I’m so thankful to have been a part of the community of YWAM Kona, also where the University of the Nations because its opened my eyes in so many ways. Jon and I have grown to understand that God’s calling on our lives is to go to the nations and bring the fullness of His gospel. I’ve never really understood how that would work, how I’d grow a desire for it, especially since I almost failed geography!!
But being immersed in such an international community, I realized I don’t have to exactly know where every nation in the world is geographically, I realized it’s not my responsibility to figure out all the details of our destiny, I realized all we’re responsible for is loving God and we’ll inherently care about what He cares about – which is the nations; every tribe, tongue and nation. “Ask of me, and I will give You the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession.” Psalms 2:8 NKJV
Like in our marriage, Jon and I love each other so much that we naturally care about and support each other’s desires, hopes and dreams. So in the weeks and days leading up to Haiti, we spent a lot of time praying about what God wanted for us as a team and for this nation.
And it’s not like I fell in love with Haiti in a moment like love at first sight, but as I spent time with its people, I could feel God’s unconditional, overwhelming love for them. I saw God touch people’s lives in ways I wouldn’t have imagined, healing them in every way; emotionally, spiritually and physically. The night before we left, Jon and I were able to pray for a teenage girl who’d been tossed aside, rejected and abused for most of her life until some missionaries took her under their wings. She’d been experiencing pain in her back and after praying with her through some of the trauma she experienced in life, she felt a lot of the pain leave!!
Like in our marriage, Jon and I love each other so much that we naturally care about and support each other’s desires, hopes and dreams. So in the weeks and days leading up to Haiti, we spent a lot of time praying about what God wanted for us as a team and for this nation.
And it’s not like I fell in love with Haiti in a moment like love at first sight, but as I spent time with its people, I could feel God’s unconditional, overwhelming love for them. I saw God touch people’s lives in ways I wouldn’t have imagined, healing them in every way; emotionally, spiritually and physically. The night before we left, Jon and I were able to pray for a teenage girl who’d been tossed aside, rejected and abused for most of her life until some missionaries took her under their wings. She’d been experiencing pain in her back and after praying with her through some of the trauma she experienced in life, she felt a lot of the pain leave!!
We’re not health experts or anything, we just have a passionate love for God and a passion to see people set free and walking in the fullness of who God created them to be…because that’s His passion!! We just pray, follow His leading and He does the rest. There were countless stories just like this, where we saw God break through in ways He wouldn’t have been able to if we weren’t there. Like it says in Romans, “How can they believe in the one of whom they haven’t heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?” We’d walk into tiny villages of Haiti where ‘foreigners’ had never been before and be able to bring the hope and love of Jesus in so many creative ways and there’s just nothing like it.
As we were taking off from Haiti, I took one last look out the plane's window, watching the island become smaller and smaller and for a moment, I saw through God's eyes, that Haiti is like His prodigal daughter who is on her way back to His loving embrace. We're continuing to pray for the restoration of Haiti and praying God will continue to break our heart for the nations of this world, every tribe and tongue, knowing it really is His son’s inheritance. To see them with His eyes...
- tami
