Comfort

The first few days back in the US, I must say, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to settle in and enjoy this break. My first night, all I could think about was Suzette sitting outside on her blanket. As much joy as we feel radiating from her, the reality is; there is poverty, sadness some days, hunger other days, pain many days, loneliness, and disease. And I am here in my comfort. Yet, there is discomfort in that comfort.
It took only a day or two to work through and process that mental/emotional extreme from the third world to the first world. Since being here, Jeff and I have been so blessed by the overwhelming support shown to us through our community. We have so enjoyed time with friends and family. It's one of the things we miss most while we are in Haiti. We've loved our time here for the last two weeks. We are so grateful that our kids have had time to reconnect with their grandparents, cousins, friends and our hometown. We're thankful we've had time to reconnect with so many people. Jeff and I are blessed to have the opportunity to be together for a few days in Canada to connect with some great friends and some wonderful people and to refresh ourselves. It's been over a year since we had a date night. God has sustained us and strengthened us.
We've enjoyed the many comforts here in the U.S. too. Organized driving on smooth roads, ease of grocery shopping, walking through town, familiar language and culture, running in clean air on a beautiful nature filled fall day, warm showers (Brooke took 2 a day for the first week), brushing our teeth with sink water (as Kylie would say), kids playing with friends...all comforts and ways we have been blessed in the USA.
Yet, there is discomfort in the comforts when Suzette, Wilbert, Ketia, Junior, Jacques, Viviane, Stephanie, Pastor Nathan, the Cazeaus, the Good Samaritan children and many other of our haitian friends come to mind.
When we committed to going to Haiti, it was because of a transformation God did in us. We were challenged to live a life of significance, to live a life that demands an explanation, to live our lives as Jesus lived his life on earth. What exactly that meant for us or what it would look like, we didn't know, we just committed to try.
What we've found is that living as Jesus lived, living a life that demands an explantion, living a life of significance isn't really anything spectacular or significant at all, it's simply these people. Living a life like Jesus for us means loving and mentoring Stephanie. It means teaching a Haitian man named Wilbert who lost everything a new way of building and combining it with his skills and knowledge then providing job opportunity. It means taking Jacques and Junior out of poverty and providing jobs. It means visiting and praying with Suzette in her time of sickenss and need. It means supporting a Christ filled man named Pastor Nathan and helping him carry out the vision God gave him in Canaan to build up a church, school and medical facility. It means discipling a community that desperately needs Christ. It means rescuing children like Ketia from abuse, hunger, sickness, and poverty and giving them a home and a family. It means coming alongside the Cazeaus with support in the ministry they have been doing for years. It means taking the children they have educated and fed for years into a new phase of life called adulthood with opportunity for success and independence.
It's nothing significant...except when it is significant.
It's nothing that demands an explanation...except when it does demand an explanation.
It's what Jesus would do. It's how he lived and it's how he asks us to live. Whether it's in Haiti, in Canada, in the U.S. or anywhere else in the world. It's how he asks us all to live.
Sometimes we fail, sometimes we doubt,sometimes we want to run from it and back to what is comfortable and easy, but it's in those times God strenghtens and sustains us.
Yes, we are blessed with many comforts in the USA, but Tuesday, we'll return to a world where living without all the comforts has become the norm. For now, that is where God is asking us to live a life of significance, to live a life that demands an explanation, to live as Jesus lived.
There is comfort and peace in that.