God, Father Abraham, Nehemiah, & James Courter

I had a morning meeting with a missionary to Haiti.  I guess I should confess something first.  I don't like Haiti.  It may very well be my least favorite place on earth.  There are lots of reasons for this, not the least of these being my encounter with Haitian Bed Bugs & screaming man goats.

As I have set out to launch this intern program for Sustain Hope, one big thing that has to be secured is your destination.  Once you have that, you can work on all the other many details.  I began emailing my missionary friends around the world.  Places like Buenos Aires, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Chiang Mai, Philippine Islands, Kenya, etc. The possibilities were endless.  I also emailed some missionaries to Haiti I had met one time while they were here stateside.  I don't know them personally like the others on the list, but for some reason I included them.  I sat in front of my screen constantly refreshing my inbox waiting to see where God would take me on this new adventure! Guess who was the first and only missionary to respond that day?! Haiti!

More confession: When I look at Haiti, I see destitution, I see darkness, I see very little hope! I know this is a terrible outlook, I'm just being honest.  It's dark, the poverty is nearly unparalleled, it's Voo Doo for goodness sake! I see the people and I feel pity & helplessness & hopelessness.  My vision of them and for them has been very short sited and very unGodly.  But this is my truth.

Today I sat across from a man who sees Haiti for what it is, it's a real mess.  I sat across from a man with a seminarian & medical degree who had his sites set on going to Muslim nations where no missionary had ever gone, but God said to him, look at Haiti.  So he did, he moved his family of 6 to Haiti.  They minister to hundreds of children weekly, help national pastors with church plants, head up a Bible school, run a medical clinic and quite a bit more, but "that don't impress me much."  (Well, it does, but not as much as what he SEES.) He said to me, "You know I look at Haitians and I see they're resilient, they can live under the harshest of circumstances and conditions, and survive!  They could one day live in the harsh conditions of the unreached people groups too."  He looks at the Haitians and sees missionaries to the middle east?!? (WOW!)  I need to borrow this man's glasses! (and his heart and his resolve too evidently!!) I was profoundly impacted by his vision.

Tonight as I was doing my devo, a study of the book of Nehemiah by Kelly Minter.  (I highly recommend it!) Jerusalem was in ruins, Nehemiah hears, he goes, he rallies the people, they rebuild the wall in 52 days, but it's still kind of mess, there are no homes, the people are living in tents.) Kelly quotes Derek Kidner as saying this about Jerusalem at this time,

"The barely habitable city, the encircling heathen, and the poverty and seeming insignificance of the Jews are all transcended by the glorious reality of God.  The facts are not ignored, as the ensuing everlasting to everlasting and of God's unimaginable greatness above all blessing and praise."

This is how God (and Jame Courter) see Haiti.  I (MBK) see the barely habitable city, the encircling heathen, the poverty and seeming insignificance of the Haitians and He sees the glorious reality of God not ignoring the facts just knowing His God's unimaginable greatness!!!!

Last, but not least my devo took me to Hebrews 11 about Father Abraham's faithful heart.  And again I was reminded of the GREATNESS of God and the man I had an 8am meeting with today.  vs. 9 &10 read like this:  By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with of the same promise.  For he was looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God.

Haiti is not God's first tent city to deal with and we are not the first people to ever be shaken to the core with financial difficulty, grief or sadness, betrayal, infidelity, disease, or difficulty that cannot be measured. AND we are not the only heirs with a promise, our Haitian brothers and sisters are heirs, the little girl in the news this week whose mom sold her for drugs is an heir, the facts are horrendous and should not be ignored, but you know what else should not be ignored?  the unimaginable greatness of God.  We would all do well to set our sites just past the facts, looking forward to the city, the future with foundations whose architect and builder is God.

Thank you God, Father Abraham, Nehemiah, and James Courter for a change in perspective today!