Mission
of Hope - Haiti 2012
Last summer I went with an amazing Missions
team. 31 people gave up a week of their summer to help the people in Haiti.
We went to the Mission of Hope, about 40 minutes from Port A Prince.
Mission of Hope is a great organization dedicated to touching the lives
of every man, woman, and child in Haiti with the Message of Jesus Christ.
That is a lofty goal, but they are well on their way to doing just that.
They currently feed 50,000 children a day, house 65 orphans, facilitate
the Church of Hope, teach 2,500 kids in their Christian School and employ 15
North Americans and 130 Haitians to make it all possible.
This is a photo of the Church of
Hope - about 1,500 Haitians and North Americans joining together to worship God
in Creole and English combined!
We were very blessed to be able to
be able to minister to people and to help them complete some very important
projects that will make them more effective in their ministries and efforts.
However, I was struck with one
important weight through the entire trip. I have been called to support
the local church in America, so missions has never really been the top of my priority
list. I believe in it and respect those who have a calling to it as their
primary ministry but I also believe it takes all of us working together, in our
individual areas of calling in order to be truly successful in this day and
time. And I know I have been called to the local church. I am a church planter, a local church junkie, I love working in the church and learning better ways of doing
church. I truly do believe that the local church is the hope of the
world. I believe the planting of more local churches is still the number
one way to evangelize the world. With that said, I was looking through
that lens the whole time I was in Haiti.
I saw the same poverty and the
despair, but from a little different perspective then most. The whole
time I was looking at them physically, God was showing me a picture of the
States and the people who live here. While they are not as poor
physically, the are just as poor, if not more so, spiritually. The despair the Haitians
had on their face, I saw in the eyes of people right here at home -
spiritually.
Please do not get me wrong, I am in
no way trying to lesson the need there, nor would I ever want to take support
from or diminish the calling of those working to meet their needs. In
fact, I solute them. My plea today is for more people here to see their
cities and the towns in which they live as the mission field as well.
There are people on our streets, in
our towns and cities, living in the same county and state as us who have
everything they could ever ask for, and yet they are living in spiritual
poverty. Let's keep sending missionaries and money to Haiti, and Africa,
and South America, but when we get home let's lift up our eves and see, in the
words of Jesus in Luke 10, "the field is white and ready for harvest".
Don't make this missions trip a one week a summer event, but rather a way
of life.
We need more missionaries today in
every country of the world; in Haiti, Japan, London, and New York, Little Rock,
Washington, Hot Springs, and Miami. It's time that we see those around us
as Jesus sees them, a people in poverty, living beneath their means, not
fulfilling the mission and vision God has for them. A people in need,
suffering and desperate for the words of truth.
Next summer, go on all the trips you
can, but when you come home, engage where you are. Get involved, don't
take the rest of the year off, but be the hope the world needs in the city where you
live!!!
This is why Deidre and I have decided to launch a new church in Hot Springs, AR. There are already hundreds of churches, but we still are only reaching 30% of Hot Springs. Every week over 20,000 people in the city of Hot Springs do not attend church and do not know Jesus. We are more alive than ever with the passion to reach people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We would love your help, join with us in this effort in three ways; 1. by Interceding (praying) for us and our launch team, 2. by Inviting anyone you know in the Hot Springs area to check out Encounter Church. We want them to give God, and us, one more shot, and finanlly, 3. Investing (give) so that we can reach many people in Central AR with the Life-Giving Message of Hope and allow people to Encounter Jesus Christ at Encounter Church!
We love you and pray God's blessing on you!
PS- I did make a new friend at the MOH 500 Project in Haiti. ("Say hello to my little
To find out more about Encounter Church, and how you can help, can go to: https://www.facebook.com/encounterchurchhts
or e-mail info@encounterchurch.tv
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