I have been on 2-3 mission trips a year in the last 7 years with a grand opening for me of the big wide open world out there. Each trip is truly not the same, but a new introduction deeper into the heart of the local people. Keeping our word and working as long as it takes to see each patient who has walked up to 20 miles to see us in our free clinic is very important in building trust in our services to them. I recommend that everyone go on a mission trip young and old!
You will never look at the world the same again. You will look at the many blessings and resources around you in this country, and you will also never forget the people you went to serve. You will celebrate the beauty and diversity of others. You see in life; everyone is unique and makes a difference in the circle of life. Never would I have dreamed of being a mother—‘Mama LaBlanc’ to 10+ Haitian sons who also translate for me when treating God’s children young and old of Haiti.
Matthew 4:18-22 (NKJV)18 – And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 They immediately left their nets and followed Him. 21 Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.
I had heard this story many times as a child attending the Oakley ‘Brick’ Church of the Brethren in a small farm community in central Illinois. Jesus was gathering his 12 disciples from all venues of employment across His land —this verse refers to the choosing of 4 fishermen. One might wonder how Jesus stumbled upon these four men—did he like fish and thought, “I find some fishermen so we don’t have to spend so much money on food—we’ll eat healthy” and you can figure out the rest of the story OR maybe he liked to be on a lake and enjoyed the peacefulness of drifting in a boat at times. Well, whatever reason we can think of —— the real truth is that nothing happens by chance with God. There is no ‘luck’ or surprises to God. You read in the Old Testament “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (New Living Translation).
Well, I speak these verses to share with you just an example of how God works in mysterious ways in our lives. It all started with a privileged friendship I have with Pastor Paul of CHI St. Luke’s Woodlands Hospital. I have had the honor of serving the ill and sometimes dying working as a team with our wonderful Spiritual Care partners. I have found Pastor Paul eager and supernaturally anointed to serve the clients in this setting; he is also a valued friend and someone who has prayed with me on several occasions for personal needs including my medical mission trips to Haiti.
God’s Scene 2—-The Woodlands Waterway Art Festival with requests for assistance for the First Aid location representing CHI SLWH. I have never been able in my 4 years to serve at any of these events primarily due to planned times out of state with my children and their families. Enter God who spoke to my heart, signed up, and unbeknown to me, so did Pastor Paul, some other colleagues, and a new young night patient care assistant in the ER, Amy Gomez, RN. I was busy at first helping set things up and Paul was busy talking with Amy. He said, “Marcy goes to Haiti on medical mission trips; you should talk to her”.
Immediately, Amy said, “Wow! I would love to go to Haiti on a medical mission!!!” I was a little skeptical with her comment, as in the last 4 years I have had several folks say the same thing, but something would always come up and they would not be able to go. “Oh, yea, of little faith!” LOL!
God’s Scene 3—-I had given Amy my phone number and a couple days later, she called me to report she was planning to go on the mission trip! God was working again to produce a bumper crop as Amy was also bringing night shift travel RN friend (Meghan Strickland) who was just completing her assignment at CHI SLWH and moving back to Kentucky. Lots of obstacles, but here is the God thing——–God opens doors when they would seem impossible and He does have a plan. The plan here was for Pastor Paul to be my blessing in life and the instigator of a medical mission trip that would include these 2 awesome medical workers on the 7-day medical mission trip of a total of 10 people to travel by decanter truck from Port of Prince up the mountainside to the school, orphanage and church yard of Pastor Isaac I in Marmalade, Haiti where miracle after miracle occurred. You see people go on mission trips to help others and they get blindsided by an All-powerful God who shakes your world in a magnificent way so that your life is never, ever the same again. After 2 days in clinic and having RN’s serve with me to examine children, parents, orphans, and the elderly, giving hugs, looking in their eyes to let them know they matter to us and to their heavenly Father, and handing out a few bags of vitamins, Tylenol, ibuprofen, and other medications, God was showering us all with blessings untold. In our nightly devotion, there were tears of joy and a Hope from God as Amy shared what an inspiration Meghan’s life of faith was to her and how God was tugging at her (Amy’s) heart strings for a closer walk with Jesus. Meghan voiced the same blessings as did we all. We were experiencing the prayer: “Dear God, Break my heart for what breaks Yours”—as we are in a nation with so much poverty and lack of material things, but so rich spiritually in the Heart of God. The faith of the people of Haiti and those who were a part of the family of God in Pastor Isaac I’s church also makes us vulnerable to how frail our faith is. You see you can never out give God nor can you ever see exactly what His plans are from your small world. Time and time again, I have had to remind myself to only trust Him by learning to walk by faith and not by sight.
As I share these details with you, it is to acknowledge the experience of God’s plan and how he opens doors when we least expect it. Yes, even in my life, your life, and a hospital in a prosperous corner of the city, He is moving in each and everyone’s lives for a greater good. My prayer for you is that you would have many encounters and blessings to be used in small or big ways by God. May your daily prayer be for you to be open to whatever God has planned for the moment.
Don’t miss God’s opening doors of opportunities. I am so blessed to have God open doors for me every day. You know He is doing that for you, too. I pray that you would avail yourself for whatever He has for you and that you will have the chance encounters such as Pastor Paul, Amy, Meghan, and someone or some persons who need just what you have in the way of compassion, hope, a smile, a work and needed care.
We who love God are called to be fishers of men. Try it just once, whether faith based or non-denominational. I promise you that your life will never be the same!
