Dear Friends and Family,
First of all, I want to say how much I appreciate all of your emails and your prayers. I’m not able to keep up with my responses as much as I would like (and am sorry if I have not been able to reply to many recently), but please know that I love hearing from each of you, and through the encouragement of your emails I feel far from being alone here! Thank you all so much.
The crusade last week (which I mentioned on my blog: http://bonjoufromhaiti.blogspot.com/) was put on entirely by local believers, and seemed to go well. Thank you for all your prayers! Each night, there was worship (singing and dancing) for perhaps an hour and a half, then a message from a pastor, an altar call, and prayer. It seemed to be packed every night—to the point where it was difficult to find a place to sit. Another missionary who works at HAFF said that she had not seen such worship like this before here—such a testimony to God’s grace, especially after such a tragedy as the earthquake. The joy of the Lord is our strength!
The crusade was followed by the national days of prayer, in which it seems there were “Jenns” (times of worship) held from perhaps 8 or 9 in the morning until noon. The one I attended was packed—to the point where we had to sit on the ground outside the worship center, not even able to see the speaker. Please continue to pray for God’s work through such times of worship and preaching; that the gospel would be shared with clarity, boldness, and wisdom, and that the Holy Spirit would be at work in all who hear.
I’ve been settling into more of a routine these past couple weeks, and continuing to acclimate to the schedule. I am teaching four English classes a week, and learning how to do so in an engaging manner with my still elementary grasp of Kreyol. It’s a great challenge, and enjoyable to work with a number of students who enjoy it and want to learn. Also, today was my first time meeting with a conversation group of students who want to continue to improve their English. It went really well, and it will be a privilege to work with and come to better know them in the coming weeks and months.
Other regular weekly activities are soccer practice (I’m working with and co-coaching practices for a girls’ team, and enjoy the chance to play soccer myself, as well as to see the enjoyment they get out of it and to be able to help them improve), meeting with a friend named Phanuel who is my language helper, and semi-regular times with another student named Fredlin (whom I have been helping learn English science terms, and who is helping me with some of the corresponding Kreyol terms). There are also the occasional hospital runs when we get a call, picking up supplies at the airport, etc. It’s also been such a privilege to be able to make friendships here, and we’ve enjoyed other fun times such as playing ping-pong on a makeshift table in my house. None of them have played before, so I explained in Kreyol as best I could, and taught them the rules. Phanuel was even able to keep a rally going for about 35 hits!
Last Saturday, I climbed Mount Pignon with Gabi and Becky (two others who are here at HAFF) and Jean-Robert, another friend. Then, the other day, I went with Phanuel and Enso (a student and friend) to some caves near Bohoc. Inside, there were cave drawings (possibly from pre-Columbian years), giant stalagmites (around 7 feet in diameter), crystals encrusting the rocks, and a good number of bats—right around our heads at one point. Also, there were some objects that the others said were from people who practiced magic/voodoo; apparently witch doctors sometimes use the caves.
In a third-world culture such as Haiti, I am still trying to understand how to respond to the needs and the often-present requests. Prayer and a heart of genuine concern are central, but the question gets more difficult with monetary and material claims of need (which may or may not always be reflected with what initially meets the eye). I suppose the first step for each of us in such interactions is to pray for growth in love, and seek to exercise it as seems wise. But love does have a price: in seeing the other missionaries here and their response to recent deaths in the area, one can tell that their investment in the community and Haiti in general makes things more difficult, as they mourn with those who mourn. But this investment is a precious one, and worth its price.
Finally, I wanted to share something that has recently been convicting to me throughout the last few weeks, and that I have been thinking about (and shared during our staff Bible study last night). I have come to see the need to rid my life (and for each of us in our lives) of idols—things which rival or surpass God for our loyalty. One that I have come to see in my own life is greater concern for praise from other people than for the praise that comes from God. We are called to obey God even if we never hear a single word of affirmation from someone else—a terrifying thought at times, but seems a pattern especially in the life of Jeremiah for one. A.W. Tozer, in The Pursuit of God, writes the following words which cut to the heart of the issue (he is speaking of withholding areas of our life from God—related to the topic of idols as these are things to which we don’t want to turn over to His lordship). It is a little long, but fully worth the read:
We are often hindered from giving up our treasures to the Lord out of fear for their safety…but we have no such need of such fears…Everything is safe which we commit to Him, and nothing is really safe which is not so committed…(though this certainly doesn’t mean that God will protect those things such as treasured sins, which are destructive and evil!) The Christian who is alive enough to know himself even slightly will recognize the symptoms of this possession malady, and will grieve to find them in his own heart…Now, what should he do? First of all, he should put away all defense and make no attempt to excuse himself either in his own eyes or before the Lord. Whoever defends himself will have himself for his defense, and he will have no other. But let him come defenseless before the Lord and he will have for his defender no less than God Himself…Let him insist that God accept his all, that He take things out of his heart and Himself reign there in power. (pp. 28-29)Tozer concludes the chapter with a prayer that we could probably pray every day:
Father, I want to know Thee, but my cowardly heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there without a rival. Then shalt Thou make the place of Thy feet glorious. Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for Thyself wilt be the light of it, and there shall be no night there. In Jesus’ name, amen. (pp. 30-31)I desire that this truth be applied to my heart and to each of our hearts, and that in coming to an ever-deeper understanding of the grace and gospel of our LORD, we might gladly give up all to His rule. For if God is who Scripture proclaims Him to be, His must be the complete and uncontested lordship of our lives.
I hope you all are doing well. Thanks for taking the time to read my updates!
Jonathan
No comments:
Post a Comment