five : action

“We didn’t know the work God had for us,” Janiel told me yesterday, just back from a full week in Port. “But He did. I am just amazed as I look back over the past week and see how intricately, beautifully and perfectly He had it all planned out.

“God still has a plan for His people in Haiti,” he said resolutely. “I can see it.”

Janiel Charlot graduated from Emmaus Biblical Seminary in 2008, and is the pastor of the small church right across the street from EBS’s new campus. Not long after the earthquake shook Haiti, he was anxious to get to the epicenter. But while most of the world rushed there to help quench the millions of arising needs for shelter, food, clothing and medical care, Janiel had something else in mind entirely.

“The message of the Gospel, this is the pi gwo beswin, the most big need, of the people.” Janiel said, no hint of doubt in his voice. “Not just because of the earthquake. Not just in Port-au-Prince. But totally. Our biggest need is Him.”

So, on January 26^th, Janiel left with Lucner, the Dean of Men, and three students for a week that he says changed everything.

“When we got there, we saw hundreds of people coming to OMS’s makeshift medical clinic on the head of the mountain of Diquini,” he shared.

“We didn’t know how to go about telling such a huge number of people, right out of a crisis, about Jesus, so the first afternoon we held a big service in the midst of them, and preached about the Lord. Everyone seemed interested, but not one person wanted to give their life to Jesus.

“But I could see, so clearly, that people were just ready to receive the Gospel. I could see that their hearts were soft.

“So we talked to Dr. Gavin and were given a tent. Each person that came through the gate would first go to the Sign-In tent, then the Consultation tent, then the Pharmacy tent. But before they headed out, they moved right into the fourth tent, OURS.

“There were only three chairs, so we would put the people in the chairs and we would each sit on a cardboard box in front of them. Everything we did was one-on-one. We asked for their stories. We listened to their nightmares. We told them about Jesus. We showed them His plan for salvation for them in the Bible. We answered their questions. We prayed for them.”

Seeing that I was totally enthralled and taking notes as rapidly as possible, Janiel continued with his huge signature smile.

“One after another, sister. One after another they came to Jesus. They KNEW their problem. We showed them the answer, and one after another they took Him, with tears and with repentance, with singing and joy.

“If I would grow discouraged, I would just listen to the voice of my brother beside me. I would listen to Benjamin or Jasmin, speaking to their people about Jesus, I would listen to the patients confessing their sins and coming to Christ, and I would become so encouraged again! We were of One Spirit...HIS! Doing One Work...HIS!

“After that first morning, every single time you came into that white stuffy tent, your skin could FEEL the presence of God. It was like when Moses talked with God!

And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent which was outside the camp. Thus, the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. And when Moses came out, he did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him. (Exodus 33, 34)

“My face was shining, sister Stacey!” Janiel said with almost a shout. “His presence was there, and for five days we worked together like this, sitting on our boxes, working together, leading people to Jesus. Many people were unsure when they came in, but as soon as we began to show them what the Bible said, people saw that it was Truth.

“Can I tell you without tears in my eyes,” he asked rhetorically, “that 243 people became Christians during those five days?!”

“Everyone was asking for services in the evenings, and so every evening we would preach and sing and read from the Bible and saw so many old and new Christians being fed and encouraged. This area needs a CHURCH" suddenly his joyful sharing took on a heavy burden.

"All the temples in the area were voodoo or Seventh Day Adventist. Please PRAY that the one whom God is calling to GO and begin a church there will obey! I am praying that one of the students will go.”

The day before Janiel and his group left Port-au-Prince, Matt and another group arrived. They spent one sweet evening of fellowship together, praying and sharing, instructing and praising the Lord for all that had come to pass.

This group will leave the crippled city behind this afternoon, and another group of Emmaus men headed down yesterday perched on bags of rice under the blazing sun.

Over another hundred people in this Diquini area have come to know their Savior this past week, and all together these hundreds of new converts and dozens of older Christians have been worshipping together every evening. The students have been preaching the Word to these masses in rotation.

This morning (2/5), OMS is setting up a new clinic in another unreached area with several more medical teams from the States and Canada, and "The Emmaus Evangelists", as they have come to be called, are already there and setting up their "Tabernacle."

"Everything that the world thought was first priority is gone," Janiel said, sharing with me what had most changed him. "We thought we could build big buildings, beautiful homes, strong stores. We thought we could save and skimp and buy shiny motorcycles and gorgeous clothes and nice things for our children. We worked hard to build our kingdom.

"But where are your beautiful clothes?" Janiel kept asking people. "Your clothes are buried under rubble. Where is your strong house? It is a heap of garbage, useless to anyone, and your debt is still to be paid.

"Being in Port-au-Prince made me search what motivation I have in my heart," Janiel said earnestly, thumping his chest. "All that we thought could not disappear, did. Am I seeking first His kingdom? Is His kingdom my first motivation? My best labor? My most giving? I cannot serve my own kingdom and His. Am I spending my life on the True Treasure, or spending it on building up things for myself, things that can be gone in a moment?"

I thought of Janiel's tiny block half-home, split with eight other people. I thought of his well-worn clothes, of his waistline, belt looped around two times and far more narrow than mine, of his family. He was convicted to the point of tears for the many times that he had put his own desires above the Lords.

"I'm just a man," Janiel said, holding my hand and heading for the door. "I'll always be just a man. But His power, it is in me. I will triumph. Please pray for me, I have one request, and I have no other in my heart. Please pray just for His presence."

Understatement of the century: The Lord is working on my heart.

We all may not know the work that God has for us, in relation to all that is happening in Haiti or in our own worlds. But He does. He knows the work that He has for us. And as we seek first His kingdom, my prayer is that like Janiel and Ben, Lucner and Valerie, Broken Joyful Mother and Vilnord, hundreds of new Christians on His mountain top and our brothers working in the Jesus tent, we will be amazed to see how intricately, beautifully and perfectly He had it all planned out.

Whatever He is leading your heart to do today, DO IT.

If as you have read these testimonies this past week, God has brought a family member, a friend, a place, a people to your heart, GO. Take the presence of God with you and tell them the Good News. May we lay down our anger, our resentment, our hurt, our pride, our fear, our risk, our comfort, ourselves, and bring about the 'sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place'.

If as you have read these testimonies this past week, God has moved you to give something, go somewhere, do something, leave something, change something, embrace something, or something or someone back to Him, let's do it today, 'making it your ambition to be pleasing to Him' above all else.

If as you have read these testimonies this past week, God has moved you to be involved HERE, let me tell you, we need you!

Emmaus Biblical Seminary is opening its brand-new doors to seminary students in Port-au-Prince who no longer have a seminary, no longer have a home, no longer have a family, no longer have a place to study and learn The Word that is being taken throughout their city.

We are offering them food abundant, beautiful and safe shelter, a newly finished home, a family of God, and most, a place to sit and grow and be stretched and changed by God's Word...a place to seek His voice and guidance for their lives as they are washed with Biblical teaching, preaching and atmosphere. And we're offering it to them for free.

We need your help. Students normally pay about $500 US per year to be students and residents at Emmaus Biblical Seminary. Scholarships in the full amount of $2000 US per student per year are raised to make ends meet.

So we need $1250 US for every single student that is coming from Port in order to give them this half of the year for free.

If you or your church or your family or your class or your mailman are interested in telling Haiti about Jesus, providing food and shelter and Bible training to seminary survivors of the Earthquake, spreading His hope in this hurting land or making it possible for this new day for Haiti to be rebuilt through its young men and women on God's Word...please help, in any amount.

Here's how:

ONLINE

United States and International: Click to give here, and use project code 390170

MAIL

United States: Send checks to...

OMS International, Inc. PO Box 1648 Monument CO 80132-1648

Be sure to attach a note for Project 390170, EBS Haiti Student Scholarships

Canada: Send checks to...

OMS Canada Wellington Street N,

Box 132 Hamilton, ON L8L 8E7

Be sure to attach a note for Project 70541, EBS Haiti Student Scholarships

If more funds are raised than are needed for incoming Port-au-Prince students, they will be used to provide for our current students that are still lacking full scholarships, like most of the guys I've been showing you as they take Our Hope to Port.

Check out Emmaus Biblical Seminary for more info, photos and stories.

Please be praying for these men and women coming from Port, that they would find Emmaus Biblical Seminary, that EBS would find them, and that we would all be a part of His Kingdom building here!

Personally, we are praying for the Lord to call one of these incoming students back to their people in Diquini!

Until then, we continue to pray and work right alongside you here, as you and those around us and the Lord continue to call us further to Himself. We're trusting Him to "bring to it (Haiti!) health and healing and I will heal them; And I will reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth. I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned, and I will pardon it all" and are so grateful to be in a position to see and share the beauty of what He is doing. "It will be to Me a name of joy, praise and glory before all the nations of the earth which will hear of all the good," Jer.33

***UPDATE: Matt arrived safely home around 9 last night, and is now at a funeral for a good friend, Maxi and Kerline's father. Lily woke up in the middle of the night with a high fever, and she and I are sweating it out at home! It is SO good to have Matt back from what he's calling "one of the best weeks of my life, hands down..." As always, more to come!