International Prayer Day First Monday each month 10 am

Joel Griffith 2/24/21 Joel Griffith 2/24/21

Wash your hands.

“The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.) Mark 7:1-4

When were you taught to wash your hands before you ate and say a prayer before you eat? As a child, I remember getting my fingernails checked by my mom’s hands and eyes after I had ‘washed’ my hands. My dad came in from the farm chores and scrubbed his hands with Lava soap and I still recall how white his hands looked and how clean they smelled.

One of the first lessons we learned from the medical profession at the onset of the pandemic was ‘wash your hands; often”. In the attached photo the children attending the Lutheran school in Cap Haitian are washing their hands before they pray and then enjoy their Trinity HOPE lunch. This is one of the ‘lessons’ that is done at every Haitian school with a Trinity HOPE lunch program; along with prayers. Washing of their hands is so important and now especially with this pandemic.

Trinity HOPE is not just about feeding body and soul in Haiti, they also teach hygiene and reinforce the importance of turning our thought of giving thanks for all that we receive every day from our Heavenly Father. Thank you for continuing to be a blessing to each of the over 42,500 souls who are so thankful for your daily touch in their lives.

Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.

May God be with you…Jay

Joel Griffith 2/23/21 Joel Griffith 2/23/21

Rara band.

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Matthew 25:40-45

From time to time someone will ask me about the times when my life in Haiti was brushed or tempted by vodou, and how that impacted me. Vodou is estimated to be practiced by over 65% of Haitians to date and when we ask people to pray for children in Christian schools, we North Americans don’t fully imagine or comprehend what the school children are up against in their daily lives.

The attached photo is of a Vodou Rara band that was marching down the street outside of my apartment building in Petionville on an Easter afternoon. Rara bands are often led by a vodou priest and this particular group probably numbered 400 – 500 followers who were chanting and honking on long bamboo or plastic horns and some were pounding on drums. These people are following the liar and by their outward appearances, are lost. These are the people that ‘assure’ children in Christian schools that satan defeated Christ on Good Friday. They will stress that Jesus died on the cross, was buried and is still in the grave. In vodou temples there are crosses buried up to the cross bar to signify that Christ is still in the tomb.

These bands are really active during Lent as that is when they will do whatever they can to cast doubt into the lives of Christians in Haiti. On weekends in Lent, they generally march on Saturday night and don’t stop until Sunday morning, hopeful that will keep people from attending worship service.

On the first Monday of each month, we ask that you dedicate a prayer time at 10 AM for children in Trinity HOPE feeding programs. May their lives be protected by a company of angels as they are spirit driven to proclaim the Gospel of our Risen Lord and Savior to the lost, such as these, in their families, neighborhoods and to strangers on their streets in Haiti.

May God be with you…Jay

Joel Griffith 2/22/21 Joel Griffith 2/22/21

Turning away.

“But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:32

In this passage, Jesus is praying for Simon Peter, what a wonderful reassurance; when we pray in the name of Jesus; He intercedes for us. This was a time when satan was seeking to separate Peter from Christ; it happens to us too. When we see something more exciting in this world than fixing our eyes upon His cross; we need to be reminded that He is still in our presence; it is us that are turning away.

Too often we just don’t comprehend how much we have been blessed, rescued, gifted, healed or been comforted by our Savior’s prayers. When we are brought into our Heavenly home, we will hopefully be able to realize all of the times He has touched our lives and we will have endless times to praise Him.

These children attending the Lutheran School in St. Marc pray for you daily. They ask their Savior to bless your journey, they give thanks for you and rejoice for the blessings that you have provided for them; a meal at their school every day. That day when you stand at the feet of your Savior, look around you and see their joy filled faces next to you as they join in praising our Savior.

I would like to close this devotion with the words from the first verse of the hymn ‘While yet the Morn is Breaking’ which was written by Johannes Muehlmann in 1613.

“While yet the morn is breaking, I thank my God once more, beneath whose care awaking, I find the night is o'er, I thank Him that He calls me to life and health anew; I know, whate'er befalls me, His care will still be true.”

May God be with you…Jay

Joel Griffith 2/20/21 Joel Griffith 2/20/21

The weekend is here.

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5

Saturday, its finally here. Seems like it’s been a long, cold, dark week with snow covering most everything in Normal. What comes to your mind when the weekend arrives? With this pandemic, the usual routine has changed quite a bit. It seems like every day this week someone that I know has tested positive and one, Helen Roenfeldt from Florida who spent countless hours in Haiti doing His work, passed away from COVID. For me, this week I got vaccinated and am wearing an ear tag to prove it, along with my mask. If you have spent any time with cattle you will appreciate my humor, if not…get over it. The weekend is here and our thoughts probably turn to doing chores around your property, perhaps grocery shopping and of course preparing for Church on Sunday.

Think for a moment, what drives your weekend planning; availability of time, weather, priorities and funds? Too often we don’t recall the words of the Apostle Paul in Hebrews 13:5 and we allow our lives to be driven by wanting more, quite often just wanting more stuff. The attached photo was taken at the ‘mall’ in Les Cayes and school children are walking home in the afternoon, gazing at items that are most likely distant dreams to them.

How long are we ever content with what we have? I challenge you to go to your bedroom closet and honestly take an inventory of its contents and come to grips with your level of contentment. Spring is around the corner and it will be a time to purchase ‘new’ things again and ship the ‘old’ things to a faraway land where your ‘trash’ becomes their ‘treasures.’

The items hanging on the market are not new; they belonged to people like you not that long ago. Didn’t intend for this to turn into a Lutheran guilt trip, but rather a subtle reminder that our Triune God will never leave us, will never forsake us, He is always there providing for us with everything that we need; be content in that.

The school children walking by the market in Les Cayes are from one of our Trinity/HOPE schools, you can tell by their uniforms that they wear. God has provided their clothes, their home and through you, their noon lunch. Thank you for answering the call, providing for their physical and spiritual training.

May God be with you…Jay

Joel Griffith 2/19/21 Joel Griffith 2/19/21

Fasting.

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:11-13

Lent is here and there is talk of fasting around the internet on social media. This always strikes me as North Americans discuss having to ‘give up’ something they like for Lent; chocolate, bagels, cream cheese and an array of other items that will crush their lifestyle; while in Haiti there are people fasting, not ‘giving up’ meals because of their choosing, but simply because they have nothing to eat. Their thankfulness for food is genuine and we don’t and prayerfully never will fully understand what it is like to be truly thankful for having that one meal every day.

Perhaps a good fast during this pandemic would be to give up complaining. I give up eating two days during each week in Lent, to remind me of my Savior’s submission to the pains, agony and death on Calvary for my sins. Small sacrifice for what He did for me and you on that cross standing on the hill at Golgotha two thousand years ago. Saying ‘no’ to North American food for two days of each week is pale compared to His silence to the charges rendered against His innocence.

My friend, Pastor Darrell Stuehrenberg who is today basking in Glory, sent me the following back in the day and its meaningful use of words touched on ‘Fasting’ and I’m sharing them with you today; Fast from fear.... Feast on faith. Fast from despair.... Feed on hope. Fast from depressing news... Feed on prayer. Fast from discontent... Feast on gratitude. Fast from anger and worry.... Feed on patience. Fast from negative thinking.... Feast on positive thinking. Fast from bitterness.... Feed on love and forgiveness. Fast from words that wound... Feast on words that heal. Fast from grave thoughts... Feast on the promise of eternal life!!

The attached photo of a young boy in Gonaives reminded me of going without…food, clothing and all the pleasures of this world that we take for granted. There are over 33,500 children giving thanks today because of your financial sacrifice to put a meal on their school desk and they also know and appreciate that they are surrounded by your prayers every day. Thank you for answering the call of our Savior and for continuing to pray and support the children in Trinity/HOPE feeding programs.

May God be with you…Jay

Joel Griffith 2/18/21 Joel Griffith 2/18/21

Resist the devil.

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7

God gave us the Ten Commandments to bring order to His people; they were applicable centuries ago and are still best rules for today. We are to have no other gods than the Triune God, we are not to use His name in vain, we are to keep the Sabbath Day holy, we are to honor our parents and we are not to kill, commit adultery, steal, lie or covet the things that belong to our neighbor. And Jesus adds to respect others as you would like to be respected and love your neighbor as yourself. Great set of values for us, for North America, for China, for India, for Haiti, for the world…God’s world.

From what I know of the man in the photo, he would have nothing to do with anything that you just read. He is a vodou witch doctor in Croix de Bouquets which is a suburb in Port-au-Prince. I don’t know if he or his ‘temple’ survived the earthquake in 2010, if he did not, chances are from his outward appearance, he is not in heaven today.

What is his purpose in life? He makes a living by selling fear and perpetuating the lies from satan, he is a control addict that satan uses to do his bidding. This man is a grave robber, stealing organs and bones from the departed and grinds them into dust and uses them to call out evil spirits and send them to bring pain upon people want bad things to befall their neighbors. This man is a murderer, animals and possibly young children who are brought to him for healing, but they never do get better as their blood is slowly drained over a period of months and replaced with poison.

Jesus tells us in Luke that the Son of man came to seek and save the lost. This man is lost, and there are hundreds more like him Haiti, lost souls serving the prince of liars. The purpose of children attending Christian schools in Haiti is to bring the light of our risen Savior Jesus Christ into the lives of such as this. This despicable human being needs a Savior, the people he hurts need a Savior and you and I have the gift and means to help bring the news of salvation to the lost in Haiti.

Thank you for helping to prepare future missionaries attending Christian schools in Haiti. Their purpose is not easy, and neither is ours but our Savior gave His life for us on Calvary…His purpose on this earth was to save this world of sinners. Thank you for answering the call of our Savior and for continuing to pray and support the children in Trinity/HOPE feeding programs.

May God be with you…Jay

Joel Griffith 2/17/21 Joel Griffith 2/17/21

Ash Wednesday.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2

Ash Wednesday is upon us and it reminds me that Easter is fast approaching; it causes me to think about the death and resurrection of Jesus. The real purpose of His life was to offer Himself as a sacrifice for our sins, for the sins of mankind. Jesus became sin for us so that we could be forgiven and found sparkling clean in the eyes of our Heavenly Father. Jesus knew His purpose on this earth and he predicted when and how it would happen in Matthew 26:2.

Do you know your purpose as your journey continues? Luther would probably say our purpose is to love and joyfully serve the Triune God. If you have read Rick Warren’s ‘Purpose Driven Life’ book, you may have a more laid out course that you feel matches your God given talents. The verses in Hebrew 12 encourages us to fix our eyes upon Jesus, the perfecter of our faith; Jesus looked beyond the cross and focused on the joy that would be for us.

The attached photo is pure joy. This girl in Cap Haitian is holding tightly on to a plate of happiness, you can tell that in her smile and the look of her eyes. The Bible teaches that there is great joy in heaven whenever a sinner repents and my human mind thinks that there is also a great shout of joy when they over 33,500 children in Haiti with a plate of food that will bring energy to their life as they go out into their neighborhoods sharing the Gospel message of their Savior who died and rose on Easter Sunday.

What is your purpose; what is her purpose? Our awesome Triune God gives us many opportunities to share the news of His only Son, our Savior with the lost in this world. We have been daily given an opportunity to share of our abundance with a generation of believers in Haiti who will in turn bring the Cross to the lost. Your purpose and her purpose can be one in the same; that is a God thing. Thank you for your continued support of these Trinity/HOPE feeding programs.

May God be with you…Jay

Joel Griffith 2/16/21 Joel Griffith 2/16/21

School teachers.

“As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” John 9:4

Trinity/HOPE school feeding programs are all about feeding school children; they are the future missionaries in Haiti. Their Christian witness in Haitian Creole is far superior to anything that a ‘blan’ (person without color) North American could say or do in their neighborhoods; ‘go and make disciples’ pertains to the work that we are called to do and they are called to do. It seems like most of the time you see the photos of the children studying, eating, playing and smiling and yet there are a core of individuals whose importance sometimes gets overlooked in the background.

In the attached photo are two teachers at Bon Berger Lutheran School in Caredeux. The woman on the right is one of my favorite teachers, Sylvia, Pastor Thomas Bernard’s sister, and I was delighted to see her in March of 2010 and know that she and her family survived the deadly earthquake.

While traveling throughout Haiti visiting schools it was interesting to find that many of the teachers returned to the small schools where they had attended as children, to return to their home to become teachers and principals after they received their teaching certificates. Their journey certainly provided hope to the students who sit in the class wondering about their future. They will prayerfully share the news of our risen Savior with the lost and perhaps return to their roots and also share their lessons of life with the next generation.
Teachers; my mom was a school teacher in Seward County before she became a farm wife and raised my sister and me, teaching us life’s lessons. When school teachers from North America go to Haiti on a mission team with me, it was always a comfort to have them along as they interacted with the children so much better than I ever could. They share the love of Christ through songs and crafts and that leaves time for me to do the mundane tasks, checklists and interviewing the children.

I never thought about interviewing the teachers in the same manner as the children are asked about their eating habits away from school, but started to do that when I returned to Haiti. Looking at the smiles on the teachers faces, it would seem that they could be your next-door neighbor but their lives are much different. They too eat a Trinity/HOPE lunch and are probably just as thankful as the children at their school to have a meal every day they are in school.

Thank you for your continued support of these 160 programs. When you pray for the 33,500 children attending Christian schools in Haiti, please remember to add the dedicated teachers and principals as well to your daily petitions as they are an integral part of His divine work in the lives of the children in Haiti.

May God be with you…Jay

Joel Griffith 2/15/21 Joel Griffith 2/15/21

Snow.

“Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.” Psalm 51:7

Yesterday morning, the temperature here in Normal, IL was -4 degrees with a windchill of -25 degrees; depending where you may have been standing. There is about 4 inches of ‘dry’ snow in my backyard, where my “trained” squirrels have to dig through the cold white powder to find the ears of corn that I left them. I can still recall while working on a survey crew in Kimball County, NE in the early 70’s that I was given a small chart the size of playing card that gave the bearer the ability to determine the windchill index and we were to apply that to another formula so we would now know how much to add to the length of our steel chain while measuring. We quickly labeled this new resource the “index of misery.”

To the many Christians who have lived in Haiti all of their lives, the reference to ‘snow’ in Psalm 51 is truly foreign to them. Probably 90 percent of Haiti still does not have electricity in their homes and the only way for them to get close to anything cold is to purchase ice from a street vendor; man-made ice in a ten-pound solid block or perhaps a small plastic bag with a pound of cubes. While living in Haiti it was very early on when I stopped drinking anything with ice cubes when I discovered a fly in a cube of my water at Hotel Kinam. Snow, a gift from God, is something that is very distant from them.

When North Americans travel to Haiti and visit schools and worship on Sunday, they are always amazed at how brilliantly white and clean the children’s clothes appear. The Haitian teachers, principals and pastors are asked what kind of detergent they use through an interpreter and their question too is foreign because the Haitians just use plain dry soap that typically has no brand, just a bag of white soap flakes. Again, they don’t have electricity, they don’t have Laundromats but they do have and ample supply of time, energy and rivers and canals.

Lori Wolfe-Beerenstrauch from Lincoln, NE captured the attached photo of a woman doing her laundry in a canal near Gonaives. This woman is cleansing each garment with a small quantity of soap and an ample supply of elbow grease. Everything is there, wash water, rinse water, the wringer and the drier is on the rocks behind her.

While living in Haiti I preferred to use Woollite on my laundry in the small bathroom sink and was blessed with a clothesline on the top of my apartment where the Haitian sun would dry my clothes. Nobody ever stopped to ask me how I got my clothes so clean; guess I used the wrong brand of soap.

The children attending the Lutheran and Christian schools in Gonaives learn about washing clothes and also about the washing of their sins through Baptism. Their sins are washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ; they are whiter than snow. Thank you for supporting their Christian education in Haiti as they take their daily Scripture lessons to the lost into neighborhoods where the lost souls reside and still live in darkness.

May God be with you…Jay

Joel Griffith 2/13/21 Joel Griffith 2/13/21

Refusing rescue.

“This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,” 1 Corinthians 2:13-15

I read a devotion from Pastor Ken Klaus recently that was titled “Refusing Rescue” and this title has been tugging at me all week, twisting and turning in my mind. He talked about the construction of the Kariba Dam between Zambia and Zimbabwe and how building of this structure displaced close to 60,000 people from both countries. The people knew what was happening and even though they might not have liked the project they understood that they would have to move.

The bigger problem was that the animals didn’t understand what was about to happen, the flood was coming and it would not cease until their territory was under a lot of water. With the flood gates closed, a team of animal rescuers came together to rescue the antelope, leopard, elephants, the buffalo, the rhinoceros; all the animals from their shrinking islands being overtaken by the coming flood. They didn’t understand the dam, appreciate the rising water and resisted the efforts of their well-meaning rescuers.

The attached photo is of a vodou temple Northwest of St. Marc and sadly these temples are a haven where over 65% of the population of Haiti seek help from the rising waters, the problems caused by satan, bad government, a pandemic, disease, angry neighbors. They seek assistance from the vodou priest to call upon their evil spirits to rescue them from the rising waters. The vodou priest insists that Jesus Christ died on the cross and was buried and satan was victorious…period. The vodou followers march through the cities and rural roads proclaiming victory for satan on Easter; they are “Refusing rescue”.

We have the Holy Spirit, and need to share good news, the truth, with those who are sadly following the loser, the liar and the louse of this world. God sent a rescuer into this world, His Son our Savior, and Christ gave us a commissioning to go and make disciples throughout the world.

Thank you for following His call to throw the only life preserver to the lost in Haiti that will save, by promoting Christian education through your generous donation to Trinity/HOPE. They will pass the life preserver to the lost, who have been and are continuing to refuse to be rescued. Thank you for helping them to reach out to the lost, those who have not heard the truth, those who have resisted being rescued because they believed the lies of satan.

May God be with you…Jay