3rd World Revelations

Going to Haiti brings an all out assault on the sense. Reinforced by my multiple returns, it was the smells of 1979 that I remember even to this day. It is the utter poverty staring you in the face and you wonder, often aloud: "How do people live this way?"

That question changed over the week with The Park Church team. "Why does the government allow people to live this way?"

It became a real question, perhaps THE question, when the team saw the new Olympic training center on the way to build the house. It makes one wonder about priorities. (I did a little research and found the center is one of several being built in developing countries, a project of the IOC, not Haiti).

But the area in which we are buiding, Bon Repos, is where the government has moved a large number of earthquake refugees, out away from the city. They are now the poorest of the poor in the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

It begs the question about your own priorities when your senses are assaulted and your eyes are forced to view the imbalance day after day.

So often the team has asked: "Where do you start?" And that is the question.

In 2003 I started something called The Live Simply Project, a way to help more people in the 1st world make a difference in the 3rd world. It's a practical way to provide some detachment from our 1st world frustrations and impact the 3rd world in significant ways. The concept is simple: Live More Simply So Others Might Simply Live. In everyday terms, at Christmas, spend less on yourself than before and give that portion to the poor of our world. Cut it in half. Go even further if you dare, touching the core of God's blessing to the truly generous.

Something I said at the beginning of Live Simply applies to this Haiti trip. "We can't solve all the problems of the world, but we can make a difference in one piece of the world and in that way we'll be changing our world." Change a life and you change a family and a community and a region, then a nation and finally touching the world. It works. I've seen it first hand.

It's not unlike making changes in our personal lives, you know, getting rid of habits that aren't helpful - reducing debt - practicing spiritual disciplines - spending more time with family. The way those changes happen is one at a time. Most people don't make the changes because they focus on the big picture. What I've learned is that if I'll change just one thing in one area, focusing on a smaller area, then it impacts my whole life. Pick just one.

Let me say it another way: When you ask, "Where do I start?" The answer is: "Choose something and start there." For Haiti: "Choose to do something personally, in one area, in one place and you'll make a difference in your world."

The government is corrupt - maybe not every individual but as a whole. We can't change that. We can change the life of a child.

Haven't been immersed in the 3rd world for a week or more? Try this to get an idea of the application of 3rd world revelations. It works for all of us:

• track how many times you eat out and reduce is by 50% over the next month, give the rest to a mission in the 3rd world
• cut your Christmas spending on yourself in half and send the rest to Haiti or some other country of your choice
• send friends and family a note at Christmas and birthdays that reads something like: "This year I made a donation to ________ in your honor." Make the donation at least as much as you would have normally spent anyway.
• take a mission vacation - take the dollars you would spend on a family vacation and divide it - go on the vacation and spend half your time and dollars serving somewhere during that same timeframe
• eliminate your indebtedness so that you can have the flexibility to give and serve in greater ways

There are a hundred things you could do. The point is, do something. The assault of the 3rd world - even to someone who has been there 8 times as I have - can be overwhelming. The key is to choose something and concentrate there. Change a life and you change the world.

If you want my recommendation for a mission agency to donate through, take a look at One Mission Society. You can sponsor a child through Starfish Kids - or sponsor a Seminary Student @ Emmaus Biblical Seminary in Cap Haitien. Or choose some other project in the dozens of countries they serve around the world. Of course, here at home there is great need as well and I would never dissuade someone from doing what Jesus would do, whether here or around the world.

Want to go on a trip to Haiti or somewhere else God lays on your heart? Contact my friend Bill Evans @ OMS - 317-888-3333. You can hop on an already planned trip or create your own. The key is: DO SOMETHING.

If you're in the Maineville - Lebanon - Morrow area around Cincinnati and don't have a church home - come to The Park United Methodist Church this week to hear a few stories from some of the team. God has changed lives both there and here.