“Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.” Revelation 14:13
I came across this photo of the beautiful boat in Haiti and it brings back so many wonderful memories. Thinking back, it has often seemed that when God nudged me to follow His call and go and live in Haiti it was either a learning opportunity for me to improve my patience when walking on uneven ground with my artificial knees and arthritic ankles or perhaps it was His way of bringing moments of joy into His activities because my engineering background brought me endless moments of torture while observing the condition of the roads, water crossings and lack of traffic regulations.
Back in the day, transportation in Haiti was an adventure, at times a frustrating adventure. When Dr. Doug Rutt from the LCMS World Missions came to visit in early 2001 and found me in a 4-wheel drive leased pickup truck he chided me for not taking the local taptap which immersed me into the Haitian culture and I had tried that resource but after several attempts it seemed to be too physically challenging and dangerous.
Modes of transportation included driving through rivers, wading through rivers, walking for hours to visit small rural congregations on dirt pathways, riding an old horse, a small airplane and even a boat. The attached photo was possibly taken in early 2002 and the man to my left is Pastor Israel Isidor, at that time the President of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Haiti.
His earthly work ended over a decade ago and his legend in Haiti is still talked about by those of us who remember him and miss his bright, strong energetic witness and infectious laugh. On the day this photo was taken, we had been visiting congregations and schools in his Les Cayes district and one day we drove from Les Cayes to Port Salute and up the West coast to Tiburon. There Pastor Isidor told me we would either spend an hour in a boat or walk for four hours to reach Careasse, a congregation that he didn’t get to visit very often. The answer seemed obvious; rent the boat. The first boat shown me was a wooden Haitian boat that appeared to have been constructed by the French in 1800; my cost was $200 Haitian dollars for the voyage for the two of us. I am a strong swimmer, but I knew that Pastor Isidor was not so I asked if there were any other boats for rent and by the grace of God there was one other, the fiberglass boat in the photo. It would cost me $400 Haitian dollars but it was well worth the larger fee.
Pastor Isidor had a briefcase in his arms and his knuckles turned white clutching it as we rocked back and forth on our hour journey. After an hour on the Caribbean, we arrived on the shore and then walked on a narrow dirt pathway probably thirty minutes back into the mountain to the Church and people kept coming out of the foliage along the hillside to find out who the visitors were and where they were going. It seemed like a journey worthy of a National Geographic story. There were probably a 100 people following us by the time we reached the Church. Pastor Isidor encouraged the small, rural congregation for their work, sang a few hymns and we prayed. Then we took the boat back and returned to Les Cayes later that night, after a prayer service in Torbeck along the way.
I pray that the remainder of your journey will be fruitful as you take the message of our Lord Jesus to the lost of this world through your words and actions. May your labors bring many more into the Kingdom before your time spent here serving Him comes to a close.
Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you…Jay