Go Make Disciples

Our very dear friends are right now jetting across the country at 30,000 feet, on their way to Haiti for the summer.  They've accepted the call to be the missionaries for Mission Haiti, a local organization that runs an orphanage and several schools in the southern village of Ti Rivier. 

It's hard, very hard to see them go, but comforting to know that the Babbs are in the hands of God.

Their kids and ours are close, so much that we can mark the days of the seasons just in sleepovers and birthday parties.  

I was with Heather on my first mission trip to New Orleans just after Katrina, and Torrey and I have been brothers through some rough and rocky travails.  God has used our families to teach one another amazing life lessons, and we have crossed paths over and over again in His plan. We both now have a strong desire for the people of Haiti.  God's plan is that we are not yet to serve together, but we're excited and hopeful for that day, knowing that if we are united in ministry, it will be because of His Will.

But for now, it's bitter sweet.  No campfires to share, no swimming, no bbq's, no fellowship.   Just the time in devotion to remember them and pray for their work there.  Kari and I both admit, we feel like our kids feel when we say goodbye. There's no proper way to keep the emotions from surfacing.  We want to hold on and not let go.  Almost like a good, strong temper tantrum and foot stomping is in order.  

Our ride home from the airport after our goodbye's was filled with ear-splitting silence.  Not a peep.  Just reflection.  In the end, we know that this is not our home and we are not our own.  Our hope is in the Lord.

And the BBQ's in Heaven are gonna be stellar!   

Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.

Titus 3:14

I thank my God every time I remember you.  In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.....And this is my prayer: That your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ -- to the glory and praise of God.

Philippians 1:3-11