An American friend of mine living in Haiti was put in jail - a Port au Prince penitentiary, actually. For those unfamiliar with conditions in Haitian pentitentiaries, think hell on earth, think sleeping in disease and defecation, think grown men crying, think you would rather be dead and you may very well be if you find yourself there.
I have another friend who is in Haiti right now, though in better circumstances, praise God. He is an missionary with a heart like the Apostle Paul’s, tearing it up for Jesus in the poorest and most dangerous country on this side of the planet. He had been in several Haitian villages last week, preaching on discipleship.
He has been on the island of Hispaniola a long time, long enough to see thousands of missionaries come and go. Haiti, in fact, is the most visited country on the planet, seeing more aide and missionaries per capita than any other country in the world. Yet, it remains the most poor and unchurched. Why is this? My friend mentioned discipleship.
We are told to
“...go and make disciples of all the nations...” Matthew 28:19a
But the church falls short. We go, we baptize and then we leave.
Why don’t we disciple more? Perhaps because much of the time, discipleship does not involve a lot of fruit. It consists of tilling fallow ground, of getting ripped up by overgrown thorns and moving heavy offensive stones. Preparing the soil is half the battle and it is hard work. Sometimes, after all the labor, the ground produces very little, if at all. And sometimes, if there is an abundant harvest, you are not the one to reap it.
"I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow." (1 Cor 3:6)
Missions is hard work. Discipleship is hard work. Short term missions trips, however, are more popular than ever. Short term missions trips remind me of a pick your own blueberry farm. For a small fee, one can drive to a blueberry patch and pick all the bluberries you want and then go home with a bucket full of fruit. Easy in, easy out, and very gratifying.
100 years ago, it wasn’t like this. There were no pick-your-own-blueberry farms. A 100 years ago, people grew their own food. If you wanted to grow blueberries, there was a high price to pay. People knew the real cost and hard work of toiling the earth to produce fruit. Missions work was different back then, too. 100 years ago, a missions trip meant packing all of your belongings into a pine coffin and setting sail...
Don’t get me wrong. Blueberry farmers need extra help at harvest time. There are millions of blueberries that ripen all at once and the extra hands keep blueberries from rotting on the vine. Perhaps some of those folks coming around at harvest time will get so enamoured by the abundance, that they will become inspired to do the hard work of raising their own fruit. Some people just need to experience how sweet a blueberry tastes when it’s picked fresh to even start liking blueberries....
Still, chosing to plow fallow ground, clear out rocks, chase away pests and critters, water, weed, prune, fertilize...still does not guarantee a harvest.
I think of my friend in the Haitian pentitentiary. He moved to Haiti as a missionary when he was 18. He has lived there 20 years, some of those years in Cite Soleil, considered to be the poorest and most dangerous ghetto on the planet. He toiled tirelesly. It seemed his whole life was taking a pickax to hard, dry, lifeless soil. Today, after all of his love and dedication to the country and people he loves, he sits in a prison cell. Where is his fruit?
His last words in this video are eerie to me, as we wonder if we will ever see him again....
His last words in this video are eerie to me, as we wonder if we will ever see him again....
“I won’t live long enough to see the real change in Cite Soleil.” ~Zeke Petrie
Moses did not enter the Promised land. He traveled with the Israelites for 40 years, but when it was time for for them to cross over, he did not get to go in. Perhaps Zeke is paying the price to disciple in the country of Haiti - paying a price to see that nation cross over into the Promised Land.
My other friend is paying too. In his 12 years on the island of Hispaniola, he contracted deadly dengue fever twice, developed asthma, and is living a life of singleness. I mean, what woman wants to toil in a garbage dump all day long and then not be able to take a hot shower at night? Many women I know will pay $4.99 for a small triple-washed box of local organic blueberries from Whole Foods, but they won’t pay the price.
There’s a price to pay for preaching the gospel. Church history proves this. Paul, Steven, Peter and countless other saints were stoned, burned, flogged, ripped apart by lions, tortured, imprisoned or hung upsidedown on a cross. They toiled for the sake of Christ and they payed with their lives. Jesus is our greatest example of martyrdom. He layed down His life. The Good News is that He rose again. And so shall we...
There is promised fruit. Perhaps not in this lifetime. We may have to wait until Heaven to reap our harvest. There is always fruit once you get to the Promised Land. As Joshua said as he scouted out Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey, “The fruit is abundant!” See Numbers 13.
There is promised fruit. Perhaps not in this lifetime. We may have to wait until Heaven to reap our harvest. There is always fruit once you get to the Promised Land. As Joshua said as he scouted out Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey, “The fruit is abundant!” See Numbers 13.
Are we willing to pay the price? Are we willing to not just ‘go’ into the land, but to stay and do the hard work of discipleship? Even when we are covered in dirt and our back aches from carrying away stones? When we are dog tired and discouraged and ripped up by thorns? When the crop is infested with bugs and the fruit is not ripening and the sun is scorching? When we have to carry water from miles away because the rains won’t come and when the rains do come a flood carries away the crop? When a harvest does come but we cannot taste it’s sweetness?
Are we willing to believe God’s promises that our labor will not be in vain?
Will we count the cost? Will we pay the price?
For the hope set before us, will we endure the Cross?
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.” ~Luke 14:28-33
"From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?" ~John 6:66-7
