What a Beautiful Thing It Is

Posting by Ruth Anne Breithaupt

Missionary In Residence/Highview Community Church

There’s a beauty in this picture that we might miss if we thought it was just another restaurant photo of a group out for dinner.  Because it’s not.

When Pastor Giordani, Pastor and Denominational Leader from Haiti came this month to visit some of his church members who now live in Toronto, a two-day stopover in Kitchener became part of the plan.   That gave a number of us the opportunity to share a meal and spend some time with one of Highview’s beloved partners in the work in Haiti God has so lavishly given us to be part of. 

This is a partnership that spans more than a decade and has seen us send teams to various locations, mostly working on construction sites, and assisting in medical clinics. But I probably don’t need to tell you any of this if you are already connected to this blog, or to Highview, or to any one of the amazing people who have taken up the adventure and gone themselves.  And if not, just scroll back into past posts to get the scope and joy of the bigger story here.

Pastor Giordani’s leadership role and oversight of churches there, has involved him in most if not all of our visits, giving team members, particularly those who have gone frequently (like Brian, Poppy and Linda, as well as Dr. Ivan) a chance to become friends.   Real friends.  Friends that respect one another and listen to each other and are genuinely glad in each other’s presence.

And that’s the beauty of it, folks. 

While I feel completely welcome, my space at the table is somewhat undeserved.  I have never sweltered in the heat hauling cement , or counted out pills under the shade of a Haitian porch roof.   But I am Highview’s Missionary In Residence which means that my heart is excited for all Highview’s loves beyond our own borders.   And I am passionate, almost militant to be honest, about respect and reciprocity being the foundation of any of our endeavours.  

  

So when Pastor Giordani is greeted with such warm enthusiasm.  When his own smile and ease in our company brings its own brightness to the room.  When Poppy is excited to tell him (using her French so delightfully) about her time in India.  When Brian converses with Pastor Giordani in Creole, demonstrating just a whole lot of effort to make this important way of connection happen.  When Linda says she’s more than happy to have Pastor Giordani stay at their home because, after all, she’s stayed at his.  When I feel  the love wrapping itself around our meal, I am honoured to sit in the beauty of it.

This love, these incarnational friendships, it changes everything.  We are not the same once we make these deeper connections.   We are just so not.

The meal is over.  We ask our server to take our picture.  Pastor Giordana stands to thank us, for the meal and for this time to be together, in a way that’s both formal and familiar at the same time.   I love it.  I love that I’ve been here.  To see this.   We’ve been together as friends.  And it's beautiful.