Haiti and Radical

I just left Haiti last week. And yesterday I decided to start reading Radical by David Platt (so now I start missing Haiti and forgetting all the reasons I thought I was supposed to leave). And tonight I read this post from Anne Voskamp, reflecting on her trip to Haiti: http://www.aholyexperience.com/2012/07/the-1-thing-you-really-have-to-know-about-your-family/

Excuse me while I go have an ugly cry then pray, "What do I do with these? What do You want me to do, Lord? Show me my mission field here, Lord."

Best Quotes from the blog post:

She puts a grass woven hat on my head and all I can think of is Job saying “justice was my robe and turban” (Job 29:14). In the family of Christ, we wear justice for the poor. In the Body of Christ, our lives should be clothed in caring like our bodies are covered in clothing.

You can turn a blind eye to the poor all you want but it could have turned out that you were the poor.

You don’t stay in the palace if you want anybody to find                  deliverance – especially yourself.

Are we entangled in Christ and loving His family or are we entangled in culture and its pressures to have all of its stuff?

You don’t forget who your brother is — when you know Who your Father                  is.

Linking you to "A House Call in Haiti"

http://www.pjstar.com/haiti_ugc_blog/x23411756/A-House-Call-in-Haiti

Sweets!

I've never been much of a baker. Let's just be honest, I'll eat chocolate or sweets any day of the week, I just never cared to make that stuff myself. But since moving in with Jocie and watching and helping her cook delectable treats and dinners (tea, as these Aussie's call it), I've decided I must be able to make these things on my own for when I leave here and because it is actually fun. So, in addition to making different meals I've now made four different homemade cakes and I'm loving it. 

Number 1:

Apple cake for Chabine's birthday

Number 2:

Banana upside-down cake for one of John and Jocie's dinner guests. Jocie found a Haitian cookbook at a bookstore/coffee shop (eat your heart out, Barnes and Noble) that we've been using. But no pics. Whoops.

Number 3:

Coconut cake with custard filling and meringue frosting to welcome our new interns (also from the Haitian cookbook). Whoops again...no pictures.

Number 4:

Hot fudge cake for my bible study girls

Let me know if ya'll have any that I should try out...especially when I get back to Washington next week and need a reason for people to want to catch up (oh, p.s. I am moving back there- one day I'll post about that).

Junior

Hi friends,

We're doing a fundraiser to help one of our kids to continue attending an English-speaking school. This includes raising money for this month, June 2012, through next June 2013. See below for details and a link.

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Junior is a seventeen-year-old young man with a heart of gold.  Most who have had the privilege of meeting him know within a few minutes that God has placed a special calling on his life.  His heart for the Lord inspires both his peers and the spiritually mature.  Many of the kids nicknamed him "Pastor Junior" because of his dedication and diligence to studying and preaching God's Word. 

Although it is difficult to imagine, Junior used to beg on the streets of Delmas Blvd. in Port-au-Prince with many other young kids. He was ushered from the streets into living in the MDL Boys' Home through a friend’s street ministry.  Shortly after coming into the safely of MDL, his mother was murdered in Cite Soleil and then his father later passed away in the countryside. Today, Junior, this once timid child, boldly preaches the Gospel, having put his faith and hope in Christ more than four years ago.  He often teaches at devotionals and even partnered with other children from MDL two summers ago in doing an evangelistic outreach for their extended family members and community in the village where they grew up.     

Junior has long expressed his hope of becoming an evangelist.  Ranch Church in Santa Ynez, California has expressed a desire to come alongside Junior’s calling and financially support him at Calvary Chapel Bible College in Murrieta, California.  Needing an American high-school equivalent education to apply, Junior is currently enrolled in an American school in Haiti called Morning Star Christian Academy. We are praying that more people would come alongside to support his tuition fees until he finishes in 2014. To help Junior to continue to prepare for the work God is calling him to do we need to raise $475.00 a month for tuition and lunch money. Please prayerfully consider whether you would like to become involved in helping Junior by committing to financially sponsor him for half a month's tuition, one month, or multiple months of school. 

      Please pray for Junior, that he would continue to thrive in every aspect of his life, and that he'd keep Christ at the center of everything he does.  If you'd like to sponsor school for Junior, please click here and scroll to the bottom of the page for payment options. 

                       Mesi Anpil! 

There is a lovely woman who lives near our ministry named named Dieula (it means "God is here" in Creole). This year she began working for John and Jocie, the couple with whom I live. Every morning that she works, when I leave the house, she sweetly calls out, "Bonjou Dokte (Good morning Doctor) Brooke! Bonjou Dokte! Mesi Dokte!" I've had the conversation with her, repeatedly, where I explain that I am, contrary to her high opinion of me, not a doctor. I am a nurse. Being called a doctor scares me, to tell you the truth. This carries with it too many expectations of my ability and skill level. Unfortunately, sometimes in the Third World, lay people can sometimes be mistaken for medical professionals and are fine with letting that assumption prevail and trying out their "skills" on unsuspecting patients. You're a white missionary? Now those in your community treat you like you are a nurse, doctor, pastor, banker, and soup kitchen, all rolled into a neat package. John and Jocie find it exceptionally funny that Dieula insists on calling me a dokte. She used to give Ashley, my nurse co-worker at Child Hope (she moved back to the states last month- boo :( ), the same title. Last week, Asher, my friend Brittany's two year old son, stuck his tongue out at me when I greeted him "Good Morning". John scolded him, saying, "Asher, that's not how you should treat Brooke. She's a doctor, you know? She can cut that tongue out if you keep doing that." Fortunately Asher has not remembered that comment and does not run from "the dokte" when he sees her. John, Jocie, their daughter Kelly, who was visiting from Australia, and I were discussing my new title one night. Kelly is a social worker in Aussie land, where she works with refugees. For some reason the clients she works with sometimes refer to her as "Officer Kelly." I'm sure this is one of those incidences where You Had to Be There, because we thought this was hysterically funny. Here John revealed that he has told Dieula that I am a surgeon. Makes sense why I could cut off Asher's tongue then. Next I shall be performing surgery on someone's brain, probably in our kitchen. 

Here is Dieula on her birthday. She dressed up very fancy to come to work that day. Jocie took some pictures of her with my camera. She came back the next day, dressed up again, to take more pictures with Brittany, Jocie, Susette, and I. I don't have those pictures yet because they are on Jocie's camera. So many Haitians LOVE to pose- not just smile- but POSE for the camera. Dieula ran and grabbed an apple for these shots. 

A Few Recent Pics

 All of the above are children from our feeding program for children in the community, held on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays

       

 The quality is terrible on this last one (its from a phone) but here is how we spent Good Friday- praying on a hillside with the kids. 

The Heart of the Father for His Children: An Incredible Love and Pursuit

I read this story out of the book Enjoying God (and promptly burst into tears):


During the Korean war, a pastor in a small rural village awoke one morning to find that his young son, his only child, had been killed. Apparently some soldiers had slipped in during the night and randomly excited a number of villagers in a brutal act of terrorism.

The pastor was beside himself with grief. He had looked forward to his son someday following in his footsteps and becoming a pastor. Now his friends feared for his emotional stability, so severe was the grief he experienced over the boy's senseless death. It seemed so cruel, so unjust. His son was not in the army; he posed no threat to anyone. Why should he have been singled out like this?

Finally the Korean pastor decided what he must do in return for this act of violence. He announced that he would hunt down the men who had killed his son and would not give up until he had found them. No obstacle would stand in his way, no hardship would deter him. This grief-stricken father resolved to do whatever it took.

Amazingly, he was able to learn the identities of the two terrorists, slip behind enemy lines, and find out where they lived. One early morning he stole into their house and confronted them. The pastor told them who he was, and that he knew they had murdered his son. "You owe me a debt," he said to them. "I have come to collect it."

The two men were obviously expecting to be killed in retaliation. But the pastor's next words astonished them. "You have taken my son," he said, "and now I want you to become my sons in his place."

The pastor stayed with them for several days, until he was able to persuade them to come with him. In time he adopted them as his legal sons. He loved them and cared for them. They became Christians, went to seminary, and were ordained. Today, these two men are pastors in Korea- all because a father who was willing to do whatever it took to win them, whose love was utterly unstoppable.