led forth in PEACE

Wednesday, 12 pm

Tiny touch of internet! YES, we felt the quake this morning but we are well...I asked the Lord if I needed to get Lily and I out of the house as the trembling started, but I felt a good peace in my heart, and in a moment, the shaking stopped.

I am still unsure if Matt is coming home today/when Matt is coming home as that communication has been impossible since early yesterday morning. I did receive an email from him just now that he has great hope to be home today.

Please add St. Marc to your growing list of prayers for Haiti...

Tuesday, 8 pm

Lily, the Lord and I are hanging out on the Seminary compound alone tonight, and after being in Vaudreil long enough today to download all your emails from the past two days, I just finished reading and have a full heart.

All of your prayers, your verses, your thoughts, encouragement and love…what a Godsend for me tonight. After an hour of dragging my laptop case about the house, stomping on it, sitting on it, standing on it and hitting herself with it, Lily is sound asleep, and I am reflecting on the steady way He has carried my heart today.

“Do not be tossed about by every wave” I truly felt Him press upon me this morning in a panicky moment. “DO NOT be tossed about by every wave. I am steady. My Word is firmly planted. Do not fix your eyes upon idols of turmoil, despair, concern, frustration, internet, communication, hurt or even upon good things, others, services, sacrifices. Fix your eyes upon me. I will be your stable place.”

And OH, He has been. He has sent hundreds of Scriptures through my heart and mind and lips today, Scripture I didn’t even know I knew. He has put such an ongoing song in my heart of praise and peace and joy and such a new perspective to my eyes.

Verses of the day…

Come! Everyone that thirsts,

Come to the waters;

You who have NO money,

Come, buy, eat.

Come, buy wine and milk

Without money, without cost.

Why spend money on what does not satisfy?

Behold, You will call a nation you do not know

And a nation which knows you not will RUN to you,

Because of the Lord.

Seek Him. Call Him.

Let man return to the Lord,

And He will have compassion on him,

And He will abundantly pardon.

My thoughts are NOT your thoughts (good thing!)

My ways are NOT your ways (even better.)

My ways are higher, my thoughts, higher.

Just as the rain and snow come down from heaven

And don’t go without watering the earth

Making it bear and sprout

Furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater

SO WILL MY WORD go forth from My mouth

And NOT return empty,

Without accomplishing what I desire.

For you WILL go out with joy

And be led forth with peace;

The mountains and hills will break forth

Into shouts of joy before you,

And all the trees with clap their hands,

And Instead of the thorn bush, the cypress will come

Instead of the nettle, the myrtle will rise.”

Isaiah 55: The Free Offer of Mercy

Matt is still in the DR, and has had SUCH a successful trip. Monday alone they purchased and sent enough fuel to Port to run an entire hospital, 24/7 for 40 days. I haven’t heard from him at all today due to the phones and him being in the DR, but I am sure that their efforts to purchase meds and more fuel were successful. He should be sleeping in Santiago tonight, and should be returning tomorrow night.

Meanwhile, Dr. Cooper and his wife left this morning for Florida, and Lily and I were truly sad to see them go. They are people of prayer and were a blessing to our home (Ruth even taught Lily the word ‘flower’).

After the last student, the Coopers, the Hubeles and Mary Lou left this morning, I had a house full of dirty towels, dishes, sheets and floors, but I had committed to a woman next door that at 10 am we would evangelize together. So, I pushed down the Stacey in me and left it all and spent a precious hour while Lily napped plugged into the Lord, asking for His direction and blessing on the coming time. What more could I add to my long list of praises but that He meets us when we seek Him.

What humility to refocus on the base of my relationship with Him…How I was a sinner, how there was NOTHING I could do to earn salvation, to be righteous on my own, how He couldn’t STAND the gap between us that I had created, and so sent His precious Son, and how that child grew up to bear all my unfaithfulness and self-centerdness on the cross, so that I could come close to my God. What a painful and beautiful truths to go through preparing to go out, and what a humbling reminder for today…

There is so much wrong. The first days, friends say that everywhere you went in Port, you would see no one, but hear people calling to your left and right, screaming out from the midst of cement block and shrapnel to be saved. Even worse, today, the voices have all gone silent.

Tonight I showed some of the people of Saccanville Brett’s pictures from Port as that they were anxious to SEE all the stories they have heard. With tears I clicked through the pictures, watching them horrifyingly see for the first time what has been taking place these last 7 days in Port, listening to them cry out at the sight of their countrymen lying dead in the streets, blood spilled out from their broken bodies, their capital bent and fallen as if it had been made of paper and sticks.

There is so much wrong. But there is one thing that is needed. The same thing that has been needed since the beginning of time. And I HAVE IT. With a boldness I’m not sure I’ve ever had in evangelizing, I went, and long into the afternoon Lily and I held the hands of the mourning, prayed over the heads of the terrified, ate the cookies of the hungry (that was just Lily) and crouched in the muddy yards of Saccanville to talk about the death that we ALL merit, and the LIFE that He lovingly gives.

It was just an AWESOME time. The more people I spoke with, the more people I wanted to talk to. The more people that I prayed with, the more people I wanted to pray with. EVERYONE wanted to talk about the earthquake, about family they have in Port-au-Prince, about how the Lord spared their lives, and about why. It was a precious day for ministry, and I thank Him for giving it to me.

Please continue to be in prayer for our students, for all His children, know-it-or-not, in Port, for the broken hearts and the despairing masses through the nation, and these beautiful people that continue to teach us so much about FAITH and what it is to rely upon Him for our very breath.

If the ONLY thing He EVER did for me was give me Jesus, it is enough. It is enough for me. And He sent His Son for EVERY single person on this island. This is a “drop in the bucket” life, and His gift makes it worth living, now and forever.

He is enough for Haiti.