Family and Friends,
Day 92 of our Haiti Adventure!
I've been thinking and praying a lot about this lately. We are busy enough as a family living life, learning the language, trying to help out with the various ministries of Mission Haiti, and hosting mission teams, but in the back of my mind there is always this fire burning. The fire is a constant reminder that we are also here for some long-term project that could tap in to everything I have learned so far amidst my years of evangelism in schools, work in churches, study in Seminary, and now working and living among the inspiring people of Haiti. The fire has been flaring up recently and reminding me to dream big dreams. The following is just a few introductory thoughts about the Bible School project, and I will hopefully write many more entries on this subject in the months and years to come.
It has been said that one's calling can be defined as the intersection where our deepest passions meet the world's greatest needs. To pose the question more practically for our situation, what can we personally do well (and enjoy doing, so that it will last for awhile) which will actually help the people of Haiti? Normally we have just labeled this future project, no matter what it ends up becoming, as the “Bible School.” We know that Haiti is desperate for more and better higher education, and there is a hungry and growing mission field here waiting for spiritual leaders. Then add to that our passion for God's Word and good education, and the calling computer always seems to spit out the same result: Bible School. That seems to be where the intersection meets between our passions and Haiti's needs.
But God has been calling me to think and dream much bigger, and to open my eyes and truly see the people here in fresh ways. I think God wants to do something special here in one of the least important communities in one of the least important regions of the poorest country in the western hemisphere. What I mean to say is that why wouldn't God do something powerful in a lowly place like this to impact the world? He loves to choose unimpressive servants and obscure places to begin something new, does He not?
So we are still calling it the Bible School Project, but now we are beginning to think about things that could be done that maybe have never been done exactly this way before. If what I am dreaming about has been done before, maybe one historical example that seems the closest would be the Devotio Moderna ('the modern way of serving God'), which was a spiritual revival within the Catholic Church beginning late in the 14th century. It would be accurate to say that this important movement set off a chain reaction leading directly to the Spirit-led explosion called the Reformation.
The Devotio Moderna equally emphasized personal faith and social involvement, all within the context of offering better education to the people in order to change the world for Christ. In other words, the members of this group deeply studied God's Word, gave themselves to service through teaching and evangelism, but also were pioneers in developing new technology (mainly in the form of maximizing the use of the printing press) to improve the culture and the quality of life of the people all over Northern Europe. Members of this group included Thomas a Kempis and Erasmus, who were very influential in the lives of Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin.
Each time I write about this Bible School project I will share one distinctive about what we are trying to do, or one aspect about this project that will make it unique. The first distinctive of our Bible School project is a commitment to requiring an equal balance between time spent on formal education and time spent on community service and outreach. If you look around at various opportunities for higher education, most of them either favor one or the other. For example, most colleges and seminaries mainly focus on educating the students through study and classes, and sometimes they require some sort of small service component or internship. On the other hand, a lot of people choose to get their education part-time, even one class at a time, as they serve or work full-time. I feel that both of these approaches have their advantages, but one thing that will make our Bible School distinct, as mentioned earlier, will be an equal focus on service and learning.
Stayed tuned for more about the Bible School Project in posts to come! Your comments and suggestions are welcome as we dream about what could be done to deeply benefit the people of Haiti in the future. Please join up with us now if you are interested in this project and get in on the ground floor, so to speak, of something new and exciting God is doing.
Seek Adventure in both knowledge and action today!
-The Grimm Family Adventurers
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