Jezi Se La Vi

Jezi Se La Vi = Jesus is Life in Haitain Creole

I knew I was going to do a blog during my time in Honduras, but I got back from Haiti on Saturday after spending a week doing the Lord’s work in a town called Lascahobas and knew I needed to tell everyone about it. This is my summary of our week there (does not come close to doing justice to how incredible the trip was).

Just a little background info…

For those that don’t know, Soles for the Savior (a student-run organization at Texas A&M), spent all of April collecting shoes to bring to Haiti. Each of us checking three bags, the six of us were able to bring a little over 700 shoes. What did we do with these? Keep reading!

Sunday:

We went to two church services (morning and evening), and it was painfully evident how much passion we lacked in America. They would come to a room without AC for 2 hours in the heat of the day on a Sunday and sing praises, hear a message, sing more praises, hear another message… and love it. In American, our time is too precious. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a church service in a foreign country that was shorter than any church service I’ve been to in America. It’s very concerning.

At one point during the first service, the pastor stopped to talk about a woman in their congregation who was sick, and said that everyone needed to go to her house to visit with her and pray for her. I have been to many churches in America, and have NEVER seen anything like that. That is what true community in a church should be like. We’ve missed it.

Monday-Thursday:

We spent the next 4 days traveling to 4 different churches. At each church, we started out explaining why we were there. Most people there had a preconceived notion that our purpose for being there was to do a shoe handout. No. We were there because of Jesus, and we needed to make that clear! The shoes were merely a means that God was using to show his faithfulness and his love to them. We were able to wash the feet, pray over, and provide shoes for an average of about 175 people each day from all ages.

To break our daily routine down even further…

We had four people washing feet, and two “runners” – the ones going to get the shoes while the others were washing feet. While we were washing their feet, we’d have a short conversation with them (with the help of some awesome translators!) seeing where they were spiritually, asking if they knew Jesus and had a relationship with him, and asking how we could pray for them. Then we’d pray for them right then and there, and the shoes provided by the runners were normally sitting there next to us by the time we finished!

The conversations we had were definitely the most interesting part of this trip. We had a reoccurring prayer request that stood in strong contradiction to scripture. Many would say they believed in Jesus and had a personal relationship with him, but then their prayer request was for “eternal life”. For those reading this who aren’t very familiar with biblical doctrine, if you believe in Jesus and have a personal relationship with him, you are granted eternal life. This presented us a great opportunity to share with these people the truth of the gospel that they had missed.

We also had one lady who wanted to get baptized, but was currently in an affair out of wedlock. She was under the impression that she couldn’t get baptized while living in this sin – that God wouldn’t want her to. We were able to share with her that a) baptism was simply and outward expression of your inner faith (not required for salvation) and b) the beauty of the CROSS – that Jesus has already died for every sin she’s committed and would commit and the future. To quote Lecrae, “He’ll take you as you are, and change you from the inside out”. GOD IS GOOD!

On top of all this, we also had a few people who didn’t know about Jesus at all. We were blessed that God used us to tell them about Jesus – such joyful moments.

On Wednesday night, I had an opportunity to give a mini sermon at one of the churches. One thing our team had talked about was that a common issue in Christianity, especially in third world countries, was the idea of a “prosperity gospel” (that if we follow Jesus, he will bless us with money, food, and other stuff on this Earth). This idea stands in direct contradiction to scripture, which says that following Jesus guarantees two things – eternal life (John 6:47) and persecution (2 Timothy 3:12), so I felt God calling me to speak on this! I don’t know how well they received the message especially cause it was going through a semi-fluent translator, but I know God will use it as he desires.

Friday:

This day was very different than the other days. Instead of going to a church, we went to the orphanage that RTS Missions (the organization we went with) works very closely with. We got to wash the feet, pray over, and give shoes to 28 orphans. A question that I asked a lot during the week was, “what’s one thing that God has taught you?” I got various responses that were all great, but when I asked this at the orphanage I heard something that I had not heard all week, and it does not come as a surprise that this was the first place I heard it. I got to wash the feet of 5 of the orphans, and asked this question to two of them, and they both responded, “I have learned that God is my Father”. That is something that pops up so many times in scripture, but I feel that by not having a Father, they are able to appreciate the Fatherly characteristics of God more than I am able to. I love God, but often fail to recognize how awesome it is that he calls me his son.

The most emotional part of the trip for me happened Friday with a boy named Olivier (see picture below). Josh started out the day sharing with the kids the story of Jesus, and why we were there, and during this time I met eyes with Oliveye and he gave me the biggest smile I’ve ever seen. He was also the last pair of feet that I got to wash. After we washed feet, we stayed at the orphanage for about an hour just to hang out with the kids. I walked over to Olivier and he reached his arms up like he wanted me to pick him up. I sat down and put him on my lap, and the first thing he did was grab my hands and put them on his stomach, then put his hands over mine as a way to say, “don’t let go”. It completely broke my heart. I had never seriously considered adoption until this moment – now it’s definitely a possibility.

I’m so thankful that God gave me the opportunity to go on this trip. I grew a lot from this experience, and I know much glory was brought to God during this week. Also, thank you to all who supported me financially, and more importantly with prayer. There were quite a few times during this week when I was exhausted physically or spiritually, but I felt the spirit come inside me and rejuvenate me. The power of prayer is great.

“Find where your passions and the needs of the world meet, and go there.”

Olivier and Me!