Jessie Mathieu is a missionary in Haiti and is currently serving with Happy Kids International. She is a member of CFC and one that we must continue to pray for as she is fulfilling the Great Commission in Haiti.
Bonswa!
It's been a little longer than I had planned since I could sit down and give you all a little update on life in Haiti so I apologize. Life has been fast and furious but it’s been good. Here lately though I've been getting more questions asking if Haiti feels like "home" yet. The answer would be no. Which then made me think about more about “home?" I refer to the States, and more specifically Kentucky as home more often than not. Home is a place you go back to where life doesn't seem to change. It's constant. It's a place of refuge. It's a place that no matter how long you've been away, it welcomes you with open arms. Home, at least for me, is a place that brings me joy. But I'm quickly reminded when I'm home that things aren't the same and I'm the one that has changed. I've grown. I've moved on. Home was for a season--and a good season--but seasons change. Speaking of change, I've changed A LOT since I lived at home. It is a necessary and good thing; not always easy, but it's good.
However, living in Haiti has given me clarity to where "home" really is. My citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). HOME IS HEAVEN.
I wasn't made for this world--I'm just a sojourner passing through on my way Home. I'm being refined and made more in His image daily and for that I am thankful. This sanctification stuff is hard but the reward is worth the struggle. I am "in this world but not of this world" and heaven is the reward that far outweighs anything this world has to offer.
That's the message I carry with me as I proclaim the gospel here. I gain a better understanding of where "home" is when I'm sharing with my brothers and sisters here in Haiti. Many of their homes are a couple pieces of rusty, hole-filled scrap metal and a few weather-beaten, sun-pelted, flimsy, tattered and torn tarps. The contrast between my earthly home and their earthly homes quickly reminds me that the joy I receive when I'm home doesn't go across the board and ring true for every person or every time of every culture. For some, home is a constant reminder of what they don't have.
One of the things I am asked to pray for with people in the communities we serve, more often than not, is for them to have a "better house." There is no joy in where they live. I am thankful that the hope of the gospel transcends and crosses cultures though. I go with the good news of the Gospel. That Jesus was the Son of God, lived a sinless life, died the death we deserved, rose on the third day and will return again to take us to our true Home. A home that is far greater than any earthly dwelling.
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. {John 14: 1-6}
He's coming back to take us Home and oh how I await that glorious day. SO: Haiti is not home. And Kentucky is not home. Heaven is home for me and those who are in Christ. Be encouraged. And I leave you with the words from an incredible woman of faith who taught me many things:
“The will of God is never exactly what you expect it to be. It may seem to be much worse, but in the end it’s going to be a lot better and a lot bigger.” -Elisabeth Elliot