Glimpses of the Unseen

Seventh and finale in a series.

Patti & Brad Bosworth

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

2018 Sixes/St Andrew Haiti Missionaries

We Americans are impatience experts, anxiously anticipating impending failure that we let the present slip away and with-it God’s divine blessings for us go un recognized. This cannot be said of our Haitian brothers and sisters whom we attend to. They come early in the morning, line up, sit quietly, wait patiently for a moment of our time to build upon relationships begun years before. In addition, they receive a touch of physical comfort from educative advice, managed medication and vision enhancement. Their patience, their lives, their very presence defines perseverance of hope uncompromised by their circumstance.


Yes, their harsh environment and living conditions play havoc with their outer person, but if you join them on Sunday for worship you will find a vibrant Body of Christ rich in an abundance of serenity. They live admirably noble lives. These Haitians’ focus is on the presence of God in their life which no circumstance can shadow. What visitors see in Haiti, is a literal wasteland with refuse strewn along every street, buildings still crumbling away from an earthquake many years before. It is a material rebuilding that never becomes finished. But these people we see are whole and complete in their unbridled love of Jesus and the faith that accompanies that affection. In other words, they have not fixed their eyes on the seen but dwell instead on the eternal Love of the Father, or that which is unseen.

The unseen in Haiti this week has included the broken English of one of our local translators as he read from the Gospels and delivered to us a heartfelt devotion before we started the day. It has been a young deaf school girl who showed us how to sign- I- love -you- last year, running to greet us with hugs and sounds of joy. Our team was being renewed day by day like when we heard voices in exuberant song from school children echoing in corridors or floating through barren fields. These glimpses of His eternal grace are what keeps us coming back year after year.

Papa, as we raise our arms with hands opened wide, lift us up into your eternal glory just for today. Amen

Patti and Brad Bosworth 

October 2018

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

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