This is the story of how my Haiti team became Uncaged, although I have shortened "Caged" from its original 10-page post into something a little more manageable. This is Heather's story, and I will post my "Caged" entry as well as the the corresponding "Uncaged" blog in a day or so. As background, Heather is Uncaged's team leader. This event occurred our first Sunday in Haiti when we had been within the perimeter of the RENMEN Foundation walls going on four days.
Gathered in a small room scattered around the tile floor, our team began an early Sunday morning worship time. The music was playing and outside you could hear the beautiful composition of birds chirping, wind blowing, and children singing. As I lay on the floor, I asked one question. "God, what do you want for us?" Time passed and after a while of listening, I clearly heard Him say, "Get them out. Get them out of these walls but don't let them 'do' anything." I had no clue what He meant but I knew what I needed to do.
After we dismissed from worship, I went and sat with Sister Florence. I asked her if there was any way we could go out into the city on Monday. She quickly answered with, "Why not today?" So we agreed to take the team to the city and drive around.
As the day went on, we had church with the children, began projects around the house, and planned meetings for other ministry opportunities. Going out into the city began to look like less and less of a possibility. God had clearly spoken to me that morning despite what seemed to be every obstacle coming our way and trying to stop Him, so I placed the situation in His hands and continued on with the day.
Around 3 o'clock we were told the driver had finally arrived. I walked outside and saw the truck sitting there, cage and all. Yes, the back of the truck was a massive cage. I quietly laughed to myself knowing that this afternoon was going to be quite interesting. I was getting ready to pile our team into a cage and drive them around to see all the earthquake destruction, not allowing them to get out. God has a funny way of teaching us things.
Purposely not explaining anything to the team, I got all ten of us situated in the cage and we headed for the city. Everyone was excited to get out. While they laughed and talked, I was biting my nails. I didn't know what to expect. I knew God was about to move but I knew that it would be hard for everyone to understand.
As we drove around, I stood peering out of the cage and holding onto the bars. People glared at us as if we were a caged attraction at the zoo. I hated it. I wanted so badly to turn around and tell my team to jump out. I wanted to stop the car, get out, and do something. I knew that is not what God had planned for that afternoon. Everything within me wanted to fix the pain I saw on my team's faces. He began to speak over me. "Heather, trust that I am a big God. I can restore this nation without you physically 'doing' anything. I want you to be obedient and through that My kingdom will be brought." Through His strength I was able to continue to walk in obedience while our team seemed to be falling apart in the back of the cage. As I prayed, I asked God to guide me. I felt prompted to turn around and tell our team to listen. Listen to what God was saying and speak it out. I knew I was ultimately setting them up.
Shortly after prompting them to listen, one of them spoke up and asked if we could get out. I wanted so badly to scream YES, but I casually passed it off and said we would have to ask. Without knowing the circumstances of what God had said to me, Father Michel gave a firm no and explained that it would not be a good idea. I saw the look on my team's faces when they heard the news but I knew that God had interceded for me. I had to allow them to go through this experience. After a couple of hours, we returned home with obvious frustration and brokenness on the team member's faces. I was excited to hear what God had taught them.
As we opened up the nightly debrief, I began to explain to them what God had told me. With a couple of smiles here and there, they began to speak out what God had taught them. It all makes sense now, they said. While we were physically caged in and feeling spiritually caged in, God had broken through to us and revealed that we were uncaged.
Here are the stories of what it felt like to be 'caged' through their eyes...
No comments:
Post a Comment