Bright smiles.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 4:6-7

I can’t begin to count the number of times people have commented on the bright smiles on the faces of the children in the Trinity HOPE photos.  The smiles are real and it’s really too bad you cannot hear their giggling, feel their hugs and fully embrace their appreciation for your gift that provides a pot of food outside their school.

Perhaps their hope is what we really can’t comprehend.  They have a new found hope in Jesus Christ who has conquered the neighborhood vodou priest on the cross and they know that they are saved.  They come to school hungry as they typically have little or nothing to eat for dinner after school or breakfast prior to school and when we take their photo sitting at their desk, they can smell the food and the smiles tell you that there is a special blessing waiting for them.

We have known Jesus for some time, some of us were baptized as infants and have walked with him all our lives and probably take way too much for granted.  We have food, in our cupboards, in our fridge, freezer, pantry, desk, nightstand, automobile and probably even something stashed in a coat pocket.  The wild birds and pesky squirrels in my immediate neighborhood eat better every day than the children in the attached photo attending school in Les Cayes.

It is hard to imagine how something so small from us can mean so much to them.  Four dollars will feed these sixteen children in the Southwest corner of Haiti a meal of beans and rice for a day.  There are several hundreds of children in their school that receives funding from an LWML Grant to Trinity HOPE.  Our Triune God feeds His sheep through people like you in His world.  Thank you for your continued prayers and financial support.

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

Spirit of the Living God.

“Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Mark 4:10-11

The other day, Alexa played an arrangement by Vickie Winans on the Gospel music that was called ‘Spirit of the Living God’ and the words continue to encourage me.  They initially brought me to consider how God has been working on my life for seven plus decades now and then it began to impress upon me how our Triune God is working through the lives of the children attending Christian schools in Haiti.

The words to this song are “Spirit of the living God fall fresh on me, Spirit of the living God fall fresh on me.  Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me; Spirit of the living God fall fresh on me.”  Consider how these words describe the work of our Triune God is impacting these two young lives walking along the road to Les Cayes.

“Melt me.”  There is a point in their lives and in our life when we need to be melted down.  There comes a time in our lives when we are like an unused candle that has accumulated the dirt of this sinful world, and we need to be melted down and once again be purified; Christ accomplished this for us on the cross of Calvary.  These young lives have been under the weight of lies from the vodou priest; lies that are being retold to them by members of their family and playmates.

“Mold me.”  When our being was being shaped in our mother’s womb, we were given specific qualities and abilities by our Creator.  We were give a ‘sweet spot’ as Max Lucado call it.  Some of us sing, some of us write, some of us are encouragers, some of us are builders; and the list of abilities is endless as He gave each of us special things to accomplish in this world.  These two young lives are being molded through Christian education at their School.  They are being molded to use their special gifts to accomplish His will for their lives while bringing more into the Kingdom.

“Fill me.”  I could interpret this as meaning their bodies were being filled daily with a meal of rice and beans from Trinity HOPE but that would not be correct; even though they are daily receiving such a blessing.  These two young lives and our lives too need to daily be fed the Word; we need to immerse ourselves in His Word daily to accomplish His will.  Lile SCUBA divers, our tanks need to be connected to our Heavenly Father each and every day to stay focused along our journey.

“Use me.”  May our work be His work and not ours.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will descend upon us and use us to do His work in this sinful world.  Our work should be all about Him and not about us, because without Him we cannot accomplish the work that He created for us to do.  Thank you for continuing to support these children attending Christian schools in Haiti.

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

Time for lunch.

“Give us today our daily bread.” Matthew 6:11

What did you have for dinner last night?  Did you have enough to eat?  Did you go to bed hungry?  Did you have something to eat before you came to school this morning?  Those are a sample of the questions that a Trinity HOPE mission team member will ask about a dozen or so children while visiting their school in Haiti.  Answers don’t very too much, seventy percent generally answer ‘no’ to eating questions and ‘yes’ to the question about going to be hungry.

When was that last time that you would have answered ‘no’ eating before bed or before you left for school or work?  In North America we might ‘skip’ if a meal if we are in a hurry to get somewhere.  Our children come home after school and open the fridge door and stand and considering all the options for a snack before dinner.

Back in 1998, a dietitian from Vanderbilt University was asked to put together a good meal for Haitian children considering the ingredients available locally.  The attached photo is what a child in Haiti has for lunch at school, if there is a Trinity HOPE feeding program; many schools have no such program.  A bowl of beans, rice, vegetable oil, tomato paste, onions, maggi and little bit of smoked red herring for seasoning; the children absolutely love it.

This bowl is for a medium sized child, costs a quarter for their meal for the day.  What a bargain.  When they pray the Lord’s prayer and come to the “Give us this day our daily bread” their heads nod as the words leave their lips.  Sadly, we take that petition for granted too often as our cupboard and fridge are generally full of food.  Next time you pray before your meal, pause and think about a child in Haiti and their noon meal, praying over that bowl of beans and rice and consider how blessed you are and how you could be a blessing to one of them with your abundance.

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

The Great Commission.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28-19-20
Back in the day, when living in Haiti, visiting congregation in the rural areas, it was not unusual to see this type of structure in the attached photo; there were a few that did not have the palm branches covering the walls but did have sturdy wood poles or concrete pillars supporting a metal roof.

When you get into your vehicle on Sunday and drive to your home congregation consider where most of the Christians living in Haiti are worshipping on Sunday.  They either ride in a taptap or walk to church and their pew is generally a small wooden bench that is used for a school desk during the week.  No hymnals, no organ, no indoor plumbing, no electricity and their service will not be over in an hour or less.  The best way to describe why their worship services may last for up to three hours is because they have so much to be thankful for…a risen Savior who is Christ the Lord.

When Jesus gave each of us the great commission, He closed by saying that “He is with us always, to the very end of the age.”  Imagine that he is with you always and with them always…to the very end of the age.  Comforting, isn’t it?  He delights in our opulent filled sanctuary and also enjoys their simplicity.  Not interested in our surroundings, that is worldly thinking, He is interested in our souls and tells us to go and win more souls and save them from the burning lake of fire in hell.  Thank you for helping to prepare thousands of His children to answer His call.

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

Let it shine.

“You are the light of the world…let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16  

The darkness of our world has been incredibly apparent over the past few years. Most would agree, our world needs light now! As Christians, we have the Light of Christ living inside of us…and as those whom His Light has shined…we are called and empowered to shine His light on our hurting world. 

Maybe before we seek to shine that light, we should clarify God’s light is.  Well, maybe viewing it like this might help - It’s the unexplainable way we can receive hope over despair, peace over chaos, and joy over sorrow. This isn’t just some feeling or renewed sense of hope or peace, but that which ultimately comes from  Christ’s sacrifice and the salvation He gives us. 

You see, we have a God who loves us so much, He not only redeems us and brings us home, but He fills us with His own Spirit and power.  As such, His light becomes our light. In John 1:4-5, he writes, “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” God is light. Therefore, His Light is in us and it is not meant to be kept to ourselves or hidden. 

Do you remember from childhood the song, “This little Gospel Light of Mine”?  Well, the phrase ‘Let Your Light Shine’ implies that we have a choice. We can shine the light of Christ or not. We can be given an opportunity, but not respond to the Spirit’s prompting. Yes, we can cover God’s light, keeping it from shining forth into the world.  Instead, we are to see each day as an opportunity to “Let it shine!”  Yes, our world is filled with much darkness, but we have the One who is the Light that can change everything! 

Jesus said in Matthew 5: 14-16: “You are the light of the world…let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”  That my friends, is what Trinity Hope does every day, one bowl at a time, one child, one life! And with everyone, the Light of Christ shines as the One who feeds the body and spirit alike! 

May the Lord continue to empower each of us to serve and honor Him by daily shining His Light in word and deed in all we do!

Rejoicing in and sharing God’s amazing grace,

Pastor James Rockey

LWML Kitchen

“When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”  “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”  Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”  Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”  He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”  Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”  The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”  Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”  Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.”  John 21:15-17

I was looking through some PowerPoint presentations that I had given before the pandemic disrupted ‘normal’ life in our world and this one photo just keeps sticking in mind.  I like to call it the “LWML kitchen” at the Messif School in Ouanaminthe.  I can tell you that there are at least 170 other kitchens at schools throughout Haiti that closely resemble this cooking station.  Nothing fancy, a big pot of rice and beans setting on top of some burning embers just waiting for a horde of hungry children to come running and excited for their lunch. 

The Saturday men’s Bible study is going through the ‘Forgiveness of Jesus’ video study with Matt Williams and he was speaking about this very same exchange between Jesus and Peter from the book of John and it further draws me back to that photo, back to that pot sitting on the fire at that school.  Jesus basically tells Peter again and again “if you love me, take care of my sheep.”  Not a lot of direction, pretty simple, take care of my children, feed them…take care of them if you love me.  There is one element about Trinity HOPE that I have always admired, they are focused on feeding His sheep, all of the over 54,000 of them living in Haiti at the present time.  Trinity HOPE doesn’t build schools, repair earthquake damage, dig latrines or wells, purchase school supplies or buy land with any funds from the support that is donated from people like you…they feed children.  Ninety-six percent of the donations they receive is used to feed children.

Back in the day, while living in Haiti I witnessed too many well-meaning organizations try to do too much, go in too many directions, trying to please everybody in Haiti and in North America and they ended up being similar to the Platte River in Nebraska with their accomplishments…a mile wide and six inches deep.  Getting so spread out in different directions, doing so much but not doing it very well…using God’s resources in ways that were not the best use of the support that had been donated.  Christ told Peter quite simply to feed and take care of His sheep. 
Trinity HOPE has continued to do one thing very, very well…feeding children attending Christian schools in Haiti.  Thank you for continuing to keep the kettles at our schools in Haiti full of beans and rice every day.  Thank you for answering the call of our Savior in John 21.
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

Hopelessness...

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  John 10:10

While driving through the Internet recently, I saw a news message with a photo of a sign along the road next to a Church in the countryside that read “Hope is real.”  I’ve been thinking about that message off and on as I have been going through these many photos of Haitian school children.  For way too many people in this world, hope is seemingly not real.

Things of the world in Haiti the past year might cause an unbeliever to doubt about ‘hope’ in their country.  The pandemic, the earthquake on Monday, the assassination of their president, attempted assassination of their P.M., gangs kidnapping anyone, local or foreign, they deem as having money and gangs causing shortages in many things families need to survive.

The dictionary defines Hopelessness this way; ‘someone who is hopeless is usually alone and cannot help themselves out of their dire situations.  They have a great sense of loss and helplessness.’  Christians must come alongside and bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the lost and hopeless, and share all that our Savior has to offer them.

This young girl from Cap Haitian has Hope.  She is baptized, attends the Lutheran school there and eats a Trinity HOPE lunch every day.  She wears a bracelet on her wrist that tells the story of our Triune God.  She is and will always be a messenger for our risen Savior in a land where hopelessness abounds.  Please keep our children in your prayers, along with their parents, teachers, pastors and Trinity HOPE supporters like yourself who continue to prepare His children to accomplish the Great Commission.

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

Serving Him.

“In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. Acts 9:36

Today, please keep those living in the Southwest claw of Haiti near Les Cayes in your prayers as they felt a 5.6 earthquake shake their ground yesterday.  It’s been twelve years since the powerful quake shook Port au Prince and just last year a similar quake shook this same area of Haiti.  Here in Central Illinois, we watch for blizzards and tornadoes that we generally have an early warning.  When the earth shakes, there is no advance notice. Today, I want to share with you the above passage from Acts and write about the seaport of Joppa, and how it will long be remembered because 2,000 years ago a faithful church worker lived there; her name was Dorcas.  She is legendary because of her work for charity.  She was rich both in giving and in personal service, honoring God and helping her neighbor for Jesus’ sake.

During the midpoint of her lifetime, she became ill and died.  The grieving was hard by her fellow believers and we read on in Acts, “Peter went with them, and when he arrived, he was taken upstairs to the room.  All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.  Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.”  She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up.  He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive.  This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.”

Along my journey, there have been many who are like Dorcas in their service to their Lord.  There are many children like the two girls from the Lutheran school in Gonaives in the attached photograph who may have never met their “Dorcas” face to face, but will when they receive their heavenly home.  There are many in the ranks of the Trinity HOPE supporters who could wear a “Dorcas” nametag when they get up and begin the next day of their journey, serving Him.  On behalf of these two children at this Lutheran school in the Artibonite District, and the over 54,000 other children in over 200 Christian schools in Haiti, we say “Beni Soit L’Eternal!” (Praise the Lord!) for your continued support.

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

The best food.

Jesus said "... and surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:20b
From the mouths of children come some of the greatest inspirations and insights that you can ever fathom.  Priceless pearls of wisdom or darts of brilliant light that help you to understand them and this world through their minds, words and actions.

I don’t recall the name of the boy in the photo; he wore the same shirt on the three days I happened to see him during one week in October.  He was one of the children chosen for our Trinity HOPE interview as we try to get an idea of how many of these children were regularly eating at home.

This young boy was happy to be in his home town of Ouanaminthe, in school and being fed.  He hadn’t eaten before he went to bed the night before school and his parents had given him a cup of coffee for his morning nourishment…no food.  When I asked what his favorite food was he said with a bright smile, Trinity HOPE rice and beans.  What a great advertisement for our group, “next time your mom goes to the store, tell her to pick up a box of the Trinity HOPE rice & beans”.

The boy was captured in another photo during the week, it was used a few days ago and he was shown with two other children with a bracelet on his wrist.  He goes to school, perspiration popping up on his forehead, learning about geography, math…and Jesus.  His life will touch others in the coming years and decades with the message of Hope for those who have not heard of Jesus.  Jesus tells us, “and surely I am with you always…”
You will meet many people in your life and do His work in many different ways along your journey.  You will make a difference in the lives of many through your words, encouragement and love.  It is really important to concentrate on those times where we can truly make a difference in another life.  Thank you for making that difference in over 54,000 lives, preparing His children to go share His message of salvation with the lost in Haiti.
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

Gratitude.

Gratitude.

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” 1 Chronicles 16:34

Back in the day when I was as old as this child, my family said the ‘Come Lord Jesus…’ prayer before our meal and the above verse from first Chronicles was our prayer after our meal.  This photo brings back a lot of memories for many different reasons.  I didn’t take the attached photo of the Haitian child giving thanks.  Denise Gudlin shared it with me.  The reverence in his face speaks so much to us about how thankful this child is for his lunch from Trinity HOPE.  There is so much more about this photo that causes me to give thanks for this school and how blessed these children really are, living in Port-au-Prince.  The high temps there this week have been in the low 90’s and there is no air conditioner cooling down this classroom.  But…he has food!  And what also caught my attention is the resource materials in the shelves behind him.  This child is giving thanks for all that our Heavenly Father has given to him.

I read a short article on ‘gratitude’ recently and want to share that with you this Saturday as we face many challenges in this time of many uncertainties.  “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” Melody Beattie, Writer.

Tomorrow, when you are standing in Church sanctuary, and you have an opportunity to give thanks, silently, please consider this child giving thanks and apply that to your world today; what is there to be thankful for today.

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