Persecution

Yesterday was, by far, the hardest day I've ever experienced in Haiti. After volunteering at a clinic I was taken aside by fellow missionaries and told about horrible rumors that were being spread about me by Haitian people. I won’t repeat what was said. It’s not worth the time. I was humiliated. I went home and laid in my bed and sobbed.

It was not the people in my village speaking badly of me. No, it was the people claiming to be Christians. The people I sit beside in church. I suppose I don’t fit the mold of the typical missionary so there must be something wrong with me. Some ulterior motive must have brought me here.

I can honestly say in the short time after I found out about this I was ready to leave. I had had enough. “How can I love these people?” I thought. “They bite the hand that feeds them.”

But God in all his beauty and wisdom was there whispering again, “That’s why you’re here.”

It’s easy to love those we feel deserve to be loved. Those who have never wronged us and show their appreciation towards us. But what of those that don’t?  What makes me different from the world is that I will love them even when they persecute me. I will stay even when I am wrongly accused.

I know my calling. Since I became a Christian it’s the one thing in my life I have never doubted. I know I’m supposed to be here. I know with God’s blessing I can help them. I know this!

I see the smiles on the children’s faces. I see the hope I bring into that village when I come. There is good here. I believe there is good inside these people. And if I spend the rest of my life trying to find it, then so be it. This is my calling. This is why I was created.

John 15:18-21 If the world hates you (Carrie), keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you (Carrie) do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you (my daughter): “No servant is greater than his master.” If they persecute me, they will persecute you also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.

I’m so thankful the word is alive and real!