How We Become God’s Poetry?

I know that it is March and I am still sharing experiences from February. I will get caught up soon, I promise!

On February 9, I attended a meeting sponsored by Sous Espwa, a Haitian faith based non-profit which partners with other organizations committed to radical urban ministry. They serve as a transformative agent in some of the hardest, most challenged communities of Port au Prince. The purpose of the gathering was to introduce leaders of another organization called Strategies of Transformation. Strategies of Transformation works in Latin America and the Caribbean, equipping church leaders to serve and assist, youth, families and communities located in some of the toughest places of the world. Joel Van Dyke, who leads the program in Guatemala City, a Guatemalan priest named Edwin, Mario, the liaison from the Dominican Republic and an intern for the D.R. operation, and Carl, the program coordinator for Venezuela, were all in attendance.

I had actually met Joel Van Dyke and worked with members of his team in Guatemala City during a visit in March 2008. I was there with Nathan Corbitt, Co-founder and President of BuildaBridge, a Philadelphia based non-profit bringing wholeness and healing through the arts to children in the most difficult areas of the world. Joel’s Guatemala program assists with a school called Veda Plenas in the slum community of La Limonada and provides chaplaincy programs in a few of the City’s prisons. I had witnessed first hand the in positive and powerful way that Strategies of Transformation helped to return hope, faith and promise to individuals who otherwise felt lost.


The meeting took place at the Evangelical Baptist Union of Haiti (UEBH) in an area of Port au Prince called Bolosse. On the second floor of the main building, there were two large classrooms separated by a divider. We took over the entire space. As the time of the meeting approached, the room quickly filled with people. Joel was the first to speak. Though I knew of Strategies of Transformation’s mission, I had never heard Joel speak about it. As powerful and, sometimes heart-wrenching, photographs appeared on the screen behind him, Joel first referenced Psalm 137:4- “How could we sing the Lord’s s song in a foreign land?” As we are called to venture into “foreign land”, places very different from our own home, places where, sometimes, few others want to go, Joel asked us how we sing the Lord’s song? Similarly, how do we become God’s poetry and invite others to join? It was a beautiful image. As one whose first-born son is an artist, I resonated with it. Joel went on to compare classical music and jazz. He spoke of the discipline and precision of classical music as opposed to jazz in which each musician plays intuitively while also responding to the sound and rhythm of his fellow musicians. Jazz then serves as the metaphor for the nurturing of relationships, with anyone really, but especially with those in “foreign places”.

I have spent must of my life feeling called to be in “foreign places”. When I was young, those experiences were relatively brief. As I have gotten older, the commitment to deepen relationships and enter a level of residence in certain communities and cultures has grown. The desire to try to understand and connect more fully through actual immersion is what brought me to serve as a Missioner. Having said this, I am keenly aware that I will never “know” the life and struggle of those faced with daily poverty, homelessness, hunger and violence. And yet, as a fellow human being, part of “God’s handiwork”, isn’t my responsibility to try? And what is my hope- that, someday, “the city shall be filled with boys and girls playing in the streets” Zachariah 8:5. Thank you, Joel, for reminding me through the invitation “to be God’s poetry”, why I am where I am doing what I do.