Mark-Day 29 (Clothe Yourselves with Humility)

Day 29 – Monday, March 19th

Relentless Scripture:  1 Jn. 2:16-17; 1 Pet. 5:5

Relentless Focus: “… clothe yourselves with humility…”

Today marks the start of my fifth week here in Pignon, Haiti. I’m starting to get just a little cocky, like I know what I’m doing. After all, I’ve learned to exchange 1 – U.S. dollar, to 41.25 Gourdes (Haiti’s legal tender) and then to the Haitian Dollars (1/5 of a Gourdes) $8.25.  I’m driving now … well, we’ll just say that I’m behind the wheel. I can walk down to the local I.T. store to add/buy credits to apply to my internet and phone accounts. I can even recognize the English version of some Haitian hymns and start substituting key phrases. I’ve managed to meet a goal or two on the way- -to know enough to not endanger myself or others. But the only way I’m truly learning how to keep out of danger in Haiti, is by simply listening and imitating rooster calls. It’s really very therapeutic, and believe it or not, I’m finding it to be tops on the request list among my Haitian listeners.

So why is Rooster calling an important skill to posses? In an earlier Blog, I noted how rooster calling, like laughter, was a good medicine… and it still is. However, sometimes, when you’re hanging out with Jesus you just start feeling a little Cocky, and all you can do is cry. Like the disciple Peter (oh no, I will never do that Jesus, everybody else might, but not me), you arrive at some truth, and in confidence you think you can back it up on your own, which in reality is the farthest from the truth.

Like it or not, some of the things that I see and hear in Haiti are anything but to be proud about, and yet pride comes before the fall. Today, I met Dr. Paul at an internet café. He’s a young general physician who provides mobile medical care to some of the remote towns and villages surrounding Pignon.  He works with a lot of missionaries in meeting a variety of medical needs for free.  As he was getting his computer worked on, he shared with me a story about a visit that he recently had with a very poor family with seven kids. In addition to health care, Dr. Paul has a school that he operates, and offered these parents free schooling for all of their kids. (Talk about hitting the jackpot, free medicine and schooling all in one afternoon). The father had a concern that they didn’t have enough clothes for school, but the Doctor said, just send them, we’ll take care of the clothes also. All they had to do was to say yes. But the dad said, no! The good doctor said that one day, one of his kids will probably rise up and kill him. But the dad said, no problem, because before this will happen I will be already dead. What a sad, sad, story.  

The Cyber Cafe

This was a great reminder that as we try to extend good news, not everybody hears it that way or is willing to accept it for goodness sake. Pride is like that; it has a tendency of discounting what a person says and making themselves the exception to the truth. It can puff us up to the point that the truth is so suppressed, we have only enough room for living a lie. Ultimately, like the Haitian father, we deceive ourselves into believing that father really knows what’s best, even beyond our Heavenly One.

Kids 'Driving a School Bus'

That’s why Roostering is my personal call to clothe myself in humility. Nothing grounds me in reality like humility. It provides a clear reminder that no matter how far I think I’ve come in my walk with Christ, I’m to put no confidence in my flesh but only to listen and to obey what Jesus says in whole, not just in part. So every morning and throughout the day I’m grateful for one species that will never make the Haitian endangered list – Roosters. Throughout the day I’m reminded that Jesus has the final word no matter what we say or believe, because His Father knows best.

(Crucial part of fence by orphanage)

Tangible Needs:  Routine Physical Check –ups for the kids.

Pray for Loving Haiti: Dr. Paul and his mobile medical ministry and school.

Pray for Me: To stay clothed in humility.