Patient & Love

 The road to Konpech is just a little path--one you'd never think to follow to a place you'd never think to go if you didn't know where you were going and exactly why.

Some of Lily's buddies from across the street led the way, and we picked our way over the cacti and through gardens and this dried up canal to the land of the Konpech trees.

The woods finally cleared revealing five crumbling mud homes and a voodoo temple in the middle, the "sacred stick" I had heard about propped in front.

Junior jumped right in with a small group of women and children, and as expected, lots of people came around to see Lily.  He took advantage of the audience and started reviewing some stories he had shared before...how sin came into the world, how the world was created, and the story of Cain and Abel.

I've seen and been privileged to share the Gospel in a lot of yards with a lot of people in Haiti, and Junior was passionate, clear and captivating, but I have just NEVER seen a people group so distracted, seemingly bored and quite rude.  I sat quietly with Lily, listening intently (pretty much by myself) to Junior, really surprised by everyone's disinterest.  

I mean, as a rule, most places I have previously been seemed like I could talk for 3 hours about a rubber-band collection and still have a rapt audience.  

But the creation of the world held no ones interest today.  I looked around for my "person of peace", someone who had "clear" eyes and a seemingly different disposition, the type of person I usually connect with right away and bring into sharing the gospel.  I found no one.  

As friendly and courteous as everyone was, there was a great veil over everyone's faces.  It was like Junior was speaking Chinese.  Lots of people were very interested in Lily, but that was about it. 

Lily, of course, wasn't nearly as interested in everyone else as she was in a litter of puppies nearby, and she scooped one up and loved on it, drawing even more of a crowd.

A group of young men started heckling Junior and speaking inappropriately to me, and Gesner immediately boldly and beautifully swept them away into a separate conversation, giving Junior a chance with the women and children and sharing the Gospel in a different way with them.

Chris shared a bit of God's plan from Noah to Jesus with similar results...disinterst.  I played in the dirt with my toe, praying fiercely that the Lord would show me some "in", that someone would hear though they seemed to not be listening, prayed that God would make some connection for me, bring something to my heart to share.  

Junior looked at me when no one else would listen, and I felt a God given wave of love--all His--for these rather hard and disinterested men and women and children beside me.  

We weren't there because of their interest in God, but because of His interest in them.  

 Still praying, I jumped up and tried to bring the Gospel Junior was sharing down to an even more personal level, drawing a line in the sand and sharing WHY God hates our sin...not just because it shows that we are choosing what we want over what He wants, but also because our sin creates a big space between ourselves and Himself...something He hates. 

I used Junior's and my relationship as an example, and while I could not find an understanding eye, we had a lot more attention.  We talked about the space that comes between Junior and I when I wrong him, and about what sin is.  We talked about that wall that sin creates-- too high, too deep, too long for us to get around ourselves.

Gesner stood in as Jesus, making our relationship possible again, making it possible for me, a sinner, to walk with God.  

The lesson was so simple, and yet still so difficult for everyone to understand that we went through it several times, giving lots of examples, and as I walked around the little community with several of the ladies and kids, I knew that an invitation for a transformed life needn't be given just yet.  There is a LOT of understanding that is not yet there, MANY veils for the Lord to pull back to make that possible.

Many of them women far younger than me were toting 4th and 5th children.  The poverty, of course, is immense.  A complete lack of any kind of education, stimulation or learning--along with a deliberate commitment to be in darkness--has left many community members unintentionally and deeply closed minded.

We all prayed together, a few more earnestly than others, and as we were praying I felt the sun on my back and the breeze pushed past my neck and I remembered again that there is NO place that God is not, NO person that wasn't made for Him.  I don't care who they've invited to live in their trees, in their children, in their homes.  There is NO place that God is not.

He has been and continues to be incredibly Patient and unendingly Love with me...What do I have to offer Konpech other than what He's shown me?

"Tough crowd!" I muttered to Junior as we walked away, Lily bawling because I made her put down the puppy she'd been mercilessly over-loving for the last 90 minutes.  

"It's not their fault" Junior quickly reminded me, and he is right. 

 Satan has taken a foothold in their lives because they were born giving it to him.  Every child and even dog in the village had a rope around their necks, symbols of bondage, commitment and/or bargaining with dark powers.  Konpech believes many great lies and lives under many great fears...but it is because for a hundred years, it was all they heard, all they know.

It is NOT all they know anymore.  It's can't be left all they know.

HOW many people in our lives are living the way they live because it is all they know? We have to be living, breathing, practicing, speaking Truth to people so that NOW they know something else.  They might not choose it.  That's not our burden.  But it IS our burden that ALL have heard...and heard enough to truly understand.  

As we headed home, we gave our farewell to the village, who invited us back soon.  Lily put down her new friend and immediately started bawling.  We headed off all the same, when a small elder woman came after us and grabbed my hand.

"Take the dog" she said.  

"OH, no," I said, "But thank you.  We have a dog at home, a very big one."

She grabbed me by both arms, looking down at Lily's quivering chin and looking at me full on.  "For a year now you and your friends have been bringing us this other word.  We do not have anything to give you.  I don't have anything you could want.  That dog is mine, and I want to give it to you.  Please take the dog."

oh crud.