“And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20
An hour and thirty minutes south and east of Miami, FL is the Republic of Haiti; just a short swim east of Cuba. After you leave the terminal and drive east of the airport through the roundabout and start to head out of Port-au-Prince your vehicle will pass by numerous goats and pigs who are rummaging through piles of garbage that have been heaped on street corners and burned. If you travel up Mont Cabrit (Goat Mountain) to the north you will pass through a number of small rural villages that will cause you to think that the year is 1900.
It is amazing that only two hours separate you from traveling on a ten-lane freeway in Florida to traveling on 10-foot wide dirt trail. North Americans come to Haiti to ‘improve’ their way of living by bringing electricity, Internet and machines to do their work for their brothers and sisters in Haiti. They need Jesus. Today, there is so much violence and chaos in PAP; they need Jesus. As you drive you will pass by a number of vodou temples adorned with various colored flags and you will understand that first, before anything else…they need Jesus.
One of my favorite photos that I took in Haiti is attached and it doesn’t need a lot of explanation. It was taken of a small rural church about two hours from the climb up Mont Cabrit in the Plateau Central between Hinche and Thomassique. It was a Saturday morning in 2002 and there had been a wedding there and following the ceremony the Pastor was talking to some of the family and placed his Bib la (Bible) down on the pew as he talked and shook hands. The Word became flesh. A Bible resting upon a board in a small church in rural Haiti is a powerful message; we cannot begin to fathom how strong the Word of God is in a land still dedicated to satan.
Haiti needs Jesus Christ. We have the Great Commission from our Lord Jesus instructing each of us to “go and make disciples of all nations”. We are not going to preach the Gospel; we are helping them by preparing their children for the task at hand. They don’t need electric lights and computers for their schools, they need food…they need Jesus. It is that simple; they need Jesus. I am closing today with the words from a song called “Make Me a Servant” by The Maranatha! Singers. It’s words are for those children in Haiti and also for you and me.
“Make me a servant, humble and meek. Lord let me lift up those who are weak. And may the prayer of my heart always be; make me a servant, make me a servant, make me a servant today. Make me a servant, humble and meek. Lord let me lift up those who are weak. And may the prayer of my heart always be; make me a servant, make me a servant, make me a servant today. Make me a servant, humble and meek. Lord let me lift up those who are weak. And may the prayer of my heart always be; make me a servant, make me a servant, make me a servant today.”
Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you,
Jay