In the past few weeks, Haiti has been impacted by a severe tropical storm, a cholera outbreak, and a 4.9 earthquake that has left the country–and its people–in shambles.

I know that all of you have been seeing Haiti in the news with increased frequency lately, and many of you have messaged us asking about the situation in our villages. I apologize for not having communicated with all of you over the last few weeks, but the needs and difficulties amongst the Haitian people are currently all-consuming, in terms of our time and efforts, and we greatly appreciate all of your understanding and prayers concerning our family and the Haitian people.

Well, it has been a very turbulent last year for Joy and I, for Jameson and Jordan and for all our brothers and sisters in Haiti secondary to the protests, political unrest, hurricanes and of course the virus. Because it has been so crazy, I am afraid that we have not done a very good job of letting you know all that’s happening on the ground in Haiti. Although we have met with many trials and tribulations this past year, the followers of Christ in Haiti are resilient and many programs have been birthed through these hardships! We thought we would write this blog to fill in the gaps and to bring you up to date. Thank you for all your prayers.

The question must be addressed, “how do we, as individuals and local assemblies, work together to fulfill this calling of the universal Church?” Of course, Christ has seen fit to equip His bride for this very work. In perfect wisdom, God has ordained offices and roles for governing and leading His church. However, God has also instituted other roles, within different spheres of authority. All of these, ideally, are to work together, unified under Christ, to carry out that great wartime initiative of the Great Commission, with one chief end in mind—subdue creation, bringing it under Christ’s authority, so we might know Him, enjoy Him, and glorify Him forever.

In the last entry of this series we took the first big step in identifying the personal calling and equipping of God. We took care to ask, and answer, the question of the meaning of life itself—and only in about 2000 words, eat your heart out Plato! That is quite an achievement if you ask me, however we are only getting started. Last time we concluded that in order to know what God has called you to, personally and specifically, you must know and do what God has called all men everywhere to do; glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. However, you cannot hope but miserably fail in that first task if you yet remain in your sin. To begin to know what God has called you to do for Him in His Kingdom you must be born again, repent, and be washed in the blood of Jesus.

We live in strange days. Uncertain times might be a good way of putting it. Uncertain in the sense that we are uncertain what it will take to regain a certain sense of normality, or if we will ever certainly return to what was once called normal. Uncertain in my mind, whether a return to what was normal is something we should even desire. These times are not, however, uncertain in the mind of God. For Christ remains seated on the throne.

So I am left to ask, where are such men and women of God today? Where are the Christians who can stand with Paul and address death directly, asking “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55). If we truly believe that there is a heaven waiting for us upon our death; a heaven that is, “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you”; if we truly believe that we are going to a heaven in which God “will wipe away every tear…and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain”, if we believe that we will be ushered into a heaven where we “shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike…nor any scorching heat”; if we really believe this, shouldn’t we live like we believe it?