How orphans know joy

 

Here is a gift to you!  As I mentioned at the beginning of the year, James 1:27 has become a life verse that I feel led to focus on personally and I will try to share about it on my blog at times.  One of those ways is to share the stories from people who have their hands and hearts in a ministry called New Directions International/Feed the Hunger.  Good friends of ours lead this ministry and they are feeding hundreds of hungry children (physically and spiritually by teaching the Word to them) each year and the numbers are growing due to volunteer participation!  They also train and equip people in third world countries how to be leaders and ministers.

A way to help them spread the love of Jesus is by taking ordinary people like you and me on mission trips to some of these countries.  In today’s post Kim Canter is sharing her experience on a trip she recently went on that not only helped change the lives of children in Haiti, but also her own.  It’s a revelation story.  It’s a realization story.  It’s a realization of how orphans know joy.  They know more joy having nothing than we do having more than we need.

Haiti on the Inside

By Kim Canter

NDI Mission Team Member

Haiti is forever inside of me because of the memories. I saw firsthand the orphans that really know Jesus as their personal Savior. These orphans have nobody except Jesus. It's not like someone is going to come and take them to the beach or mountains for the weekend or to camp for the summer. They have nothing, no one apart from Jesus, and he is enough.

And they have joy.  How can you have joy when you have nothing: no possessions, no family, and nothing to look forward to? True joy comes from knowing Jesus Christ intimately, and I saw children as young as six and seven that truly "get it". Oh, what I am trying to apply to my life from the lessons those children taught me!

I was in a country filled with voodoo, putrid smells, United Nations peacekeepers, children with AIDS, armed guards at our hotel, filthy water, sizzling heat, rabid roosters at 3 a.m. every day, periodic electricity, insane driving conditions, danger around every single turn, and yet I had total complete peace. Scores of folk in the states were lifting us up around the clock.

There has not been a day since I returned that I have not thought of Haiti, my fellow team members, the children, or the Haitian partners. I have photos up all around my home to remind me to pray and to keep Haiti in the forefront of my heart and mind. Haiti is like no other mission field I have been on, in that it gets inside of you and won’t let you go.

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If you’d like to know more about this ministry and how you can volunteer and help feed the hungry physically and spiritually, check out the link on my side bar “Feed the Hunger.”  And while you’re there, “Like” them on Facebook!   Or you can check out their website at www.newdirections.org