I thought I would take this opportunity to give our families and friends an update of our adventures in Haiti. I cannot express our deepest gratitude to our prayer partners and supported that gave their out of their generosity that we might represent you here. I personally am amazed at how well the team is bonding together and sharing themselves completely with the Haitians.
Erin and Esther have jumped right into the kitchen and helped to peel vegetables for dinner and then ever tried their hand at washing their clothes at the water pump. I think they looked so pitiful, that Gina the house mother sat down to give them a lesson. The simple fact that they were willing to try, to experience life as the Haitians and to let them know we are not above them but partners opened so many door. They have done chalk art on the drive way, balloons, bubbles and paper cut outs.
On the down side, both Steve and Erin have been plagued with mosquito bites, so please continue to pray that we are able to persevere. Both Erin and Esther have had moments of sickness, which I believe are due in part to the intense heat and overworking themselves. Last night, in order to escape the heat and the mosquitoes, we took our mattresses to the roof and slept under the stars. We felt like the first century church. I wonder, however, if they were annoyed by roosters crowing all across town too!
Matt, Tony and Steve were busy yesterday building four(4) small benches for the boys to sit together at the dinner table. Later this week we will build a 4x8 table to go with the benches. We all worshiped with the Haitians on Sunday and Steve was asked to preach. I preached on Phil 1:9-11 (I think) and talked about how as Christians in America and Haiti we are all comforted by the Presence of Christ, Confident in the promises of Christ, and Courageous in the Power of Christ. I worked through a translator so I have no idea if what I said made any sense.
Matt has been leading devotionals and we has some great conversations about the seeing the world differently through the Haitian experience. I know we’re all growing and changing because of what God is doing in each of us.
On Saturday, we plan to travel to Da Bois Rouge and visit the mountain church there and we’re planning on taking all of us to the beach some time later this week so keep praying.
We thank you all of taking this journey with us and I pray for you that you feel God’s blessings for being a part of our team. I'm trying to upload picture for you to follow our progress, but so far I've haven't been success.
Please know you are all in our hearts and prayers.
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I’m sorry to hear about the problems with the mosquitos and the heat and the humidity; but God bless your hearts — all of your “hearts after God’s own heart” — for choosing to leave your comfort zone in order to share God’s Light that lives in each of you with those whom God knew needed to know each and all of you when He said, “Go, make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of His Holy Spirit.”
…hear God whispering to your “still, small voice,” “Well done, good and faithful servants”; and know that you remain unceasingly…in our prayers…
…thanks for sharing your words and your pictures with us and for taking us along on your journey that C. S. Lewis described as causing you to go “further up and further in” as you discover not only more about who you are but more about God and the relationship He so eagerly wants to have with you.
Numbers 6: 24-26
Thanks for all you’ve done to make this trip possible. Prayer partners are with us and we feel you presence. Please share our gratitude with all the prayer partners and tell them with the Mountain that lies before us we need their prayer now more than ever!
I would say to you, most assuredly and most definitively, that there has not been a moment, not a moment of this trip that you — each and all of you — have not been covered and surrounded with and by prayer. It is so obvious that God is working such “wonders and miracles” through each and all of you “to bring Him honor and glory.”
Remember His promises, especially the one in which He says that He will “never abandon or forsake you,” as you walk the mountain tomorrow, see His presence in each rock, and keep a smile in your heart and on your face as you climb each and every step — in tennis shoes, not Crocs — closer to the top and think to yourselves that the heat and the humidity are really not heat and humidity but Him making you feel “strangely warm” because you know that as He is using you and you are allowing Him to use you as His instrument you are growing closer and closer and ever closer to Him and His glory and His promise of an eternal relationship with Him.
You all have done so much; you have labored so hard; you have been on a roller coaster ride emotionally and spiritually; you are trying to be and do for God in so few days; and in the midst of that, as you wrote before the trip began, you are being attacked by the accuser who is using the heat, the humidity, and the lack of sleep and rest to bring you to a point where you are experiencing exhaustion of the body and perhaps even to some extent of the spirit.
…and tomorrow the mountain…
Tonight, as you lie under the stars, draw strength from God’s cool night-air breath and from the words in the movie “The Lion King” as spoken by the father to the son under the star-lit night sky…and in each of your “still, small voices,” hear the Father speak to His son or His daughter the reassuring and the comforting words that He is always with you and that “you can do all things through Christ Who strengthens you.”
…and tomorrow the mountain…but first the reminder when you open your eyes tomorrow morning and face the new day, you will say, “This is the day which the LORD hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it” and with a smile on your faces and in each and all of your hearts, scale that mountain…and with each step you take, remember that your Prayer Partners are undergirding it with prayers that God’s all-sufficient grace and His most blessed peace “that passeth all understanding” will be with you and enable you for any and everything that lies ahead.
…and if you would…each of you, all of you…find St. Patrick’s prayer called “The Deer’s Cry” in the Haiti Chronicles that you have with you…during your mountain’s climb and your remaining days in Haiti as you pray for God to be your knight in shining armor and fight the accuser as only He can and will for each and all of you, keep the words of that prayer in your heart and mind…”Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ above me, Christ below me, Christ within me…”
…and continue “fighting the good fight” as you have so wonderfully for the last seven days and as you scale the mountain and find God not only making the trip with you but waiting at the top to say, “Well done, My good and most blessed servants.”
Numbers 6: 24-26:
“The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”
…in my prayers,…
(…and if you read this tonight, which I pray…let me know…it will lighten my heart as I continue keeping you …in my prayers,…)
…I’m going to go and call each of your Prayer Partners right now expressing your thanks to each of them and asking each to be mindful of your mountain sojourn tomorrow…
…here’s a smidgen of humor…you know me: anything for a smile…
You know the movie “Sound of Music”?
You know how in the famous, or infamous depending on your point-of-view, opening shot, Julie Andrews swirls and whirls around in her blue dress covered with a white pinafore apron and bursts into song singing, “The hills are alive with the sound of music”?
…okay…minus the blue dresses and white aprons that would not be your chosen mode of dress on a Haitian mountain for a multitude of reasons…here is your challenge…once you reach the top of the mountain tomorrow and that part of your sojourn is over, each and all of you…either corporately or individually…are to burst into song (notice I purposefully omitted the swirling and twirling part) singing, “The hills are alive with the sound of music.”
…of course, singing “Climb Every Mountain” at some or numerous points in your trek might also be smile-producing…or ear-shocking if you ask Pastor Steve how he does or doesn’t sing…anyway and so…
…yes!?…you will do that!?…remember: God has a sense of humor…
…smiles on your faces and in your hearts…
…God loves you and so do we…
…and in our prayers,…
…just so each and all of you know…I have spoken with almost all of your Prayer Partners and extended to them your heart-felt gratitude for surrounding and strengthening each and all of you with their prayers.
I also have told them about your four-mile mountain trek in high heat and humidity scheduled for tomorrow and asked them to keep each and all of you in their most fervent, purposeful, unceasing, and supportive of prayers.
…and yes, we are all praying for at least one donkey…
…feel and know that God and their prayers are with you…
…and know that we “thank God for each and all of you with each remembrance of you.”
As you prepare for this day’s climb up the mountain and as you consider the lives you will encounter and touch once you reach the top, consider the thoughts of another missionary written as well as, I believe, prayed several hundreds of years ago and find strength and encouragement from knowing that that divine spark which motivated him to help others is the same divine spark that, because it lives in each of your hearts, has caused each and all of you to journey to Haiti and to climb the mountain:
“I shall pass this way but once; any good that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being; let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.“
Etienne de Grellet (1773-1855)
Quaker missionary
God be praised for each and all of you.