The Haiti 2010 Story

 

By Mike Arnold

CTO Founder and Chief Outfitter

             About two weeks before the Haiti earthquake, Jesse Easley called me to ask if he could lead a CTO Missions trip to Haiti this summer. Jesse is a longtime friend of CTO (he and his wife Amy own Stillwater Refuge, where we’ve had summer camps the past two years), and he has a strong connection to the people of Haiti. (See the Leadership Team page for his extensive background in the country.) He said that God had put it on his heart to make this offer. I told him I’d pray about it and get back with him.

             We had been planning to return to Honduras this year, and I wanted to take this offer to the Lord and see what He would have us do. We’re not big enough yet to do two mission trips in one summer, and I felt that our first obligation was to our dear friends in the Moskito Coast of Honduras.

             Little did we know at that time about the tragic events that would literally shake the already tragic nation of Haiti and grip the world just two short weeks later.

             Not long after this, I heard word from the missionary whom we work with in Honduras. She has been in the States since the coup in her home country last year, and has not yet returned to her base of operations in Mocoron. While she’s planning to return in June, I simply did not feel comfortable leading a team of youth to a village where she’s been absent for nearly a year.

             I felt God closing the door to Honduras on us for Summer 2010. It was then that I remembered Jesse’s offer about Haiti. After seeking the Lord through prayer and wise counsel, I called him up to accept his offer, and after more prayer he agreed. So it’s a go!

             I never cease to marvel at the way the Lord directs our paths. I’m so thankful that He invited us to serve in Haiti prior to the earthquake, as it’d be easy to get our own feelings in the way and let the tragedy in the country pull us there, instead of the clear direction of the Lord. The way this has unfolded, there is no doubt that God, and nothing else, has led us there this summer.

             By this Summer, I am sure the global media spotlight on Haiti will have dimmed significantly. And, the wonderful disaster relief organizations — once the mess of the disaster has been cleaned up — will be pulled to the next place they're needed in the world. When the buildings are rebuilt, the wells re-dug, and the aid money spent, what will be leftover are the spiritual and emotional scars of the tragedy, on top of the malignant darkness of Haiti’s troubled past.

             Haiti is a nation bound by darkness. Our CTO Missions team won’t have the worldly resources to make a notable impact in relation to all the other groups which are there now, in terms of dollars or any physical measure. But I do know this: The Lord is leading us there. I know that He has plans for our dedicated team of men and teenage boys. Faith and love are the currency of God’s Kingdom, and these we have in abundance. I’ve seen what He can do with a faithful, loving and courageous few — and I’m excited to see the eternal impact He is going to make through (and in!) the members of our Haiti team this year.

             Not everyone is called to go with us. For those who aren’t, I ask for your prayers and financial contributions, as we seek to follow God’s leading to be a light in this darkest and most desperate of nations at this critical time.