To Know Him better...
Well, it's early in the week, long before you will actually get this email, and I'm sitting at my desk and there's snow on the ground. My mind is naturally drifting toward Haiti and the packing that still needs to be done and the details that need to be ironed out. Yet while the church is still quiet and I sip my coffee in the morning, I can't help but wrestle a bit with the what and why of our journey.
What will we find there we didn't expect, what surprises will open our eyes to new possibilities, and what dangers will we face? What will we learn about ourselves in the process, our strengths and weaknesses and most important, what will we become as a result of this journey?
Why has God made it possible for us to experience all this, why have so many amazing people worked, prayed and given of themselves to help us get this far, and why am I so anxious? I find myself needing this trip more than I think they need me to come to be honest with you. As you read this, we will be just starting our journey, I hope . We will be "There and Not Yet."
I arrived at church this morning after shoveling the snow in 15 degree weather and saw that Port-au-Prince is reporting 95 F and sunny today. I'm looking forward to palm trees, big smiles, sleeping under the Caribbean stars (note to self: remember to get ear plugs) and to renewing friendships. I guess I'm especially looking forward to this trip so I can share this part of my life with Abbie (my daughter) who has little if any concept of what I do or why. Partly because I don't either.
I will end this brief introduction by sharing a favorite passage that I hope will help explain my reasons for continuing my mission involvement in Haiti and in Williamstown. I hope you will understand.
Lucy said, "Please Aslan, before we go, will you tell us when we can come back to Narnia again? Please. And oh, do, do, do, make it soon."
"Dearest," said Aslan very gently, "you and your brother will never come back to Narnia."
"Oh, Aslan!!" said Edmund and Lucy both together in despairing voices.
"You are too old, children," said Aslan, "and you must begin to come close to your own world now."
"It isn't Narnia, you know," sobbed Lucy. "It's you. We shan't meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?"
"But you shall meet me, dear one," said Aslan.
"Are — are you there too, Sir?" said Edmund.
"I am," said Aslan. "But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there."
C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952; this edition: HarperCollins, 1994) 247.
By the time you read this, hopefully on Thursday morning, we will be en route to Haiti (Narnia in many ways). If you want to follow our travel schedule I've included it at the bottom.
Thursday, March 6, 6:00 AM Columbus to Chicago // 6:45 AM Chicago to Ft. Lauderdale // 1:00 PM Ft. Lauderdale to Port au Prince
Friday, March 14, 1:20 pm Port-au-Prince to Miami // 8:05 pm Miami to Columbus (arrive 10:55 pm)
Please feel free to leave a comment or question here or on the FUMC Facebook page and I'll try and answer them as best I can.Email Subscription:
Brother Steve, I’m so proud to just know you, and I’m very proud that Abbie is going into the mission field with you! Tell Bato that I said Hello! Bonjor! I wish that I was able to be there with you, but He has other plans for me right now. So for now, I’ll pray that your trip is fruitful, fulfilling, safe, and of a glory to Him, who loved us first!
Peace Always!
YanceyMan & Ms. Jane
…”Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” [Philippians 4: 5-7]
Prayer is such a precious gift from God to us and from us to others; but a precious gift unlike any tangible package that we give to others for which we expect and/or receive a “thank you”; for most of the time and unless they are told, the people for whom we pray never know that such words of supplication are being offered to God. Rest assured that prayers upon prayers upon prayers are surrounding you and the other members of the Haiti team in and with a constantly existing prayer hedge.
Perhaps, your feelings of anxiousness are intended to grow you into being even more — than you already are — dependent upon and more communicative with God through your own prayers whatever praises and requests you verbalize.
Perhaps, your feelings of anxiousness are intended to grow your realization of both the power and purpose of prayer and of the inestimable number of pray-ers and prayers speaking to God on behalf of you and on behalf of the members of the team.
And, perhaps your feelings of anxiousness are intended to place you on guard and remind you of the colloquial adage, “Forewarned is forearmed” and of the words of 1 Peter 5:8, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”
C. S. Lewis Screwtape advises his nephew Wormwood to always keep his patient from reasoning, from logically thinking and suggests that he Wormwood will be successful in converting his patient from the Enemy (God) if he responds to all situations with his emotions.
Perhaps your feelings of anxiousness are gifts from God intended to cause you to constantly be thinking rather than just reacting and to be vigilant and always on the offensive rather than the defensive.
Look deep within yourself…discern…discover…the gifts of your anxiousness rather than only its plagues.
Consider 2 Corinthians 2:11: “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.”
…and also consider: 2 Timothy 4:17: “Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.”
…may God’s all-sufficient grace meet your every need…
…may God’s peace that surpasses all human understanding fill your heart to overflowing…
…may you discern and discover the purpose of your anxiousness…
…may you remain vigilant and proactive…
…may you keep the Cross ever-near and ever-with you…
…and may you and each member of the Haiti team hear the words of Numbers 6:24-26 and know that those verses are being prayed constantly for each and all of you.
On behalf of so many, thank you for choosing to, once again as you did last year, share your trip to Haiti and the House of Faith with us through the “words of your mouth and the meditations of your heart” and through your pictures.
And thank you for the honesty and vulnerability which you have shared with your readers and with which you have begun the telling of your 2014 trip to Haiti (Narnia) story; that’s not easy to do, but it is valued and appreciated by many, especially those who, at one time or another, have experienced the same thoughts and feelings as you have verbalized.
“You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.”
“God is a God of surprises”…better and more spectacular and glorious than we could or can ever imagine. Trust God with you, trust God with the members of your Haiti team, and especially, trust God with Abbie. His “good and most perfect will” and transformation will occur and be accomplished in each of you, especially Abbie.
…consider…trust…and find hope in God promise: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'” [Jeremiah 29:11]
Are you “there and not yet”?
And did you find a glimpse of Aslan in the eyes that smiled and cried with such joy amid the hugs upon hugs shared at your arrival?