Will you make a year-end donation? Click here or mail your check to Grace to the Nations (P.O. Box 70, Canton, GA 30169).

REDEEM HAITI is a roots-based ministry, your support gets to the fields of ministry quickly and efficiently.  What you might consider an insignifcant donation is able to accomplish much ministry in developing countries like Haiti. (Click here to read more about RH ministry and strategy)

Thanks again and may God’s grace be with you, your family, and your church this coming year.

Spencer Nix

In the efforts to continue developing relationships and advancing the Gospel within the Haitian refugee community, a Christmas celebration is planned to give over 400 people a Christmas meal as well as gifts for children. Last year’s dinner was a great success and helped launch relationships, this year we are looking to do the same on an even larger scale. In attendance this year will be Haitian refugees, Haitian college students, as well as members of the Haitian Counsular, who represent the rights of Haitian refugees. This is a great opportunity for Gospel ministry to continue and we need your support to make this a reality. A donation of any amount would be great and of course your prayers are always coveted. If you would like to make a donation to this project feel free to donate now or mail your check to Grace to the Nations (P.O. Box 70, Canton, GA 30169). All donations raised before Christmas will go toward this project.

THE YEAR IN REVIEW

The REDEEM HAITI project continues to move forward in 2011. The goal is for the Gospel of Jesus Christ to advance in Hispañola, the island of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It is a privilege to partner with a full-time, Gospel-soaked minister, Stanley Phillipe, in this work.  Stanley leads the day to day, on the ground ministry efforts. There is a strategy in place for advancing the Gospel and, by God’s grace, doors continue to open.

SO WHAT’S UP?

The strategy is to plant a Haitian church(es) in the midst of the largest Haitian refugee area in Santiago, Dominican Republic. A key focus of the Haitian church plants is to train up Haitians in the Gospel and return them to their cities, towns, and villages all over Haiti, spreading the Gospel in a manner that we could never accomplish on our own.

Currently, four education institutions have been identified within the refugee area and Stanley is establishing relationships through outreach in these strategic areas. In fact one of the men Stanley has invested in has already moved into one of these areas, started a LifeGroup, and is beginning to develop the relationships critical for Gospel ministry. The work is young but it is moving forward with progress measured by the Gospel.

Stanley has committed himself full-time to this endeavor and has also transformed his home into a Discipleship Training School where he is teaching others the priority of the Gospel, of being shaped by the Word of God, and the privilege of exercising Gospel ministry and mission to their own people and communities.

The strategy is to develop sustainability over sentimentality. It is a great challenge in our context to raise support without sentimental manipulation, fear, or guilt. Our desire is to gain supporters who want to see the Gospel advanced in Hispañola first and foremost. We pray that the advance of the Gospel would be enough reason to give. Yes, children’s lives are being changed, we are meeting physical needs like food, clothing, shelter, and clean water, and while all of that is worthy and good, our first priority at REDEEM HAITI is to give people their greatest need, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then to disciple them in that Gospel, helping them fully identify with who they are as Christ followers which leads to lives of worship, stronger communities of faith, and mission to others.

Thank you to all who continue to give of your financial resources. I recognize the sacrifice and your commitment is such an encouragement. We need more of you. If you would like to support Grace to the Nations and REDEEM HAITI on a monthly basis, we would be greatly blessed. Please consider a $5, $10, $25, $50 or even $100 per month to support this Gospel driven ministry. We will commit to giving the people of Haiti the bread of life.

Grace be with you,
Spencer Nix

You can join our inner support community online through our private Grace to the Nations Facebook Group where we post specific needs and attempt to meet those needs as a community. Contact GTN with questions and we will invite you to join us.  If you would simply like to follow the general needs of GTN we also have a GTN Facebook Fan Page and Twitter.

God did not turn his back on creation after the Fall.  He did not completely destroy it, which would of been completely just, but instead he chose to redeem it. And he chose to do so within history and through persons and events that go from Noah to Abraham to the second coming of Jesus Christ.  There are many stories between Abraham and the second coming of Jesus and each one contributes to the whole. Each story has a fundamental unity and that is the great saving act of God.  The Old Testament and the New Testament are unified. The Old Testament is not “Salvation Plan A” and the New Testament “Salvation Plan B,” with plan A failing and plan B succeeding.

Let begin in the Old Testament. By Genesis 11 the human race has two huge problems.  Every human heart is sinful and because of this there is brokenness in all of humanity and people are divided and being scattered.  God’s plan of redemption addresses both. It starts in Genesis 12, God calls Abraham and sets into motion a historical force that would not only deal with the problem of human sin but also heal the brokenness of the nations. God elected Abraham for the purpose of blessing all nations on earth.  This is the first great commission in the story of God.  Genesis 12:1-3, “Go…be a blessing…and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”  Sounds familiar to Great Commission at the end of Matthew doesn’t it?  Let’s move on to the exodus.

The exodus shows us God acting as a Redeemer.  This is a picture of what redemption looks like when God is in control of it.  It shows us many characteristics of God. His faithfulness, His justice and His love.  And the people who know themselves to be the redeemed people of God, now revealed as YHWH, they are called upon to model before the nations what it means to be redeemed and to live redemptively in their society. Then on Mt. Sinai, God enters into covenant with Israel, but He does so with the rest of the nations in view.  He calls Israel to be His representatives and to be distinctive.  He gave grace in the form of the law, not so that they could earn salvation, they were already redeemed, but to shape them as his model people, to be a light to the nations.

As the history of Israel moves forward to the time of settlement in the promised land, the judges, and the kingdom, it becomes clear that Israel can not and will not live by the standards of God’s law as a response to His saving grace.  Israel proves that it is no different from the other nations.  The law exposes the fact that Israel is in as much need of God’s salvation as are the rest of the nations.  There is no difference, all have sinned.  But even Israel’s failure carries forward the redemptive plan of God.  The Old Testament continues through the prophets who are pointing forward and who keep insisting that God will keep His promise and He will bless the nations and bring salvation to the whole world. He would do so through the failed servant of Israel, indeed He would give them the suffering servant.  The failure of historical Israel was known by God before He entered into covenant with them, indeed before time began, so their failure doesn’t represent a failure in God’s plan.  There is some mystery here as to God’s sovereign purpose, but what we do know is that their failure leads to salvation going to the ends of earth. We can speculate that their failure shows us just how much God loves creation and how He alone is in control of it, but what we know is that their failure leads to salvation that will keep going, just as God has always intended and their failure will make God’s name that much more glorious and known.

We will continue to look at the narrative of redemption and its implications for mission in upcoming posts.

So where do we begin to know God’s mission and story?  From the Great Commission or the book of Acts? No. The reality is that we often begin in the New Testament, thinking that it alone is relevant for the mission of God, for there we find what the early believers and church were doing.  But again we go back to our desire to do before being.   We look for the “what?” and “how?” before we find out “why?”  The early Christians and early church certainly did missions, passionately and boldly.  Was their passion and boldness simply a matter of obedience or was it informed by a larger reality, a larger story?  They were motivated by knowing the story they were in and by the Holy Spirit which gave them the power to accomplish the story.  Understanding the larger story drives the missionary focus which tunes the heart with the power of the Holy Spirit.  The Great Commission is simply the inevitable outcome of the story of Scriptures, leading up to the Messiah and leading on to mission to the nations.

Missions is not mere pragmatism, there must be a balance between theology and missions.  Jesus spent three years preparing his disciples to go. He had to radically reshape their perspectives, their understanding of Scripture and their own identity.  I understand that this is difficult.  To challenge our assumptions is sometimes scary.  But by doing so we find a new way to live and go about our daily lives, one that is so deeply rooted in the mission of God, in the character and person of God. When our lives are rooted in the story and mission of God, that is when all our other challenges, difficulties, and struggles are put through the lens of the mission of God and a better perspective of life is truly gained.  I think that would be good for you and me.  I think that such a challenge and perspective would be good for our ministry of mission to take grace to the nations.