It’s been almost 2 months since my trip to Haiti and the effects are still felt. It was a week where God clarified some things for me as a husband, father, friend, leader and Pastor. It was a week that I know I will look back on in the coming years as a week that changed the course of my life. It was a week that continues to challenge me.
I came back from Haiti with a lot to process… Not only because of Haiti, but because of the work God was doing in me. Months prior to the trip I felt like God was chasing me and I was wrestling with so many things, it was in Haiti that God started to put the pieces together.
I heard from God in ways I hadn’t in a long time and I heard some things I needed to hear. And then I came home…
Home felt different and even today I still feel like I left part of me in Haiti. I’m not sure really how to explain it. I don’t feel called to be a missionary in the since of moving to another country, but I came back with a burden that I had a responsibility to do something to affect “the least of these”. That’s when God went to work.
God put conversations together that built on one another, he put people in front of me that started to stir something in me, then it all came together. It was in a Panera when one of the many conversations I was having about what God was doing in me that I knew what it was I was called to do. It was as if God was on the other side of the table when the sentence was uttered that has now become so apart of me that I can’t escape it; “we don’t do anything unless it’s relationally based” (paraphrased).
I couldn’t believe I had missed it… We could have ended the meeting right there, all the pieces were in place. Since that meeting just a few weeks ago, God has opened up doors and I can’t wait to step through them.
Imagine if we decided to simply love on people who are struggling… People who struggle financially, emotionally, spiritually, etc. Imagine if we loved on them and served them in practical ways until they asked why, imagine loving on people long enough to get to know them. Imagine once we got to know them we were then able to serve them in much bigger ways… Helping them with life skills, job skills; helping them with parenting skills and tutoring their kids. Imagine doing projects and those people you are loving on are working right along side of you… Imagine loving on people and finding out that you have more in common than you thought, that you care for them more than you could have imagined. Imagine for a moment if we were purposeful on who those people were and made a decision that we were going to impact a community starting with the basic need… Love.
That’s where I’m at… The only thing is I’m done sitting, I’m done imagining it… I’m ready to do it. And I’m absolutely FIRED UP about it! I can’t wait to get started and see what God does.
-Rainey
