Here for a Purpose

Family and Friends,

This blog post comes from Cory's journal entry on December 9th.  It talks about the continued struggle of the mission team stuck down here and the adventures of our day.  Enjoy.

Dec. 9, 2010-

What a day.

I'm so tired at the end of this day that I am walking around in a kind of fog. Here is what we did...

This morning we had a team meeting and talked through the possibilities for the next few days. In other words, the main thing going on here is that we are still trying to get this mission team home safely, and we discussed what we know for sure about the situation in Haiti, which is really not much. However, one key development today is that Pam spoke with a US Embassy worker who assured us they will help us in any way they can. Also, the embassy will be able to let us know when it is safe to travel, which helps a lot. They also told us that if we have an emergency, such as someone getting severely ill or the compound running out of food, they have ways to help us. That was nice to hear.

We had a lot of laughs this morning about the whole situation. For one thing we heard that one of the team members' mom blew the whole story up and even contacted the local news in Sioux Falls and told them things were really bad down here, which is not the truth, at least not for us. So we were making up all of our own stories about what is going on in Sioux Falls and comparing ourselves to the miners in Chile and other similar stories. Of course we really don't see it that way, but laughing has been a cathartic way for this team to deal with stress.

Knowing the team would probably be here for at least a couple more days, we made plans to do some more work projects and other ministry.  I was impressed the team didn't just sit around and worry all day.  Instead they said, "God has us here for a purpose."  Inspiring.

First of all, we set out to do some home visits. One group went to visit Stanley, a young boy in the village who has a severe case of club feet and some other developmental issues. Pam is working on a medical visa for him, and the paperwork is getting close to finished. After that he may have some life-changing opportunities in the states. The team played with him and talked with his family. We'll keep you updated on that situation.

Most of the team went to the home of a young teenage girl who is fighting demon possession. I had met her earlier on another trip and immediately sensed there was something not right with her. We sat down with the family and Pam got to the bottom of what was going on. It seems the girl basically goes crazy about once a week and starts screaming at the voices in her head and trying to eat everything in sight, like grass and sticks and stuff like that. She is aware of what is going on and knows that it is a demon or demons tormenting her. Things had been getting worse lately and the attacks were more common.

Pam began leading them through a simple yet thorough time of discussion and sharing of the gospel. It turns out the family has been dabbling in both church and voodoo, trying to find help from any source possible. They even had some voodoo symbols in the house, hanging from the ceiling, which were believed to have special powers. This is very typical in Haiti. After the conversation the parents decided they were ready to trust Jesus alone for salvation and give their lives to him. Praise God!

They even told us someone in the community had a vision of their family all converting at the same time. After hearing that we decided to call in all of their children and get them up to speed on what was going on. Pam went through the gospel message with them as well (2 kids older than the sick sister, and one kid younger) and they too agreed to give their lives to Jesus. We led them through a time of prayer and repentence, and all of them asked Jesus to be Lord of their lives. All of them except the sick young girl, that is. She tried to pray the sinner's prayer with us, but she couldn't, so that was more evidence that evil spirits were controlling her. (As a side note several of the neighbor ladies were listening to the whole thing, and one of them decided to accept Christ as well!)

Then we did some other little ceremonies such as burning all of the voodoo stuff, anointing the house with oil and dedicating it to Christ, casting out any demons lurking on the property, and trying to cast out the demon from the young girl. Everything seemed successful except the final step. We prayed and prayed but couldn't get anything to happen. Sometimes I'm convinced that demons are under strict orders to just pretend they are not there whenever white Christians show up. They know that we don't have very much patience, so if they can just ignore a few minutes of prayer and worship they can stay. I don't know if that is true, but I suspect is has something to do with it.

So we are sending some of the Haitian youth soon to try again. They have a lot more persistence and intensity in their worship, so we'll see if God chooses to use that to free the girl. I hope so, because as I have blogged about earlier, sometimes I wonder about the peripheral damage we do as mission teams whenever we demonstrate powerful faith in God. That seems strange to say, but since the Haitians already think of themselves as inferior to us, I wonder what happens to their self-esteem whenever we do things for God they were unable to do. For that reason I hope God uses the Haitians this time to cast out the demon. Maybe I'm over analyzing the whole thing, but that is what I do.

Anyway, back to our day...

After that we returned back to the orphanage compound for a quick lunch of rice and beans...or maybe it was beans and rice...hard to tell. Soon we were ready to head out again and remodel the local soccer field. This is an idea the team came up with, and I really liked what ended up happening. The field is right along the beach, and people go and dump their garbage there. How sad. We picked up the garbage and then made a boundary to the field with rocks about a foot hight around the entire perimeter. I take that back...part of the boundary was made up of fallen coconut trees that were hauled into place. It really looked nice by the time we finished, and close to 100 people participated in the work, mostly kids. The team gave many of them soccer balls as a reward.

After that some of us headed to the home of the man who allows us to use his internet access. Unfortunately, today it isn't working. He has several family members visiting from Canada and the US, and they are in the same boat as our mission team. Their plan is to leave for Port-au-Prince tomorrow, but they also might have to miss their flights and wait for the roads to open up. We sat by the ocean for awhile enjoying the view and then headed back to the orphanage.

When we arrived home there were dozens of youth hanging out in the yard. By now it was getting dark, but we decided to do a short youth group meeting. How many youth pastors in the US have that problem? How many of them have their entire youth group showing up every night of the week just hoping to study the Bible and sing praise songs into the night? Not many. We had a great meeting, and a downpour started right in the middle. That only made the singing from the group grow louder. Love it down here!

Then it was time to get the kids to bed, and they were exhausted. Kester and Elizabeth helped with the soccer field clean-up, and they did a great job. Alexandra had another rough day, but we finally got all of them settled in for bed. Then the team had a meeting to sum up the day, pray, and talk about the day to come. Sound like we will be climbing the mountain to share Bible stories with the children up there. I'm too tired to think about that right now, but trusting that God will provide the energy when the time comes.

We asked for an adventure, and now we have it! Praise God.

missing everyone...
-Grimm Family Adventures