Weak at Heart

Landed back in Port-au-Prince today, the place this all began for most people's knowledge of Haiti. I was aware of Haiti myself before "The Earthquake" and had looked into bringing our ministry down here when we started looking for places to go...but we didn't have a contact, so we started looking elsewhere. Then the quake, and our options opened up dramaticly. ORR quickly became the only option we would end up considering.

Two of us from our ministry, Great Adventure Ministries, came down in March to help plan what our two back to back teams would be doing (this week and next). Honestly, I was a bit concerned about this Brian guy and his approach to ministry. Why were we not bringing down bags of "supplies"? Starving people and not mass amounts of food? Kids all over, but no toys? Plus, as I got to spend a week with Brian, I was pretty sure his tough attitude and focus could intimidate the average person. He has a lot of opinions on a lot of things...

Yet, after that week in March, I started to realize why God had put such a man in such a place as this. Brian isn't afraid to say "no". Most people just wouldn't have the stomach to sort through all the requests he gets almost every minute of the day when he's down here and be able to say "no" to 98% of them...but if Brian didn't have that strength, he'd just blow all the resources entrusted to him by feeding a few hundred people and then come home broke!

...But he isn't "weak at heart"; he has a "thick candy shell" on the outside of his heart to protect the vision God has given him and the interests of those investing in ORR's work...with a "soft center" that melts away when God moves on his heart to help someone...and that includes helping the teams and members who come down here to understand the vision.

Leaving today, I have no regret we didn't walk around handing out toys or mass amounts of food to people we didn't know. Instead, the children we played with and the adults we talked with all had a solid respect for us as people and friends. We built relationships that will leave an impact by example and will enable the long term health of the people and not the short term needs alone. Outside a few requests for water, most of our time was spent serving as representatives of Christ love, not just His good will. "Things" which we consider essential in the states seem to create division and distrust here...but not with our team.

How do I feel today? Very glad to be going home! That might not seem spiritual to say, but I am so looking forward to being home, going to a fast food place, and letting the water in the shower swish in my mouth! My heart, my body, my emotions are spent. I left nothing on the table. Haiti got everything we had. It is a wonderfully, beautiful place, and what I look forward to most is going home and encouraging others to step out of their comfort zone and make the trip. Hard as it is to endure the heat, the poverty, and the language, our hearts need to be opened up from time to time and refined, for when we are weak, He is strong.

Chad