golf, beds and being part of His plan

Finally, a group shot of our students joining us from Port-au-Prince. They've now been with Emmaus for over four months, and have become a beautiful, passionate, intelligent and driven part of the student body. Please continue to pray for this group of Our Family, as they continue to heal, continue to have great concern for their siblings, parents and friends still living in tents in Port-au-Prince, and as they continue to seek the Lord's will for their futures.

THANK YOU to the many of you that have made their presence, transformation, growth and care at EBS possible...
We don't have enough English speakers this week to do our normal Wednesday night "English Conversation" Night, so last night Don and Matt did a special "Sports of the World in English" seminar for interested students. Here, Don is trying to explain the world of baseball, and later, Matt introduced them to an entirely new sport: golf.

The fact that someone could make a million dollars in just a few hours for playing ANY sport was just overwhelming to the first year class (and albeit, to me!), but ESPECIALLY for hitting a little white ball in a little hole. They had a really good time, and asked this morning if we could replace the daily 5:00-5:30 soccer match with whiffle ball, golf, or frisbee instruction some days. Now THAT would be fun...

However, the World Cup starts tomorrow, so it is still soccer that is capturing everyone's attention. My Saturday English class even requested its' first cancellation due to the Saturday morning match! As always, Brazil is Haiti's favored team, especially since Haiti won't be represented this World Cup.

Yesterday, Abel purchased and delivered more than mattresses to Jil's family, but metal bed frames, too. While we hated to miss out on seeing Jil's reaction, we try to stay "behind" giving as much as possible, so just took Abel's word for it that they were THRILLED. Looking out into the night sky last night, I felt SUCH joy and praise KNOWING that tonight, for the first time, Jil and his wife and their children all were sleeping two feet above the mud and on clean, soft beds. Thank you SO much to the many of you that helped to make this possible.

What a gift, huh, that He uses us! What a gift, family, that He has chosen to use each of us to be His hands and feet to the World...giving a glass of water to the thirsty, beds for the weary, medicine for the sick, clothes for the naked, freedom for the prisoners, and BEST, HOPE for the hopeless, light for the darkness, new life for the dying. Maybe we'll never know how He uses each prayer, each dollar, each sacrifice, each work, each act...

....But we know that He has chosen to use those things to pursue His creation, to adopt His children, and THAT is beautiful enough for me. Thanks for being a part of that with us!