real simple

Yesterday, almost 20 hopeful-new students took their entrance exams, lots of old students were back to register, the whole staff was in, and it was a busy but fun day!  I love catching up with everybody, and even the men were thrilled to see Sofie, though 100% of them commented, "Amen!  Look, God gave you a boy!" :)  We've got to get this girl some stick on earrings or a hairpiece.

Today and tomorrow EBS is hosting a large conference on the Inductive Bible Study Method, featuring Colleen Fitch, who just flew in yesterday.  Matt left the house at 6 this morning to get things ready and pick her up, and I haven't seen him since.  He was to be translating and had several meetings scheduled for this afternoon.  About 80 area pastors, evangelists and Haitian missionaries were to attend.

Good stuff!

More good stuff is just what He's speaking in the quietness of my mind and heart these past few days.  Matt and I stayed up half the night Sunday night, talking about the differences between what we're called to do vs. what we're wanting to do vs. what we feel like we should do vs. what others would like us to do.

I have this idea (maybe you do, too), not just as a missionary in a foreign and needy land, but as a Christian, that the answer is always DO MORE.

God wants us to DO more.  If we were living right, we'd be doing more.  Should I be teaching? YES.  Should I have friends and community members over for supper? YES.  Should I be doing community evangelism? YES.  Should I be teaching evangelical English? YES.  Should I be starting Bible studies?  YES.  Should I be tutoring?  YES.  The answer is always YES in my mind, which means that I either am going to die trying (and neglect the husband and children that God has inarguably given me) or I am going to feel guilty all the time.

But wait! O. Chambers reminds me from his collection of Devotions for a Deeper Life.

Jesus' great discourse on the fountain of water, springing up within us unto eternal life, was given to a lone woman at the well of Samaria.  He knew that the planting of that seed with one person would lead to a great harvest.


So many of us suppose that we have to plow the field, sow the seed, reap the grain, bind it into sheaves, put it through the threshing machine and make bread of it.  When we get back to the evangelistic method of the New Testament, we find that one may sow and another reap.

Let every Christian remain true to the calling God has given him, Chambers urged me.  Pray that He will enable you to remain faithful to YOUR calling.


Not only is this freeing, but it's convicting.  Do we KNOW what our personal true calling is?  Not that of others or all those things that call to us...  But do we know what God is asking each of us to do?  And then...are we faithful to it??

Matt and I are praying right now that He brings us back to simple.  Helps us shed all the "rocks in my cart" that we've been pulling uphill that HE never asked us to.  Helps us rediscover and rejoice again in His calling for each of us.  What that looks like.  What He wants from me.

Of course, there will always be things that need done that we don't feel necessarily called to.  Dishes :), filling in some gaps at the seminary, etc.  But I've been trying to make the whole thing happen, whereas I think God would like me to just do what He's made and called me to do, and let HIM make the rest happen.

O. Chambers continued today..."If we have presented the Word of God, it is not our business to apply it for people.  The Spirit will do that.  Our hearers may seem to subside to their old level of living and forget what has been said.  Bu they cannot forget all about it, because God says: "My word shall not return to me void but it shall accomplish that which I please."


That does not mean that the Word will produce what we want.  But it will produce what God wants.  We must sow the Word.  Then, God says, it shall accomplish what I please.


What a great way to get back to the basics of our calling!  We came to Haiti with one focus, task, and clear calling... to teach His Word.  That's why we joined up with Emmaus Biblical Seminary.  That's why we raised support, learned French, learned Creole, left our families, moved.

But when we preach His Word, and don't see It doing what we had thought It SHOULD do, or what we had wanted It to do, it's tempting to try to plow and reap and bind and thresh and bake.

In some cases, the Word of God will be the sent of life to life.  To others, death unto death.  But rest assured, no individual who believingly receives the Word of God can ever be the same again.  It profoundly alters life!  

Do we trust Him enough to have His way with His word in peoples lives?

Grateful Grateful that He is working on our minds and hearts as we begin our fifth year in Haiti and our umpteenth year as Christians, not allowing us to muddle by, but continuing to offer us an abundant life in Him.

We'll let you know as we're led!

Praying for every person reading this blog, today, that He would:
     -enable us each to discover/re-discover our calling and remain faithful to it
     -have HIS way, according to HIS will, in the lives of those with whom we share God's Word

-help us be profoundly altered, continually, because we have believingly received His Word.