I recently interviewed a Haitian pastor who ministers in Haiti. This man is a national partner with G.O. Ministries (which means a portion of the money we raise to live and minister in the Dominican goes to him). When I heard that he, along with many other Haitian leaders, was coming to Santiago for a conference, I arranged for a translator and set up some interviews. During my interview with the pastor I noticed the weary look on his face. He was very friendly and had a joyful countenance, yet his weathered, leathery skin and tired eyes told me his life wasn’t an easy one.
I don’t know the exact condition of my new friend’s life in Haiti other than he’s a widower with five kids. Also, I know that his congregation’s greatest need isn’t for comfortable chairs or new hymnals, but it’s for food. His people want to serve, he told me, but it’s hard for them because they are so hungry and “need nutrition.” In the midst of this, he encourages them to have faith. My friend lives in poverty, (I have seen poverty to the extreme in the Dominican Republic. I can only imagine what it looks and smells like in Haiti), but he said that ever since he was a small child, he knew there was a God and that he needed Him. He began following Jesus when he was seven and has walked with Him ever since. Something just told him from the time he was a young child that God existed, and he needed to know Him.
Without any bells or whistles, or freshly painted Sunday School rooms, or slick sermons, or paintings of Jesus holding a white lamb, a little Haitian boy knew in his heart that God was for real. And, now as a 50 year old, my friend continues to serve God and others out of his abundance of faith. He is rich, indeed!
I can't say that I understand why God doesn't give my faithful friend a more comfortable life. But, I know God is good and His ways are "inscrutable." Romans 11:33 says: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable His ways."
