can teach us about.  Their faith and joy in being with one another and their guests is another.  Abundant words for this day, for it was a day of sharing in God’s abundant love.  

Sunday, Dec. 29 - Glory to God

We began our day and our first full day here as we should, with worship.  It was a joyful, glorious day and time to gather as the one body of Christ.  Worship is my favorite part of the trip.  It says so much about who we are and what our collective goal is.  We gather to give thanks and praise to God and to seek how we can serve Christ, not as different people from different places, but as brothers and sisters.  

We opened with the hymn, Angels We have Heard On High, in creole.  But, when we got to the chorus, it was the most beautiful sound as all voices lifted strongly in unison, praising God in this holy season.  It is much fun to sing Christmas songs in bright sunshine, with warm breezes drifting through the open-air auditorium where we gather for worship!  The words may be in a different language, but they are the same words and we serve the same Lord.  

Communion is particularly powerful for me:  The Table unites us all.  We prayed the Lord’s Prayer together, creole, Baptists, and Presbyterians (so at one point, there was trespasses, debtors, and creole going on), but it is not our prayer, it is Christ’s.  I love the ritual of the Episcopalian service and was humbled when Father Bruno asked me to preside with him.  It is a privilege to stand at the Table with him, who has served Christ in such amazing ways.  It is a privilege to minister to all who gathered to worship, through serving communion.  

Father Bruno preached a magnificent sermon, which was translated by his daughter for us.  I haven’t told him this, but I thought it was a wonderful “Baptist” sermon which challenged us all to shine the light of Christ into the world.  It is a sermon that the congregation I serve and I think all congregations should hear.  Maybe I can talk him into visiting us and preaching it!  

Life here is at a different pace and it is a challenge for me, who is usually so busy, to be comfortable with it.  I know more what to expect this trip, but it is still challenging!  Yet, how can we not pause and admire God’s handiwork in the midst of beautiful land, beautiful people, and the faith that unites us all?  

Sunday, Dec. 29 - Glory to God

We began our day and our first full day here as we should, with worship.  It was a joyful, glorious day and time to gather as the one body of Christ.  Worship is my favorite part of the trip.  It says so much about who we are and what our collective goal is.  We gather to give thanks and praise to God and to seek how we can serve Christ, not as different people from different places, but as brothers and sisters.  

We opened with the hymn, Angels We have Heard On High, in creole.  But, when we got to the chorus, it was the most beautiful sound as all voices lifted strongly in unison, praising God in this holy season.  It is much fun to sing Christmas songs in bright sunshine, with warm breezes drifting through the open-air auditorium where we gather for worship!  The words may be in a different language, but they are the same words and we serve the same Lord.  

Communion is particularly powerful for me:  The Table unites us all.  We prayed the Lord’s Prayer together, creole, Baptists, and Presbyterians (so at one point, there was trespasses, debtors, and creole going on), but it is not our prayer, it is Christ’s.  I love the ritual of the Episcopalian service and was humbled when Father Bruno asked me to preside with him.  It is a privilege to stand at the Table with him, who has served Christ in such amazing ways.  It is a privilege to minister to all who gathered to worship, through serving communion.  

Father Bruno preached a magnificent sermon, which was translated by his daughter for us.  I haven’t told him this, but I thought it was a wonderful “Baptist” sermon which challenged us all to shine the light of Christ into the world.  It is a sermon that the congregation I serve and I think all congregations should hear.  Maybe I can talk him into visiting us and preaching it!  

Life here is at a different pace and it is a challenge for me, who is usually so busy, to be comfortable with it.  I know more what to expect this trip, but it is still challenging!  Yet, how can we not pause and admire God’s handiwork in the midst of beautiful land, beautiful people, and the faith that unites us all?  

A Day of Ten Thousand Senses - Sat. Dec. 28

Even as tired as I am, I still recall that there are only 5 senses:  sight, sound, touch, hearing, taste.  But, on this travel day, I think we have all been overwhelmed by our senses.  The fact that this is my second trip makes it no less stark to experience it all again.  My first thought as we landed was “Thank God” (I don’t like to fly), but my second was, “This is something you just experience.”  

Words do little justice for it.  And for those who are able, I would say, “make a point to do something like this.”  The sights are stark:  Piles of garbage in the streets, stick, one-room houses, poverty which makes anything you would see in the states look luxurious.  There is the strong smell of waste and you can taste the pollution.  The feel of the wind as it whips around our faces as we climbed into the back of the truck to drive from the airport in Cap Haitian to Terrier Rouge.  The sounds of motorcycles and the trucks, many of them serving as public transport overflowing with people.  The roads from Cap to Terrier Rouge are now paved and we watch as people walk, donkeys carry people and goods, goats and bulls wander in and around the road, and our truck maneuvers through it all.  

The most beautiful sense of all is the sense of welcome and gracious hospitality we receive when we arrive at the place which we will call home.  We stay in “cubes”, camp-ground like rooms which are around the school, but we can see the medical clinic, a short walk away, and we experience the bounty of the agriculture project on the table.  This evening, we walked around the school.  The first room we visited was one for three-year-olds, where they school 70 three-year olds in one room, with three teachers.  

Then we walked through the elementary school, and upstairs to the auditorium where we will have church tomorrow.  I was thrilled to see that there is a communion table that has been lovingly carved and is gorgeous.  It stood proudly in the room where all eyes are drawn to it proclaiming that this is a place where God is at the center.  That is the most powerful statement of what goes on here:  God is at the center and people strive to listen for God’s guidance and live out God’s will.  

We learned about how there is now a middle class developing in this community, as a result of the efforts of Bethlehem Ministry and other similar organizations.  Bethlehem Ministry employs 100 Haitians total here:  teachers, doctors, nurses, pharmacists.  They pay living wages and teach the children so that they may take hold of their own destinies.  The only way to affect change is to empower the young to claim it for themselves.  

So often we define community as those in our immediate geographic area or worse yet, those like us, but neither is God’s definition of community.  God’s community is every place and every child and as a community, we seek to share God’s love with one another.  

By another road

I have always loved reflecting on Matthew's account of the wise men because it ends with a seemingly innocuous statement:  "Having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road."

I think that statement can have profound spiritual implications for our lives.  What does it mean to go by another road, another way, a different way?  Wise men are open to going by another road.  As our mission group gathered tonight in West Palm Beach, and met to talk about everything to prepare for going to Haiti tomorrow, I thought about how I was celebrating Christmas by another road this year.

Usually, my "12 days of Christmas" are spent really enjoying Christmas after the hectic run-up to Christmas Eve.  I spend the days after Christmas relaxing, spending time with my family, sorting out my kids' clothes between those they have outgrown and those that they still wear.  This Christmas, I, along with all of us on our Mission team are going by another road.  Immediately after Christmas, instead of packing up decorations or old clothes, we packed our bags and are on our way.  But God calls us all to go by another road sometimes.

The wise men encountered the Christ child.  Then, they went another way.  Isn't that what Christ does for us all?  We encounter Christ in many different times and ways, but each time, and each way, we are changed.  In Christ we are a new creation.  Each and every time we meet him, whether we meet him in the hospital, in worship, in the school in the eyes of a child, a hand reached out in support, a hug, or in our brothers and sisters in Haiti, we are inexorably changed, and we go another way.

The other road we are taking is one that leads us through Haiti.  We appreciate your prayers as we set off.