Miracles can be a touchy subject. The Bible is full of stories of men surviving impossible situations, stories of miraculous healing, the deaf and blind receiving their senses back. Some people say those stories just aren't true. Some people try to explain them using modern science. The impulses to explain them away or dismiss them come from the same place. Miracles seemed to have happened so much during Biblical times, but it seems like they don't happen anymore. Why not?
Many people much smarter than I have tried to answer this question. And they have some good things to say. I don't want to try to answer that question. I just want to share a story.
Last week, we found out that there was a hurricane/tropical storm in the southern Caribbean eventually headed for Haiti. We watched it, trying to see how bad it would be so we had some idea how to prepare for it. And it looked like it would be bad. For a city in which hundreds of thousands of people are living in tents (tents that have already taken a beating from the sun, wind, and rain of the past 10 months) and many more are living with fragile rusted roofs over their heads, any storm with high winds was going to do a lot of damage. And Tomas was predicted to be a Category 1 or 2 hurricane by the time it got to Port-au-Prince. We were a little worried.
Alright, a lot worried. Thursday night the boys and I were watching the weather channel on Haitian TV, and they were predicting the rain and wind would only get stronger as it headed towards us. There was nothing much to do other than pray. And I think a lot of people were praying, both here and back in the US. I was raining most of the day on Thursday, but Friday it was supposed to hit us hard. As I got out of bed on Friday, there was a bit of rain and wind, but you could hardly call it a storm. It was a light drizzle, and maybe a 5 MPH breeze. It was actually quite pleasant. We waited for things to get worse.
But they never did. We had a steady drizzle most of the day, but we couldn't have gotten much more than an inch all day long. At one point, Cecelia's mom called. She was watching the weather in the US. The radar said we should be getting buckets of rain and 75 MPH winds. Couldn't be farther from the truth. Still light drizzle and a light breeze every once in a while.
Friday morning as I lay half awake in my bed, I had a vision of a huge God-hand coming out from the tops of the mountains that surround Port-au-Prince and curving over the city, protecting it. It turns out the storm broke up as it approached Port-au-Prince. I know weather forecasters are often wrong about these things, but they were really wrong this time. And I don't think it was because they're not good at their job. I think God covered the city with his hand of protection.
And I don't hesitate to call it a miracle.
Psalm 46:1-3,10-11
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change.
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult
"Be still and know that I am God.
I am exalted among the nations,
I am exalted in the earth!"
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Showing posts with label scripture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scripture. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Revision
So I've been thinking, many of my expectations about what I would be doing at the orphanage were inaccurate, and I'm not doing as much "work" as I expected.
What I have been doing, however, is loving kids. And loving kids is so much more than doing things for them. In fact, sometimes it means not doing things for them. Before I went to Haiti, I was thinking I would show the Haitians how much I love them by doing stuff, by "working". But after a few boring days, some days filled with supervising the library, and generally just being with the kids, I'm discovering lots of other ways to love them, not just through what I generally think of as "work". Loving by teaching. Loving by learning their language and culture. Loving by admitting my faults. Loving just through living in community with them.
So while I still believe work is a powerful way to show love, there are many other ways that love is "made visible" and many of those have been more prevalent in my work at the orphanage than what we might typically consider "work". For all of us, we have some many more chances to show love than just by the "work" that we do. So, with that, I'm just going to amputate the first two words from my blog title. I think that will make it a little more accurate.
On the topic of love, a few weeks ago, I taught a Bible study with the kids on 1 Corinthians 13. If you've ever gone to a Christian wedding, chances are good you've heard this passage before, particularly v. 4-7. It talks about what love is, and what it is not. Interestingly enough, it doesn't say, "love is hard-working." It is, however, lots of other things.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
And what a day it was!
Yesterday (8/17) was such an eventful day that I just have to dedicate an entire post to it.
The morning was fairly uneventful. I spent most of the morning supervising the library. Things got a little heated at one point, but I thought nothing of it at the time (turns out I was wrong, but I'll get to that later). Then, at 12:30, we had our first Bible study of the summer. The whole school schedule got messed up by the earthquake, so this is the first week of the summer for the kids. A few of them still have exams, so it was a voluntary Bible study. The nannies wanted to make Bible study mandatory for all the kids, which I wasn't so excited about, but they didn't want mandatory Bible study to start before everyone had finished exams, so that gave us two weeks to do some voluntary Bible studies. And it worked! We had ten kids there (of 34 total). I taught on humility from Luke 14:7-14. I'd say it was overall pretty successful, although there is room for improvement. The kids were interested and listened attentively while I talked. They weren't exactly jumping out of their seats to answer my questions, but that's OK. Talking with Mark afterward, we figured there were probably a few reasons for this; primarily, most of my questions probably sounded like calls to public confession, which, though we may think of that as a common part of Bible study in the US, doesn't seem to be part of the church culture here in Haiti, and certainly not at the orphanage. But they did, first of all, come, and they seemed pretty engaged. All in all, it was an encouraging first Bible study.
The second thing we had planned for the day was painting crews. American short-term teams have been coming in during our summer in the US, and many of them have been painting classrooms in the orphanage, some of which probably haven't been painted since it was built. But we've got the hallways left to paint, and now that school is starting in the US, there are fewer short-term mission teams coming our way. But part of what HFC wants to do, is to get the kids involved in service, so a good place to start is helping out in their own building. They do have regular chores around the place, but summer can be a little boring without a whole lot to do. So we asked for volunteers to help paint. And 14 kids volunteered. And they loved it! There were a few sour grapes, but mostly, they had a good time, and we rewarded them with cokes at the end of it. It was really good to see them getting involved and learning something.
Then, the most dramatic event of the day. Sometime in the late afternoon, a big storm blew in. I don't think it was a hurricane, but there was a lot of rain and a lot of wind. I was sitting in my room, taking a little break and listening to my iPod when it started to get dark. I took out my headphones and the wind was howling and the rain was beating in the windows. Everyone was on their feet looking out at what the storm was doing. The rain flooded the streets, turning them into rivers. No joke, I saw a concrete block being pushed downhill by the water. That's how much water was in the street. The wind blew a few roofs off of some surrounding houses. And the tarps and tents, which many people have been living in since the earthquake, didn't fare too well. Some survived, but some of the tarp houses were blown apart, just like in "The Three Little Pigs." We had a few tarps covering an outdoor courtyard that has served as the kindergarten area since the earthquake (the kindergarten parents are too afraid of another earthquake to let their kids have class inside the 3-story concrete building). The wind ripped them up and tore them down. Most of them are now pretty useless.
There was one moment of this storm that really struck me. I was looking out of the window of the boys' house across the street, and I saw a woman with a big pile of charcoal. She had found a tarp and was struggling to cover her pile of charcoal with it. In Haiti, the wealthier folks cook with gas stoves. The poorer cook with charcoal. And selling charcoal is one of the lowest and most humiliating jobs in the country. You sit by the side of the road, covered in charcoal dust all day long. These bags of charcoal were this woman's livelihood, and if they got wet, they'd probably be useless, at least for a while until they dried (does anyone know? if charcoal gets wet, can it dry out and be useful again?). But the wind was not helping, blowing her tarp all over the place. And you could see the anguish on her face, the worry that all she had would be destroyed. It was hard to watch, and at the same time I couldn't take my eyes off of her.
And that's not all! The argument that I heard earlier in the day in the library, turns out it was actually a bigger deal than I thought. One of the boys called one of the girls a bad name that I'd rather not repeat. I'll just say that if you turned on the radio, this word would be bleeped out. I didn't have any idea that he had used this word earlier, because he said it in Creole. But the girl went and told one of the other girls who then told one of the Haitian nannies who then called Dr. Bernard, who basically runs the orphanage. He used to live right up the street, and he and his wife were the house parents of the orphanage; he's been a part of these kids lives for about 14 years now. Anyway, he punished the boy for what he said. My problem is, I think the story probably got exaggerated before it got to him. I don't always trust this particular girl, and she is often very disrespectful to me and Mark and Marsha. Its just a little frustrating. I was here, but I have no idea what actually happened. I don't think he deserved the punishment he got, but maybe he did. It doesn't help that I don't particularly trust all of the individuals that the story passed through to get to Dr. Bernard either, and some of the other kids seem to think the punishment was too harsh as well. Its challenging to say the least.
Anyway, sorry for the long post, but I wanted to share the whole day with you. Its funny: some days are packed full, and some days are downright mundane. You never know.
I just want to add one prayer request:
Life here can be quite overwhelming sometimes. Dealing with the kids, seeing poverty on such a massive scale, thinking and praying about my life and where God is moving me, and all the while trying to keep focused on God and where I am. Its challenging, and sometimes it brings me to the point of tears. Emotions here can go from laughing and smiling to anger or tears in a moment, and sometimes I don't know why. Please pray for strength and strength through God.
The morning was fairly uneventful. I spent most of the morning supervising the library. Things got a little heated at one point, but I thought nothing of it at the time (turns out I was wrong, but I'll get to that later). Then, at 12:30, we had our first Bible study of the summer. The whole school schedule got messed up by the earthquake, so this is the first week of the summer for the kids. A few of them still have exams, so it was a voluntary Bible study. The nannies wanted to make Bible study mandatory for all the kids, which I wasn't so excited about, but they didn't want mandatory Bible study to start before everyone had finished exams, so that gave us two weeks to do some voluntary Bible studies. And it worked! We had ten kids there (of 34 total). I taught on humility from Luke 14:7-14. I'd say it was overall pretty successful, although there is room for improvement. The kids were interested and listened attentively while I talked. They weren't exactly jumping out of their seats to answer my questions, but that's OK. Talking with Mark afterward, we figured there were probably a few reasons for this; primarily, most of my questions probably sounded like calls to public confession, which, though we may think of that as a common part of Bible study in the US, doesn't seem to be part of the church culture here in Haiti, and certainly not at the orphanage. But they did, first of all, come, and they seemed pretty engaged. All in all, it was an encouraging first Bible study.
The second thing we had planned for the day was painting crews. American short-term teams have been coming in during our summer in the US, and many of them have been painting classrooms in the orphanage, some of which probably haven't been painted since it was built. But we've got the hallways left to paint, and now that school is starting in the US, there are fewer short-term mission teams coming our way. But part of what HFC wants to do, is to get the kids involved in service, so a good place to start is helping out in their own building. They do have regular chores around the place, but summer can be a little boring without a whole lot to do. So we asked for volunteers to help paint. And 14 kids volunteered. And they loved it! There were a few sour grapes, but mostly, they had a good time, and we rewarded them with cokes at the end of it. It was really good to see them getting involved and learning something.
Then, the most dramatic event of the day. Sometime in the late afternoon, a big storm blew in. I don't think it was a hurricane, but there was a lot of rain and a lot of wind. I was sitting in my room, taking a little break and listening to my iPod when it started to get dark. I took out my headphones and the wind was howling and the rain was beating in the windows. Everyone was on their feet looking out at what the storm was doing. The rain flooded the streets, turning them into rivers. No joke, I saw a concrete block being pushed downhill by the water. That's how much water was in the street. The wind blew a few roofs off of some surrounding houses. And the tarps and tents, which many people have been living in since the earthquake, didn't fare too well. Some survived, but some of the tarp houses were blown apart, just like in "The Three Little Pigs." We had a few tarps covering an outdoor courtyard that has served as the kindergarten area since the earthquake (the kindergarten parents are too afraid of another earthquake to let their kids have class inside the 3-story concrete building). The wind ripped them up and tore them down. Most of them are now pretty useless.
There was one moment of this storm that really struck me. I was looking out of the window of the boys' house across the street, and I saw a woman with a big pile of charcoal. She had found a tarp and was struggling to cover her pile of charcoal with it. In Haiti, the wealthier folks cook with gas stoves. The poorer cook with charcoal. And selling charcoal is one of the lowest and most humiliating jobs in the country. You sit by the side of the road, covered in charcoal dust all day long. These bags of charcoal were this woman's livelihood, and if they got wet, they'd probably be useless, at least for a while until they dried (does anyone know? if charcoal gets wet, can it dry out and be useful again?). But the wind was not helping, blowing her tarp all over the place. And you could see the anguish on her face, the worry that all she had would be destroyed. It was hard to watch, and at the same time I couldn't take my eyes off of her.
And that's not all! The argument that I heard earlier in the day in the library, turns out it was actually a bigger deal than I thought. One of the boys called one of the girls a bad name that I'd rather not repeat. I'll just say that if you turned on the radio, this word would be bleeped out. I didn't have any idea that he had used this word earlier, because he said it in Creole. But the girl went and told one of the other girls who then told one of the Haitian nannies who then called Dr. Bernard, who basically runs the orphanage. He used to live right up the street, and he and his wife were the house parents of the orphanage; he's been a part of these kids lives for about 14 years now. Anyway, he punished the boy for what he said. My problem is, I think the story probably got exaggerated before it got to him. I don't always trust this particular girl, and she is often very disrespectful to me and Mark and Marsha. Its just a little frustrating. I was here, but I have no idea what actually happened. I don't think he deserved the punishment he got, but maybe he did. It doesn't help that I don't particularly trust all of the individuals that the story passed through to get to Dr. Bernard either, and some of the other kids seem to think the punishment was too harsh as well. Its challenging to say the least.
Anyway, sorry for the long post, but I wanted to share the whole day with you. Its funny: some days are packed full, and some days are downright mundane. You never know.
I just want to add one prayer request:
Life here can be quite overwhelming sometimes. Dealing with the kids, seeing poverty on such a massive scale, thinking and praying about my life and where God is moving me, and all the while trying to keep focused on God and where I am. Its challenging, and sometimes it brings me to the point of tears. Emotions here can go from laughing and smiling to anger or tears in a moment, and sometimes I don't know why. Please pray for strength and strength through God.
Friday, June 25, 2010
The Journey Ahead
So in about three weeks, on July 18th, I'll be flying to Port-au-Prince, Haiti to spend 5 months interning with Hope for the Children of Haiti (http://hfchaiti.org/), a Christian orphanage in Port-au-Prince. I'll be living and working in the orphanage, and although I'm not sure of exactly what all I will be doing, I'll likely be doing some rebuilding and teach a little English or Bible study. But more generally, I'm there to teach the kids about the world, and be a mentor for them. There's a lot that isn't certain right now, but I'm excited to see what's in store for me while I'm down there.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas, with 80% unemployment before the earthquake. The earthquake has just made a horrible situation worse. There was a huge outpouring of help in the days right after the earthquake, but since then, the general public has largely forgotten about the country. But the problems in Haiti, as in many other places in the world, won't be solved overnight simply by throwing money at it. They need long term investment. And that's part of the reason I'm so excited to be working with HFC. They've been in Haiti since 1996 and are committed to working with the Haitians to make life better. In addition to the orphanage, which houses about 60 kids, they also run a school of about 150-200 kids, and are working towards starting other programs in the community, including potentially some micro-economic programs.
If you believe that prayer has some real power, Please, pray for me as I prepare to go and while I'm down there, that God would use me to help these kids, and set a worthy example for them to follow. If prayer isn't your thing, please just remember me in your thoughts while I'm away, trying to do what I can to make the world a little bit better.
And one quick note on the title of the blog. "Work is love made visible" is a quote by Khalil Gibran, a Lebanese American artist, poet, and writer. I think it captures both what I'll be doing in Haiti (Work) but also why I'm going (the love part). And it reminds me of one of my favorite Bible verses (from one of my favorite books of the Bible):
"So you see, faith by itself isn't enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless... But I say, 'How can you show me your faith if you don't have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.' "
James 2:17, 18b (NLT)
James 2:17, 18b (NLT)
*I'll try to keep updating as regularly as I can, hopefully with some pictures, but internet in Haiti isn't the most reliable, so we'll just have to see.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)