Sisters, Drivers and Teddy Bears

(Final in a series) 

Angel Guides

Romans 12:2 (NIV)

John Fleming & John McCorkle

Our mission team has arrived back in the USA. For me it happened in earnest this morning waking up in my own bed. Starting with emotional goodbyes to the young men guides we have grown to love, to proceeding through the Haitian side of an endless maze of airport check ins and customs inspections, the journey road felt full of pot holes and speed bumps much like the streets of Port-au-Prince. Then a somewhat bumpy flight followed by the Atlanta side customs process and we were back on familiar soil with traffic lights, paved roads and, most of the time, a right of way. I thought of the atmospheric reentry that astronauts experience when they return to our planet. The pattern of the world we experienced in Haiti does not conform to the pattern of the world we live in here in Georgia.

Our mission to Haiti was about healing. Yes, it was medical in substance with the subscribing of fungal cream and blood pressure pills all of which provide corrective physical healing over time. This is the healing of our worlds whether Port-au-Prince or Atlanta. The true healing that took place on this trip was expressed in a young sister, another of Abba’s daughters, who could not hear or speak, teaching us to sign “I love you”. It was healing played out watching our adept driver learn to swim in the Caribbean and opening his eyes under salt water for the first time. For this writer, it was a big hug from a three-hundred-pound misty eyed teddy bear who would be a security guard.

This week was about the healing that is born of the Holy Spirit. It is a healing that cannot help but to travel both ways. It is the healing that transforms the giver into the recipient and the student into the teacher. It is the renewing of our minds. It is the testing and approving of God’s will for us. And we know for certain we are abiding in His good, pleasing and perfect will.  Se’ yon bil bagay!

Father thank you for always being present and ready to heal us when we conform to the pattern of the world. Amen

Bradford Bosworth

Have No Fear

(eighth in a series)

1 John 4:18-19

Patti Cox & Brad Bosworth

Yesterday for the first time in seven days our Haiti Mission Team took a day of rest and relaxation. We traveled to a distant beach where we lounged, frolicked in the salt water of the Caribbean Sea. Our Haitian guides, the translators, security guards and driver came with us. Gel, Achka, Jhon, Benson, Blanc, Eric and Patrice had the day off in a place they would not normally visit. Today our team ministered to them and thus ourselves and it was glorious.

There is a bond between the team and these Haitians. It is a connection through our Maker. God is Love and we speak to each other in the language of God without fear. On this day with no duties or responsibilities to distract us with doubt and petty fear, we come closer to perfection in love.

I have witnessed extreme conditions of poverty this week. Our medical mission team has attended to about three hundred patients who otherwise most certainly would not have had access to any kind of treatment. In many a religious circle, there is some belief that God punishes for the sins of humankind. But God is Love! Therefore, being perfect His love is infinitely certain. There is no doubt here that God loves his children who are, in total, humankind. Since Abba’s love is perfect, there is no fear for God does not punish His children.

Since arriving last week we have had two sizable gentlemen displaying badges and wearing “Security” splashed across their backs. They possess a solemn demeaner and holstered firearms. Their presence is to first give the team distance from danger and threat. In truth, they are here to help assuage any fears we have in this very foreign, but not hostile environment. At first they remained distant, in the shadows, almost out of sight. As they witnessed the Grace of God raining on their fellow Haitians, Patrice and Eric came gradually closer, smiling more and more until it was the perfect Love of Christ moving between them and us allaying all of our fears. We have loved each other because He first Loved us.

Father, we long for the certainty of Immanuel filling us with His perfect Love that drives out all our fears, Amen

Bradford Bosworth

Find Your Gifts

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

(7th in a series)

Haiti Missionaries

1^st Peter 4:10

Jeannette and Ryan Karstensen

It is a monumental responsibility to lead a mission trip to a foreign land. The people who will be the recipients of your charitable efforts will most likely gain a lifelong impression from the team’s comportment. If there is a language barrier, then our demeanor and body language speaks for our faith. On this Haiti Mission trip, there are eight folks from three different Churches with two on their very first excursion. The bottom line is “God has given us some special abilities,” and it is up to us to make them blend and become faithful stewards of God’s Grace in all its forms.

Our repasts together, breaking bread, are always a time to coalesce once again. Tuesday our team was having lunch together and I presented them with Jeanette and Ryan’s scripture passage from 1 Peter. We went around the table and each member of the body reflected on how the Word spoke to them. I took notes as they shared. The Holy Spirit translated as follows:

The mission becomes our great commission when the true goal is “to make disciples of all nations,” (Matt. 28:19).  As the “Body of Christ,” each one of us is a single chapter in Yahweh’s epic novel of grace titled “Humankind.” The mission now becomes a gifted quilt made of individual scraps, throwaway fabric that now stitched together warms each soul it comforts. Our unique gifts manifested become a tapestry of colors woven into Abba’s glorious creation of Love in His Son Christ Jesus.

Often it is through our willingness to serve and at the point of our Christian action where we begin to discern what are the gifts we have received from our heavenly Father. Surely for us to keep and maintain those gifts we must give them away.

Father, may we always remember your precious gift of grace can never be earned and we will always be engulfed by it as we give it away. Amen

Bradford Bosworth

Bougainvillea Beautiful

Tuesday, September 26, 2017                                                                                                                                                 (6^th in a series)

Better Bougainvillea

Isaiah 55:12-13

Ed Hogg

Over the past week I have asked myself, “If this is what Haiti looks like now, what must it have looked like after the 2010 earthquake?” The answer begging for acceptance is, “Not much different.” There is no apparent infrastructure in and around the huge steaming municipality that is Port-Au-Prince. Basic amenities like bathrooms, plumbing and consistent electrical wiring exist in a dark ages time warp. It is a city of razor wire and rebar, cinder block and barred windows. Around every corner I expect we will be entering a “nicer” neighborhood. That district never appears.  There is no apparent sanitation initiative. The only word that appears an appropriate descriptor is desolation.

Today’s scripture is speaking to me here this way: Instead of a prickly thornbush, look for the juniper tree, and instead of briars find myrtle.  Old Testament Profit Isaiah, ever the eternal optimist, is showing me how to make chicken salad out of, oh well, I better not go there. You get the drift. Seriously though, you and I will find what we look for. It has happened that way for our mission team here in Haiti. In spite of the oppressive heat and spartan surroundings where we set up our clinics, we experience almighty grace and beauty because of the presence of the Lord in the humble nature of these remarkable people.

When we have stopped to catch our breath and look around, in the midst of the ruts and rubble, there on top of a razor wire covered cinder block wall is a beautiful bougainvillea bush with vibrant red and white blooms! Surely, we know this allure is for the Lord’s renown.

Sunday, we worshipped with the locals. The experience was a piece of heaven on Earth. Then we set our clinic up on a second floor overlooking a small valley that held another large open-air house of worship. The land burst into song before us and we were reminded that His Love endures forever!

Abba, may we go out in joy and be led forth in the peace of your precious Son. Amen.

Bradford Bosworth

A Universal Language

(5^th in a series)

The Language of Love

John 15:1-7

Randy Pettit 

Even with a cursory glimpse or review of Haiti’s history one can glean that there has been and still is a continuous thread of corruption and greed in the upper echelons of the political power base. Slavery has been ever present on this tropical island since Columbus literally stumbled upon it in Christmas of 1492. Thusly he named the place he found “La Navidad” and then his settlers turned around and forced the native Taino people into slavery. Today almost 600 years later the Haitian people are still enslaved, now by poverty.

How do we apply today’s scripture to these people? To the untrained eye there is little or no fruit here. To eyes of the world the deforested infertile land here is not suitable for growing ragweed! I want to ask Abba, the vinedresser, “Why these people”? I find myself searching for branches that bear fruit. Now I am in the vineyard closer to the Vine. On the third day I saw four young men already clean because of the Word spoken to them. These members of the “priesthood of all believers” have been our interpreters. On a Saturday morning upon arrival at the Haiti Deaf Academy their role changed.

We saw them bear a glorious fully ripe and sweet fruit with the young children who, without words, spoke the universal language of Christ, a quiet language of Love. As all who were present joyfully remained in him and he in us, the young men, who at first thought they could do nothing, suddenly were able to do everything in service to these beautiful ones. It was a miracle, a beautiful thing. The teachers became the students as the youngsters gleefully taught us all about sign language. If the children could have spoken they might have said, “Se’ yon bil bagay!”

Father may we be ever mindful that none of us can bear fruit by ourselves. May we desire always to abide in your precious Son. Amen

Bradford Bosworth

Not Forgotten nor Forsaken.

Sunday, September 24, 2017 (fourth in a series)

Haiti Deaf Academy

Deuteronomy 31:6 and Hebrews 13-5

Joyce and Michael Newsom

I often subscribe to the belief that we, the American people, are the same as the Israelites, God’s chosen people. Our ancestral pilgrims settled in a promised land, a land flowing of milk and honey. Oh how evident it is that we have forgotten from whence we came. But, you know what? These Haitian people, they too are God’s chosen people. Maybe they have just not found their Moses yet nor crossed through their Red Sea. Do you want to know something? These people are strong and courageous!

A few days ago our team arrived here on the heels of four ferocious hurricanes that passed by this island also known as Hispaniola. It is as if God has said to these people, I will not forsake you, my children, you have enough on your hands now and I have some of my other children who need a wake-up call! I’m not sure if Joyce and Mike intended it? A link exists that ties these two pieces of scripture together across a millennium or more. Moses’ exhortation, “Be strong and courageous.” is repeated by his successor (Joshua 1:9). In Hebrews, the writer is reminding his audience - Jewish Christians- that the covenant of Moses, carried forward by Joshua, has been superseded by the new covenant of Christ Jesus. Our presence here is now about the Love of Christ.

Our mission team’s humbly joyful interpreter/guides are mere boys content with what they have. Gel, Achka, Benson and Jhon are the vines bearing fruit that brings daily the new covenant Love of Christ to the poor. The chosen people of Haiti know the Lord has said to them, “Never will I leave you.”

Yahweh, through all the storms of our lives may we remember that nothing can separate us from your Love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen

Bradford Bosworth

Tenderly Teachable

Saturday, September 23. 2017

(3rd in a series)

Psalms 25:4-5

Chuck Whiteside

One week ago, I was serving on a men’s Walk to Emmaus retreat and just as this weekend, that effort started in earnest on a Thursday evening. A dozen times I have made that Emmaus journey and it always happens. After about forty-eight hours or sometime Saturday afternoon or evening I reach acquiescence, lose the world’s ties that bind. A similar surrender is happening on this mission to Haiti. Initially my search for truth in the suffering here led me to label impoverished Haitians as victims and look for villains to blame. That type of thinking - akin to fantasy – resides either in the past or in the future. It is of the world, time bound. If I am absorbed in the time bound thinking of the world, then I most certainly will miss Truth in the circumstances here now.  The Truth in Port-au-Prince here and now is that the people are not stuck trying to find someone to blame for their living conditions. During the Delmas rush hour on Friday they were busy living their lives. Most, are certainly not even aware of an adjective, “third world” used elsewhere around the world to describe Haiti as a country.

Today’s scripture “Show me your ways Lord” reminds us to let go and let God. As we gain our measure of humility from serving these humble people, do we also receive teach ability, a most critical characteristic of a humble nature. We are all in our right mind when we are teachable.

My divine image of this day was the earnestness and purpose in all the mothers’ eyes guiding their nattily dressed little ones to school. My dream for them? That these women would have faith and hope all day long knowing the children will be guided in His Truth.

Abba, may we be so fortunate to receive one nugget, one morsel of wisdom from our experience today, so we might carry that message back to from whence we came. Amen

Bradford Bosworth

Palms and Patterns

Friday, September 22, 2017
(2nd in a series)

  Romans 12:2 (NIV)

John McCorkle & John Fleming

In the recovery fellowship to which I belong, one will often hear something like, “I will be in trouble if I stay in the world and visit the program. But, if I stay in the program and visit the world, then I’ll be fine.” I believe this idea, in part, is what Paul is writing about in his letter to the earliest Roman Christians. It begs us to ask ourselves, “Am I in the world or of the world?”  It is why I like the NIV translation of this scripture: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world…” Pattern invokes the idea of a template or format; a preset guide (see conventional wisdom) that we can view when confused or uncertain. Conforming to the pattern of this world is being of the world.

Delmas, Port-Au-Prince

On this first full day of apostolic mission work in this place called Haiti, I am literally full-fledged emotional that God has placed me here now. The team is so blessed; and guess what? We will be in this world certainly because we have no real basis to be of this world here. I suspect it is why missionaries love what they do, eager to return to their mission fields because it is as close as one can get to being completely in the world.

Another way I am blessed today is that I can look back at yesterday’s devotion and draw on Paul’s urging, “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus,” and marvel at the wonder of how the Word can weave for us a pattern of truth that is eternal and all encompassing. Our activity here in this little struggling part of God’s unbridled creation demands we adopt the same mindset as Christ as much as we are humanly able. Then, most likely, without even being aware of it, we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds. God is good!

Abba, may we more and more conform to the model you sent for us, your Precious Son, that we might be more in the world than of the world. Amen

Bradford Bosworth

Humbled in Haiti

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Haiti

Matthew 20:25-28 & Philippians 2:5-8

Brenda and Warren Taylor

In preparing for this reflection, the (NKJV) phrase, “But Jesus called them to himself” (v25), struck me.  This calling is not the type that screams, “Hey y’all, get over here.” No, it is the Way of Christ, a drawing to, a charismatic attraction, the magnetism same as the humble carpenter walking along the sea of Galilee beckoning to a few fishermen, “Come follow me.” Paul describes it this way in his letter to the church at Philippi, “Who being in very nature God” (V6, NIV). When we are called this way, we stop what we are doing. We “drop our nets.”

Our team left today for Haiti on a medical mission. Being the first time for me, I can only go by what I have heard from those who have gone before and before me. Do we already have the same mindset as Christ? Well, for me, I believe it is a lifelong quest.  When I listen to how our servant team describes their experience of past Haiti mission trips, I can imagine they came by their “same mindset as Christ” or a glimpse of that same mindset as a byproduct of the willingness of their servant’s heart. Does our humility come before the act of service? More, I believe, it comes from the very humble nature of those served: God’s children who inhabit this devastatingly poor and destitute area; a people hungering for the breath of the Holy Spirit to whisk them away if not just for a few affectionate, attention filled moments.  Indeed, it is these moments that humble our servant team and allow us to adopt, if only for an instant, the same mindset of Christ.

By the way, today’s gospel scripture repeats in Mark 10:42-44, which gives this truth lesson in humility a double shot of importance.  We have it on good accord that Mark was basing this journal of Jesus’s teachings on Peter’s own eyewitness account.

Yahweh, soften our hearts today, opening the windows of our soul and let the Holy Spirit whisk in a bit of Lord Jesus’ humility. Amen

Bradford Bosworth

Haiti Devotional Series

Sixes UMC Haiti Mission 2017

Beginning tomorrow, Thursday, September 21, 2017, 'The Standard Chronicles" will begin a weeklong series, uh, well, chronicling the experience of  a group of Christian Missionaries in Haiti. The daily posts will be in the form of a Devotion. Each Devotion will be based on a submitted Holy Bible scripture reference. The submitters are folks who have sponsored myself and my dear friend Patti in our participation with the Sixes team. Patti, a Nurse, has been doing this medical mission trip for five years and encouraged me to join in.

Port -au- Prince, Haiti

In gratitude for their support, I will write for these friends a daily devotion from their submitted scripture. I trust that, as is already the case, the Holy Spirit will be active in my inspiration to relate the Word to what is happening on the ground, so to speak.

If the reader desires to incorporate the devotions into their daily practice of prayer and meditation here are a few suggestions: Have a Holy Bible or Bible app (i.e.: "Bible Gateway") available for you to research, for the Devotion reference will be book/chapter/verse only. The devotion will be missing context without the reader absorbing the written Word. Carve out of your day some quiet time listening to what our Creator speaks that only You can hear!

If you are inspired to see what each day has to offer, here is a brief description of our loving support group:

Five Finger Friends Reprised


Over the course of a lifetime one learns that true friends do not pepper life’s path nor can they be plucked from trees and vines as if low hanging fruit. Instead we often discover them when we stray from the well-worn path or in climbing to great heights. My faith has convinced me that these friends are indeed Angels that our heavenly Father has placed along our path at just the right time with the right lesson to teach us, just when we are most teachable. I also am certain teach ability is a required characteristic of humility. For most of my life I have believed that if one could count these true friends with one hand they would be considered highly blessed. I am here today to say my true friend philosophy is changing and it looks like I need two hands now, particularly with beautiful Patti in my life! These Haiti Mission Sponsors are considered five finger friends of Patti and I:

John McCorkle, Ed Hogg, Brenda and Warren Taylor, John Fleming, Joyce and Michael Newsom, Randy Pettit, Jeanette and Ryan Karstensen, Chuck Whiteside

Here is a story that when I stop and consider it, I stand amazed. My first job out of college in Daytona Beach was in 1975. There at the local NBC TV affiliate a seasoned photographer and Viet Nam Vet took interest in me and showed me “the ropes”.  He and his marvelous wife welcomed me in their home. They have witnessed with me weddings, funerals and graduations over the years. Then there are two men who I worked together with in the financial services industry and as three recently divorced bachelors in 1982 became roommates.  We would reunite after 30 years in large part through Walk to Emmaus. There is a man who I first met at the 1984 Great Miller High Life Chili Cook Off. Five years later he would hire me and become my boss at a major Alcohol Beverage Wholesaler. Two decades later I would sponsor him on Walk to Emmaus. Then there is the man, a licensed Pastor in the Christian Church Disciples of Christ and certified addiction counselor who helped me get sober in 2008. He and his wife are wonderful friends. There are also two men who have graced my life since 2010 in the important recovery fellowship to which we belong and are also my Emmaus Brothers.  Then there is a couple who have been in Patti’s life for years and are her closest friends now becoming mine. A little over a year ago and through Walk to Emmaus, they played a big part in the coming together of Patti and me.  Can anyone say Angels in our path? How marvelous, how wonderful is my savior’s love for me. *       Amen

* Lyrics from:"I Stand Amazed" Chris Tomlin. Music and worship is one way to get one in a prayerfully meditative mood. Check it out.

I hope to see you here again soon.

Love Always and In All Ways,

Bradford Bosworth
September, 2017

Recently Published

"Disciplines"

A Book of Daily Devotions 2018

A little over three years ago I began submitting poem prayers to "Alive Now" magazine a periodical published by the Upper Room. Over a two year period they published my work in five different issues. During that same time I struck up a conversation with Rita the Editor of their "Disciplines" 365 daily devotional. I wrote some sample devotions for her and she consequently invited me to write for this 2018 issue.  Since they had already issued invitations for the 2017 edition and were in the middle of compilation and editing for same, I did not expect to hear from her again for almost a year. I guess God had other plans. One of Rita's 2017 writers had to drop and she was left with a week to fill. She contacted me with a very short notice deadline and not wanting to miss the wonderful opportunity, I agreed to submit.

"Disciplines" 2017

It was a very daunting task at first, as I considered the company of writers I was joining. This neighborhood was comprised mostly of Clergy, Doctors of Divinity, Professors of Theology and the like. When at first I began corresponding with Rita, I had very little knowledge and understanding of the Revised Common Lectionary. With support from my Smyrna First UMC Pastors Joey and Barbara and inspiration from the Holy Spirit, my "Who Are Those Guys" devotions filled the week of May 8-14 including Mothers Day, a great blessing and dedication for my mom Jeanne.

"Disciplines" 2018

Even though Rita had previously offered an invitation for 2018, when the official call came with scripture attached it was a giant validation for me as a writer. She had thought enough of my writing to include me a second time. For me that is no small achievement. God is Good! I will be forever grateful to our Smyrna First UMC Associate Pastor Whit, a young'un on fire with the Holy Spirit. He gave me immeasurable advice and encouragement for this effort.

My contribution to the 2018 edition of "Disciplines" scheduled for the week of June 18-24 is titled: "The Best and Worst in Us." I have been using this devotional for three year now. I have heard say that the three year cycle of scripture comprising the Revised Common Lectionary, if read, will- in many ways- take one through the entire Holy Bible. One thing I can attest to is that you will often hear from the pulpit Sunday, a message corresponding to the Lectionary scripture of same week.

If you would like to order the 2018 "Disciplines click here: Get your 2018 Devotional

Eternally grateful,

Bradford Bosworth
September 2017