in the meantime...

While the mountain moving of the last few days is soaking into a part of our DNA-in-Christ experiences, time has continued to tick!

In the meantime, Uncle Don, Maxi, Junel, Magloire and Able have been hard at it cleaning out, organizing, painting and sorting through the shop, generator, battery house and yard.  There was a LOT of tedious work to be done, and it looks MAGNIFIQUE.

These pix are for Gord, Malcolm, Sam, and anyone else who cares :)

I wish I'd taken some "before" shots!

In the meantime, Vilmer drove the mighty treck back to Wood of the Low Humanity to baptize, lead the church service, and then marry four people afterwards.  Last month, several women from his church, Vilmer's wife Sarah and I all joined him.  Today, he took several other members of the church with him, and Matt preached in his church so he'd be free to go.

I can't wait to hear about the day from Vilmer, and it was really fun to be worshipping with those same women--but this time in Cap-Haitien--today.  We all hugged after the service and agreed we were STILL too sore and exhausted from the trip a month ago to be ready to go again :)  Christ in Vilmer has some kind of energy!  

In the meantime, I've never seen Matt have so much fun preaching before.  He had his sermon prepared, but when he stood to speak, said, "Before I preach, let me share with you a short testimony from these past few days..." and ended up sharing his trip with Junior to Ti-Paul's funeral, pulling the truth of the Scriptures into the story and sharing some thoughts throughout.  

As excited and interested as I've seen so many of YOU be this past week, imagine how focused this body of 500 believers in Haiti was this morning to hear!  It. Was. Awesome to sit in the fifth row of that.

They know Voodoo...they know Haiti...they know the Lord--and man, we all sat together enraptured by our God this morning as we listed, impassioned by His hand, awakened by His Spirit.  The Holy Spirit in the form of fire in our hearts moved mightily, and by the time we went out an hour later, our family was abuzz by the reminder of the authority and power we have found in our Maker.  

The freedom that we have from fear.  From darkness.  The privilege we have to share Him with others.  

It was great.  I'm willing to bet a thousand more people have heard the story since noon today, because everyone was charging out the door to brag boldly on our Mighty One.  

Our Father only gives good gifts.

And sometimes I forget that, because darn it, so much doesn't feel good.  The world, sin, death, darkness, even ourselves, all doll out some painful doozies.  That is for sure.  And sometimes even the things that come from Him painfully break my heart: conviction, clarity, calling.

But our God?  There is no darkness by His hand.  

Only life-giving truths coming from Him, no cutting lies.  

Only redemption and freedom in His presence, no manipulative strategies.

Only healing and restoration in His heart, no harm. 

He doesn't work in darkness, His hand is not secretive and cunning.

All the things we see the enemy to be, He is not.  All the things we find in the world, He is above.  All the things we find in others and in ourselves, He is different.  Entirely different.  New Reality.

In the meantime, He's at work--searching out that old reality/man's reality stuff in my heart and working it out, rubbing it out--which feels just as thrilling and scary as you would think.  I have this sneaky suspicion when He's finished I'll be even more of a freak than I already am.

What did the guys say?

"We're bondslaves of Jesus.  It's nothing.  It's a joy."