Taking the Good News to All Nations

Sometimes it is more difficult to handle the overabundant blessings of God than it is to deal with suffering. St. Peter responded to the overabundant catch of fish by falling to his knees and begging Jesus to "depart from me... for I am a sinful man" Luke 5:8. Yet, if we can bear it, God will not tire in showing us his great desire to fill the nets and bring in a great harvest.

I was speaking to my friend, Maggie, last week about her recent mission trip to Haiti for spring break. She had been dying to tell me the amazing story of her trip, most specifically about how God is using Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (the program we use here at All Saints) to bring the Gospel to all nations.

While on mission, she met a woman living in Haiti who had previously lived in Georgia and served as a Director of Religious Education there. The woman brought her family (5 children) to Haiti, with the desire to serve as a missionary. She showed Maggie some of her CGS materials that she had been working on to help begin an atrium in Haiti. She thought that maybe these materials would help her to evangelize in a way that simply talking and teaching couldn't do.

Maggie, filled with excitement, encouraged her new friend, "Let's do it! Really. Let's just try it and see what happens!"

So, later that week, equipped with a white sheet and the Good Shepherd material that is very similar to the one we have in our rooms downstairs, she and Maggie embarked on a mission to proclaim the Gospel to the children of Haiti.

As they walked around the area where the families lived in huts, they invited children to come and see. "They just kept coming!" Maggie and her new friend spread out the sheet on the ground and, speaking in creole, her friend gave these children the first proclamation of the Gospel that many had ever heard in their lives. Parents, whose religion is heavily influenced by Voodoo, a belief in a distant, unknowable God, lingered close by, sitting under nearby trees and keeping and eye and ear on what their children were seeing: an image of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who cares for His sheep and loves them. Perhaps it was their first exposure to the Good News of Jesus Christ who is God with Us.

Maggie kept looking up to heaven and saying in her heart, "Stop, Lord. You are just too good!" as the children drew pictures of the sheep and the Shepherd. Then a young boy took her hand and pulled her over to a place where he liked to go and think. "This is where I go to be alone and think of God."

Maggie shared her overwhelming gratitude for this trip and for the knowledge that indeed, the harvest is rich. God is doing His work everywhere and in all nations.