When an earthquake hits in a place like Haiti, who shows up? Governments come, relief agencies come, and now the human traffickers. But there's one other person who is visiting and His name is Jesus.

January 29, 2010

Guess Who’s Showing Up in Haiti

Who’s showing up after the earthquake in Haiti? Governments, relief organizations, Christian ministries, movie stars and human traffickers. Stealing children for domestic slavery and the sex trade gets a lot easier when their orphaned and homeless. Human trafficking was already a problem in Haiti, poor parents selling their children into domestic service where they could end up as slaves, orphanages adopt out children without checking credentials carefully and they end up victims of the sex trade. After a disaster the vultures come out in force and prey on hopeless children. Right now there’s so much concern that legitimate adoptions have been slowed down to try to prevent the fake adoptions. Children are precious and seeing them suffer is heartbreaking but seeing them intentionally turned into victims of such evil starts a slow burn of anger in our hearts, but our anger is nothing compared to the anger of God. I’m Charles Morris and welcome to Haven Today where we share the great story of the love of Jesus for children, even in Haiti. And this is a program called, “Who’s Showing Up in Haiti”. In a few minutes I want you to meet a young girl named Summer. “Jesus said, ‘If you care for the least of these you care for me.’ I bet Jesus was thinking about Saki and his mom when he said that. This is Summer Connor, a child of compassion for a child in poverty.” Her name is Summer Connor and you’ve probably heard her on a Compassion spot. She’ll be joining us in real time, in real live in just a moment because children are precious and we don’t want to see them suffer and neither does Jesus.

Song:
Performed by:

It’s been a while since we’ve heard Steve Green and “I Will Offer My Life” on this Haven Today called, “Who’s Showing Up in Haiti”. I’m Charles Morris and thanks for joining me on a program where we’re talking about children. And children are precious, aren’t they? And seeing them suffer is heartbreaking, but seeing them intentionally turned into victims of evil starts a slow burn in me and I think in all our hearts, but our anger is nothing compared to the anger of God. Listen to Jesus talking in Matthew 18, “At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom?’ and he called a little child and had him stand among them and he said, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven and whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.’” Jesus still talking here in Matthew 18, “Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. See that you do not look down on these little ones.” Then a little later in Matthew 19:13 and 14, “Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them, but the disciples rebuked those who brought them and Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let the little children come to me! For the kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.’” Well there you have it, strong words from Jesus. Jesus is deeply protective of little children and you see it in 4 things he does in these verses in Matthew. First, he sharply rebukes the disciples for shutting them out. You can tell how indignant he is, “Let the little children come to me!” exclamation mark. Second, he promises a terrible judgment is coming on those who hurt and exploit them. You can hear the anger burning in his words, “Woe to you!” You will be thrown into an eternal fire! Human traffickers will have a day of reckoning along with anyone who undermines the faith of a child. Third, he puts his hands on his heads and he blesses them. You can almost feel his tenderness as he blesses them and hear the gentleness in his voice as he calls the little child and asks him to stand there and then tells his disciples, “You must become like this little child.” And fourth, he assures us that anything we do for them in his name he counts as done for him. It’s like he lifts them up and puts them on his throne right next to him and says, “Care for these little ones and you care for me.” In fact he says, “Their angels in Heaven always see the face of my Father.” Their protectors have privileged access to my Father. Well, we’ve spent many days on Haven Today talking about Haiti and we’ve had people coming to us from Haiti. Tim Glenn from Compassion International was on with us last time with a ‘sat’ phone call from Haiti, and then we had him on the phone once he had just landed back in the United States and been able to debrief and had a few hours of sleep after sleeping on his back for many days in a parking lot under the stars in Haiti. Well, here’s somebody else I want you to meet. First of all, you may have heard her before, and her name is Summer, as she tells us.
“This is Summer Connor and I don’t think I’ve ever been hungry. What I mean is, there’s always food in our house. Saki is just a little kid. He lives in India and he never has enough to eat. His mother was begging in the city where they live. ‘Please!’ she said, ‘He hasn’t eaten today!’ So a lady who owned a store gave them pasta and vegetables to eat. She had seen Saki and his mother and wanted to help them. She did even more. She brought Saki and his mom to church, a Compassion church, where he can go to school, have food to eat and learn about Jesus, all because one lady cared enough to help him and his mom. Jesus said, ‘If you care for the least of these you care for me.’ I bet Jesus was thinking about Saki and his mom when he said that. This is Summer Connor, a child of compassion for a child in poverty.”

Well that, as you no doubt have heard in the past, is Summer Connor. She is a spokesperson and that was recorded but now, on the phone line with me from Southern California is –in real time, in real life – Summer Connor and Summer I want to welcome you to Haven Today.
SC: Thank you for having me Mr. Morris.
CM: Hey, I am so glad that we finally get to meet even if it’s on the telephone. Now I want you to tell me, because we’ve been talking about this earthquake in Haiti, and you personally have contact with a Haitian orphan, don’t you?
SC: Yes, her name is Amanatha.
CM: And how do you know her?
SC: We sponsor her from Compassion. She’s 7 years old and we get letters from her and we write letters to her and we keep her in our prayers at all times. Recently we’ve been praying about the earthquake, that she and her family would be safe and so would all the other children and their families in Haiti.
CM: Your family, as you just said, is her sponsor and there are 65,000 orphans that Compassion looks after in Haiti and as far as we know right now most of the orphans, including your orphan, are OK, but we’re still waiting for word on all of them. But what are you going to say in the next letter that you write to the orphan you sponsor in Haiti? What do you think you’re going to write Summer?
SC: I’m going to write, ask her how she is doing and if her church is still alright and if she’s still connecting with it and how she’s progressing with Jesus and her faith.
CM: Hmm. Let me tell you Summer, a lot of times we have somebody on the program and I ask them to pray. Let’s pray and you lead all of our listeners, including me in prayer and I think we need to pray for all those orphans and for Jesus to be with them in Haiti. Would you pray for us right now?
SC: Yes
Dear God, please help all the orphans and children in Haiti and that they will be alright from the earthquake. And that even some of the people who have died, that their families and relatives will still keep on living thier lives and not be worried. And that Jesus will be with everyone and that he will protect everyone, especially the children in the Compassion sponsor program like Amanatha and all the other children too, amen.
CM: Thank you very, very much. It’s so nice to have you on the program Summer Connor. And you know Jesus so that makes you my sister and thank you so much for joining me, alright?
SC: You’re welcome Mr. Morris.
CM: This is Haven Today and the program is called “Who’s Showing Up in Haiti”. I’m Charles Morris. That, of course, as we said was Summer Connor and just a little side note and insider note for you who are listening right now, she’s the daughter of our producer, Mark Connor. Now Jesus is showing up in Haiti. 24 hours after the earthquake a 4 year old boy was pulled from the rubble. What does a child of that age think about a situation like that? Here’s what he said, “I thought about my sins and repented and asked Jesus to save me.” Can’t you hear a little child saying that? Can’t you hear Summer saying that if she were in an earthquake? Children are capable of understanding deep, spiritual truth. In fact Jesus says we need to become like little children, humble, teachable if we want to enter his kingdom. Children have the spiritual capacity to grasp deep things from the Lord. We shouldn’t underestimate what the Lord is able to teach even the youngest child. My granddaughter Charlotte was 5 when she started to be uncomfortable with the idea of God punishing sin. She wasn’t sure God was really good if he sent Adam and Eve out of the garden. And her mother, that’s our daughter Kate, asked her, “Would the world have been a good place if God had just let that go and not punished Adam and Eve?” And little Charlotte thought about it and said, “No, because it would mean God wasn’t good.” That thought was worthy of a theologian. The world is not good if God is not good and God is not good if he doesn’t punish sin. Once you understand that, you can understand the cross. Our little Charlotte was just 5 years old but she got it. What a wonderful, good God, perfectly good in every way, good because he punishes sin, but oh how good because he sent his son to take the punishment for us! In “The Hiding Place” the book, Corrie Ten Boom tells about the mentally handicapped adults she taught before she was arrested by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp in World War II. Her little class was made up of the kind of people Hitler wanted to eliminate. He thought they were inferior. But Corrie taught them deep things about God. She explained that Jesus was our Prophet and our Priest. She wasn’t’ sure if they understood so she asked them, “What’s the difference between a prophet and a priest?” And one of them said, “A priest faces God and talks about us and a prophet faces us and talks about God.” Now that too was wisdom worthy of a theologian and the best theologians understand that all we need is simple faith, child-like faith. A faith that says, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Jesus rejoiced that it wasn’t the ones who thought they were wise who got his message, it was the unimportant, the unlearned. They were the ones who got it. Jesus said, “I praise you Father, Lord of Heaven and earth because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and revealed them to little children.” The Father reveals his wisdom to little children. I recently read a great illustration of this. Zev Chafets writes for the New York Times and he had an assignment to do an article on prayer. Chafets is himself an agnostic, Jewish, but an agnostic. “I don’t know what’s up. I don’t know what’s up there beyond the sky,” he says, “I’ve never been able to pray and mean it.” But he adds, “I’m in a small minority. And according to a recent study 75% of Americans report that they pray at least once a week.” Steve Waldman, the editor and chief of Beliefnet.com says, “It’s do-it-yourself spirituality these days. People pick and choose, they want to be their own spiritual contractors.” Well Chafets set out to discover what was being offered out there in the cafeteria of prayer. He went to big churches renowned for their prayer ministries. He talked to Jewish Rabbis. He met with a spiritual director who told him he could enjoy the benefits of prayer and meditation without actually believing in God. And then on Easter Sunday he went to a small church in West Virginia. He arrived before the service and some of the kids were hanging around while their parents rehearsed in the choir and he asked them if he prayed and their enthusiasm and faith and simplicity made a deep impression on him. This was the conclusion that he wrote about. “Those kids didn’t need prayer techniques. They didn’t need mantras. They weren’t praying “To whom it may concern”. They didn’t need to pray. They didn’t pray to de-center their egos or find transcendence. They prayed to a God with whom they were on a first name basis. And they believed their prayers gave them power which they used on behalf of their asthmatic sisters and infirmed grandparents. Sitting in church on Easter morning I realized that I was probably never going to become a praying man. But if by some miracle I ever do, I hope my prayer will be like the prayers of the kids I met in that church on Easter Sunday.”

Song: Jesus Saves
Performed by: Dallas Home

Isn’t that a wonderful song and you know, I don’t even think I’ve ever heard it. Dallas Home, “Jesus Saves” Dallas Home from East Texas here on this Haven Today. Thank you so much for joining me on a program we’re calling, “Guess Who’s Showing Up in Haiti”. Jesus is showing up. That’s the answer. Now let me tell you, one of the most wonderful things that our family ever did, especially when our children were growing up, just like Summer and her younger sister Sarah, who we heard just a moment ago on the program, they sponsor a child. The Connor family sponsors an orphan in Haiti. And you can too if you go to compassion.com. Let me also mention there are immediate needs in Haiti and you can help as well and Haven Today has made that easy. If you want to give to Haiti through Haven 100% of your gift earmarked to Haiti goes to Haiti. We don’t take out a handling fee like some ministries do. 100%, not a dime for Haven. You can go online and we’ve made it easy. It’s safe and secure, haventoday.org, that’s haventoday.org. Or you can call us at 1-800-654-2836, that’s 1-800-654-2836. Let us know how you’re listening when you get in touch. Your gift to Haiti through Haven will be split between HCJB Global’s Medical Response Team that’s already there running a 100 bed hospital, medical supplies. It will also go to Missionary Flights International which is flying people who are helping in and out. They’re also the conduit for most of Samaritan’s Purse and they need a lot of money for fuel right now and all those planes that they have going in. They were there in less than 24 hours. You can help, you can make a difference. And let me also mention that Haven Today is listener supported and it’s the end of the month and we want you, through this ministry to help us tell the great story to others that’s all about Jesus. So earmark what you want to send to Haiti and what you want to give to Haven when you call us at 1-800-654-2836 or when you go online to haventoday.org. I’m Charles Morris. Come back again next time won’t you, when again we’ll be sharing the great story? It’s all about Jesus here on Haven Today.