Haiti

Today I am full of peace, cliff bars and internal organs. Life is moving forward and I'm really anxious to see the next few months play out. I'm working on getting my passport updated so that I can go to Haiti this summer....which is what I'm going to be talking about for most for this post.

I really enjoy it when it gets warmer in Flagstaff, when the snow melts and I can see rocks and dirt and shopping carts and 50 degrees feels like 75 because it's been near zero at night.

When there was an Earthquake, Haiti, and How to Respond.

When I saw the headlines about the earthquake that happened in Haiti, I'm not sure I had a concept of what was going on, why it was bad, or whether or not I really cared.

Then I read some of the first articles, about how Haiti was already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, about how Port-Au-Prince looked like a war zone, and saw pictures of people crushed under the rubble. These things made it painfully obvious of my ignorance, and I got one of those heavy, sinking feelings in my chest. I think this happened for two reasons,

1) There were people suffering and dying in Haiti

2)It took a massive natural disaster to make me aware of the situation in this country, 200,000 plus people dead to wake me from comfortable apathy.

My next reaction was to start calling up different missions organizations to see what I could do, and the consensus was that more than anything money was needed. Then I called up the head staff for Intervarsity Christian Fellowship here on campus to see what we could do as a fellowship. We talked it over, and I defiantly felt convicted that standing by saying, "well isn't that tragic, say a prayer before you go to sleep" wasn't the right response. I firmly believe that when Jesus asks those who call Him Lord to "love your neighbor as yourself", it isn't conditional. It doesn't mean be "nice" to people, to do one good deed and call it a day. It's a call to legitimate, meaningful, lasting love. Something that represents Christ, not our selfish, pitying affections. Those don't last and aren't unique anyways.

So, I was sitting on my couch, feeling awful when I had an idea.

I don't know where it came from, but I believe it was something God put on my heart. The idea was a call for our campus at NAU to fast and pray for at least one day, the coming Saturday of that week. But it made sense for that to be taken a step further, and to make this something that was spiritual but active. I think it's completely reasonable for a group of peoples to fast as a sign of solidarity, but why not give up the money that would have been spent on food, pool it together and donate it in one lump some through an organization working on the ground in Haiti? So that's what we did. That Friday I called almost everyone in my phone book asking for prayer, and that Saturday I saw 6oish students come to the Raymond Rec room on central campus to pray, intercede on behalf of the Haitian people. 513 dollars were raised and donated to Haiti through World Vision.

God's Calling and Why it's Unwise to Say "No"

During my time in prayer that Saturday, I felt as if God was inviting me to more. As if He was saying "this is good, but let's see if we can't do more". When I thought about that, it made sense. One day events are awesome, and lots of good can be done through that, but it's entirely too easy to say "I've done my part, let everyone else do something now". I realized, I have no idea how that thought could ever be justified in the Gospel. The concept of enough, doesn't apply to God's Grace, Love and His Kingdom. So I asked my roommate Erik if he wanted to go to Haiti this summer with me.

He said yes and we started doing research, how we could go, through what organizations and what we could really do.

We've now got a contact, and things are moving. We'll see what happens. (Of course there are more details to that, but I'm going to be a little secretive for now).

I've been really challenged with the question of "What can I really do and would it mean anything?". This is an honest question. I still have my doubts about God to use me in this situation. That said, since I'm never really able to understand all of what God has laid out in His plans, why would this be any different? Why wouldn't I trust Him in this situation? (Unfortunately the reason is usually "well because this is actually hard and requires risk").

When God calls us to something, it's probably in our best interests to answer that call. It's easy to kill callings with worldly logic and sometimes we have to "settle" for the explanation to our friends and family "it's a matter of faith". Normally this is answer is viewed as a cop-out but acting in the blurry haze of faith is great. Especially because the verb in that sentence is "act". To quote James, "faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." (James 2:17).

The Other Things That I Won't Mention Specifically That Involve Preparation

There are lots of things that go into following Jesus, and it's going to look different for everyone. I'm doing things to really test the legitimacy of my "heart for Haiti". Those things are intentionally private (blah blah blah, more accurately I feel they are distracting in the context of a blog post, I'm not above and do talk about things with people when it's more personal)

I will say I was particularly inspired by this article I read the other day:

http://www.worldvisionacts.org/?q=lentglorified

Ash Wednesday is this week. Hmmmmmmmm


-Geoff