Article by Courtney McFarland, current BIC student
Have you ever been lost at Baylor – feeling like your education is one with the masses, and you, alone, are not important? I sometimes do. The college environment is beneficial in multiple ways – but it lacks in one. While we are constantly surrounded and empowered by intelligent, curious minds working hard to get a degree in many different disciplines, we do not readily see the millions of people unable to have an education. This summer I was able to get a new perspective; I went to Haiti on a mission trip. The shock of experiencing a completely different culture and language broadened my perspective of a student’s purpose here at Baylor.
Charis4Haiti is an organization that focuses first on the unseen spirits in Haiti, and second on the physical needs of the people. Their mission trips are focused on building relationships and introducing Americans to this world we have never witnessed. Our primary goal is not to build a home, or donate some food and games, but to interact with the community and share Christ’s love. We attended many bible studies, with some members walking miles to attend. There we witnessed LaTique. LaTique is a former voodoo priest who has completely flipped his life around once learning about Christ. LaTique had been a very bad man throughout most of his adult life. Voodoo priests get instructed by their demons to do certain tasks, and they can be taken over by there demons at night and act in violent, dangerous ways that they have no memory or control over. LaTique stood up in this particular bible study, he attends most, and started talking loudly. He had his bible in one hand and and fist raised up in his other hand. He began speaking about how scared he once had been. His demon had haunted him since he was a boy. Nothing he could do could satisfy the demon, it was always asking for more. It became so unbearable he couldn’t sleep at night. LaTique had become so engulfed with emotion, his hands were balled up and his words were coming out as sharp and loud as an air horn. His eyes were open as wide as they can go. The seriousness in his stare was at first discomforting, but I later realized I misconstrued his passion for anger; his passion is nothing I have ever seen before. LaTique is illiterate and cannot read the bible, but lays with it under his pillow every night. Ever since then he has been able to sleep fully throughout the night. He now feels safe and comforted by the word of God, he never walks anywhere without his bible in his hand and is learning to read so he can read the Bible for himself.
LaTique’s passion has a lesson for us all. I have seen very few with a such life-or-death passion for anything in America. LaTique was saved by grace by missionaries who were able to get an education and pass on that information to someone unavailable to it. LaTique was able to better himself, his family, and his community from hearing Christ’s message. This missionary work can be reciprocated with any type of knowledge. As our favorite man, Plato, says, “knowledge is the food of the soul.” Many missionary teams are shuttling food to these poor countries, but who is feeding the soul? Every college student now holds a special gift, the question is what are we going to do with it?
Courtney McFarland is a sophomore BIC student majoring in business.
