Much of life is all about perspective. You could easily go to Haiti and leave the
experience focused on pigs rooting through mountains of trash, hours long
traffic jams in Port-Au-Prince getting side swiped by a car, leaking houses
made of scrap meal, tarps, and spare wood, or orphans with dirty clothes and
faces who don’t know when they will eat again or get a hug. Or, you can choose God’s perspective where
you see Haiti as the universal language of a child’s smile, worship singing to
our God from the depths of their soul, two farmers working together to roll up
tarps, or the pride of a merchant on the beach showing you their shop on a
blanket. I have no question that Jesus
is indeed alive.
The fact is there is so much need all around our world and in
our communities. Seeing each of our own worlds through God’s lens tells us not to help someone else because we think
they deserve it or are making all the right choices. We help because He told us to for his kingdom
and you might just find Jesus there dwelling in the place you least
expect. Haiti demonstrates the strength
of the human spirit and the power of God when we don’t hold back being his
hands and feet. The beauty of the Gospel
is that each of us can be his hands and feet to another person and we just
might discover that the person we set out to help instead was God’s way of
helping us.
~Kristin Effner
