I miss the Haitian coffee. It was somewhat thick, dark, and very strong, but with a rich, delicious quality to it. In comparison, my coffee these past few days has tasted like flavored water.
I miss the Haitian weather. The air was heavy with humidity, warm, with a slight breeze most days. That weather was a soothing balm to my North American skin. Now, I’m breaking out, I feel dry and itchy everywhere, and my nose is out-of-control with stuffiness!
I miss the Haitian church services. Three times a week, we worshipped. Singing, dancing, clapping, outbursts of prayers, “Amen”s, and Scripture… It was such beautiful cacaphony. Church here is quiet, reserved, conservative.
Some of the differences are striking. And the grass is always greener…
In all honesty, though I miss many things about Haiti, this is home. I could resent it, because it’s not like there. I could feel guilty about it, because it’s so much more than what anyone there has. I could sell it, and try to live more like there. But I won’t do any of those things.
Instead, I will embrace it. Home is here. In His sovereignty, God placed me here. In the land of milk and honey, material wealth, and ten months a year of cold weather – this is where He chose for me to be. So I will open my arms wide and thank Him for every piece of this place – home.
And I must say, after watching the uninhibited worship of the people in Haiti, after seeing their rock-bottom faith in a God who heals and provides in a land of illness and poverty, I think this place is in desperate need of some missionaries. Here, we are too easily entangled in the grip of our ‘things.’ We are not desperate for a God who rescues us from utter desolation. Our wealth can so easily overrun our faith.
So I will begin living as a missionary here at home. Digging deep into my faith, leaning on God for all things, giving Him credit in everything, and being a light to those around me.
We will support missionaries who go out, both short- and long-term. We will connect with our sponsor children with greater intentionality. We will continue to go out on short-term missions ourselves, eventually bringing one or two children at a time. We will grow our worldview and allow God to break our hearts for the broken-hearted around the world. We will make sacrifices so that others may experience the love of Christ.
But we will remain firmly planted where we are, here in Canada. We will ask God to open our eyes to the mission-field in front of us. And we will faithfully use the greatest gift He gave us in Haiti – the gift of prayer. There we learned to pray expecting an answer. There we learned to pray with mustard-seed, mountain-moving faith.
I’ve no doubt that what we learned there was intended for us to bring here. Because the mission-field here is a path littered with things, toys, possessions, and money… And the only way to make clear the Way is prayer.
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Love your heart Tyler! I have so much to learn from you. (your older but not necessarily wiser co-worker
my favorite part of what you’re bringing home: I miss the Haitian church services. Three times a week, we worshipped. Singing, dancing, clapping, outbursts of prayers, “Amen”s, and Scripture… It was such beautiful cacaphony. Church here is quiet, reserved, conservative.
Sometimes i feel like a square peg in a round hole because i’m naturally exuberant in my worship and my church is not.