I Don't Think I'm Comfortable with That...

This Sunday will be the second major holiday away from my family in Haiti. This Sunday I’ll go to church by myself, drive thirty minutes to my mom’s side of the family for lunch, all day long be asked a million questions about my family as to which most I won’t know the answer to, and then drive back to Murray for dinner with my dad’s side of the family. Alone.

But I’m not here to talk about the mood I’ll be in on Easter Sunday or how I won’t be with my sweet mom and sister or my crazy dad and brother because it’s not important. What is important is that my family is sharing Christ’s love with the people of Haiti.  What is important is that we, as Christians, are ALL called to share the gospel with everyone around us no matter our circumstances, emotions or location. I’ve learned through this process of being “abandoned” in America that our lives as Christians are not always ones of ease and comfort. Actually, they usually should be exactly the opposite. Our physical comfort should not define our relationship with the Lord. Sometimes it’s so easy for us as Americans to do nothing more than fill a pew every Sunday and what a waste that is! We are called to proclaim the gospel to those around us and those all over the world (Acts 1:8). If we aren’t doing this, we must ask ourselves if we are truly seeking His will and serving Him in our lives.

Today, my parents drove to another mission, Real Hope for Haiti, in order to save a baby’s life. Real Hope is where the worst of the worst cases of malnourishment and dehydration are sent to. In Haiti they deal with the brute reality of third world poverty every day diligently loving on these kids that may not even make it through the night. Today my mom got sweet baby Peter back to breathing and cared and loved for him as they rushed to Real Hope. My parents are selflessly loving and living out the Lord’s call in their lives. But how as Christians in America can we live out the Lord’s call in our daily lives? 

We must serve, equip and teach. We must serve the least of these in our communities and around the world (Matthew 25:40). We must equip others to serve in places we cannot, we are called to support and pray for those serving in every village and city on earth. We must also be careful because this can be misconstrued as an excuse not to serve in full time ministry when the Lord has placed this call on our hearts.  We must teach others of the wonderful, freeing, good news of Jesus Christ. 

Katie Davis, a missionary in Uganda, famous for her book Kisses from Katie said this, “People from my first home say I'm brave. They tell me I'm strong. They pat me on the back and say, 'Way to go. Good job.' But the truth is, I am not really very brave; I am not really very strong; and I am not doing anything spectacular. I am simply doing what God has called me to do as a person who follows Him. He said to feed His sheep and He said to care for 'the least of these,' so that's what I'm doing, with the help of a lot people who make it possible and in the company of those who make my life worth living.”

Let our hearts be ever longing to serve the One who saves.

Please continue to pray for sweet Peter as they treat him at Real Hope for Haiti.

I’m also selling shirts to help raise money for my family in Haiti as they serve there. They are short sleeve comfort colors and only $20. If you’d like to order one make sure to get your name, size and money to me before April 10^th! 

When you become a face on a Sunday school wall...

                Growing up in a small town in Kentucky I was always taught in church about people who were doing daring and dangerous things for the Lord and serving Him in such wild places as China or Africa or a war torn Eastern European country. I was taught of how extreme their faith was to go to the ends of the earth to proclaim the simple, freeing news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and honestly it seemed like something only few people did and I never truly understood why they went.

                Then my family and I became one of those faces on a Sunday school room wall of a family serving in a far off, poverty stricken land and began to call Haiti home. Having my family move to Haiti has been one of the hardest things in my short life, but it has also brought forth the most growth and love I have ever experienced. I quickly began to realize that it didn't take anything special or extraordinary to become a full time missionary, my dad owned a tire store and my mom worked in a dentist office, but they simply followed the call that the Lord not only placed on their lives but everyone’s which is to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

                We as Christians are called to serve one another and share Christ’s love for us to everyone we meet in our communities and around the world, both of which we often neglect. Love becomes hard when you receive nothing back or worse, when you receive hate back. But we are called to selflessly love everyone as Christ does for us. My mom beautifully displayed this while I was in Haiti over Christmas break through a sweet little girl named MaCarona (pronounced Makauna). This sweet girl isn’t the cutest or most talkative but she has stolen my heart. Her parents both have mental disabilities and she isn’t quite all there but there’s no way for us to formally determine what is wrong with her. You can usually find her running around the village naked or outside the mission gate. The other kids make fun of her and she has become so shy she only talks to her family and has only muttered a few words to my mom and me. But my mom has loved her selflessly, she takes her in to our home and feeds her, clothes her, lets her take a bath, but most importantly she loves her. This girl, regarded to others in the village as an idiot or a beggar, is loved by God and on a lot smaller scale my mom and me. How much so should we approach everyone like this, even when it is hard, to love them and wrap them in the love the Lord has them.

                As Katie Davis, author of Kisses from Katie and missionary in Uganda said, “We are not called to be safe, we are simply promised that when we are in danger, God is right there with us. And there is no better place to be than in His hands.” So whether or not your face becomes one on a Sunday school room wall or not, let us all live our faith that we follow the Lord’s will in our lives wherever He may take us. 

 This is MaCarona and her brother with me outside the mission on my last day in Haiti.

MaCarona started school this Janurary, getting a meal every day and this cute uniform!