another point of view

Chris shared a testimony from our Haiti trip at church this morning. He did such a great job that I wanted to share it here:

Faith yes, love still the best
And love we did – planted seeds of the Gospel, encouraged would be pastors, prayed for those overseeing orphanages, discipled youth on the street, loved the lonely, hopeless, and dying wherever and whenever we could.

As we came back my thoughts were on “The Church” as we see it in Acts–
Can it be done? – I know it can! We met together, ate with and enjoyed each others company, prayed together about what we were to do (such as giving to the needy, when there are so many, etc.), we mourned with each other over what we saw or felt, laughed over things out of our control (no hot water, A/C, mosquito nets, or luggage), sacrificed for each other (mostly aisle seats for me and my leg), gave to each other whatever we had (food, money,…sarcasm (a hard time), stomach viruses,) whatever we had.

It was easy to recognize where we were - In a foreign and hostile land (here at home we sometimes forget and simply or naively call the land we live in …“the world”).
We looked after and checked on each other, for we could not afford to assume that someone else would, or that it was just “our leader’s job”. Although “Momma Duck” (as we affectionately named Jada) did a great job of watching over us.

Our Mission – our focus – was always on others and the Kingdom
It was never about ourselves.
Church services we could not understand (except for one of us “Ask Shonie about that”).
Singing or attempting to sing from a hymnal written in another language to a very roughly tuned guitar.
No A/C, carpet, or comfy chairs, no big restaurant to rush off to after Church
It did not matter – We were on a mission, and it wasn’t about us.
Everything we learned (the language, customs,etc.) things we prayed for, spent time on, places we traveled to,… fears we overcame. It was all done with a hope that someone else’s life would be better off for it. Every moment had a purpose. And it felt good!

If you are here this morning and benefit from our mission statement of being saved, healed, trained, and released. Remember whatever you gain here, it is ultimately intended to benefit someone else. And I pray you will not forget your mission when you walk out the door.