faithful...THANK YOU!

I told you we've been having major internet issues!  This is the first time I've been able to even get on our blog to update since Sunday night...so frustrating!

However, Glory to God, I'm not on here today to talk about that!  

Today, I'm just writing to say THANK YOU.

Since our big "HELP!" on April 22nd, 25 of you have come to grab Emmaus' ropes...and we are SO THANKFUL!  Just under $9000 has come in since that date, making it possible for us to finish the year, pay our hard-working staff, hold graduation, keep the lights on, feed everybody, and continue to pay our staff through part of the summer!

THANK YOU, to all you people--half I don't even know--with a Sabetha mailing address.  Those Kansas people, man.  They might be out in the middle of nowhere, but then again, so are we, and obviously that doesn't put any limits on our Father.

THANK YOU, missionaries in other foreign countries, for heavens sakes, for joining His kingdom in Haiti!

THANK YOU, friends from college, friends from high school, friends from churches, friends from seminary, friends who are family, and parents of friends...you're our friends, too!

THANK YOU, many names of many faces we don't even know.  Followers of our blog that we didn't even know follow, friends of friends who felt compelled to give, friends of EBS who care deeply for His work in Haiti. 

What a great encouragement and joy to share with our staff and students the testimony of your generous giving!  The great encouragement of being able to ASK and watch the Lord provide!  Of your faithfulness and His faithfulness as they stand faithful to their studies, to their work, to the giving of the Gospel in Haiti!

Someone suggested to me a few days ago that perhaps it would be better that that Lord had NOT provided so generously, so we could share with our staff the harsh reality that needs don't always get met, and that cuts sometimes just have to happen.  That sometimes you just don't get to eat.  That sometimes, you just don't get paid.  That the foreigners can't always find what is needed.

I guess there might be something to that argument.  Maybe.

But I'm pretty sure that the harsh reality that sometimes you just don't get to eat is pretty well understood here, more than I will ever comprehend.  Pretty confident that the reality that sometimes needs just don't get met is already in the DNA.  Pretty sure that teaching those lessons or asking God to is NOT what I'm supposed to be doing here.  

And I KNOW that every staff, student and neighbor who has known Matt and I for more than 2 seconds know that Matt and Stacey don't "find" what is needed.  We are not where our help comes from.

We just KNOW the ONE who is needed. And He's all we've got to show anyone.

Didn't come to teach anyone a life lesson or to share ANY reality other than HIS.  We are standing in the gap here because He clearly ASKED us to.  That's it.  And we want to be faithful to Him.

We trust you didn't give or not give because you wanted to prove something or show something other than His Reality, other than Him.  You give or don't give of your hard-earned resources, we trust, because you sought Him and He asked you to or did not ask you to, and you want to be faithful unto Him.

To be faithful, because He is Faithful.

THANK YOU for being faithful to ask Him if you should help (even if it seemed CRAZY or impossible or nonsensical for you), for being faithful TO help if and when and how He led you to (even if it was painful, even if this was NOT a 'good time' for you), for trusting Him (even when it's hard), for helping us (even when you didn't have to).

April 22nd's Reality was that EBS could not pay for graduation, could not pay our staff for their hard work, could not feed our students, could not finish the semester.  

Thank you for faithfully making the New Reality--that our God is entirely different and is alive and well and chooses to use people, and is FAITHFUL--real.

We're blessed to be in this Body with you.