Haiti Providence University

I sometimes feel that I am seeing the world of the Bible playing out before my very eyes.  This was certainly true a couple of weeks ago as Cookie and I participated in a two day retreat for the leaders of Haiti Providence University.  The first day of classes was a week away and they were trying to put the final touches on being ready for their first class of students.  I found myself in the midst of an amazing group of Haitian leaders driven by a vision.  Their vision is to transform their nation by providing a college education for men and women who would go on to become leaders in all aspects of Haitian society.  Their first class will produce business leaders, nurses, engineers, and educators. These Haitian leaders want to do more than give students a good education: they want to develop their students to approach life with a Christian world view.  They believe this is the only hope for the future of Haiti.

If you were to look behind them you would see two centuries of struggle.  Just in the two years that I have been in Haiti this struggle has included an earthquake, two hurricanes, political instability, and a cholera epidemic.  But these leaders were not looking back.  If you look around their world you will see grinding poverty, high unemployment, 50% illiteracy, and on it goes.  But they are not looking around.  They believe God has called them to a higher task. And with their eyes firmly on Him, they are looking at what they believe can be.  I was humbled to even be invited to be in the room.

Cookie Teaching at HPU

When you are around people with such vision and passion, its dangerous.  You just might be infected.  They have certainly captured Cookie and I with their vision.  We are both teaching in this first class of Haitian leaders-to-be and are finding this first class of 45 students or so to be bright and highly motivated.  Where is God working in your world?  One of the mistakes Christians make is to ask God to bless what they want to do.  In Experiencing God, Blackaby suggests that a more Biblical approach is to see where God is working and join in.  You might be surprised at the impact it could have on your life when you find where God is working, and join the team.

Rick

Cookie and I are supported in our work in Haiti by people like you.  If you would like to be a part of our team and support us financially or prayerfully (both are needed) go to our website at www.servinghaiti.com where you will find links under the “Join Us” tab.

“Dad, how come . . .?”

“Because. . .”

Boy, did I find that frustrating as a kid!  I heard it a lot because I had a lot of questions growing up.  I remember promising myself that when I had kids I would not “because” them.  But of course I did.  I discovered as a parent that lots of times it was impossible to give answers to my children’s questions.  Often the answer was more complicated than they were capable of understanding.  Life is a lot more complicated for adults than it is for kids.  Sometimes I couldn’t answer because I didn’t want to cause them unnecessary pain.  Sometimes their questions were personal and I didn’t answer them because it was none of their business to know.  The information was someone else’s to share, or not.  Sometimes the best we can do is “because”.

A few weeks ago I was talking with someone who was pressing me for an answer about why things are the way they are in Haiti and I could only answer “because”.  To someone coming to Haiti for the first time it is a strange and exotic place and there are lots of questions and few answers.  But the opposite is also true.  This past summer a number of Haitians came to Rochester, NY for General Conference.  They too had lots of questions about why things were they way they were.  I could only say “because”. . .

1 Peter 1:15-16 (NIV) reads as follows:

But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;* for it is written: “Be holy, because. . . I am holy.”

There is that “because” again.  I am not sure the “I am holy” really answers the “why” for me-understanding God’s holiness is beyond my comprehension.  Faith is about trusting God–not because we have all the answers but because of who God is.  There is a great deal in faith that I don’t understand.  How can it be that God would send his Son into the world as part of His redemptive plan?

For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:2, New Living Translation).

The Bible says that God did that because He loves us.  But why does He love us?  I am not always so lovable and I have never deserved that He should come, and die, for me.  The only answer to the “why” of the incarnation is because. . .

Rick

Cookie and I are supported in our work in Haitiby people like you.  If you would like to be a part of our team and support us financially or prayerfully (both are needed) go to our website at www.servinghaiti.com where you will find links under the “Join Us” tab.

Our Haitian friends frequently urge us to stay in after dark.  I know this is a good idea.  I say to myself often, “I will not drive after dark”.  I have every intention of sticking to my resolution.  Then life intervenes and  {{sigh…}} I find myself driving after dark.  A special evening service is scheduled and I really need to be there.  Or a woman is in labor and I have to drive Cookie to theBirthCenter.

In the best of times driving is an exciting challenge inHaiti.  At night it is even more so.  It gets really dark really fast about 6 p.m. every day.  Because we are so near the equator, we don’t get the gradual change from light to dark one experiences in most of theUS.  There are few street lights and even where there are streetlights, electric is needed to run them.  The electric is often out at night.  There is little in the way of ambient light that is so common in the States.  So when you are driving after dark, it is really hard to see even with good headlights.  Then there is the fact that there are not many sidewalks so the roads are filled with people and animals walking along.  It is not uncommon that vehicles don’t have working headlights, tail lights or reflectors.  You dodge a goat only to almost run into a motorcycle with no lights.  Fun wow!  On top of that, robberies and carjackings are more common at night.

Dodging a motorcycle

I much prefer to drive in the day.  In the day you can see what is really going on around you.  In the day you have a better chance of seeing and avoiding a hazardous or dangerous situation.  In the day it is much easier to see where you need to go.  (Did I mention that there are not many street signs here?).  You just do better driving when you are driving in the light.

We live in a dark world.  That is true inHaitibut it is equally true in theUS.  The darkness may take different forms but it is there.  Read the newspaper.  Watch the 6 o’clock news.  This is not a surprise to God.  In John 3:19-20 (The Message)  the problem is defined:

“This is the crisis we’re in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God.  Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won’t come near it, fearing a painful exposure.

In John 8:12 (The Message) we have this promise.

Jesus said to the people, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”

Think about it…what road are you on?  The one in the darkness or the one in the light?

Rick

Cookie and I are supported in our work in Haitiby people like you.  If you would like to be a part of our team and support us financially or prayerfully (both are needed) go to our website at www.servinghaiti.com where you will find links under the “Join Us” tab.

Street Market in Port au Prince

As a missionary, one has feet in two different worlds.  When I left my world of origin (Western New York) and moved to Haiti, I had a great deal to both learn and to unlearn.  I am learning a new language.  I have had to learn to drive as driving here in Haiti is a completely different experience than in the US.  I could go on but I suspect you don’t have too much trouble coming up with things one might have to learn when one moves to a different country.  It didn’t surprise me that I had new things to learn.  What has surprised me is how much I have had to unlearn.  I have had to unlearn that water is freely available and safe to drink.  I have to keep a jug of “safe” water in my bathroom to rinse my toothbrush.  I have had to unlearn that electricity is a given.  Between learning to use an inverter, checking the water in my battery bank, and maintaining my generator for those frequent times that the municipal electric isn’t working, I spend hours a week just to ensure I have something I never had to think much about in my old world.  I have had to unlearn that the safety of my food supply is mostly a given.  I have had to unlearn that a quick trip to Walmart will supply me with most anything I might need.  There is not a Walmart or even a McDonald’s in the entire country of Haiti that I am aware of.  A quick trip?   Not.

This past summer Cookie and I spent several months in the US visiting our supporting churches.  It seemed odd to leave this world (Haiti) and re-enter that one.  It sure made me appreciate how blessed we in the US really are.  It also made me very aware that I have my feet in two different worlds in a way that I had not really thought of before.  Then I thought further and I realized that living with one’s feet in two different worlds was not a new experience after all.  I invited Jesus into my world (or perhaps more correctly I entered His) at the ripe old age of 27.  I had a lot to learn.  Before that “grace” was a quick prayer some people said before they ate.  I used to think that was kind of odd.  Now grace means something very different.  I have learned a lot of new words as a Christian.  I learned a new way to spend Sundays.  I learned a new way to treat the people in my world.  The Bible has become more than a dusty book on my bookshelf.  I had some things to unlearn as well.  My language could be pretty “salty”.  It has been a lifetime struggle to move from being “self centered” to “Christ centered”.  I am still working on that one; it’s a lifetime journey.

Hebrews 11 celebrates the lives of heroes of the faith.  It makes this observation:

All these people were still living by faith when they died.  They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.  And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.  People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.  If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.  Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.   (Hebrews 11:13-16, NIV)

Did you get that?  They were and we are “aliens and strangers”.  The point is simple and basic: as Christians we walk with one foot in this world and one foot in His world.  As we allow God to reshape us from what we were and are into what He has designed us to be, we have things to learn and things to unlearn.  God is watching us with more than a passing interest.  How is it going?

Rick

Cookie and I are supported in our work in Haiti by people like you.  If you would like to be a part of our team and support us financially or prayerfully (both are needed) go to our website at www.servinghaiti.com where you will find links under the “Join Us” tab.

One of the projects that had been in the works when I arrived in Haiti shortly after the earthquake was the purchase of some property for the John Wesley School in a poor urban neighborhood of Port au Prince, Haiti. There was a piece of land just behind the existing school that seemed idea for an expansion project. The earthquake slowed the process down but in the end we were forced to abandon the property purchase because we could not get clear title to the land. So we went to work and eventually found a very nice piece of property just down the street from the existing location. The building that had been on the lot collapsed with the earthquake and the site had already been cleared. It appeared ideal in every way. It was a bigger piece of property than our first attempt and for less money. We worked out a deal with the owner and began the paperwork to purchase it. After several months of work this purchase too fell through. It is owned by two brothers and only one will agree to the sale. Once again, we could not complete the deal because we could not get clear title to the land and so it is back to the drawing board.

Getting clear title to land is one of the major roadblocks to the rebuilding of Haiti after the earthquake. Most aid organizations are unwilling to invest in major building project where the ownership of the land is in question and rightly so. I have been told that as much as 60% of the land in Haiti does not have clear title. It is a difficult and complex problem that defies solution. Without clear title sooner or later chaos is inevitable.

In Mark 12:30 Jesus says the most important command is to:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
In other words, God wants clear title to His people. When we call Jesus “Lord” we are giving Him clear title to our lives. That is the essence of Lordship. The problem is, that we are often like the two brothers above. We intend for God to have clear title, but we hold back permission is some area’s of life. Sometimes the problem is rooted in our wishes and desires. When God’s word goes against what we want (it happens!) who wins? Sometimes the problem is outside issues. We are so worried about what people might think or say, we unintentionally give them more importance in our lives than God. I could go on but you get the idea. Faith works best when God has clear title to our lives. When our allegiances are divided, sooner or later the result will be chaos. Because we are imperfect beings living in a fallen world, there will always be area’s in our lives that need work. In your journey, where are you struggling to give God clear title in your life?

Rick

Cookie and I are supported in our work in Haiti by people like you. If you would like to be a part of our team and support us financially or prayerfully (both are needed) go to our website at www.servinghaiti.com where you will find links under the “Join Us” tab.

One of the challenges of missionaries in our system is to raise both financial and prayer support.  Because of the earthquake inHaiti, Cookie and I were deployed earlier than is usual without being able to build the relationships that are needed to go the long haul in the field.  This summer we are trying to make up for lost time.  It has been good to connect with people from the many churches that stepped up to the plate and supported us.  It has been good to make new connections.  But it has taken a toll as well.  There have been several too long spells where personal devotions have been too hurried, if they happened at all.  That is dangerous.  The most important connection in life is our connection with God.  If that isn’t what it should be, it will begin to flow down into our relationships with the people in our lives and even with ourselves.  I’m feeling a bit weary in well doing.

I need to find a way to make sure the first thing is the first thing.  I suspect I am not the only one.  How about you?  In Mark 12:30-31 (NIV) Jesus says the most important thing in life is to:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’  The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no commandment greater than these.”

Does the way you have been investing your time this week show that God is #1 in your life?  Or are you running on the treadmill, intending to put God first, but first you need to . . .  Maybe we all need to slow down, reflect on where we are when it comes to God and to the important people in our lives.  I can do better; so can you.

Rick

Cookie and I are supported in our work in Haitiby people like you.  If you would like to be a part of our team and support us financially or prayerfully (both are needed) go to our website at www.servinghaiti.com where you will find links under the “Join Us” tab.

I think I am getting ahead of myself here so I will back up a bit.  This past weekend I traveled to Port de Paix.  I had been invited by the Pastor Jute Simon to come and preach there.   As I had not yet been to that part ofHaiti, I went.  Because it is a long drive (6+ hours) over really bad roads in the rainy season, I was advised to fly.  I flew.

Port de Paix is a city of 250,000 located on the very northernmost coast ofHaiti.  From the city one can see theislandofTortugawhich was a favorite pirate stomping grounds in another century.  The Free Methodist  church in Port de Paix is on the edge of the city in a poor neighborhood.  It is surrounded by voodoo temples.  It is truly an island of light in a sea of darkness.  I arrived Saturday afternoon.  Sunday morning I preached and in the afternoon toured the area.  The Superintendent of the North Conference was with me and scheduled to preach in the evening service.  This brings us to the two kids.

The evening service was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.  The platform party consisted of myself, Superintendent Milus, Pastor Jute Simon, the North Conference Youth Director, two musicians and a worship leader.  As I looked out at those gathered for worship I saw two kids, about age 5.  That was it.  My heart sank for Pastor Jute.  There had been about 80 in the morning service and 2 kids for the evening service with special guests was not what he was hoping for.  I might have been inclined  to give up.  I certainly would have been inclined to wait until more people showed up.  Pastor Jute began the service.  For 15 minutes not much happened and then slowly people began to trickle in.  At the 30 minute mark, the pace picked up a bit and by 7:45, the place was rocking.

I wanted to say God showed up but the reality is that God was there long before the two kids showed up.  We like to link God to excitement and action.  The challenge we often face is to walk in obedience when nothing exciting seems to be happening.  Sometimes we have to keep going even when our circumstances are discouraging us.  It is easy to walk in faith when everything is going great.  It is not so easy to walk in faith in the midst of disappointment.  I have been spending a lot of time in Hebrews 11 in my personal devotions.  It opens this way:

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1 New International Version)

 This past weekend, I watched Pastor Jute live this out.

Rick

Cookie and I are supported in our work in Haitiby people like you.  If you would like to be a part of our team and support us financially or prayerfully (both are needed) go to our website at www.servinghaiti.com where you will find links under the “Join Us” tab.

Use the link below to see a short video of the evening service:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unYZidslcJk

Seated:  Pastors Jute Simon and Rick Ireland

Standing: Superintendent Milus

I would guess that most of you don’t know what this is a picture of.  Here in Haiti electricity is a problem.  Rarely does it work for 24 straight hours.  Often we feel fortunate if it works for 10 to 12 hours a day.  When it does work it often doesn’t come in full strength.  This is where this device comes into play.  It is an inverter.  It is connected to a bank of 12 deep cycle batteries.  When the electric is working, the batteries are charged.  When the electric stops working, or works poorly, the inverter uses energy stored to the batteries to give us usable electric.  Mostly, this works fine.  Sometimes though, the electric will be out for more than 24 hours.  At that point I must fire up the diesel generator that provides back-up power.  The thought of electricity is rarely far from my thinking.  When I walk in the house I look at the gauge that tells me how much charge is in my battery bank.  I frequently look at the indicator light that tells me if the city electric is working or not.  I always have a couple of back-up 5 gallon cans of diesel fuel for the generator stored away.

Before I came to Haiti, I didn’t pay much attention to the electricity.  I just assumed it would work and it mostly did.  Outages were rare and newsworthy (they are not newsworthy here).  The end result is that I pretty much took electricity for granted.  When things are going along relatively smoothly, it is easy to take them for granted.  I wonder sometimes if life in the US has gotten so easy that it is easy to take God for granted.  We asked a Haitian friend once what he thought of his first visit to the United States.   His reply stunned me.  “I feel sorry for Americans.  You have so much you don’t see God.  In Haiti we often don’t know where the next meal is coming from and we watch God provide every day.”  Here in Haiti, Christianity is not something you do, it is something you are.  I wonder sometimes how Haitian people can keep going in such harsh circumstances but they find incredible strength in the God who walks with them every day.  They don’t have the opportunity to take God for granted.  It shows.

As many of you who follow our journey already know, my 83 year old Mom passed away last week.  If I am brutally honest, I think I have taken her for granted a bit.  You just always assume that your loved one will be there.  It feels very strange that she is no longer here.  My mom had a deep and active Christian faith and she was clearly ready to step into eternity.  My own faith gives me peace that our parting is temporary.

So where does all this lead?  The answer is a challenge.  A challenge to appreciate the blessings of the place and times in which you live.  The poorest American lives better than 2/3’s of the rest of the world.  In Acts 17:26-27 (New International Version) we read:

From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.  God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

Did you catch that?  God placed you in a world where you have electric that you can rely upon, water that you can drink from the tap, and incredible options for what you will eat today.  When was the last time you thanked God for bringing you into a time and place such as this?  And maybe, this week would be a good time to tell someone you have been taking for granted that you appreciate them.

Rick

Cookie and I are supported in our work in Haitiby people like you.  If you would like to be a part of our team and support us financially or prayerfully (both are needed) go to our website at www.servinghaiti.com where you will find links under the “Join Us” tab.

Our battery bank contains 12 six volt deep cycle batteries.

The hilltops at the highest part of the city are covered with radio and cell towers.  You can drive up there to an overlook that allows you to see most of the city from one vantage point.  As you look down at the city, you are higher than the planes flying in to land at the airport.  From that vantage point you are looking at an urban area containing 2.5 million people.  One in four of the country’s inhabitants live the Port au Prince metropolitan area.  As I look down upon the city from that point is it easy to be overwhelmed by the pain and hurting of the people crowded into the city.  I think of the woman my wife encountered a while back who was having trouble breastfeeding her twins.  The problem turned out to be that she herself only was able to eat every 3^rd day.  I see the street boys begging or wiping windshields hoping for a few coins.  I wonder what kind of future they have to look forward to.  I think of my friend’s father-in-law, a pastor, who lives next door to a voodoo temple.  A few months ago my friend was visiting his in-laws and watched as a crowd emerged from the temple, dug a hole in the street, and buried a live goat.  I’ve driven over that very spot.

As Jesus approached Jerusalem just before that first Easter, I picture him standing at a spot over looking the city ofJerusalem.  In Luke 19:41 (NIV) we read:

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it

I thinkHaitihas given me some sense of how Jesus must have felt.  It was a lost and hurting people that he saw massed together in that ancient city.  What I feel looking down over Port au Prince is nothing new.  Jesus has been there before me.  But that didn’t stop him.  He kept going, experienced the ups and downs that are a part of the journey of life, and stepped into . . . the resurrection.  Despair is not the end of the story for His people.  Death is not the end of the story for His people.  God has a  way of using even the difficult things of life, of reshaping them and empowering them for something good.  And so even when I am overwhelmed, I realize the challenge is to keep going.  I am a child of the resurrection: it strengthens me when I feel weak, gives me hope when despair looms, and helps me to see that even in the midst of lostness and hurting, God is working.

It has been a hard year.  I have seen the impact of an earthquake that has been described as the worst natural disaster in recorded history, watched the country real from a hurricane, a cholera epidemic, and political instability.  And in the midst of all this, the Free Methodist church in Haiti has grown 50% in one year.  To God be the glory.

Rick

Cookie and I are supported in our work in Haitiby people like you.  If you would like to be a part of our team and support us financially or prayerfully (both are needed) go to our website at www.servinghaiti.com where you will find links under the “Join Us” tab.

In my frequent travels through Port-au-Prince I often find myself traveling through the Pyramid Monument Traffic circle.  At this intersection two very busy roads cross and so it is almost always congested here with several circles of vehicles coming and going.  It is a bit like the video game Frogger but with real vehicles.  Recently as I was making my way through this intersection, I had to dodge a UN Armored Personnel Carrier.  One frequently sees them at strategic locations or simply cruising around Port au Prince.  They have been such a common site over the past year that I generally don’t pay much attention to them but this one brought them back into focus.  There are several different models but all seem to be topped with 50 caliber machine guns which are inevitably manned.  Frankly, they are a bit intimidating.  I have spoken with a number of Haitians and the reaction is always the same. They don’t like them.  Seeing them parked and watching or cruising the streets makes many Haitians feel like they are an occupied country.

In a way, Haitians are an occupied country, but then again, so are we.  The symbols of occupation in the US are generally not encased in steel but there are visible none the less.  They have become so common we just don’t see them for what they are.  One only has to watch or read the news.  Not long before I came to Haiti, a sex slave ring was broken up in the Niagara Falls area.  One of their locations was only a few miles from my home.  I drove by it all the time though I didn’t know what was going on there.  In the Buffalo News this week was a picture of a nice looking young man.  He was convicted of murdering three people and wounding several others.  Underlying both these stories and so many others is the reality that we as Christians are in an occupied world, a fallen world.  The one in control here will only rule for a time but he is clearly active here.

When we become Christ followers, we become citizens of a new Kingdom.  It is a rich and wonderful promise but it doesn’t lessen the reality of occupation.  Though a few prosperity gospel preachers might try to convince us otherwise, our real hope is not in this world but in the next.   In the Bible, Hebrews Chapter 11 tells the stories of a number of heroes of the faith.  It then makes this observation:

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. (Hebrews 11:13)

They lived in occupied territory, and so do we.  There is a great deal I don’t understand, but one thing I do understand is that something better is coming.  One day we will step into the promise of our faith.  One of the great underlying themes of the Easter story is this: even in the chaos of life in an occupied land, God is at work.  The promise of the resurrection is the promise of final victory.

I don’t like dodging Armored Personnel Carriers but they are not the final story.  In John 16:33 Jesus says:

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

My peace is not in the security provided by steel and 50 caliber machine guns.  My peace is resting in the arms of the One who overcame, and will help me to overcome.

Rick

Cookie and I are supported in our work in Haiti by people like you.  If you would like to be a part of our team and support us financially or prayerfully (both are needed) go to our website at www.servinghaiti.com where you will find links under the “Join Us” tab.