We’ve all been pulling a lot closer to Haiti these past couple of months.  Many of us have been to Percin and many more have given rides to the airport, financially supported teams and prayed.  This tiny outpost in the Caribbean has become a tangible symbol of the power of God to use the collegiate generation to change lives in this world and the world to come.  The church is growing there, lives are changing and university students are discovering their potential to be a force for God.  You can feel the ripple effects of that on our campuses.  You see it in the form of outreaches, passionate worship experiences, intenCITY trips, clothing drives and so much more.

You can see it in the story of Baby Sarah.

This little girl has come to represent so much of what we’re asking God to do through us.  Sarah was just born this past December and, in one of the most touching signs of our impact on Percin, was named after a member of our Gathering community.  I remember meeting Baby Sarah when I traveled to Haiti in January and I remember seeing her resting in the arms of the American University student she’s named after.  I remember being so excited that we were making inroads into Percin to the point where babies were being named after Gathering students.

So you can imagine how hard it was to sit with a small group of students after last night’s Gathering at AU as they learned that Baby Sarah passed away at the end of last month.  She never quite made it to three months old before she lost her life in this world to a fever.  We know she’s with her God this morning.  But that doesn’t do much to quiet the resolve in all of our hearts that we must do more in Percin, in DC and on our campuses.  Three month old babies shouldn’t die of something so preventable.

It’s stories like Baby Sarah’s that give life to what we’re talking about at The Gathering this week.  You and I have the resources to make a difference in the lives of countless other Baby Sarah’s.  Please don’t waste them on things that don’t matter.  Please use them in the ways that matter most.  Remember what James said:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” – James 1:27.

I pray we would be the kind of community that would continue to invest our resources in the work of God and do so with even more intentionality and resolve in the days to come.