Haiti

I can't be more pleased about our youth involvement in the Haiti relief efforts. In two weeks, they've donated over $150 of their own money from savings, earnings, jobs, etc. As soon as the earth quake hit, two of them began contacting me wanting the youth to do something and had me sending out mass e-mails to other youth to bring money to youth group. $150 is more money than most of these kids see in a month... so to raise it in two weeks is pretty darn cool. As they contacted me, i reflected on the time i spent in haiti in 2006. here is part of my journal from that time:

“What I’ve learned the most while I’ve been here is how maybe we are actually supposed to live with less… because it is with having less that we see God at work and we best know what it means to demonstrate the hospitality that the gospel demands. Each time we’ve eaten in someone’s home (the homes usually have dirt floors and the only furniture is 2 or 3 chairs and a table – no beds), the family hosting us refuses to let us be uncomfortable. They family who hosts us doesn’t have enough rice or beans, but we watch as their children come back from the neighbors house with rice and beans that others have given them just so this family could have enough to feed us all a small bowl. The parents would send their children to the neighbors houses to gather chairs so the 10 of us would have a place to sit. The same thing happens with bowls and spoons. Constantly, there are children running from 10 or 12 neighbors houses to bring enough chairs and rice and spoons and whatever else so that their family can host us. These people who have so little have learned that they have enough… and even enough for us foreigners if they are willing to pull together. our guides tell us that this never stops – this constant giving. One family may be able to give this week and they will give all they have because they know that in a week that they need, another family will give to them. they have come to love one another and to trust that God will provide… and this amazing, humbling faith has come out of their experience of having practically nothing.”