This blog comes to us from CeCe Quinn (team leader and pastor's wife) of Grace Community Church in Rochester, New Hampshire. Grace Community has had a Church to Church partnership in Haiti since shortly after the earthquake of 2010. CeCe and Grace Community return to Haiti on February 22nd. Read as CeCe writes her heart below…
I was asked to write about the place of my heart in light of the "call" to a Church to Church partnership. This call is one that I have to admit scares me often when I think of the level of responsibility that lies in our hands. When the Father calls us to a place of service, we are to trust not in our own ability because we can do nothing alone, but with Christ and through Him we can and will do whatever the Father asks of us.
You may ask why? I leave you with this… 1 Corinthians 12:12-31
If we are One Body with many parts, then doesn't this also extend beyond the four walls of our Sunday worship with one another? Doesn't this also mean that our church is the same joined body of believers with His church down the road from us? Then what about the Body beyond our four corners of our American world, but to our family in and beyond Haiti?
If the answer is a resounding YES…
(1 Corinthians 12:24) but God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for one another.
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices.
Now you are the Body of Christ, each one of you has a part. In the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those with gifts of healing, those able to help others.
When God has "called", we will help our family and body of believers, brothers and sisters in the name of our Lord and Savior here in Haiti. Wherever He calls, he will also equip His people with the means.
This experience of being, as Colby has put it… "has messed me up" inside not only within the deepest part of my heart, but in my head. I have gone on a roller coaster ride of emotions watching God taking those from our team and refining each of them in different ways. From Vicki's heart for the widows to Jamie and John's heart to stand in the gap for husbands and wives who are struggling to stay married. God brought specific people into their paths this trip to stretch them and grow the CALL within their hearts. This happened over and over with those on this trip. I stood and watched with amazement at our God's showering grace over our team.
Gods expression of love through pastor, madam pastor, and the translators… WOW! They thank us and thank us and thank us for coming and blessing them, but we are the ones blessed and humbled every time we come to serve. Why am I surprised? God comes to give us life and to give it in abundance to those He calls His own! Praise God from whom ALL Blessings flow!
To start the journey and experience this with your own church,
email us at [email protected].
Here you find Grace Community's partner church on a day of fasting and prayer for a woman's marriage in the church.
