Cap-Haitian, Haiti
One emergency response team that came out to help ventured up to the Northern part of Haiti to help one of the Cross to Light church plants in Cap-Haitian, pastored by Leonel Azilien. They took the bumpy, noisy and dangerous bus ride through the treacherous mountains and safely arrived at their destination six hours later.
Like all the other emergency response activities they did during their stay in Haiti they were there to serve and to be Jesus hands and feet to the people of Haiti that had just recently been pummeled by Hurricane Matthew.
One of the activities Pastor Leo set them to do was to move a mound of dirt that had been cleared out of the church property in preparation for building. It was smugly sitting just on the outside of the church property, blocking the entrance. The team gathered up some buckets and got to work. They were directed to move the mountain of dirt from where it was to filling up ruts and holes in the road winding down and away from the church. The team organized themselves in an assembly line and got down to the dirty work, moving one bucketful at a time.
A beautiful thing shortly happened. The neighbors saw the line of workers and came out to help; women and children included. Typically in Haiti women would not participate in something like this but they did that day. A new line formed, a line of both black and white, of men and women. A line of strangers bound together in a new job that was blessing both the church and the road.
As heaven looked on I bet they were reminded of the streets of gold they walk on. This newly repaired road glistened; not with specks of sparkling rock but with the love of God being displayed in people coming to work together on something that would improve the lives of everyone that traveled that way in the future. I think this is what Jesus meant when He said, “love your neighbor as yourself”. Give a hand, become a part of an improvement project, show the way to heaven with your actions.
