Another shift...

Our five weeks of preparing for class, staff and field meetings and working on seminary publications has come to a close, and our field beach day officially closed out the "summer". (Don't get me wrong...it's still 110 degrees...just the end of summer break at the seminary :)

Matt preached at a large church downtown this morning, and all of our students are coming back to the campus today or first thing tomorrow morning. Tomorrow is day one of student retreat/student orientation, so we'll be on campus from 8 am until almost 8 pm, and then another long day Tuesday. Class starts on Wednesday! Due to all of the storms, there is a possibility that our two visiting professors will not be able to get in for classes Wednesday, at which point Matt will be teaching more this week than previously expected!

We are very excited to have all of the students back, and to meet our 15 new students (they will make up Stacey's English class). It will also be wonderful to be back on a more normal schedule...it's been difficult to schedule in family time and down time these past weeks as meetings and summer ministries have taken place at all different times. We'll have some pictures up this week of our student body!!!

Thank you for all of your prayers for past week of meetings, and please continue to pray for our students, as many of them have travelled hours to return to campus.

meetings, anyone?

whew! We are about meeting-ed out, and still have another 3 days to go! This past Monday/Tuesday was staff meetings at Emmaus Biblical Seminary, and then Wednesday started our annual OMS Haiti field council. We met all day Wednesday and Thursday (and will again tomorrow) with leaders in each ministry that OMS is involved in, discussed the past and upcoming year, prayer requests and praises, and also are covering a lot of missionary issues...budget, job descriptions, etc.

There's been a lot of good and encouraging times in all of these meetings, but by this evening, we're just fried :) The most uplifting part of seminary staff meetings was how united our staff is, and also the realization that these men and women are DOING it...being called to this ministry, taking it over bit by bit, seeking the Lord with each decision. One of our main long-term goals personally is to work ourselves out of the job, and train others to win and disciple their own people to Christ, and it is SO exciting and encouraging to see bits and pieces of that beginning to happen.

The best part of our field meetings is, hands down, hearing other OMS ministries that we are not as involved in sharing about what God is doing. Through the clinics, pastors, radio station, child sponsorship and evangelization projects OMS is involved in, God is doing so many beautiful and amazing things, and it is a blessing to hear about these things and to realize that we are all a part of that.

We'll share some stories with you whenever my fingers catch up with my brain, but for now, know that your support and prayers for us is just a small part of the transformation of thousands of lives across Haiti. There are a lot of problems, and a lot of issues, but the Lord is clearly working with, and in spite of, all of these things, and continues to bless so many of our feeble and inadequate efforts. Praise the Lord for His amazing and unwavering heart for Haiti, for the lost...for me.

the face of Jesus

It was the little girl who stuck out to me first, almost immediately after we had wedged our way onto a backwards school bench in the back of Paul Vilmer's church, once again, packed out. Her crazily braided hair was tinged with flaming red and her small skeleton held itself upon her mother's bony lap in such a weary way. Red hair means major dietary deficiency, though it was obvious from the twigs in her neck and her tiny yellow dress hanging off her body that she was starving.

I tuned into the service for the first hour, glancing at this small bird child from time to time. Matt pointed to the two little boys in front of him during the singing, and it quickly became apparent that these were her brothers. They sat behind their mom and sister, both in holed t-shirts (you never see this in church) and propped up against each other. The oldest boy must have been 7 or 8, and the middle son, 5, but both were very underdeveloped and attracted swarms of flies. Both of their heads seemed uncommonly large perched on top of their sunken necks, and they seemed to hold each other up. It wasn't the insects crawling over the sores on their scalps or their malnourished states that had gotten Matt's attention, but instead their unblinking and unwavering focus on the pastor, eating up every word he said, for literally hours on end.

I watched this small family throughout the long service, feeling broken for them and unsure about what to do. After two hours, the sermon finally began, and just a few moments later the middle boy began to shake. We thought he was falling asleep, but soon realized that he was silently sobbing, gigantic tears streaming down his pulled face. He looked back at me, and his eyes...his eyes were just HUGE and the skin on his cheeks was almost wrinkled it was pulled so tightly across his sharp cheekbones. An older woman beside him quickly asked him what was wrong, and almost wordlessly, he muttered "I'm so hungry."

I thought my heart was going to explode right then. I was numb. How is it that I am still shocked at such things? I speak of Haiti as being a hungry place, speak of the current food crisis and the "face of hunger" that Haiti and it's children are currently experiencing. Yet it is one thing to know it and to talk about it, and another thing to SIT behind it and WATCH it...see it's TEARS.


The woman quickly tapped the boys mother, telling her that he was hungry. "I have nothing" she told the woman, then repeated to the boy, rapidly and guiltily swatting at his tears with her bony hand, shaking him lightly and telling him not to cry. "Don't cry," the older lady next to him kept repeating, obviously hurting for him and disturbed by his tears. Quickly she pulled 5 gourdes out of a hidden kleenex, and in moments so did the woman in front of her, then a woman one row over. They all thrust their tiny offering, some 38 cents US, at the mother, who rapidly swopped up her now sleeping daughter and headed out the back.

Moments later she returned, clasping three tiny foil packs, each containing four Saltine-type crackers. It took each child only seconds to open their tiny parcel, but almost 30 minutes to eat it...each savoring every tiny bite and picking up every crumb. The tiniest, wide-eyed and happily munching her cracker, continued to play games I've seen much chubbier children play with their mothers, "one bite for me, one bite for you," insisting on sharing every other bite with her mother, who obviously hadn't eaten anything more than any of her children.

By now I was finished, hot tears running down my sweaty face as I watched all of this...the pain of their suffering and tears, the beauty of everyone's collected sacrifice, the love between these children and their mother, the agony of sitting behind starvation and having no idea what to do, the torture over the 2 bites of cold scrambled eggs I had tossed out this morning and the bucket of crackers sitting on top of my loaded refrigerator...the pain of knowing this was just one small family in THOUSANDS...MILLIONS around the world.

I wanted to take off my wedding ring, my glasses, take my hymnal, Matt's wallet, our Nalgene bottle, the keys to the dump truck we drove into town and just give them all to this family. I wanted to pile them into the car and drive them home and shower them and feed them the biggest meal they had every seen and just...KEEP them....FIX it.

Suddenly the service was over and everyone was standing, hurried to leave as the dark block room had become an oven in the noonday heat. I grasped at the oldest boys hand and he smiled shyly at me. The little bird girl was shy and hid her small face in her mother's dirty t-shirt. I grabbed the mother's hand as the crowd pushed her past, and she smiled full joy as well, and I told her her children were beautiful, because I didn't know anything else to say, and she nodded in agreement.

The middle boy, however, had held back a moment, and I sat down on my heels to be at his eye level. "Good morning" he told me as I held his hand and then he grinned the most ravishing smile I have ever seen, his glassy eyes full of joy. I smiled at him brokenly, and a remnant tear slid down my cheek. Without missing a beat, he swung his tiny hand up to my shoulder and patted it quickly before he ran after his family.

This morning my face was four inches from the skeletal, open-sored face of Jesus...and when you meet Jesus face-to-face, it has to change you, doesn't it.

Please keep praying for Haiti, for Jesus to be made known, for all those that are so hungry in so many ways...and for all the pieces of our hearts.

weekend

Here's some photo updates from the weekend, and we'll blog again Monday!

The Bundy kids at the pool Saturday...these guys are so ornery! We had a blast...






Photos from around town Sunday....

1 year anniversary!

(Our first week in Haiti)
Today is the one year anniversary of the day we moved to Haiti! It is hard to believe that an entire year has passed already, although whenever we think about everything we have seen and done and experienced, it does feel like at least a year's worth! It is as hot as we remember it being when we moved in :) God's been so faithful to us this past year, and we have much to be thankful for!

This week is also the annual pastor's conference for all of the churches in fellowship with OMS. Matt had the opportunity to lead these 90 pastors and leaders in a Bible study this morning, and it went really well! The first question everyone asked was "how does he speak Creole like that???" and the only answer I had was, "It's the Lord." For Matt to be able to do a deep study of Joshua 1 for 60 minutes fluently and efficiently only one year from our moving day is just another way the Lord has been faithful to help us, and to bless our efforts. It was a joy to hear him preach and to think about how much God has done in our lives through these men and women of the Haitian church.

Matt's promised to take me to the swimming pool on Saturday to celebrate...it has been SO hot that Lily and I can't think of anything better than just sitting in a pool all day.

Another beautiful praise is that we had a fan working all night long last night! This may not seem like a big deal, but it was THE FIRST NIGHT since we came back to Haiti in July that we have had that, and MUCH effort and time has been put into getting that little fan going (It's 113 degrees during the day this week, and the nights have GOT to be close!). Three problematic inverters, 8 flaming batteries and a house full of smoke, and now finally a brand new inverter, four new batteries, and POWER! THANK YOU NorthRidge for your help with all that...we just wanted to call you last night at 10:30 and tell you the good news! We are SO grateful for your hearts and for meeting this need so that we could focus on more important things!

We are very blessed, that is for sure. Thank you all for your prayers and emails this week...we have been blessed by them and been counting on them!

please help

Family...

just wanted to write a short blog asking, please, for the encouragement and impact of your prayers. The Lord has been incredibly faithful since our return, teaching us and showing us things daily, and we are SO blessed to be right in the center of His hand, and to be continually affirmed that we are right in the center of His plan for our lives right now. We are incredibly grateful for this, and love the confidence that we have that though we are being stretched, He is deepening us as well.

Nonetheless, we have truly felt, in a way I don't think we've felt before, under attack. Everything that could break is broken. If you're a guy, you know what this is doing to Matt. Every difficulty our brothers and sisters here could face, they seem to be facing. God has given us HIS heart for these people, and this is heart-breaking for us both. There have also been a record number of tensions and oppositions these past three weeks, which if you're human, you know this is exhausting, discouraging and hurtful.

All that said, we want to simply and earnestly petition your prayers tonight and over the next few days. It is always said that when you're doing what God wants you to do, you can bet on opposition. Well, the Lord must have some really exciting things in mind for this upcoming year of ministry! We praise Him with our whole hearts in advance, and can't wait to share happier Blogs with you about these things!

We're not asking for your prayers that everything would hurry up and get easier, simply that you would pray for our perseverance, for our encouragement, for strength, for resolve, and that our hearts and desires would only be aligned with His.

Pray, as from an earlier blog, that when man and opposition and difficulty call at us to come away from what God has clearly given us to do, as men and circumstances called Nehemiah away from building the wall, that we might be able to say:
"You thought that by trying to bother and frighten us, we would become discouraged with the work and it would not be done. But now, O God, strengthen my hands." Nehemiah 6:9.

Life IS a spiritual battle, and we are living in a very dark place, that continues to claim it belongs to Satan. We're battling for the truth: this is God's land and these are God's people. Please pray for the strengthening of our hands.

It is SUCH a joy and an encouragement to have you as family and to be able to ask for such an intimate, powerful, transforming and valuable thing...your prayers.

Thank you!

google wins again

We had another busy weekend, but remarkably cooler due to the storms! I told someone on Friday that the rain WAS COMING and that we were going to have big storms. "What," he said, "did God tell you?" I explained to him that the internet had told me, at which point he looked at the sky and said, "Not gonna happen." But, Google weather wins again, and we had lots of rain and winds Friday evening and some of Saturday. Friday night we had date night, which this week consisted of leftovers and a movie...but no work!

Saturday we headed to town with several other families to do the shopping for the next month or two. There were several things we weren't able to find, but we got enough of the basics to last a month or so added with local produce. The kids joined us for the second half of the shopping day...the baby has become such an entertainer!
Sunday Matt and I walked to a local church because all of the bumpy roads yesterday had me a little wiped. It was a good service, as the pastor reminded everyone that God is to be found in Haiti, too, not just in America or in Canada or in places that Haitians think of as "the promised land". He also spoke of the terrible side of people that seems to be coming out with all of the devastation and struggle here currently. "When we are struggling is not the time to be robbing each other and being violent! We need to help each other and seek the Lord!"

We spent the afternoon cooking and preparing paperwork for our upcoming annual Field Council meetings, and are happily passing our sabbath evening, listening to a sermon from a home church and enjoying the rest He gives in the midst of difficult and long weeks. One more week to prepare for classes, new students, and meetings before a week of staff, ministry and field meetings, and then school starting again!

a trusting heart

It's Friday already! Weeks manage to entire fly by and here we are, halfway through August, doing new student interviews, preparing for new year meetings, and getting ready for our students to start showing up with their backpacks and Bibles in a two weeks!

There have been some major blessings this week, like the return of several fellow missionaries...our field director, the dean of the seminary, and a missionary kid teacher. The Bundy kids are back, always bringing a lot of joy into our lives. They are immensely excited about our new baby, and never greet either of us before first giving a hearty hello and a pat to my stomach.

It has also been a really difficult week. Small difficulties, like continued electrical issues, intense temperatures and rat infestations have added to larger difficulties, like major issues in Haiti, continued price increases and an ever transitioning field. EASY things, like turning on your lights, checking your email, making a copy, receiving your mail, buying a loaf of bread...all these things are difficult here. Being good communicators, being a unified body of Christ, knowing when and how and where to serve and act and when and how and where to stay out of...all these things are difficult, well, everywhere :)

Our "exciting" transition back into Haiti has proved to be far more challenging than fun, and we are praying that the Lord be using all of this to be teaching, growing and deepening us.

One thing He has really been working with me on, in particular, is on what it means to TRUST Him. With this new school year and new year of ministry and new baby, I have a lot of things I am apt to be concerned about, and He's stretching my heart about what a trusting heart really looks like...what my life should look like if I truly live in complete trust in Him.

I've been studying this in the Word all week, and am assured that there are several things that aren't all that comforting about trust. Trusting the Lord does NOT mean that I trust Him to take care of everything the way I want it to. It doesn't seem to mean having confidence that God will work all things out in my way, even the very very GOOD things that I want.

For example, whenever my mother was sick, if I put my trust in the fact that God WOULD heal her of leukemia and hand her back to us, either 1) He would have since betrayed my trust, or 2) I had my trust in an outcome that I wanted, NOT in the Lord. I do have enough confidence to say that the Lord has never betrayed my trust WHEN it was truly put in Him.

So what DOES trust in the Lord, not in good things, look like? How can God be MY God AS HE IS and not my "genie in the bottle" or my "wish granter." How can I trust Him, regardless of the circumstances that often come with being humans in a human world?

So far, 2 Kings has given me the most vivid images of a man that puts His trust in God through King Hezekiah. It also exemplifies what a two-sided, give and take relationship TRUST is. This is what 2 Kings 18 says of Hezekiah.

He did what was right in the sight of God.
He removed places of sin in his life and in his peoples lives.
He removed points of sin that even godly men before him had left.
He Trusted in the Lord.
He clung to the Lord.
He did not depart from Him.
He kept His commandments.
He did not serve men, but God.

And so, it says, there were none like him, and the Lord went with him wherever he went, and whatever he did, prospered.

This all intrigues me...It never says "Hezekiah was highly and unwaveringly optimistic that God would help him and serve him. He trusted God." (my common misconception of trust: being unwaveringly optimistic).

NO. It says that "NO MATTER WHAT, Hezekiah clung to the Lord, and did all that he should do, and obeyed God and served God...He trusted in the Lord, and SO the Lord was with him.

Ultimately, that is all I really want. Don't get me wrong. I want everything to be blissfully perfect: a happy, heathy, flawless 8 pound baby delivered in under two hours with her father there right on time...a ridiculously fruitful and easy year at the seminary this upcoming year...effortlessly beautiful relationships with everyone around us...cool breezes, dead mosquitos, Edy's ice cream.

But after studying Scripture, I'm realizing that all it is that I REALLY WANT is what Hezekiah had...I want to obey Him, serve Him, CLING to Him, and I want the Lord to be with me.

Looking back on all of the struggles this past year has brought, I can see so clearly that Lord has in a million ways merited every ounce of our trust. If I can say ONE thing about the past year, it is that God has truly been WITH us, and that HE and HE alone has prospered SO MANY of our efforts, so many of our feeble attempts at service.

We want the Lord to go with us wherever we go...not because "He's God, that is His job", but because we are so busy CLINGING to Him, so occupied with removing sin and keeping His commandments and serving Him with all our hearts.

After all my study this week (and I only made it through to Psalms), this is what I have found a Trusting Heart to look like...This is what we want to look like...

A trusting heart...
rejoices
cries out to God
is non-wavering
declares all His deeds
sings Praises
does right in His sight
obliterates sin in our lives
clings to the Lord
never departs from Him
keeps His commands
doesn't serve men, but God
is poured out to God
acts as if HE carries ME, not vice versa
does good
cultivates faithfulness
is committed
waits upon His name.

And ultimately, as Psalm 135:18 said about those who lifted up idols instead of the Lord, "Those who MAKE them will be LIKE them, and so will all who TRUST in them." Whatever I put my true trust in will BE what I am like. We become like what we trust in!

What an exciting and scary idea! If I trust in everything going my way, I will become all about MY WAY. If I trust in man, or promises, or buildings, or money, I will become like those things (Deut. 25:52 "the walls in which you trusted will come down.")

More than I want my way, or want perfect things, I want to look like Him...We want to exemplify trusting hearts in every aspect of our social, ministry, prayer, thought, daily lives...

Please keep praying for our brothers and sisters in Haiti, missionary and Haitian. Please keep praying for our students as they prepare to return, for our hearts and minds as we prepare to teach them, and for our hearts for the Lord, that they might be ever more trusting!

the greatest love...

Yesterday we took 10 "foreigners", 6 from England, 2 from Northern Ireland, and 2 from Oregon to church and then to lunch. We haven't seen our friend and fellow teacher Paul (far left) since coming back from Haiti, so we loaded everyone in the big silver van, stopped almost immediately to repair and refill THREE flat tires, and then headed to Paul's church near the airport.

It is the only OMS affiliated church that we have been to that has accepted NO help from OMS to pay for it building. Little by little, with a special "construction offering" every single Sunday, this rather large church has built itself...a beautiful thing. Whenever something is broken, or an addition needs built, it is, therefore, not OMS's responsibility as OMS's church. The people in this church have taken awesome responsibility and pride for their building, and this special group of people, plus a consistently truth-preaching pastor, always makes Paul's church one of our favorite places to go.

This Sunday was no disappointment, as Matt and I translated the 2.5 hour service for these 10 guests, both shouting translations over the speaker's microphone. It was overly crowded and ridiculously hot, but the message was worth waiting for. Most churches are taking obvious advantage of this very difficult time by preaching that despite hard times, God DOES love you, and to hang in there. While this is obviously an accurate message, Matt has been encouraging his graduates this summer to preach deeper, and to disciple their congregations, not just "give them each a pretty flower that lasts the afternoon and no longer."

Paul preached from 1 John 4:7-21, "God is Love." He did talk about the desperation that everyone is experiencing today, and the struggle he knew each person was going through. But then he talked about God, and God's great struggle...God's incredibly expensive sacrifice in giving us His only Son.

"Times of deep poverty and struggle," Paul noted, "are the times we all become the most egocentric. Perhaps in better days, we tried to help others, tried to share what we had, sometimes fed orphans or gave to neighbors. But today, when all we have is a small handful of rice, everything has become only about us, and we grip what we have tightly."

HOW is Haiti, he continued, EVER going to see Jesus if all of His followers are clutching selfishly at what we have just like everybody else?

He continued for a long time, further explaining that God understands that things are expensive...that God understands that each family is just struggling to survive. "But He doesn't understand," Paul preached, "when 1 John 4 is cast away because times are hard."

"By His Love, the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His ONLY Son to be the savior for our sins. If God so loved us, we MUST love one another." (vs. 9,10)

If you have 5 Gourdes (13 cents US), he told everyone, you've got to share it among your brothers and sisters and neighbors. Haiti will only want Christ when we Christians look differently than everyone else!

This message really moved Matt and I, not only because it was the first time we've heard such an idea here, but also because it so applicable to us in so many ways. It IS the hard times in life, isn't it, that we draw into ourselves. It's about US and our hurt and our hard times, and while we are busy struggling, we manage to completely forget of this hurting, dying world around us...seem to forget that the ULTIMATE struggle God already made for US.

"Don't be afraid for tomorrow," Paul said, "because there 'is no fear in love.' Keep LOVING. Love in every way you know how, in every way He's loved you. Love that the world might see His love, and trust, as you hand over your last fork of rice, because of His love, that He will care for you."

It was a humbling message, to be sure, and we have some self-evaluating to do. It's been difficult in this time to know how much to give, how many people to help. And also to be sure: we're not here to give out money or food or to patch up the temporal, but here for the eternal differences. However, if we aren't helping the many many who are hungry and struggling, how will the majority of Haitians ever come to see Jesus in us, and WANT HIM?

Whatever you're going through today, remember, help us remember, that we must love, and love sacrificially (is there any other kind of love, after all), because He first loved us! Whatever we are each clutching to, we've got to let it go that we might always be giving and loving with open hands...with His help and because of His boundless grace!

Please keep praying for your brothers and sisters here, that we might all grow alongside of them, and that God would continue to meet each need.

children and a rest...

On Friday afternoon we headed to Micheline's house. If you've been reading the blog for a long time now, you'll remember her as our friend whose little girl had leukemia and passed away the day after Christmas. Her husband lives and works in the Dominican Republic, sending home funds whenever he can find work, and she wanted us to take a picture of her with her children to send him to show him how much they have grown in the past 2 years. (Remember: smiling for photos=not good).

We spent quite a while there, as always overwhelmed by the large number of children who are just "hanging around" her home. She discussed them with us this time, explaining that while about half of them are able to go to school during the school year, that almost NONE of them have ever been to church.

Matt and I have felt led to work in this zone before, and are praying again that the Lord would show us a way that we could bring Jesus to all of these children on a more regular basis. Please be praying with us that He would clearly show us what He wants for this village, how He wants us to be involved and who else He has for this ministry opportunity!
Today, after working most of the morning, we took 3 friends and headed to Mont Jolie, a small hotel across town that has a swimming pool. We just could not handle the heat any longer, and it was so nice to be cool...we stayed in the water almost all afternoon.

We have a team here of 10 people from the UK right now, so tomorrow Matt and I will take them to Paul Vilmer's church (one of our fellow professors at the Seminary), translate, and to lunch.

strengthen my hands

We've been back over a week now, and time is just continuing to fly! There have been several unexpected blessings the past days, and the Lord's really working on brining us to Himself moment by moment!

One huge blessing was having Fon-Fon, one of Matt's fourth year graduates, come to the house yesterday, having heard we were back. We saw him just 8 weeks ago, but were surprised to see his tall, muscular frame visibly gaunt. He had not one complaint, but the difficult times in Haiti were apparent in his jutted cheekbones and in the notches of his belt. Nonetheless, he spoke only of how much God has been doing in Haiti and in his life, and this was such an encouragement.
My dear friend and college roommate emailed from Sudan today, encouraging us to pray that war and injustice would not stop in Sudan until God's purpose was accomplished. "It is suffering," she said, "That is bringing many Muslims to Christ."

Fon-Fon shared the same thing with us. He leads a Bible study in his church, and shared with us yesterday how much the suffering of his brothers and sisters has brought them to a hunger for everything the Bible has to say. He also continued to tell us that he was able to make the study more in-depth than any Bible study this church had been able to offer because he had been working in the Hebrew text and been using his Hebrew lexicon. It was great to be affirmed that having access and the knowledge to the translation of the Bible IS vital here and is aiding in not just conversion, but discipleship.

We also had heavy and cool rains last night, giving us a GREAT mosquito and sweat-free nights sleep. How nice! Our inverter is at the radio station being worked on...hopefuly it will just be a few more days (if not, Charlie, we're calling!)

Yesterday, our cat, who as you can see, has to help with everything from filing to sleeping to maintenance projects, put a gaping hole in one of our screens. Matt took a break from Hebrew to work on it for a while, and we were blessed once again. Haitian friends came from, well, I don't know where, the moment they saw him working on it, and before long there were a troop of men working alongside of Matt, simply happy they could help.

This reminded me again of just another aspect of Christ that these beautiful people we live with are constantly revealing. Their eagerness and even JOY at dropping their tasks to help their brother was such a humbling reminder of Jesus...a reminder of who we must continue to seek to represent.

And then today, another reminder of His love through our brothers and sisters, a box of brand new beautiful maternity clothes arrived from Don and Brenda, (THANK YOU!!!) leaving me feeling fat and pretty, instead of just fat :)

These may all seem like rather small things, but there are no small encouragements here, no small works of God's hands. In Nehemiah 6, Nehemiah sought to do what he was called by God to do, rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. And yet, the "Enemy's Plot" continued to call him away, threaten him, encourage him to leave it, and to discourage him.

Nehemiah finally addresses it in this way (vs. 9) "You thought that by trying to bother and frighten us, we would become discouraged with the work and it would not be done. But now, O God, strengthen my hands."

We must not be discouraged with the work God has given us! Instead of praying that life would be easier here, that our inverter would work, that I would feel no sickness, that everything would be more peaceful, we want to pray first and foremost that God would just strengthen our hands...make us stronger, keep us firmly resolved.

We are blessed to know exactly what He has called us to here: training and discipling and living life alongside Haitian men and women called by God to take the Word throughout Haiti. So, "strengthen our hands!"

Pray, as we pray for you, that discouragements, problems, sicknesses, heat, distractions, disunity, and lies of the enemy would not keep us from what He's called us to, and doing it well and for His glory!

He made 'em both

It's been one of those Ecclesiastes 7:14 kind of days..."In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity consider--God has made the one as well as the other."

We figure, that if God made both the easy days and the hard days, then He must have something to teach us and different ways to love on us, in both kinds of days!

Today was day 7 with a broken inverter. This means that we have no power from 10 pm to 6 am. Before we lost the inverter, I thought this would be no big deal, especially considering that most of Haiti has no power from 10 pm to 10 pm. However, no electricity means no fans, and no fans means 1) MOSQUITOS eating us alive, 2) a LOT of heavy and still heat, and 3) noises from the party over the wall to all of the rats playing soccer in our ceiling ALL NIGHT LONG. With the combination of these thing things, we really haven't had a good night's sleep since we got back to Haiti...this is starting to take it's toll!

We also got on top of cleaning out our office that we share down at the Seminary, only to find that the same rats that play soccer above our beds all night, have been partying heavy in our office all day :) Many books and papers were eaten and filthy, along with our screens. We spent a few hours cleaning today, and have another few for tomorrow!

We also discovered, officially (THIS IS SO EXCITING) that we are finished, finished, FINISHED funding for our truck, and have come in right at $35,000, the exact number needed for the approved Mitsubishi truck. This is such a huge answer to prayer, and we are SO very grateful to SO many of you that made this possible. THANK YOU.

We cannot WAIT to purchase it and were hoping to have it before school and most of our traveling needs begin (which is the 'bad day' news :) We also discovered, officially, that despite that fact that you see a lot of these trucks on the roads in Haiti, there are NONE available. Not on the entire island. The truck dealership in Cap-Haitien, who gets his trucks from the truck dealership in Port-au-Prince, is waiting for the next shipment, which could be 3 to 4...5...6.. months.

We've trusted Him thus far that the truck would come in His perfect timing, and we're just going to continue to do that!

On top of it all, all of the "I can't believe I feel so good"ness of the past few days rather rapidly vanished today, and I'm back to the vomiting and feeling poorly from the first 3 months. Lily has just NOT been happy in the heat and seems to be protesting.

So, you can see why, by our 3:30 mission prayer meeting today, neither of us were feeling very excited about going. However, just five minutes into this prayer time, the Lord brought us back to His side and used our prayer time the way He usually does: not to change HIM, but to change US. As we spent this un-interrupted time in prayer, thinking about all that He is, all that He has done, all that He has, all that He gives, the little "irritations" of the day became so minute.

As we prayed about the frustrations that sometimes come with this call on our lives, we realized how much He cares for us...to care enough to HAVE an individual call for each of our lives.

"Consider the works of God," Ecclesiastes 7 also says, "For who is able to straighten what He has bent? Who is able to undo what He has done?"

Praise the Lord, in the good and the bad, that He is in control, that He is not only in control but loving, and that what He has for us WILL HAPPEN...with sickness, health, heat, electricity, trucks, rats, etc.

We're so thankful for His great love and for your prayers!

We're not the Answer...Praise the Lord!

I completely forgot my camera, but the man in maroon is the pastor of the church where Matt preached this morning. As soon as we got back on Tuesday, Janiel was at the door, asking if Matt would please consider preaching at his church this Sunday. I thought it was too soon for Matt to be prepping and delivering a sermon, but Matt was excited about the chance to preach at such a difficult time in the lives of the Haitian people.

He was drenched in sweat long before he was ever introduced this morning, and had to preach around a pulpit overly adored with huge fake pink flowers, but Matt managed to preach a truly passionate and meaningful sermon (in my opinion :) about the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The people were obviously hungry for something to hold on to in this difficult time, and Matt took his message straight from Luke 24:49, "What the Father Promised" and Isaiah 61, "Good News for the Oppressed."

I was truly surprised at how glued the row of elderly widows, the two rows of men in the back, the 15 rows of children...everyone, just how glued everyone was. To hear that there is a God who KNOWS of our brokenhearted and captive condition, and then who sends His Holy Spirit, not just to hand us a Kleenex or to pat us on the head, but to LIFT us up from our lowest lows and transform our lives was captivating to the church, the pastor, and to me. He sends us His Holy Spirit for our true encouragement and to defend us from Satan...2 things we all desperately need.

We can't just have a piece of the Holy Spirit, Matt shared, but either have Him indwelling in us, or not. And having Him there takes a DAILY re-commitment to the Lord...a daily decision to choose Him and to listen to His spirit and to live for HIS glory.

It was fun to be back in Haitian church this morning, to be back into ministry here. Only the Holy Spirit can give ANY of us deliverance, NO man, no government, no riches and no circumstance. We're NOT the answer for people here...you're not the answer for people there.

THIS is what we feel called to do here: not BE men and women that deliver people... but BE daily delivered people ourselves who simply SHOW people that...Christ in us, the hope of glory, the hope of Haiti, the hope of the world.

"The SPIRIT of the Lord is on me,
for the Lord has chosen me
to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted
to proclaim that captives will be released
and prisoners will be set free.

He has sent me to tell those who mourn
that the time of the LORD has come,
and with it, the day of God's anger against enemies.

To all who mourn in Israel,
He will give a crown of beauty for ashes,
a joyous blessing instead of mourning,
festive praise instead of despair.

In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks
that the Lord has planted for His own glory."

Isaiah 61

by God's mercy

Our first days settling in have been a continued testimony of God's faithfulness. What a joy to be reunited such dear brothers and sisters again, and to once again be able to align our lives with theirs! The Lord's will for us has often been made known by His inexplainable peace in "not very peaceful" situations, and He's been confirming our lives and work here the past three days with abundant peace.

Even in the midst of the VERY hot and busy street market this morning, picking out muddy carrots and infested cabbage while everyone around us commented, "Look! There are foreigners in the market today!", we felt an inexplainable peace of sitting squarely in His hand.

What better time than this to be preparing a year's worth of training for pastors? What better time than this dark, desperate time in Haiti to be equipping men and women to go out upon the "beautiful feet of those who bring Good News"? (Isaiah 52:7) What better time, than a day in which our brothers and sisters are struggling merely to survive, to carry the Bread and Water of Life? Your prayers, love, support and partnership are a part of something big, something HUGE that God has for Haiti RIGHT NOW, in such a time as this...His Son, grace, redemption, transformation...

An encouraging letter from Faye yesterday reminded me again of this verse, "Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart." (2 Corinthians 4:1) Because of His mercy, we all have this time and this work, in Haiti and in the world...therefore we must not lost heart by the increasing political, economic and spiritual instability. Is IS God's work, after all...God's work in the lives of HIS people.

Thank you for your continued prayers as we prepare for annual mission meetings, annual Seminary staff meetings, and the return of our students and start of classes later this month!