Skip to main content

2012 Haiti Team Interview Seven: Julie

Julie's faith was an example to me. Sitting on the steps of the orphanage on a warm evening, she relayed the joy she felt from serving in this place, the peace at having seen God confirm in heart what she already knew in mind: that God would meet our needs as our trip unfolded.

She herself wasn't certain she could come a second time to help lead. This was not, I gathered, because she felt incapable of leading, but because of the struggles she faced at home. There was certainly much to distract Julie from the purposes of this trip, but instead of allowing those things to divert her attention, she embraced her role here fully.

Part of that role involved what comes so naturally to Julie: prayer. This was her strength, that in moments of conflict or need, she prompts others to submit them first to God. It is this spiritual dependence, which others would perhaps see as a weakness, that gives Julie such intimacy with her Father. You could see this intimacy in the peace she felt here amid the chaos taking place at home, and in the conviction she feels about the church's future role in Haiti. Julie's desire is that future trips would involve not just teams of people, but teams of churches who work together to send larger teams to Haiti. More personally, Julie's dream is to have a family one day and begin serving as a missionary. Just as the orphanage directors serve in Haiti, so she, too, wants to serve.

Such vision for the future is perhaps not surprising. There was in Julie a sense of destiny, of certainty as to God's specific and personal plan for each member of the team. I got the impression, in fact, that Julie saw our trip as a personally-authored story. She saw, for instance, that the trip was announced in several ways on different occasions, giving around 1,500 people at the church the opportunity to come. She noted that the team did not form overnight, but developed over time, which implied an intentionality and carefulness about who would go; and she found that while we could have had more team members join us, no one else did. The clear message, then, was that God had carefully chosen those who joined the team.

The story did not end there, however. God had also personally prepared Julie for the trip in a very unique way. At home, as her sister went into labor, she needed Julie to care for the other children. Being ill, however, these children were contentious and whiny. As difficult as this was for Julie, she began to see the larger purpose God had in mind for it one evening in Haiti. It was on this evening that a child followed her for two hours, asking for candy. Instead of dismissing the child by forcing him away, however, she thought back to her sister's children, seeing in this child the same craving for a parent that her sister's children had for their mother. It was God's way of allowing Julie to see through the eyes of an orphan, to empathize with the pain of not having a father or mother.

Such insight into God's plan and character served to teach me something I did not at first see about Julie. Simply put, it is that she treats each moment as a gift to be cherished. That moment can be pleasant or painful, suffuse with light or flooded with darkness, but it is always a moment to be learned from, to be used to increase her own or others' awareness of God's heart and plan. The teacher, we know, is also the author, and while the stories he writes are not yet fully written, we are promised that we will find in them hope and a future. I am convinced that Julie will take an active role in her story, a role that with her faithfulness and vision will lead her into a life of purpose.
Labels:

Comments

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