Shaina Grill has served with Connect 2 Ministries for more than eight years, and she currently serves as our Sponsorship Program & Special Events Coordinator. As we recognize World Humanitarian Day, we asked Shaina to share her thoughts on living life for others.

My first trip to Haiti was my first outreach trip ever. I didn’t grow up in the church, so by the time I came to Christ, I had a young family and didn’t have an interest in serving outside of my local congregation. When our middle daughter was a senior in high school, she came home from youth group one night and told us she was going to Haiti. We didn’t really want her going alone, so I tagged along. That trip dramatically changed the way I viewed the poor, the lost, and the marginalized, and it shaped my beliefs about how the church should respond.

I struggled when I came home from my first trip. When I leave Haiti, as a mom, I want nothing more than to “rescue” the kids and bring them home with me. It took me a long time to work through that. God placed those kids exactly where He wants them to be. Bringing them home with me is not a guarantee of anything other than my feelings in that moment. They are in an environment where they are being cared for. Their basic needs are met, they are receiving an education, they are part of a healthy church body. They are exactly where they need to be. I pray that those kids will be the start of a cultural change in Haiti—that they will come to Christ and spread the gospel as teachers, doctors, pastors, moms and dads. God is using them and their circumstances, just like He’s using mine. One of my favorite quotes from Greg has always been “God puts you in the best place to find Jesus at the cross.” For the kids in Haiti, that’s in a home in Haiti. For me, that’s in the Santa Clarita Valley.

One of the biggest ways I’ve grown is in how I view the church. We aren’t just one group of individuals who meet in the same place every Sunday. The church is so much more than that, and it’s a shame to think otherwise. I think I’ve grown deeper in my understanding of who God is. Those first couple of trips to Haiti, it was easy to ask “Where is God?”—but now, I can look at Haiti and see God at work everywhere. Matthew 6:26 comes to mind, when Jesus says to “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” He cares so deeply for us. Seeing how God is healing and redeeming these kids has been a pretty amazing privilege. Remembering kids who were so deeply hurt and broken back in 2017, and then thinking about where they are today—many of them having been saved and baptized—it’s impossible not to raise your eyes to Christ in amazement.

The greatest reward has been seeing and hearing these testimonies of how God is at work, in the lives of these Haitian men, women, and children, and also in the lives of the other volunteers I’ve been blessed to serve with over the years. International ministry brings so many reminders that we all serve the same loving Father. The end goal is the same, no matter our individual circumstances: live a life that is pleasing to Him, and share the gospel.

The best suggestion I could give about serving is that you just find something and do it. I know that I spend too much time contemplating things, trying to make decisions; but just because you serve in one way right now, it doesn’t mean that will be the way you serve forever. You’ll never know how God will stretch you and grow you if you don’t get involved. As Christ followers, we have to respond. I remember my first year, we visited a pastor and his family. His kids sang us a song: “I give myself away, so you can use me.” How are we giving ourselves to our Savior? How are we being useful? We don’t all have to book a flight and head to Haiti, but there are so many wonderful opportunities to serve right where you’re at, if you make the commitment to seek them out.

Thank you to all of our volunteers who give of their time, energy, and resources to support gospel ministry in Haiti. This World Humanitarian Day, we remember our own call to serve as Christians in the world, looking to Christ as the perfect example of selfless care for others.