There is a dangerously delicate and very fuzzy line between giving handouts and creating dependency AND meeting certain felt needs and being a blessing to others here in Haiti. A subtle objective here is to follow the philosophy that if you give a man a fish you’ll feed him for a day, but if you teach a man to fish you’ll feed him for a lifetime. Swell sounding, but not exactly loving when that man just can’t fish, at all. At some point, you have to just give them a dang fish… and feed them for a day, or two.
After working in the same community for almost 3 weeks I started to see recurring needs go unmet. It wasn’t frustrating for my group because we simply can’t everything, but it was for me after seeing it too much. I didn’t turn perfectly altruistic overnight and fret about being a God-sent saint in the community. I still see the big picture here, and I’m most concerned with giving people the truth of the gospel as we help their physical needs. Remember that. However, when you see the same people with the same problems and not enough change after 2 weeks of work you start to trouble yourself with worry.
So, I considered this a healthy burden from the Lord to see certain things done and accomplished in His name. I very much wanted to see this particular group be blessed and be a blessing. It’s our responsibility as project leaders to be concerned about the experience of our group and they were important to me. Because of that, I purposed myself to usher in the blessings from the Lord. I was gonna do it. I was going to show them how this happens, how that God does that, and so on. Yeah, they were gonna come out soaking wet in a Haitian experience from the Lord and I was gonna carry the water. It was clear very early how I couldn’t do that on my own. The Lord showed me that the power to will is within us, but the power to do is not. He picked up where I left off and then blessed us with the initiative to tie up all the loose ends of ministry we had left lingering over the past three weeks.
So, we gave all we had this week. This team became about some action. Not because they determined themselves to do, do, do, and then do some more – so that they could feel good about themselves – but because God prompted us. We gave out a lot fish this week. We fed the hungry, clothed the naked, gave shelter to those without a roof, gave medicine to the sick, and brought construction supplies to the churches. All of the above and some more.
In an effort to cash in on this analogy for all it’s worth I want to say also that this group had a heart for sharing faith. One story worth mentioning is that of young girl who turned from practicing voo doo to believing in Jesus. A meaningful relationship was started there as well and I’m excited to see it continue. It’s truly not enough to meet their temporary physical needs apart from giving them their eternal spiritual need. So, we were fishers of men as well!
So, I considered this a healthy burden from the Lord to see certain things done and accomplished in His name. I very much wanted to see this particular group be blessed and be a blessing. It’s our responsibility as project leaders to be concerned about the experience of our group and they were important to me. Because of that, I purposed myself to usher in the blessings from the Lord. I was gonna do it. I was going to show them how this happens, how that God does that, and so on. Yeah, they were gonna come out soaking wet in a Haitian experience from the Lord and I was gonna carry the water. It was clear very early how I couldn’t do that on my own. The Lord showed me that the power to will is within us, but the power to do is not. He picked up where I left off and then blessed us with the initiative to tie up all the loose ends of ministry we had left lingering over the past three weeks.
So, we gave all we had this week. This team became about some action. Not because they determined themselves to do, do, do, and then do some more – so that they could feel good about themselves – but because God prompted us. We gave out a lot fish this week. We fed the hungry, clothed the naked, gave shelter to those without a roof, gave medicine to the sick, and brought construction supplies to the churches. All of the above and some more.
In an effort to cash in on this analogy for all it’s worth I want to say also that this group had a heart for sharing faith. One story worth mentioning is that of young girl who turned from practicing voo doo to believing in Jesus. A meaningful relationship was started there as well and I’m excited to see it continue. It’s truly not enough to meet their temporary physical needs apart from giving them their eternal spiritual need. So, we were fishers of men as well!
