sending you in

Hello from the long lost Ayars! We have been three days now with NO internet, and after hours of frustrating work, Matt’s finally got it going again! It occurred to my blond self a few days ago that I should at least publish a short blog and let you all know that our internet was down…until I realized that you must have internet to publish a short blog, too!

So, to fill you in…Matt made it home safely Saturday morning and we enjoyed his birthday (again ☺) with his gifts that finally came while he was gone. It is SO very good to have him back, and he brought Lily, me and the guys at the seminary who were supposed to have traveled with him all sorts of gifts from Target and Wesley Biblical Seminary. His room-mate, whom he had just met, gave us a $200 Target baby gift card, and so I got to do some fun baby shopping through Matt while he was there! (THANK YOU, Rob!!!)

The Lord used a lot of different people to encourage Matt, guide him, and to challenge him. One professor spent almost a full week talking about parenting and Christian family, and about the parents full responsibility in the Old Testament, New Testament, and NOW to be teaching their children about our Christian heritage, about the Bible, about God, about Christian living, and about becoming the vessels that God made them to be. What perfect timing to be through a course like this, and Matt came home with lots of materials and ideas concerning Godly parenting for us to discuss and pray about!

He was also challenged, more through some amazing prayer times than anything else, to be going through a shift in our work here in Haiti. He feels strongly that after a year of language study, cultural study, ministry and adjustment, the Lord is calling he and I into a much more active form of evangelism than just teaching at the Seminary.

On the plane ride back into Haiti, he was praying earnestly that the Lord would direct him on what God wants our lives to look like here. “I’m sending you in,” he felt the Lord say clearly to his heart.

“Sending me in?” Matt asked immediately. “Sending me in…what?”

“Sending you in, like Moses, to deliver My people” the Lord spoke to his heart strongly.

Since the truck coming this past Friday, I have felt similarly…that the Lord didn’t just provide this beautiful and reliable new vehicle so that we could safely go to the grocery store, but so that we could TAKE Christ to Haiti, not just share him here at the seminary and on an occasional day out.

Friday morning during an hour of prayer for all of the ministries, a godly older man named Met Son whose sole work in life is to bring people to Jesus, that also happens to also be our next door neighbor, stood up to share some “counsel.” He discussed the feeling on his heart that God was ready to move in Haiti, and that several different things have affirmed it. He also mentioned Friday that he was going to start working with several of our students to train them, pray with them, and then practice them in Evangelism. I thought to myself, "I've got to talk to Matt about this."

As soon as Matt came back and spoke to me about what the Lord was speaking to him about spreading the gospel in Haiti, I told him about everything that this "father in the faith" had shared on Friday. So, today after church, Matt went and spent some time with our neighbor, and together they prayed and about discussed God's heart for His people here. Matt told him that whatever we could do to be a part of this and to help him, we were prepared to do.

"I saw that you have new truck," Met Son said slowly. "The day it came, and I saw that new truck, the Lord said something to me. He said, 'THAT truck is going to bring the Gospel to Haiti.' You have affirmed everything that the Lord has been saying to me, and I think you and that truck are going to be a part of this transformation." This was all said without Matt or I having ever mentioned the truck, or the idea that we felt God gave it to us for evangelism.

If you don't feel the Lord at work yet, I don't know what it would take! Matt and I are very excited about the ways God is speaking to a lot of different people, our students and us included, about being actively going out to spread the Gospel. While you'd think this would be a normal part of Christian or Missionary life, we've learned that, like everything else, it only happens with great intentionality, sacrifice and effort.

Please be praying with us for God's people here and around the world that do not yet know that they are His. Please be praying for us, for Met Son, for our students and for several pastors who are feeling led to TAKE Christ out into Haiti. Please be praying for clarity and direction as this begins to take place. This Wednesday Matt will be meeting with all of them for their first hours of training, preparing and prayer. We're going to work hard these next few weeks to get the truck ready to go...benches in the back and a cage for protection of passengers. Please pray that the Lord would be preparing many people across this dark land to hear His word through these men (Matt has insisted that Lily and I are not joining him for any evangelical treks until after she comes :)

Thank you for your prayers and for your support and encouragement.