“This is what the Lord says-your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: ‘I am the Lord your God who teaches you and leads you along the paths you should follow.’"
Isaiah 48:17
My name is Jeff Rodgers and I have had the opportunity of going to Haiti two times in the past six months. I am a twenty-four-year-old calculus teacher and football coach in Houston. Just six months ago, my knowledge of Haiti only included the thought of an earthquake and some tents that people lived in. Like most places in the world, I did not think of the people nor care about a small third world country. Little did I know that these people would change my life.
The first time I went to Haiti, my teams’ mission was to assist in the school that has been built at Te Wouj. The school has four teachers and there are five classes k-4 that are taught (yes, this means that one teacher teaches two classes at once). There were three classes meeting in one room and the students were cramped onto a few small benches. The students could not be comfortable with all of the classes being taught in the room, the open doorways, the grey concrete walls, and the Caribbean heat in the building. But despite all of these possible distractions, the teachers taught and the students stayed engaged!
I could talk for hours and hours about how the school doesn’t have enough and how impressed I am with the students, but I want to talk about the hearts of the teachers. When I went to visit for the first time, our goal was to help, but when I returned I made relationships. Amos, Magnus, Djefe, and Pastor Marc are four of the most amazing people that I have ever been around. These four men have a heart to serve EVERYONE. For the entire month that I was in Haiti, these teachers would come along-side us and help with all that we did. They carried tons of bricks up the side of a mountain to help build a church that they did not attend, they camped out at the school to paint, they taught bible studies at the church, they helped with daily Vacation Bible School ministries, and simply loved one another. When I think of my easy American life, I realize I give to others when convenient for me. I love others when I know they will return the love. I make sacrifice only when I get recognition afterwards. These four men have shown me what it means to love one another as Christ has loved.
I have been challenged to come back to my easy life and make sacrifices. When it might not be easy, when I won’t get rewards, when I don’t get praise, I want to live a life different. I want to love without any conditions. I want to live as these four men because they live to serve the Lord.
