disappointments and dreams

While our Haitian friends spend most of their time explaining their culture to us, we had the rather unfortunate job of explaining some of ours to a good friend today. Paul is one of the three guys that has just started taking online courses for his master's degree through our seminary and one in Mississippi. For the past few weeks, we've been teaching them how to use their computers, and then how to use the internet. For men that have never had internet access before, this has opened up a whole new world for them.

Paul busted into our office this afternoon, very excited and talking quickly. "I just can't believe it!" he said. "Can you tell me our mailing address?"

When we asked why, he hurriedly told us that someone was sending him a huge and free gift, and he needed to know our address, so that he could "tell the computer" where to send it.

Matt sat down with him to see what this was all about. "SEE!" Paul showed him. "This says that if I just send them my information, they will send me a brand new computer for free!"

Paul had already picked out which computer he wanted in a pop-up box on his desktop, and was ready to send off his information.

He was SO disappointed whenever Matt told him that this was a scam, and that the pop-up was simply wanting his contact information to sell to other companies.

"I do not get a free computer?" he kept asking, and then turned rather hurt. "Why would they lie about that?"

While we couldn't really explain why this is, we are going to need to meet with all three of them tomorrow before they are faced with other more harmful pop-ups!


A student came to me today, too, and just as excited. However, Mark was excited for a different reason.

"I've got to tell you about this" he said, and dropped his usual slower attempts at English to rattle off his story in Creole.

Last Thursday night, Mark had a very vivid and realistic dream. He told me that he dreamed he was in Cap-Haitien, and that he continued to clearly see two men. He told me that he saw their faces clearly, and had never seen them before. Whenever he awoke, he said he felt closely the presence of the Lord. He fell back asleep, thinking about these two men.

This Sunday afternoon, he was in Cap-Haitien, having just left his church and heading for home. He said he stopped dead in his tracks when he looked up and saw these exact two men from his dream standing on the corner of the street he was on.

At this point, I'm not sure what I would have done, but Mark said, "So, I figured I'd better go tell them about Jesus, because God had sent me that dream."

Mark walked up to these two strangers, who were also strangers to each other, and said, "I need to tell you about Jesus."

He did, and both of them, right there on that street corner, came to know our Lord.

Not only did they come to know Christ, but Mark invited them to his church that evening, and they both came, and plan to get involved there.

This is the stuff, friends, that you HEAR about.

but we can tell you, tonight, that if you pray for us, if you follow our blog, if you support us, if you pray for Haiti, if you support the seminary...you're a part of this...

God moving nations, directing people through dreams, healing and transforming lives...that's not just stuff of the Old Testament. It's happening now, here, and we're all a part of it...

Praise God!