One-hundred Fold- How Can Iowans Help Haitian Farmers?

Family and Friends,

Something happened a couple of weeks ago that has continued to pass through my mind every day, and I thought it would be good to share the memory with everyone who reads this so you can think and pray about it as well.

You might remember that First Reformed Church Sioux Center was here on a mission trip, a group comprised of many people with farming backgrounds, and our theme that week had to do with farming and hard work and faith in God. At the end of the last meeting Patchouko, our Youth Pastor and Facilities Director, thanked the team for the messages and testimonies but also asked a challenging question of the group. He said something like, “American farmers are prospering and growing huge amounts of food. Haitian farmers work hard all day every day and barely produce enough food to survive. What can you do and what will you do to help us?”

Understand that Patchouko gets the big picture. In other words, he wasn't asking if the Americans would give handouts to the Haitians or anything like that. He knows that the best way to help people is through education and partnership and development. He comes from Port-au-Prince and is very familiar with both effective and ineffective American ministries in Haiti. So his question was really asked to challenge the team to consider partnering with the community long-term. He was saying, “You have taught us truth from God's Word, but are you willing to nurture these seeds you have planted and see them through to harvest?”

Speaking of planting seeds, if you study Jesus' parable about the seeds and the sower (Matt. 13, Luke 8, and Mark 4), you will see that God is able to multiply the seed 100 times when it is planted on good soil. I was thinking about that number, because I like math, and it connected with something one of the farmers said during that week in January. He said, “This was possibly the best corn crop ever in the region where we work. Many farmers average at or above 200 bushels of corn per acre.”

That is truly amazing and a true blessing from God. Conversely, if you look at a typical Haitian corn field, it is hard to imagine that they yield more than 1 or 2 bushels per acre from their land. The individual plants are weak and spaced very far apart. Also, each ear of corn normally only grows about one fourth the kernels of what the ear of corn in Iowa grows. So simple math tells you that back home in Iowa God is blessing us each year at a rate of approximately 100 times what the Haitian farmer receives.

So we need to wrestle with the questions, What is God up to in all of this? Why is He consistently blessing one people so much more than another? What do we need to learn from this, and what is He asking us to do?

Haiti seems like a faraway place when you live in the upper Midwest of the USA, but we are linked by history. A little over two hundred years ago Haiti was the most prosperous colony in the new world by far, exporting most of the world's coffee, sugar, and tobacco. In fact, at one point France seriously debated over whether to keep Haiti or Canada. Around 1800 Haiti broke free from colonial powers and began their own country, but France attempted a few times to recapture the lucrative little island. During the reign of Napoleon forces were sent to try again, and money was running low. This was part of the reason why France decided to sell the Louisiana Purchase to the United States for pennies on the dollar. As you probably remember from grade school, that immense piece of land included all of Iowa and the majority of what we would call the upper Midwest today. So the rich land we farm today was sold to generate money to try to re-enslave the people of Haiti.

How many of us reading this post have benefited from these events in history? Our ancestors moved to Iowa and Minnesota and South Dakota with the hope of a new life, religious freedom, and prosperity...and we their descendants have received all of these things and more. Now a new chapter is being written in the story as many of us have received a burden from God to spread both our monetary wealth and our wealth of knowledge and education and faith.

II Cor. 8:14-15 says: “At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: “He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.” (a quote of Exodus 16:18)

I don't know exactly how the farmers from Iowa can help the farmers from Haiti. I personally know little to nothing about farming in either country. All I know is that our lands were linked together in the past, and it appears that God is linking them together in some kind of shared future. What that will look like only God knows...but what a privilege to be here and see the Holy Spirit working all things out for God's glory.

God Bless,
The Grimms