Giving Tuesday
Brad Newbold has served with Connect 2 Ministries for more than three years, and his company, Regency Lighting, has funded many of our projects in Haiti. As we recognize Giving Tuesday, we asked Brad to share his thoughts on living life for others.
I have had the privilege of visiting Haiti on five different occasions, and as I visited with the children and worked alongside my co-workers, I paid special attention to what Greg was sharing with us each evening—about living a life in service to others and about sharing the gospel with those in need.
For those of you who have had the opportunity to visit a third-world country or spend time with the poor and orphans, you know it can be hard to describe. But I am going to do my best to share with you how these experiences can shape our worldview, and hopefully align our thoughts and desires with what Scripture asks of us.
First, we need to understand the nature of the ministry. The kids in the Connect 2 Ministries Children’s Homes are…
Adopted. They have no parents to take care of them, but they are still well cared for. The caretakers at the Children’s Homes act as surrogate parents, and in this way, these kids are adopted as sons and daughters.
Not at home. Most of these children aren’t from Onaville, but from somewhere in the outlying communities. Often, they don’t even know where they are from. These kids have been abandoned, taken, sold, and discarded.
Hopeful for a better future. And yet, these children are expectant about what their lives might hold. They are learning how to take care of themselves, and developing their reading, writing, and arithmetic skills. These kids are learning practical, vocational gifts, like how to live in community—learning to be self-sufficient while still relying on each other. They are learning about Jesus, salvation from sin, and a future without pain, tears, and evil. They are learning that through faith in Christ, there is strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.
It’s easy to see myself as so much better off than these children because I don’t share the same temporal experience; but there’s a danger in that kind of thinking. When I forget my own reality—that I was enslaved to sin, but have been adopted into God’s family—I lose the motivation that drives all Christian ministry: sharing the gospel. It becomes more about easing their pain than reaching their souls. We need to see ourselves for who we really are in order to live according to that reality.
We are adopted. Through Jesus Christ, we have been adopted as children. Do you believe that? Do you live according to that truth? Just like the children in Haiti, who have been adopted, raised, and cared for by others, our true Father is in heaven, and he loves us so much that He makes us His sons and daughters through Jesus, His own son (Romans 8:15–17).We are not at home. We are travelers and sojourners here, and we are not at home (Philippians 3:20). Creation itself is groaning under the weight of sin, crying out to be set free from the bondage of corruption, and for the children in Haiti, there is a very real parallel. All of these kids have been displaced from their homes, and many have been slaves. While we may not share the same physical reality, we have the same spiritual situation. We have been freed from our slavery, and yet we are still waiting, in a foreign land, longing to go home.
We are hopeful for a better future. Like these dear children who long for a better future, so we put our hope not in ourselves, not in today, but in the joy of heaven to come—where Christ has defeated the last enemy, death, and sin is finished once and for all.
This is the attitude we must have if we want to truly live for others. Compassion, pity, and even sympathy can do a lot, but they will never carry us beyond the temporal need. We need to remember where we stand before God and why we live every day with hope if we want to share true hope with others.
When you visit Haiti and sing “Amazing Grace” with 100 rescued kids, who don’t even speak English, you will see a little glimpse of heaven. Let that hope of a bright and blessed future encourage you to be even more involved in the work that God is doing right now.
Here are a few ways you can get involved with Connect 2 Ministries this #GivingTuesday.
- Give a Bible This Christmas—make the gift in honor or in memory of a loved one!
- Give This Christmas—help pastors in our network provide tangible earthquake relief as they share the gospel!
Sponsor a Child—make a lifelong impact on a child rescued from slavery! - And don’t forget to head over to our Instagram and Facebook pages to enter our #GivingTuesday Giveaway!
For information about ways to serve, visit connect2ministries.org/support-us/.
