Haiti 6 Log 2

Haiti 6 - Day 3 - January 7th - 1st day at Jacob's Well (Friday)


I woke up early this morning and stepped out of the cabin, ready to take in my first glimpse of Jacob's Well in the daylight.  It was amazing.  I hadn't formed any definite ideas of what to expect because I knew that the campsite had changed drastically since the last trip in March, none the less, I certainly wasn't prepared for what I saw!

View of the five cabins from the pathway
between the parking lot and the kitchen

The girl's cabin (Naphtali - the cabins are named after the twelve tribes of Israel) was one of five little white cabins with red roofs lining a curving rock pathway on the side of a hill.  Several more unfinished cabins stood above Naphtali on the hillside, completing the circle.  Below, our tap tap and the Valcin's truck sat in the parking lot.  And to the right of the parking lot stood the large outdoor kitchen, bathhouse, old bathhouse, and dining hall.  When the Haiti 5 team left last year, they had just finished work on the slab for the outdoor kitchen.  Aside from that, the only other permanent building on the whole campsite was the old bathhouse (it's now a camper bathhouse/storage facility).  The Haitians were already up and working - a construction crew was mixing cement in the parking lot and carrying it in 5 gallon buckets up the hill.  I learned later that they were working on building a cistern.

We ate a delicious breakfast of pancakes, grapefruit juice and Haitian coffee.  One of the team members took to calling the grapefruit juice "magic juice," it was so good.  By the end of the trip, the name had stuck!  Then, we got to work!

I was assigned to an unpacking and organizing team and set to work with several others on unloading and relocating everything we had brought.  It took a while but at last all 1,500 lbs of luggage (construction tools, school supplies, camp activity supplies ranging from BB guns to craft kits, etc.) had been stowed safely away and scattered across the camp site!  After lunch (Haitian sandwiches), I was reassigned to another team entrusted with the task of setting up a canopy for the archery activity and mowing the archery range to limit the number of missing arrows.

So, we four intrepid volunteers - we later became known as the mowing team - set out armed with machetes and sticks to mow Haitian style.  My "twin" Natalyn and I were some of the first girls who were allowed to mow in Haiti.  It was quite a fun experience - hard work and tougher than it sounds, but it was fun.  Basically, you get down on your knees, holding a stick in your left hand to push the grass over to expose the stem and then swipe the machete across the grass, and keep moving on in a straight line, "rolling the grass back" ahead of you.  It's difficult to explain.  :)

After mowing, we headed down to the village to have a play day with the village children.  The field where we play is actually a part of the camp's land, but you have to go through the village to get to it (the village school and church are also located on the field).  Some of the team had gone over earlier and were already "talking" and playing with the kids when we arrived.  I only knew a few basic words in Kreyol (Hello, What is your name?  My name is... etc) so conversation was a little difficult, but the kids didn't seem to mind.  They kept chattering away and loved to hold our hands!  They couldn't quite get my name right, so eventually I gave up on trying to get them to say "Gillian" and told them it was "Julie" instead.  

I took this picture while we were mowing
a space for the Bible Drama - you can see the piles
of mown grass. This is aview of the upstairs
(straight back) and then a little to the right
is the attic! 

We played games for a while, sang songs (I know now the words to This is the Day that the Lord has made in Kreyol!) and then around 4:30 headed back to camp.  Finishing up the last of our work projects for the night, we hiked up past the drama hill, to the upstairs (the  hill where we have campfire) and then on to the attic (a tall hill point that overlooks the camp) to watch the sunset.  Some of the village children were wandering around and came running when they saw us up there.  They sat with us for a little while we stared at the beautiful countryside and watched the sun go down behind the mountains.  Then we were raced down the hill, arriving just in time for dinner.

After a Haitian meal of rice and beans with chicken meat sauce, we discussed the day and talked about work projects for the next day.  We then had time to sit around and talk for a little bit (discussed shower taking... we have running water but it's not always reliable, sometimes it's there and sometime's it's not.  We designated specific girl/guy shower nights to make sure that there was enough water to go around.)  The plan is to head to bed early tonight... another long day of work projects tomorrow.  There's quite a lot to do to get the campsite and all the activities ready for day camp!

Haiti 6 - Day 4 - January 8th - 2nd day at Jacob's Well (Saturday)


Another early morning.  The sun always wakes me up - even at home - so when the sun starts coming up in Haiti, and the roosters start crowing, and the rest of the village is springing to life, I just naturally woke up around 5:30 (that's 4:30 back home) and then lay on my bunk until about 6:15 or so.  We've been doing devos every morning over Haitian coffee and "magic juice," continuing our study of Jesus' last week.  It's been really interesting to look at the story more in-depth, comparing the four different gospel accounts to get the best idea we can of the chronology, discussing why different events happened the way they did.  I've really enjoyed it so far and look forward to studying more throughout the rest of the time we're here.

Adorable little boys - the ones in the
back were trying to jump into the picture.
They loved having their picture taken!

We had more work projects planned for today - more Haitian mowing and preparing the site for day camp.  Before we got started on our regular projects though, we were each supposed to carry several 40-pound cinder blocks (one at a time of course) from the parking lot up the hill to where the workers are building the cistern.  After that we all split for our individual projects throughout the morning and then after lunch went back to play with the children in the village!


I tried to learn more Kreyol today in the village but I wasn't very good at it.  I did learn to say "I don't understand, I'm sorry," which helped a lot!  After this trip is over, I know that I'll want to come back, so I'd like to try and get some kind of Kreyol dictionary!


After a great lasagna dinner - Haitian style with Louisiana hot sauce in the tomato - we climbed up to the campfire ring and built a fire.  We looked out over the surrounding countryside and saw total blackness - not a single light showing.  Then we turned around and looked down at the campsite behind us, and there was a light on... it was kind of neat to think about - that one little light in the midst of the darkness.  The Gospel has come to Jacob's Well Camp in the little village and it is a light in the darkness... but that light will spread!

Double Head Mountain - behind the camp.
You can see a little bit of the outdoor
kitchen roof through the trees.  That's where
the rest of the camp is located.  

Hudson, one of the team members, played the guitar for us as we sat around the campfire and we sang songs for a good hour and a half - if not two!  It was so wonderful to be sitting there on a mountainside in Haiti, singing worship songs to the Creator of the Universe!  I wanted it to go on forever!  Still, eventually we had to come down and head to bed.  We'll be going to church in the village tomorrow - it'll be really neat to see what  a Haitian church service is like.  


Haiti 6 - Day 5 - January 9th - 3rd day at Jacob's Well - Sunday


Gathering together our bibles and a bunch of folding chairs, we all tramped down the camp road in our Sunday best, through the village, and up the little dirt path to the church.  The church is built on the camp playing field, but we have to walk through the village to get to it.  It's basically a bamboo hut with long wooden benches, and the Haitians all get dressed up in their Sunday best and assemble inside.  We all crowded in and the service started.  They sang several songs in Kreyol and it was really neat to hear them sing.  They sing so much louder than we do - I think we're a little too self conscious about things like that in America.  There everyone sang loudly and it sounded great!  No one seemed the least bit worried about what his/her neighbor might be thinking.

The little children kept stealing my attention.  I learned that a lot of them come by themselves without their families.  A Haitian woman armed with a little switch sat among them to keep them in order.  They were so cute.

During the sermon, Peter Mark (a Haitian who works with the Valcins in Port-au-Prince and our Program Director for the camp) was asked by the pastor of the village church to translate for us.  So, we were able to listen to a church service in Haiti in English.  They also sang several worship songs for us in English so that we could sing along.  When they sing in English, they slur the words together because they're imitating the sounds rather than understanding the words, so it sounded different.  I'm sure it sounds the same way when we try to sing in Kreyol.

After the service had ended, we followed Hans around behind the church to view the well that the camp is named after.  Jacob's Well is an old Spanish well dating back from the Spanish colonial period in the 1500-1600's.  It's fairly large - about ten feet in diameter - and is now just a hole in the ground, lined with stones, and filled with dirty brown water and trash.  Most of the stones that were above ground have been taken away over the years and used for other buildings.  Hans talked to us for a while about the history of the well and where it's name (and the name of the camp) came from.  It's named after the well where Jesus met the Samaritan Woman in John chapter 4.  This, Hans explained, is a great example of cross cultural ministry which is what Jacob's Well camp is about!

We finished off the rest of the day with staff training!  Villagers came from the church to be trained as counselors for the two days of camp that we will be running.  Peter Mark, along with Hans and several other team members, led the training.  The rest of the team did other work projects.  I was busy, along with Natalyn, heading up the Bible drama team.

Village children watching us practice
the Bible Drama from over the hedge.
I think they got a kick out of it...

In the past, the Haitians have always done the Bible Drama - acting, narrating, everything.  This time however, we'll be doing it.  The drama theme is Jesus' Miracles, and we picked 6 stories to use over 3 drama periods: Jesus calming the storm, Jesus feeding the 5,000, Jesus healing the blind man, Jesus healing the leper, Jesus raising Jairus' daughter from the dead, and Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.  After picking out the dramas, we worked out a big idea and application for each one for Peter Mark to explain to the kids and then we sat down to work out the logistics.  We eventually settled on having Peter Mark narrate straight from the Bible in Kreyol while we act out behind him.  We'll have to see how that will work eventually since none of us speak Kreyol - perhaps we can memorize the major cue words that will tell us what we need to be doing next - for now, we're simply acting out the stories with the English Bible and memorizing the order of events!

It was a good day today!  We delayed going to bed for a little while and sat around on the porches playing a card game by the light of a flashlight.  It was fun, but it's getting easier and easier to laugh at nothing so I think we're all getting a little tired!  Looking forward to another full day tomorrow!

More to come later...

~ A Servant of the King

Haiti 6 Log

Haiti 6 - Preparation Day - January 4th, 2011

I spent the past few days packing.  This morning, I got up at 4:30 am, loaded the car up, said goodbye, and drove the four hour drive down to Frontier Camp in the wee hours of the morning.  The rest of the day was spent repacking, loading, driving the rest of the distance to Houston, finishing with a major packing party with the whole team that evening.  Aside from our own personal belongings, we brought down food for the camp, medical supplies, school supplies, camp supplies, construction supplies, tools, a canopy, and a bunch of other miscellaneous paraphernalia necessary to running a camp! We ended up with 44 bags (checked and carry-on) and the grand total of 1,500 pounds of luggage!

Having established a buddy-system and assigned luggage, we headed to bed.  2:30 am comes early...  I can't believe that I'll be in Haiti tomorrow.

Haiti 6 - Day One - January 5th, 2011 - Travel Day 1

We woke up at 2:30 this morning, hastily gathered and loaded our luggage into a horse trailer (best available method for getting 44 bags to the airport in a rainstorm), piled into three vehicles, and set off for the airport at 3:30.  Each member of the team had a prepackaged breakfast and lunch to make for easy travel.  Most of us ate our breakfasts during the drive - although none of us were very hungry that early in the morning.  We reached the airport at 4:30 and unloaded all our bags from the horse trailer - I'm sure this made an amusing sight!

Getting 16 people (with 44 bags) through check-in is always an interesting experience :) but we got through at last and disposed of our checked baggage.  Now, burdened only with our carry-ons (which carried almost all of our personal belongings for the entire 10 day period), we made it through security without any issues and settled down to wait for our plane.

View of Haiti from the air

We flew from Houston to Miami, Florida and from Miami to Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  The flights were smooth and uneventful, and for the most part we were seated together as a team.

Arrival in Port-au-Prince Haiti:

We arrived in Port-au-Prince and disembarked in the airport.  The immigration and customs lines seemed about a mile long, but at length we managed to get through, gather all our luggage, and exit the airport.  We were instantly swarmed by Haitians trying to carry our luggage for us.  We managed to navigate our way out at last and after a short wait in the Haitian sun (it felt so good after winter in the U.S), we met Gersan and Betty Valcin (the Haitian missionaries that we work with at the camp) and drove to their house.  We had kabrit for dinner tonight (that's goat in kreyol) after which we had our first team devo.  We will be doing an in-depth study on the last week of Jesus' life - I'm looking forward to it!  We're heading off to bed early now because we'll have a long day of travel again tomorrow.   

Haiti 6 - Day Two - January 6th, 2011 - Travel Day 2 "Tap-Tap Ride"

I slept so well last night after the little sleep we got yesterday!  A rooster started crowing about 4:30 am and kept it up until the six of us girls sharing the room got up around 6:00.  We were so excited about being in Haiti at last that we didn't really mind.  The plan for today is to get an early start since we are driving all the way from Port-Au-Prince in the south of Haiti to Limbe near the northern coast.  In the past, the teams have generally flown - we'll be the first team to experience the 6 hour trip in a tap-tap!  Hans, our team leader and summer camp director at Frontier Camp, warned us that we'll probably enjoy about the first 3 hours of the trip (the part with the smooth roads)... and then we'll be ready for it to stop.  Still, I'm looking forward to it.

Tap Tap Travel:

The tap-tap is basically a big open flat-bed truck with walls.  There are wooden benches lining the sides, but we spent most of the 6 hour the trip standing up.  In addition to our mountain of luggage piled in the middle of the floor, we were also transporting several large barrels of diesel (some of the diesel splashed out into the floor of the tap tap and the Haitians poured water on it to clean it up - it made for a slick loading of the tap tap and a messy few hours of travel until it dried up).

This is a distant view of a tent-city outside
of Port-Au-Prince. The tent-cities in the
actual city itself were much more crowded. 

It took about 45 minutes to get out of Port-Au-Prince and into the countryside.  We drove past several huge tent cities - results of the earthquake.  Hans said that many of the people living the tent cities still have standing houses, they're just too afraid to go home.  I can't adequately describe the living conditions in the tent cities - rows upon rows of tents piled almost on top of each other, piles of trash rotting in the streets or being burned (this is a common sight throughout all of Haiti), canals of filthy water piled high with trash and children wading through - it is not surprising that cholera has become such a huge issue.  

Haitian countryside - the picture's not
very clear because the road was just
a little bumpy! :)

Well slathered with sunscreen and with nalgene bottles full of clean water, we set out around 10:30 (a little later than we'd intended, but you get used to being flexible in Haiti).  We drove for several hours along the east coast on one of the best roads in Haiti and made fairly decent time.  Everyone laughed and joked and enjoyed the rushing wind and the beautiful views of the Caribbean Sea.  Soon however, we turned away from the coast and began the long part of our trip through the mountains.  The roads quickly deteriorated and became narrow, curving, and filled with pot-holes.  The countryside through the mountains, however, was beautiful and made up for all the jolting!  

It's hard to describe Haitian driving to someone who has not experienced it.  Drivers attempt to avoid pot holes at all costs, even if it means going into the other lane while cars are approaching... Many of the mountain roads take hair pin turns around the mountain sides and horn blaring is necessary here to make sure that there is not a car coming the other way.  Several times we rounded a mountain curve right as a huge truck was coming around the other side and both vehicles had to brake hard and then inch past each other.  We saw only one metal guard rail on our trip.  The rest, where there were any, were made out of bamboo!

Our tap-tap

It was an exciting trip to say the least and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.  I think everyone started to get a little tired towards the end - 6 hours is a long time to be standing in the back of a truck bouncing over mountain roads, but it was really neat to see how the team bonded and worked together without complaining!

We arrived at the Jacob's Well campsite after dark and were greeted by the three members of the advance team!  It was so good to see them again!  After unloading and organizing our luggage, we enjoyed our first dinner at the campsite and headed to the cabins to enjoy the brand new bunks that the advance team built for us.  I've never been to the camp before, but from what I've seen in pictures, it looks nothing like it did only a year ago!  I can't wait to see what the camp site looks like in the daylight!  Tomorrow, we'll start work projects.

More to come later...

~ A Servant of the King

Christmas Cookies for Haiti

Well, the Haiti trip is rapidly drawing closer.  Less than a month away now!  I've been working on fundraising, and the Lord has truly blessed me!

Psalms 27:13-14 "I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."

This is fast becoming one of my favorite verses!  I read it over and over again whenever things seem difficult.  When I read the second part of the verse, I picture a beleaguered company fighting against overwhelming odds, battered, bruised and sinking to their knees on the brink of collapse.  Suddenly a messenger arrives with the news that help is coming, reinforcements are on the way, if the company can only hold out a little while longer.  "Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."

Well, I'm not really sure what that has to do with my fundraising for Haiti, except that the Lord truly has been good to me!  I've been making and selling Christmas cookies in order to raise support, and the amount of support and gifts I have received is overwhelming.  I am truly grateful to the Lord and to all those who have given!  Two weeks, 28+ dozen cookies, countless hours in the kitchen listening to Christmas music, and I am quite a bit closer to going to Haiti!

Your prayers are still appreciated.  The advance team of 3 is leaving tomorrow for Haiti.  Please pray for them as they travel and during their stay in Haiti.  And please keep praying for the nation of Haiti.  The people are still suffering beneath the cholera outbreak - so very many have died!  My heart breaks for them.  Please Father, heal the people of Haiti!


Pray for the rest of the team as we travel down in January - that each and everyone of us would go there to serve and to love.  That we would would be attentive to the Lord's leading and not bound to our own plans for the trip.  That we would truly display the love of Christ to all we meet.

~ A Servant of the King

Operation Jacob's Well, Limbé, Haiti

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I have been given the opportunity to travel to Haiti this coming January.  I am so very excited about this trip - I've been wanting to go for the past four years - and now at last I can!  

I am traveling down with a group of 21 from Frontier Camp (a Christian youth camp in East Texas).  For the past four years, Frontier Camp has been partnering with a Haitian paster, Gersan Valcin, to start the first Christian youth camp in Haiti, Jacob's Well.  (Click Here - Jacob's Well to read more about the camp)  In a country where 40% of the population is under the age of 14, a Christian youth camp can have a great impact.  So, over the past 4 years, Frontier Camp has been sending down teams to get Jacob's Well up and running, and to train the Haitian leaders to conduct camping ministry.  

Needless to say, I can't wait for my trip!  I will be in Haiti for 10 days, during which time we will run day camps for the Haitian children as well as a few overnight camps, and continue on construction projects on the campsite.  

After the earthquake, the northern rural portion of Haiti (where Jacob's Well is located) absorbed a large number of refugees which the already-poverty stricken area was and is ill-equipped to support.  So, the focus of this trip is to further the development of the camp infrastructure needed to provide long-term development opportunities for the local village and its people. We believe that God wants to use Jacob’s Well and its ministry to kids to continue to change the nation of Haiti with the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

There have been a great many changes in Haiti over the past year due to the earthquake, recent cholera outbreak, and now the hurricane!  Praise the Lord that the hurricane veered away from Haiti so that the island was not hit with the full impact.  However, the heavy rains caused by the hurricane may help spread the cholera, so Haiti is definitely still in need of our prayers.

Come January, I will be on a plane flying down to Haiti!  I am excited and can't wait to see what the Lord will do during our time there.  I know that at the very least I will come back changed, having drawn closer to my Savior.  

Would you like to help?  Would you pray for the trip and for Haiti?

The team of Haiti 6 would appreciate your prayers for:

~ Haiti - that the people's eyes would be opened and they would turn to the Lord in the midst of these disasters.  

~ Cholera - that the outbreak would be stopped.  The disease has already claimed hundreds of lives.  Pray for relief for the people of Haiti, for clean water, and knowledge to stop the spread of the cholera.

~ Team - a safe trip down and health in Haiti.  That we would be willing servants of the Lord, bold to proclaim His name, humble to serve, loving all we meet with the love of Christ.  

Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;  but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." John 4:13-14  

~ A Servant of the King

To the praise of His glory.

Reflections in Psalms - Post 2

The story of my life: God is merciful!

I'm still reading through the Psalms.  A few days ago, I reached Psalms 78, written by Asaph, about the wonderful things God has done throughout the history of Israel, talking especially about the Exodus and the Israelites journeying in the desert.

It starts off in verse 12, "He did miracles in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan."

Then Asaph goes on to list the miracles:
He guided them with a cloud by day, and a fire by night (v. 14)
He gave them water in the desert (v. 15-16)
He rained down manna from heaven (v. 24)
He sent them quail (v. 27)

But...


"In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; in spite of His wonders, they did not believe.  So He ended their days in futility and their years in terror.  
Whenever God slew them, they would seek Him; they eagerly turned to Him again.  They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.  
But then they would flatter Him with their mouths, lying to Him with their tongues; their hearts were not loyal to Him, they were not faithful to His covenant.  
Yet He was mercifiul; He forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them.  Time after time He restrained His anger and did not stir up His full wrath.  He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return."  (v. 32-38)

It is easy to blame the Israelites, but when I sit down and think about it, this section reads like the story of my own life.  Perhaps it sounds very familiar to you as well.  It struck me as I read that I am guilty of the very same sins as the Israelites.

How many times, in spite of all that God has done, do I continue sinning?  How many times do I worship Him with my tongue, when my heart is far from Him?  The verse calls this "flattery" and "lying" to God.  How many times are my heart and focus drawn to other things, distracted, when my whole life should be totally devoted to God?

Yet... God is merciful.

How wonderful!  God is merciful to me!

The book of Nehemiah chapter 9 also chronicles this pattern of sin-repentance-forgiveness-sin-repentance etc. among the Israelites.  

v. 16-17 "But they, our forefathers, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and did not obey Your commands.  They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles You performed among them.  They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery.  But You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love." 

It struck me that the wanderings of the Israelites from God are exactly the same as our individual wanderings from God.  They forgot what God had done and wanted to return to their slavery.  What?  Why in the world would they want to go back?  But if you think about it, how many times do we seek to go back to the chains of our former life?  Back into sin, back into darkness.

But God is forgiving, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.  

We rest in His mercy and grace.  Without them, we would be totally and completely lost.  I am in need of God's grace every single day.  

If you think about it, we have evidence of far greater wonders than the Israelites had back then.  Yes, God rescued them from Egypt, but since then He has done a far greater thing through the blood of His Son.  When Jesus Christ died on the cross and then rose again three days later, He rescued us from the power of sin and death.

We have evidence of God's power and mercy, of His justice and love before us every day in the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from sin.  And yet, like the Israelites, in the face of all that God has done for us, we keep on sinning, we do not believe, our hearts are not faithful to Him.

Yet He is merciful.

1 John 1:9 is a very well known verse, but I'll put it up here again:  "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

Also, we know that we do not face temptation and sin on our own.  God does not abandon us.  I Corinthians 10:13 "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.  And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."

I want to post a couple of verses from the song Amazing Grace:


Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.


Without the Lord's mercy and grace, we are lost!

Thank You Lord for Your amazing grace, for Your mercy, Your forgiveness for a sinful people!  We stand in need of Your mercy and grace, in need of forgiveness!  Thank You Lord, for the blood of Your Son, shed so that we might have life.

~ A Servant of the King

Nehemiah 9:5b-6 "Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise.  You alone are the Lord.  You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them.  You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you."

I will go!

"I Will Go!"

as sung by Starfield

To the desperate eyes and reaching hands
To the suffering and the lean
To the ones the world has cast aside
Where you want me I will be

I will go, I will go,
I will go, Lord send me
To the world, To the lost
To the poor and hungry
Take everything I am
I'm clay within your hands
I will go, I will go, send me

Let me not be blind with privilege
Give me eyes to see the pain
Let the blessing You've poured out on me
Not be spent on me in vain
Let this life be used for change

I will go, I will go, 

I will go, Lord send me

To the world, To the lost

To the poor and hungry

Take everything I am

I'm clay within your hands
I will go, I will go, send me

I wanna live for you

Go where you lead me

I wanna follow you

[repeat 3x]

I will go, I will go, 

I will go, Lord send me

To the world, To the lost

To the poor and hungry

Take everything I am

I'm clay within your hands
I will go, I will go, send me

Send me! 

[repeat 4x]

This song has really been running through my head lately... especially since I have recently been granted the opportunity to go on a mission's trip to Haiti this coming January!  I'm so excited about this opportunity!  I will a part of a team of 21 heading down to Haiti to continue work on Jacob's Well - a Christian youth camp, actually the first Christian youth camp in all of Haiti.  We will run both day and overnight camps for the village children and continue on construction projects.  I'll post more on the trip later, but for now, a few verses that the song makes me think of:

Isaiah 6:8 "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying 'Whom shall I send?  And who will go for us?'  And I said, 'Here I am.  Send me!'"

Romans 10:13-15 "for, 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'  How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?  And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?  And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'"

I John 3:18 "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

I will post details about my Haiti trip later on... as well as about my fund raising efforts!

~ A Servant of the King

Reflections in Psalms

Psalms 73 - A psalm of Asaph

"Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.  But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.  For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.  They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong.  They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills... 

"This is what the wicked are like - always carefree, they increase in wealth.  Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.  All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning." (v. 1-5 and 12-14)

Have you ever felt like this?  Sometimes it seems like the wicked prosper, like nothing ever goes wrong for them.  They seem happy, healthy, wealthy... they have fame and glory.  Meanwhile, we're over here desiring to follow God and do the right thing, yet everything seems to work against us.  Perhaps we are poor, perhaps our health is declining, or life is just plain difficult.  Sometimes like Asaph, we wonder if perhaps we have "kept our hearts pure" in vain.


But the Psalm continues:

"If I had said, "I will speak thus," I would have betrayed your children.  When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.  

Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin.  How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors!  As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies." (v. 18-20)

Asaph realized that the easy life of the wicked only lasted a short while.  Judgment was coming, the judgment of God.  And the comfort of the righteous did not rest in a pleasant life here on earth, or wealth, fame, or health.  The comfort of the righteous rests in the following verses:

"Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.  You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.  Whom have I in heaven but you?  And earth has nothing I desire besides you.  My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.  

"Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.  But as for me, it is good to be near God.  I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds."  (v. 23-28)

The comfort of the righteous while enduring the trials and difficulties of life rests on the knowledge that no matter what happens, the Lord is with us, "holding our hand," guiding us with His counsel.  That when the feeble tribulations of this life have ceased, we will be taken into glory to be with Him.  Our comfort is in knowing that everything in this world is "a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord..."  (Philippians 3:8)  All else may fail, but we can have peace knowing that God is our strength and portion forever!


Like Asaph, may we simply say "It is good to be near God."  To think how blessed we are... what a privilege we have been given, that we may approach the living God with freedom and confidence! (Ephesians 3:12)  That we have been forgiven of our sins and now can have a right relationship with God, that one day we will live eternally with Him.  That each and every moment of the day, we can approach the Almighty Creator of the world with our prayers and petitions.  


Oh, it is good to be near God.  Let us continually seek after Him.  He is our hope and our strength, our refuge, our salvation.


~ A Servant of the King
To the praise of His glory.