My View From Haiti: When You Have Your Questions Answered

Part One, Part Two

I've lost track of the days. I keep asking people, "What day is this?" No one has a ready answer, and I'm relieved to know I'm not alone. Time seems to have folded in on itself, and I know I've got too much in my head and heart to process in a day, or a week, or even a month. Certainly not in one afternoon blog post.

So please, bear with me.

I am forty-eight years old, and this is the first time I've traveled with a passport. That's my context. I came to Haiti with lots of questions. Questions about mission trips and missionaries and race and church and aid. I'm done asking those questions. I've got my answers. I've changed my context. I've changed my mind.

Perhaps I shouldn't take all the credit.

It's true God met me here. He was waiting for me here, in fact. He hasn't missed a beat in bringing me up to speed, and He has used the beautiful landscape, the glorious people, the magnificent heroes and movers of mountains, and the sparkling laughter of children with bows in their hair. God has used Haiti to make His case, and who am I to argue with that?

It's simple, really. And it's always been there, right in the message written in the first chapter of the Epistle of James:

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the orphans and widows in their distress..." James 1:27 (NIV)

That's my invitation. I don't need to wait for a team to invite me to join them, or for a church to decide it's time to get with the program. I've already got my invitation. We all do.

It's not up to me to untangle the messiness of culture and politics and other things about which I have limited knowledge. God hasn't called me to that. Yet. What I do know is that looking after orphans and widows and earthquake victims and children with no shoes who live in Tent City is work we can do. It is work that pleases God. It is work that will change the world.

What questions are you asking? What will you do when your questions are answered?

This week, I'm in Haiti, traveling as part of a team of bloggers. We're here with an impressive organization called Help One Now. Catch up on the entire series by clicking here and here. To learn more about Help One Now, their work in Haiti, and how you can help, visit their website.

Images by Scott Wade, used with permission. Post by Deidra Riggs.