Sun. Jan. 20, 2008 (Randy Schmidt)

Randy Schmidt (former country worker for International Child Care - Haiti) asked the question “how do we respond to people in places of hopelessness where there is no easy solution?” The word degage is a frequently-used word in Haitian Creole, meaning “improvise”. Randy took us through the tragic history of the first colonial nation in the western hemisphere to successfully lead a slave revolt. The violence of that event continues to reverberate down through the generations until today, making degage a standard operating procedure, even for the government. What can we do to help when things seem to go from bad to worse? Western governments’ standard operating procedure (naval blockade) hurt nobody but the poor of Haiti - the wealthy were relatively unaffected. Randy said our most significant effort is to stand with the people of Haiti, remembering the promises of God, and the inherent value that God places in every person. Several stories he told of his time there made it apparent that even one person came make a significant difference for many. Jeremiah 32 tells the story of God telling the people of Jerusalem, through Jeremiah himself who was in prison, to buy land, to secure a promise for the future people of Israel. Though the Babylonians were soon to roll over everything in the Middle East with their war machine, God called the people to faithfulness by purchasing land. So too, are we called today to stand with the people of Haiti, purchasing their redemption from violence with whatever coin we possess. Randy called on us not to give up hope - that with God a solution is possible. [AP] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday Jan. 20th, 2008 using your browser's preferred media player.