what makes you happy?

OK, I haven't forgotten to share more stories and photos regarding the Easter Break missions trip to Port, but something came up today that we're too excited about to share later.

At 3, right as we were getting ready to leave the campus for a weekly OMS meeting, Belony came bounding around the corner of the campus, waving a small scrap of paper and practically bounding. Belony graduated from EBS last year and is currently serving as a translator, oversees the student's work and study hall, and leads the evangelism program. In the past years, God has done some awesome work through this young man...and not just through him, but IN him.

Evangelism has become his great passion, and I knew when I saw him that something beautiful must have happened in the kingdom.

"I have the great news!" he gasped, finally reaching our car. "You know, we have been evangelizing in Sakenville for months, and the guys, they are discouraged, you know. And the people, they have not been very good to us. And today, it was just us three, just three who went. But today, just now, the first two people became converted!"

His smile stretched from ear to ear and his hands were literally shaking with excitement as he lifted the paper for me to see. On it were scrawled two names.

"This man," Belony pointed, "He is sick. He is very very sick. And we talked to him about the Lord, and he said, 'I want that.' And I said, 'Oh, you cannot become a Christian just so that maybe God will heal you! You must become a Christian because you want Jesus to be the Lord of your life!"

"And I explained more to him, " Belony continued, "And he began to cry and cry, and I said to him, 'Are you crying because you do not want to die?', and the man said, 'No, I do not care if I die. I am sad because I have wasted my life without Him. I am sad that I waited until now. I am sad that I might only serve Him but a few days.'"

A few houses on, Belony found a large group of youth, all of which had never been, nor ever will be, in school. They were all just sitting around, talking and playing dominoes and braiding each other's hair, and Belony and Claudin and Phanord began to speak to them about Something More.

"The did not want to hear about Jesus," Belony told me sadly. "They made fun of us, and said bad things, and laughed at us. But I didn't feel like God wanted us to go, so I kept preaching. And I talked about how Jesus loved us enough to die for us, even though we are sinners and bad people. And they kept telling us to go away. But before we left, I said to all of them, 'Do you not want to know this Jesus?' and everyone looked at the ground and laughed at us, except for this girl" he said, pointing to the second name on his paper.

"She stood up, and said, 'YES'. All her friends laughed and yelled at her, but she came to us, and I saw she wanted Jesus. And we talked to her all about Him and about how to follow Him, and she became a Christian!" Belony continued.

"And as I was praying with her, I felt the Lord put in my mind very strongly: NOW. Now is the time for Bible study. You have waited four months to find one person who would follow me. Now, disciple."

"Stacey!" Belony said, "I have to start now! I will go tomorrow, and with these two people, I will start a Bible study. We will keep doing evangelism Tuesday and Thursday, but Wednesday we will study the Bible in the area where these two are, even if it is only these two people."

He was SO EXCITED, eyes just brimming with joy this entire conversation.

"YES, Belo." I kept saying, speechless. "YES. Tomorrow. What can I do?"

"I need Bibles," he said, and my heart just broke within me. To this day we have still been unable to find ONE Bible to buy, and though many have asked, and we are ready to purchase them, there continue to be NO Creole Bibles to be bought. (The earthquake shut down the printing press in Port that supplied all of Haiti with God's Word.)

"But we must have Bibles, Stacey. I only need two."

With the word "two", God fulfilled my prayers. All the Bibles we ever had are gone, but Matt still has his Creole Bible, and I still have mine. Several times now, I have wanted to send them off with a church, or with a truck to Port, but prayed instead that God would show me when and where to give them. Tomorrow they will go to the hands of one dying and amazed at his own rebirth, to the hands of one young and bold to stand.

This elderly woman said she wants to become a Christian...later.

Belony bounded off, and we drove off the compound, but my heart was brimming and broken all at the same time. Belony's smile radiated His. Belony was overflowing with joy because HE was. Belony cared deeply for these two conversions because GOD did. And he didn't care about anything that God didn't care about...Like what he had planned to do tomorrow, or what all the people in Saccanville are saying about him, or the fact that only 2 others joined him, or the fact that the sun was so hot this afternoon that you sweat just passing through it.

how humbled I am

I want no priority other than His, no joy other than His, no care other than His, no hunger other than His, no tears other than His.

The Belony I embraced this afternoon looked so little like Belo and so much like Christ that I hated to move away from him. Can anyone say that about me?

Praise the Lord for Sakenville, for these beautiful hard-hearted people, and for the few workers that will bring them His New Life.

***Prayer requests: this past week, second year student Jasmin lost his father, and second year student Heroul lost his mother. They are deeply hurting and would greatly benefit by your prayers.

***Thank you: To the MANY of you who have sent cards and letters to Petit Sauvelt following the death of his precious baby daughter, THANK YOU. With joy I have handed along each envelope, and with joy he thanks you each for the "comfort that God gives me and my family through this."