Haiti Part 1

Praise the Lord! What more can one say when they are jubilant for the Name of the Lord. Praise the Lord for He is Good and He really does provide all.

The Lord loved and has blessed my church for going on another mission trip to Haiti. It might be the church’s fourth or fifth consecutive trip to Haiti since we have started. But more important than our church, The Lord has been working in Haiti for more years and will continue to work there through the missionaries that comes all year around, the Christians that live there, and through all the people who support Haiti and God’s ministry outside of Haiti.

My Father has blessed me with an opportunity to go out to Haiti and to bring the Love and Power of Jesus Christ to the hearts and minds of the people. It was my third mission trip with my church, but my first trip after a 7-8 year hiatus. My previous mission trips were to the First Nation people in northern British Colombia and to Sucre and La Paz Bolivia. Haiti was different amongst the other mission trips.

First I was more mature. I went on my first two mission trips right before and after my freshman year in high school (9th grade) in 2004 and 2005. Then a raging hormone teenager who know nothing other than John 3:16 as a memorized verse and just a few Biblical stories. I couldn’t stand up to my faith if I was questioned about it. I didn’t know the real meaning of the commissioning that Jesus has commanded us in Matthew 28. I didn’t know just how costly the price of Jesus’ sacrifice was on the cross. I didn’t know what a Christian was. I was below the level of a fan. I didn’t know anything. I went on missions for my pleasure rather than for God’s pleasure. See in my high school, a Catholic all boys school, we received automatic 10-20% in my religion class; mission trip just gave me that automatic grade so that I can fail the class with a 50% on paper, but record wise, I passed with a 65-70%.

Second I was more prepared than the other mission trips. When our church went to Canada and Bolivia, there was no proper Biblical training. It was our church’s first time going on international mission trips for a while so there was no format of training. We met once or twice before we went and read one chapter of the Gospel. We laid on the ground and got sprayed by a hose and had to climb up a balcony without a ladder for our physical fitness, which I passed with flying colors.

Prior to this trip to Haiti, our pastor told us to read the entire New Testament and to read and do an essay on a theological book of redemption, which by God’s will, we didn’t have to hand in. I read through the Book of Acts and saw the history of what the Apostle had done right after Jesus ascended to Heaven. The men, who served the Lord on earth, went out to their cities and their countries and some to the edges of the known world to do tell the world of the Savior and what He has done. The epistles of Paul and other Apostles exemplified the love these men had on the churches that they didn’t want the church to fall away from what was truly important. The theological books that we had to read only further backed up the lessons I and the team learned from reading the New Testament, since the Bible is the source of all things theological.

This was my first mission trip after coming back to Jesus Christ. I’ve had some personal problems with myself and the church that I didn’t attend my church or fell away from God for some time. I have shared this amongst my closest brothers and sisters of my church and when time comes I wish to share it amongst you all. This mission trip wasn’t something I wanted God to prove He was with me, since I knew He was with me through all this time. This mission trip was the overflow of being a disciple and an overflow of sharing in the life of Christ. It was my prayer to offer my life to Jesus and for the Lord to use in the nation of Haiti.