"Greetings From Around The World"

2 Corinthians 13b "All of God's people send you their greetings."

After ten days in the Caribbean I have volumes of stories and illustrations about the people there and folks who cruise and the crew of the Celebrity Mercury. As we traveled we were struck by just how many Christians there are everywhere. We, of course are very much open and sensitive to spotting believers, but I am talking about a boldness that was fresh and compelling. This particular cruise out of Baltimore took two days cruising just to get to the Caribbean. The first port we went to was Labadee, Haiti. Not at all what I was hoping or expecting.

The resort of Labadee is owned by Royal Caribbean and in partnership with Celebrity Cruises they have built a beautiful beach resort with many attractions, activities, shops, restaurants and ways to spend money. It was not like really going to Haiti and we met very few Haitians there. But we did have an opportunity to meet a few vendors who evidently were allowed to set up shop in an area that if were say at Disneyland it would have been called "Haitiland". Almost all of the items for sale seemed to be very mass produced and the shopkeepers were just employees of the resort.

We decided to do something outside the box. We struck up conversation with two young men and asked them if they had any Haitian money on them. They laughingly said yes and showed it to us. You could tell it had little or no value because they were joking about the different coins and bills and how meaningless they were. (I am sure the money was completely devalued and almost worthless) We asked if we could buy their money with American money. They were overjoyed. We payed them more than full value of the money so Dawn could give all her students coins from Haiti. The coins are more beautiful than ours and were inscribed with the words, 'Liberty, Equality and Fraternity'. Wow, did that speak volumes to me. In very poor French I awkwardly communicated to them the beauty of these words, their meaning and my Christian perspective on Freedom, Equality and Brotherhood.

One young man in particular who had dug deep in his pocket to find more of the matching coins we wanted said to me as we parted, "God bless you and your people." That would be you. Out of sincere gratefulness and appreciation he sent blessings and greetings to you through me. I think that is important. We had an understanding about who we were, what we were doing, why we were doing it and the meaning of the words on the Haitian coins. I remember his smile. We both knew that the value was in the transaction not the goods it was in the freedom to do what was really equal because of brotherhood. Indeed, 'all of God's people do send each other greetings', from around the world.

I hope this story touches you heart with a sense of a Biblical Worldview. We are part of the family of believers around the world. Whether they are poor in Haiti, persecuted in the Middle East, human trafficked in Southeast Asia or lonely in Europe, we are brothers and sisters in the same Christ. I am closer to that young man in Labadee than I am to people just like me who don't know the Lord.

One little postscript note from Haiti. During a taxi ride in a different port, a man that we rode with for a few miles said that in Labadee they had a similar impression as us of the situation and that his wife had bought a pair of sandals from a woman in an isolated little shop, put those sandals on then gave her new shoes that she was wearing to the woman. Tears followed and hugs too. We need to keep thinking outside our boxes so God can work through us more.

So blessed to be a blessing,
Pastor Fred

Tweet