On Monday, three of the elders (Donnie, Nate, and Tony) will leave for Haiti (Jan 7-11). This trip will be our first chance to work with our partners at Help One Now. Some of you may remember hosting our friends at Help, and hearing their story, at a recent worship service. Some of you are sponsoring children with Help (we may get to meet some of them!).
This particular trip is a vision trip, designed for learning, exploring, praying, establishing partnerships, and developing plans for upcoming trips/work for the IDC congregation.
Below is a devotional that Chris sent. We are posting it so you can pray for us.
Devotional
Scripture reading: Read Isaiah chapter one (ESV). As you read the entire chapter focus on Is. 1:17.
learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow’s cause.
– Learn to do good: Because of our broken and sinful nature we tend to want to focus on ourselves. However, the gospel refuses to allow us to live a selfish life. As we encounter Jesus, by His grace we become more generous, we love to serve and we want to offer others hope, both locally and globally. This is NOT natural – this is the gospel at work. Our hearts are broken for those who are suffering, because we all have suffered and we all need a rescuer to remove the suffering (the Cross) physically and spiritually.
– Seek Justice: Think about these two words. SEEK = we have to go FIND it. We know injustice exists in our world. Seekers of justice deal with reality, they don’t hide behind a cultural veneer. Imagine if every single Christian became seekers of justice in our world… Oh the possibilities!!!
– Correct Oppression: No doubt, when we seek justice, we will find oppression. The starving child, the school-aged girl being forced to have sex with men four times her age, the child soldier, the disease stricken mother, the fatherless child; these men, women, girls and boys were all created in God’s image. They need hope, love and a future. They’re oppressed – they need freedom. Jesus said (in Luke) that he came to set the captives FREE! (spiritually and physically) This is the Kingdom of God in action: God’s people living intentionally to love, serve and bring freedom to the oppressed. If not the church, then who?
– Take up the cause of fatherless: Every human is a spiritual orphan. Without the incarnation, the cross and the resurrection, we would all be spiritually fatherless. Read John 14:18. Jesus will come for us, he won’t leave us as orphans. Therefore, may we also go to them, those who are orphaned!
– Plead the widow’s cause: In most third world countries and in ancient times, being a widow was a death-blow. It’s so much more than losing a spouse, widows suffered socially and economically. The family structure was broken. Widows become misplaced in their own culture. They need the church to be their family on many levels. They’re truly outcasts.
Needless to say, God’s heart throughout Scripture has been to protect those who are considered outcasts to their own cultures. And God calls His people to walk in His footsteps and mimic his ways. As we go “on-mission” to Haiti, let us remind ourselves that God already came for us! Also, let us remember that the most important reason we’re going to Haiti is not for Haiti, or orphans, or widows. Rather, it’s because we want to honor Jesus with our lives. We go first and foremost to bring glory to Jesus and obey His ways!
Yet, we also know that Jesus cares for the oppressed. So we go to Haiti to bring glory to Jesus’ name, and to all love and serve our brothers and sisters in Christ. We also want to let our unbelieving Haitian friends know that Christians are serious about loving and serving.
Action Steps: Prayer
1. Feel free to pray for our Haitian leaders:
- Pastor Jean Alix.
- Pastor Gaetan
- Pastor St Cyr (Sincere)
- Junior Batille
2. Let’s pray for the trip:
- Safe travels.
- No sickness or disease.
- That we would be a blessing to our Haitian friends.
- Pray against spiritual warfare.
3. Let’s pray for one another!
4. Pray that God would inspire and challenge our local churches to love and serve the poor, proclaim the gospel and live on mission!
5. Pray for Help One Now
- Favor with God & man.
- That many kids would be sponsored.
- Fundraising: We need to raise over 1 million in the next 12-18 months.
- Wisdom & integrity!