May 2016
Dear Friends and Family,
About a day’s journey away from our beautiful, mountainous home in New Hampshire is another beautiful, mountainous home. In some way these two homes are so much alike. They are both filled with families living together, churches worshiping and communities working. There are births and deaths and the mundane of everyday life. They are full of people who wander through life vainly searching for a solid foundation. They move from one empty promise to another, never finding the Ultimate that they are created for. In both of these places you can also see the fingerprints of God as He touches lives. You can meet faithful Christ-followers who walk through hardship with an untouchable hope in the goodness of our God. In all of the essential ways, these two homes are so alike. They are both marred by the sin and brokenness of this life but also dimly reflect the beauty and majesty that will one day be our forever home.
I’m so thankful that each summer I am able to call Haiti my home. As I prepare for my sixth trip to Haiti, I’m finding my heart unsettled. I want to be able to pack up my New Hampshire home and all of the goodness I know here and take you all with me. I want to tuck my constantly supportive and loving family into my suitcase and zip my grace-filled church community into my luggage so that you all will be there with me this summer. I want you to walk the roads of this home and see the faces of the people who I also call brother and sister. I want to see you laugh with the incredibly contagious laughter of dear children and cry alongside those loved ones who walk in the shadow of pain and poverty. I really just want heaven - to see God make all things new and draw together His people from all nations and tribes to worship Him forever. Until that day that we see our Savior face to face, we live in a world that is broken and aching.
In Haiti it is very easy to see the scars of this brokenness. It comes in the form of poverty. It comes in the form of children who eat cakes made of dirt so their tummies aren’t empty. It comes in the form of illnesses that run rampant because there is such limited access to medical care. It comes in the form of families torn apart and countless children living in orphanages. It comes in the form of hundreds of thousands of children who live as modern day slaves. It comes in the form of worship of the creation rather than the creator. It comes in the form of corruption and confusion in those who have the power and position to lead.
As you have opportunity and desire, would you join me in this summer’s visit to Haiti? That might mean that you determine TO PRAY for Haiti, and specifically for the Christian Light Children’s Home and School where I will be living and serving. You may want names of specific children or teachers who need prayers and will commit to pray for them through the summer. Coming along for the summer may also mean that you determine TO GIVE. The needs are endless, so financial donations or donations of children’s clothing and sandals, peanut butter (for the feeding program), or Christian literature for the teachers would be a particular blessing! Joining me this summer may mean that you start sincerely praying and planning for summer 2017 TO GO with me to my Haiti home. How I would love to share it with you!
If you have questions or thoughts about coming alongside this year’s visit to Haiti, please contact me! I would love to talk and pray together about how God might use His gospel to transform this very special home! Thank you, as always, for your faithfulness in encouraging me in the gospel through all of life, and especially in the work and life lived in Haiti!
Love in Christ,
Jessie Whitman
