Why Haiti?

This last year we provided the funds to move 10 families in Haiti from living in blue tarps to living in sustainable homes. This summer, we will take a team of 30 from our church back to Haiti to serve and grow our relationships.

So you may be wondering … why Haiti?

Haiti exemplifies something I have come to believe about equipping the next generation of gospel bearers:
To make mission-minded people, get people going on mission.

Where would I get something like that?

A guy named Jesus Christ.

Jesus equipped disciple makers and sent them out before they were ready. He expected early on that his followers would go out on mission. He expected his followers to listen and make mistakes on mission. He expected to debrief his followers when they returned from being on mission, and it was there that the most powerful learning took place.

• Jesus seemed to know that the ground of learning is tilled by experience, not education.
• Jesus seemed to not let the fear of harm or failure keep us from obeying God.
• Jesus seemed to understand that the debrief after going is more important that the training before going.

So I have a bias towards action when it comes to missions.

I believe every follower of Christ ought to experience a cross cultural missions experience in their lifetime to allow God to speak to their hearts and enlarge their mission perspective beyond their own world.

These trips are not always measured by the work we do, but rather the work God does in our hearts as we experience in return.

• Going gives us a passion and vision we can’t get secondhand.
• Going invests our hearts.
• Going gives us on-the-job equipping.
• Going as a family helps parents participate in their kids’ spiritual journeys.
• Going equips us to make better decisions about where to invest our prayer, our finances, our mission resources.

And so these last few years we have been searching for a new place of going … a place that is accessible in distance, travel time, and cost, as well as ability to take a family.

I believe that place is Haiti – specifically, partnering with Mission of Hope.

I cannot wait to train 30 of our people in missions this summer as we go, serve, listen, and learn from what God is up to in Haiti. I am thrilled for the debrief, as we begin to transfer what God teaches us there in our own city.

We can bring the lessons of Haiti to Colorado Springs.

We will of course also need opportunities that stretches beyond what is convenient or cost-effective. This way we care not only about our Jerusalem, but our Judea, and the ends of the earth. But Haiti seems to be our Judea for such a time as this.

To make mission-minded people, get people going on mission. Will you pray about going with us?

Written by Thomas Thompson

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Interested? Come to the info meeting this Sunday, March 6 from 12-1:30.