Hands and feet...

12 days until departure…

Last night was the last small group bible study meeting for some of us before we leave for Haiti. Stefanie and Matt are going to a concert next week, so the group decided to pray over us in addition to our weekly prayer requests.

I must say, I have never been prayed over that way before. Holding hands with some people and having others' hands on my shoulders, I knew God was there. I felt so FULL – filled with spirit. Thinking about it now makes my eyes tear up a bit in gratitude to everyone there. I suppose I have been blessed to not have required many prayers for me directed to God, but I also feel blessed that I was able to feel the pure power of prayer.

There is another mission team in Haiti now; they are not in Port-au-Prince, but on a remote compound. They are there providing medical and dental attentions that are needed. Today I ask that your prayers be with them as they provide help to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Please keep your prayers with the team in Haiti right now, as they set examples to others on how to love thy neighbor.

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?" Jesus replied: "’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ All the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments." [Matthew 22:36-40 NIV]

Jesus tells us to Love. Love is a gift from God. I choose to Love others just as I love myself – I may need some work on it and I may need to improve the level of love toward myself, maybe that will help me love others more.

The people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But disciples rebuked them. Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there. [Matthew 19:13-15 NIV]

While I am in Haiti, I will be around the children. I will be teaching and learning. Children are important to Jesus; they are the children of God just as every one of us is. Please excuse the very long passage below, but you really must read it all to understand where I am going with this… I want to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. I hear it often and take it to heart. I desire to do the works of God in the ways that only Jesus could have taught us to.

God sacrificed his only Son for the forgiveness of my sins, and though I can never repay my debt to him, he loves me anyway. So it is my goal to do my very best to please him by continuing to spread the word of God just as Jesus had. In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians he talks about the church being a body – there are different parts that do different things, but without one part or another, the body would be incomplete.

It is in this passage, that I find the meaning of being the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. Feet are presentable and often considered to be a body part that need no special treatment (unless you are a female and go for regular pedicures) but they don't really need special treatment. Same with the hands - we take care of our feet and hands but as they are presentable they often don't receive special treatment. As hands and feet, we ask for no special treatment, we simply do as is needed. As the head (the teachers come third) is indespensible and fragile, the feet need the head and the head need the feet. Together we go to Haiti.

Also, if one part of the church suffers, every part should suffer with it. If Haiti suffers, we should suffer with them. Educators (the head) should work with the people of social ministries (the hands and feet) to bring knowledge to those people who are in need. I think this is the purpose of our trip to Haiti. To work together as one body. There are many parts that are combined to do God’s work but we all make up one body – God’s people.

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body-whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not mad up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason stop being a part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason stop being a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. IF they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don’t need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don’t need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the other parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there would be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ and each one of you is a part of it. And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way. [1 Corinthians 12:12-30 NIV]

Please keep my team, their families, and the whole nation of Haiti including the children I will be teaching and helping all in your prayers.

- Jen

I love you - from Haiti