Skip to main content

Haiti Team Interview Three: Corey

At eighteen years of age, Corey was the youngest member of the team. Both good-humored and unafraid to engage strangers, he stood to me as the friendliest of us. It was with Corey, in fact, that I talked the most on the trip. He loves to tell stories, not least his own, and relishes in the humor of life's daily mishaps. Corey's character slowly unfolded as the trip went on, especially in his interaction with the children, but it was revealed in particular near the end while discussing an issue obviously near to his heart. This was momentary, but noticed.

Corey's story in Haiti began last year at a service at his church called Lighthouse. It was here that he heard the team leader first announce the trip for the next summer. When he first heard the announcement, he felt what he called "the most amazing feeling inside of [his] chest," that God was telling him to go. To get feedback, he first talked to his friend about it. She supported him, but was the only one around him to do so.

This, perhaps, was not the only obstacle for Corey. He had, he said, been facing spiritual battles leading up the trip that made him reluctant to commit. Indeed, though he was among the first to be called about Haiti, he was among the last to join, and for a time was placed on a waiting list. After finally committing to the trip, he continued to face doubt, particularly in regard to his ability to raise enough money for the trip. It was in this moment of doubt, however, that God showed up.

It began with a homeless man. As he walked to church one early Sunday morning, he encountered a man who asked for bus money. He had no money, Corey replied, and in fact had to go because he was heading to church. "Church?" the man shot back. "Don't give your money to me. Give it to the church." Then, awkwardly, the man continued to repeat the phrase "Don't doubt God." Corey stood in that strange place we all face when you wonder whether it is right to walk away. The man, however, began to leave, repeating the phrase as he did.

Corey thought this interesting, but went about his business. Later in the week, having lamented to his mother over the phone about his lack of funds, Corey learned that the team had been fully funded. This became a lesson to him, a lesson "preached" to him by a homeless man while walking to church. Tears welled up in his eyes as he heard the news about the team's funding. He had doubted God, and thought to himself that if God had called him to go to Haiti, he would also provide the resources to go. In his mind, by doubting himself, he had also doubted God.

Others would, perhaps, not be as harsh as Corey was to himself, but it taught him to trust more fully nonetheless. That moment of clarity provided a picture of fulfilled need that will remain with him, perhaps as vividly as what he's experienced on the trip itself.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Corey EvansApril 15, 2012 at 12:10 AM

    This is Awesome I didnt know you could wright like this!!! Great job!

    -Corey Evans

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Heroes

Although we have several examples of heroes in our day, one of the best known is of a woman named Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (“Gonja Bojaju”), who devoted her life to sustaining the “poor, sick, orphaned, and dying.” Her venue was Calcutta, India, where she served as a teacher until she began to take notice of the poverty there. Seeking to do something about it, she began an organization that consisted of just thirteen members at its inception. Called the “Missionaries of Charity,” the organization would eventually burgeon into well over 5,000 members worldwide, running approximately 600 missions, schools and shelters in 120 countries; and caring for the orphaned, blind, aged, disabled, and poor. As her personal work expanded, she traveled to countries like Lebanon, where she rescued 37 children from a hospital by pressing for peace between Israel and Palestine; to Ethiopia, where she traveled to help the hungry; to Chernobyl, Russia, to assist victims of the nuclear meltdown there; and to ...
2 comments
Read more

The Nice Guy Fallacy

I read part of a poem recently by one of my favorite poets. It reads: I envy not in any moods The captive void of noble rage The linnet born within the cage That never knew the summer woods. I envy not the beast that takes His license in the field of time Unfetter'd by the sense of crime To whom a conscience never wakes. Nor what may call itself as bles't The heart that never plighted troth But stagnates in the weeds of sloth Nor any want-begotten rest. I hold it true, whate'er befall I feel it, when I sorrow most 'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. At base, Tennyson contrasted a life of risk, and consequent pain, with one of security. He sides conclusively with the life of risk, and says he fails to envy those who have faced no hardship. I agree with him; and, for good or ill, his words are just as relevant today as they were in the nineteenth century. Like then, there are those today who choose to live their lives with as little risk as...
2 comments
Read more

Comparative Medical Care

One thing I'd like to understand is why there is such a difference between medical costs here and those in Haiti. At the time the book Mountains Beyond Mountains was written, in 2003, it often cost $15,000 to $20,000 annually to treat a patient with tuberculosis, while it cost one one-hundredth of that-- $150 to $200-- to treat a patient for the disease in Haiti. Even if the figures aren't completely accurate, the sheer difference would still be there. Indeed, the United States pays more per capita for medical care than any other country on Earth. My first guess for why the disparity exists is that there is a market willing and able to pay more for medical treatment, so suppliers see the demand and respond with higher prices. According to at least one doctor (go to http://scienceblogs.com/denialism/2009/05/what_is_the_cause_of_excess_co.php), part of the reason is administrative prices here. People here have a higher standard of living, and so the cost of care is shifted to ...
2 comments
Read more