GO and LET HIM

I had all these things to share with you from the weekend, but tonight is has all boiled down to one.  

Staff retreat Saturday was great (we have such a special group of men and women at Emmaus!!!), all our visiting professors got in safely and with minimal drama yesterday, praise the Lord, and we enjoyed a great morning this morning at Vilmer's church in town even with Leandre preaching the sermon.  The Heckman's are breaking in just fine, Haylie is teaching me how to skateboard on this swiveling wheely thing, professor Leroy brought his dear wife Kay and I keep catching her doing dishes (oh, sweet wonderfulness) and Giselaine is back tonight and doing a lot better.  Classes start tomorrow morning at 8 am, and I'm not lying to you...it'll be REALLY nice to hit Tuesday or Wednesday, have all the start-up stuff behind us, and be plugging away.

Lily has a major kid crush on FanFan ("Mom, it's just that I LOVE him.") and decided to eat with him at staff retreat on Saturday :)

I got no pictures of our meetings, but eating together is everyone's favorite, anyway.

These two are the loviest lovebirds you're ever going to want to meet.  Abel and Myolene (MaAbel) end each other's sentences, share each other's food, sit together without fail in a culture where couples do NOT do that, and grin at each other like they complete each other. 

Lucner, our academic dean (front in red) is always telling everyone to be on time, and then almost entirely missed the staff picture...had everyone laughing.

This morning, at Church of the Celestial Lights.

All good stuff.  But I'm rushing through it to tell you instead about tonight.
You've gotta read this.
Stick with me.

On top of ALL the other things this weekend, Belony asked Matt to come and preach at a crusade service at his church tonight at 6 o'clock.  

Let me tell you.  By 6 o'clock on a Sunday night after an INSANELY busy weekend like this one, when the first day of school starts tomorrow...Matt was NOT excited about this grande finale to the weekend. 

But this afternoon at lunch when he said, "Uh, I do NOT want to have to do that tonight!"  I said, "I know.  But I just know it's going to be great, and that afterward, you will be so glad you did."

He left at 5:30, not even knowing what he was going to share.  He'd prayed about it, and couldn't get a sense from the Lord about the direction.  So, he headed off anyway, and as he was driving through l'Acul on the way to Flavil said that there were just hundreds of people out, milling around, hanging out, and partying.  Weekend evenings are big for partying in this culture, and the way you dress in Haiti (and perhaps everywhere, but esp. here) is to make very clear statements about whether you are in Christ or not.  

Matt said as he drove, he felt so burdened by SO many people in l'Acul living and acting so far from the Lord.  He was disturbed by a lot of what he saw as he drove, and said that his heart felt so burdened with this idea that Jesus was SO NEEDED, RIGHT here, RIGHT now, and so obviously out of sight and mind.

When he finally arrived at the church in Flavil, right on time, the church was locked tight.

Hmmm.  No one was around, at all.  He asked a little girl if there was a service tonight at 6, and she said yes, at six.  But it was 6:10...and no one.  Belo's dad lives right across from the church, so Matt went to see him, and he said the same thing.  Yes, service tonight at the church, yes, at 6.  But NO one was there.  And no Belo.  And Matt couldn't get ahold of Belony...wasn't sure what to do.

At 6:30, a panting, sweating, suited Belony rushed in, apologizing profusely.  "It's not HERE!" Belony said.  "Tonight's the last night of the crusade...it's in the middle of the town square!"

They headed BACK to l'Acul, and headed right for the center of all those people he had JUST driven through and felt so burdened for.  Matt took this picture when he arrived, and the square was empty, the musicians just getting started...

They worked out all the sound kinks, generator kinks, etc., and Matt said it was as disorganized and just bizarre as any other function in this culture frequently seems to be.  But then everything came together, the music got going, the singers all appeared, the loudspeakers got going...and you know.  There's just not that much to DO in Haiti.  So when something is happening?  You go check it out.  

They played/sang until 7, and by now it was almost black out and the square, steps, street and surrounding yards were Packed. Out.

Matt said he was praying and praying, because there were literally thousands of people, almost all of whom openly professing by their dress and behavior to NOT be in Christ, just waiting to see what the one foreigner in the middle was going to say.

Matt was waiting to see what the one foreigner was going to say, too.

And God completed the heavy burden He'd given Matt just an hour earlier for these exact people with His love.

Matt said he felt a clear direction to share with this non-churched, non-Christian crowd of thousands that our God is not One seeking to punish, condemn, and destroy us...but one desiring to Love, Renew, Restore and Complete us.  

He said he started sharing that message, and then went ALL through the New Testament following the life of Jesus from his birth in a manger to His death on the cross and resurrection as PROOF that this is true.  That our God is a God who desires LIFE for us, not death, FREEDOM for us, not condemnation.  To be our Daily Bread and Living Water, not our school principal or our judge.  

He touched on Christ's miracles.  He spoke through Christ's words.  He walked through Christ's life, and he went through Christ's love.  And then he talked about what it all meant for each one of us.  TODAY.

Matt says he's never done or seen anything like it.  Never talked to so many people at the same time.  Never spoken to such a HUGE crowd, unreached or otherwise.

And never expected them to be so interested.  

Matt said despite the utter darkness that had now fallen, despite the thousands...thousands of people, you could hear a pin drop, and that heads were bobbing in understanding in waves.  That there was a look on so many faces of complete surprise at what he was saying. Matt preached for about an hour like this, and finally at 8:30, wrapped up his portion and headed home, drenched in sweat and with visiting professor orientation still to do...with the crusade service truly JUST getting started.  

Belony's expectation was that it will continue until 1 or 2 am.  I'll have a report from the rest of the night tomorrow.

We get so caught up in what WE DO.   Spend so much time focusing on what WE do, how things affect US, how WE look while doing it, how it goes for US, what's in it for US.

MATT did one thing tonight.  Put on his tie and shirt and got in the car.

All Matt did was GO.

And as Matt went...God gave him HIS burden.  HIS perspective.  

And as Matt waited...God gave him HIS audience, HIS crowd.

And as Matt stood, God gave him HIS message, HIS life to share.  

And as Matt spoke, God did HIS thing in EACH heart of EVERY man and woman He so intimately knows and loves and desires to be in relationship with.

We get to thinking we're just so tired and just so busy, that the mountains are just too high and the needs just too big and the ways just too wrong and that the barriers are just too impossible.  

And they ALL ARE.  

For US.

But all He's asking US to do it GET UP AND GO.

GO talk to that person.  We do NOT have to have it all worked out.  We do not have to know exactly how it's all going to go before we do.  We do NOT have to know what WE are going to say.

If He's whispered GO, (and He HAS) then GO and LET HIM.

GO forgive.  We do NOT have to be wrong, we do NOT have to have it all worked through on our own first, and it does NOT have to be the first time.  

If He's whispered FORGIVE, (and He HAS) then GO and LET HIM.

GO take that stand.  We do NOT have to be politically correct, we do NOT have to be sure it's not going to offend someone (cause it IS), we do NOT have to worry about what someone might think. 

 If He's whispered STAND, (and He HAS) then GO and LET HIM.

GO into all the world and preach the Good News to EVERYONE.  We do NOT have to feel like it or be full of time and energy, we do NOT have to have figured out what we're going to say, we do NOT have to preach our burdens our way to our people.  

If He's whispered PREACH, (and He HAS) then GO.

And LET HIM.

I'm so excited about what God is doing in the world that I can hardly stand it.

We talk and think and know a lot about what PEOPLE are doing in the world, and it'll drown you in discouragement.  If Matt drove through l'Acul tonight to get groceries and came on home, he would have been despairing by what he saw.

But have people ever in their life commanded the morning, and caused the dawn to know its place? Have people ever entered into the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to people? Have people understood the expanse of the earth? Have people entered the storehouses of the snow? Can man lead forth a constellation in its season, and guide the Bear with her satellites? Does man know the ordinances of the heavens, or fix their rule over the earth? Can man send forth lightnings that they may go, or count the clouds or tip the water jars of the heavens?  Job 38-39

NOOOOO.  Then why do we act like what PEOPLE are doing in the World is what MATTERS?

He always has been, is, and always will be, the KING.  Of l'Acul, of Haiti, of the WORLD. 

 It is not the ways of the world that are to direct our paths, family!  Not the ways of the world that are to motivate our burdens or our actions.  

It is to be the KING, and He is ABLE.  

If we GO and let Him.