I make a living with my words. But I’ve always been a proponent of letting your actions speak louder than your words. If your actions don’t back up your words, they’re meaningless. For someone who is a speaker and author, like me, this can be a dangerous statement. But I hold fast to this truth.
I haven’t written much on the blog for several months because I’ve been writing words on a page for my second book which releases in March 2019, and I’ve spent a significant stretch of my summer and fall aside from that investing in two of my favorite non-profit organizations: Healing Haiti and Mercy Chefs.
In June I got to go to Haiti for two consecutive weeks to lead mission trips. As always, I love investing in and loving on the local people who we’ve come to know over the years. It was my seventh summer making this journey, and I think this year was my favorite. My second week’s trip was all first-time mission trip goers, and I got to share all I’ve learned over the years, and see Haiti through their eyes. How different it can be when it’s not familiar.
Haiti can be hard when people don’t see the changes I’ve seen—the growth, the resiliency, the progress. It can also be easier when people see only the surface of some situations, not fully understanding the depth of poverty or pain underneath the exterior.
But in both, Haiti is beautiful. And I love spending time there because it’s the epitome of coming alongside people in their hardest places and reminding them that God loves them and someone cares about them.
In August, I volunteered for 6 days with Mercy Chefs in relief efforts following the CARR fires. Mercy Chefs feeds first-responders, victims, and volunteers in the aftermath of natural disasters like fires, tornadoes, floods and hurricanes. Their mission is to “Feed Body and Soul,” and they do this by providing hot meals that are nutritious and delicious! When I serve with Mercy Chefs, I feel as though every gifting God has given me is firing on all cylinders. It’s tiring, but rewarding work. And it combines my love of food with my passion for loving people in difficult places. (Oh, and it also uses my spiritual gift of bossiness!)
In September, I rejoined Mercy Chefs to serve in North Carolina following Hurricane Florence. In my 8 days of deployment, we served at two churches—Manna Church in Fayetteville and Vertical Church in Elizabethtown. On our final day of serving at Manna Church, we served 800 meals in two hours at a community “drive-thru” they opened at the church.
God showed up in so many ways during that deployment, but He really “showed off” when He brought my two worlds together in a 95 degree parking lot in the middle of North Carolina. Want to know what happened? Check out my story in this video interview below.
If God can use me in the middle of a disaster zone to let a Haitian man know he’s loved, He can surely use you too! Wherever you are today, love your neighbor by reminding someone they are seen, loved and cherished by God.
If you’d like to help Mercy Chefs continue to feed body and soul, as they prepare to deploy today (10/9/18) for Hurricane Michael, you can donate to their efforts HERE.
If you’d like to help Healing Haiti continue to create jobs, strengthen families, and love our impoverished neighbors in Haiti, you can donate to their efforts HERE.
If you’d like to learn how to better love and serve those people facing challenges in your very own life, pick up a copy of my book, Alongside: A Practical Guide for Loving your Neighbor in their Time of Trial.
If you or someone you love is facing their own difficult season, pre-order a copy of my upcoming book, Hope in the Hard Places: How to Survive when Your World Feels out of Control.