Haiti

So, I've been here in the DR for a year.  In this time I have always wanted to visit our neighboring country of Haiti.  As poorest nation in the western hemisphere Haiti has been the subject of many photos and stories that share, at least in part,  the economic, social, political and historical challenges that have marked its identity.

It seems like it should be easy enough to get over to Haiti (only 3 hours from where I live) but I've always thought "you can't just head over to Haiti".  It just never seemed as  simple as the day trips we'd do in college from Vancouver to Seattle.  "Where would I go?"  "Who can go with me?"  "Can we take a vehicle through?"  Will there be bribes 'required' to get through or get back home?"  "Where will we stay?"  "Safety issues?"  Lots of questions that may have been mine in the making but nonetheless questions that made Haiti seem "so close yet so far away".

Funny enough a recent Thanksgiving dinner proved to be my green light into Haiti.  Over lunch I was talking with an American family that is involved with an orphanage and school in Haiti and they make the trip there once a week.  Perfecto!  With aforementioned questioned dissolved and camera in hand I finally made it to Haiti.

I spent the morning at the school/orphanage (578 students & 75 kids in orphanage) and then about 20 minutes walking through a market.  It was a weird mix of feeling like I was in another world (yet reminiscent of Kibera, Kenya) yet feeling like I was hardly there long enough to really "experience Haiti".  It's like flying through Heathrow and saying you've been to London.  Nonetheless, here are a few images from my brief excursion to Haiti.

Futbol

I've never really played futbol...or football for that matter.  What better place to learn than with a group of futbol savvy Dominicans and a Columbian futbol-er coach.  So, for the past couple months I have been (trying) to take to the turf and deal with the constant schooling by the local futbol-ers who - shoes or no shoes - are not only fun to watch but great to be with.  There are certainly the cries for fouls and the little ones can sometimes take a good hit (yet reamain unphased and keep on futbol'n) but the overall feel is good sportsmanship and enjoying time together on the field.  

Our leader and super-skilled futbol oficionado is Obed Penuela (TEARS staff).  Obed started the daily futbol games with a heart to meet with guys in the barrio and share - live out...play out - the gospel.  There is prayer after every game and a Saturday morning prayer/biblestudy where the guys meet together to spend time praying, singing, and learning from God's word.

It has been a really blessing to share in this way in the lives of these guys.  They have been gracious to the new un-futbol-er from Canada and let me know where to go (in a good way), why there is a corner kick and other very useful tips for the field.  Additionally, it has been a good "remedy" to the highly starchified diet that seems to take its toll on the (this)  body. 

This Sunday we get to load up and play in the stadium (a real field!) and play against another team from the city. It's pretty cool this barrio futbol crew gets to head out, play on a big field against some new faces.  As you think of this crew, remember them in prayer.  That futbol would be a place where they learn how to work together, relate well together, see care a love in these relationships, where they are encouraged and challenged, and encounter Christ - not in an abstract way - but in a way that they come to personally receive his deep deep love for them.

Kingdom Feet

Ok, so here are a few of the usual "qualifiers" I like to tuck in before you start reading.  

1) My intention has been to post blogs chronologically.  That is, start with images and words from North Africa and work through the various events, ideas, questions, wrestlings, and other bloggable goods that follow.  The list has grown and whether it has been rainy-housebound-days, other work projects, no internet, or a dead computer battery and no power...somehow  there has always been a really good reason to keep me from posting.

2) This current post reads a bit messy for me.  Not really unpacking thoughts and squishing a few too many ideas together.  The big idea is "marveling at what is means to live in the kingdom (marinate in that for a bit) and then wrestling with the reality of living the life God has called us to in his kingdom and then marveling that the Spirit of God (alone) enables is to do this.  So hopefully this sparks some marveling.

Ok, here we go....

How do we live the kingdomized life that Jesus calls us to? A kingdom that, as expressed in the Sermon on the Mount, says its people are blessed when they are poor in spirit, live as peacemakers, are persecuted for righteousness, when they hunger and thirst for righteousness. What does it look like to live in a kingdom that calls us to wash our neighbors feet? Living in the kingdom can often feel like virtue unrewarded, works unrecognized – everything that the world rewards and we seem accustomed to receiving are not ours for the taking or receiving in the kingdom. Jesus turns the world upside down. Power structures. Economic structures. Relational and social structures. The kingdom-life can feel topsy-turvy, confusing, and at times just plain undoable.

I have been reading through The Master Plan of Evangelism and recently came to a chapter on the Holy Spirit – fitting as we have been studying, questioning, exploring, challenging, ideating, and learning lots about the Holy Spirit as a team and within the church.

In thinking about life in the kingdom and the ministry of evangelism and discipleship, I found the following selection helpful and wanted to share it. But in sharing it, I also invite you to join us in our dialoguing about the Holy Spirit. If you have questions, ideas, quotes, references, or helpful resources to contribute we’d love to have you in the mix!

The Work of the Holy Spirit

Let no one imagine, however, that this kind of an experience with Christ could be engendered by human ingenuity. Jesus made it abundantly clear that his life was mediated only through the Holy Spirit (John 6:63). That is why even to begin to live in Christ one has to be born again (John 3:3-9). The corrupted human nature must be regenerated by the Spirit of God before it could be conformed to its true created purpose in the divine image. Likewise, it is the Spirit who sustains and nourishes the transformed life of a disciple in knowledge and grace (John 4:14; 7:38-39). By the same Spirit one is made clean through the Word and set apart unto God for holy service (John 15:3; 17:17, see Eph. 5:26). From the beginning to end, experiencing the living Christ in any personal way is the work of the Holy Spirit.

It is only the Spirit of God who enables one to carry on the redemptive mission of evangelism. Jesus underscored this truth early in relation to his own work by declaring that what he did was in cooperation with “the Spirit of the Lord.” It was by his virtue that he preached the gospel to the poor, healed the brokenhearted, proclaimed deliverance to the captive, opened the eyes of the blind, cast out demons, and set at liberty those who were oppressed (Luke 4:18); Matt. 12:28). Jesus was God in revelation; but the Spirit was God in operation. He was the Agent of God actually effecting through men the eternal plan of salvation. Thus Jesus explained to his disciples that the Spirit would prepare the way for their ministry. He would give them the utterance to speak (Matt. 10:19-20; Mark 13:11; Luke 12:12). He would convict the world “in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8). He would give illumination of truth that men might know the Lord (Matt. 22:43; see Mark 12:36; John 16:14). By his power the disciples were promised the very ability to do the works of their Lord (John14:12). In this light, evangelism was not interpreted as a human undertaking, but as a divine project which had been going on from the beginning and would continue until God’s purpose was fulfilled. It was altogether the Spirit’s work. All the disciples were asked to do was to let the Spirit have complete charge of their lives.