from the benches

"Just wait," we've been telling people the last six months who have talked about how hot it is.  "This isn't hot!  But it's coming!"  

Well, this week it arrived, and we're back to the daily prayer of "Lord, help me...help me be patient, help me be kind, help me bring peace when I am sweating and dripping and pouring and sticky and cannot escape it!"

Hiking the long road to Fev in the sun this morning, if your 9-year old is too panicked to ride in the only vehicle that can make it there, I was praying it!  And the Lord, of course, He helps.  We chatted with all the men and women we passed on our way, picked up a gathering of children, and made it right as worship was starting to the little tarp-tent church.

The breeze was sweet and the worship was even more so.  It took us a ridiculously long time, like years and years, to get to the place where worshipping in Creole, Haitian worship songs, actually became worship and not just learning and working and following along for us.  But today at the base of the mountain, swaying and clapping and sweating together and moving seamlessly from well-known song to well-known song with a keyboard and a few young people leading, I was so thankful for the way He has helped us persevere to worship in Haiti truly being at His feet and abandoned and joyful and meaningful.

The biggest gift, however, was Walnique, who graduated a few years ago and continues on with Fev as the church the students planted the year he graduated.  His sermon, once again today, was Biblical and powerful and on point, and it's just a joy to watch him know his people and share the Word so relevantly and well. 

This is where and how change is happening, and it was a joy to be in the benches this morning.

I love this picture of Matt and Walnique chatting after church, and Nora chatting it up with her new friends.  

Thankful.

We had a nice afternoon with Paul, Jen and Bryan in town, and the the Heckman's, intern Drew and Dr. Mark made it in safely this afternoon.  Tomorrow starts our last week of undergrad classes, and Dr. Mark with IWU, Dr. Bryan with the new MACL master's cohort, and Dr. Gail teaching both the graduating MACL master's cohort and the Master's in Leadership course!  BIG WEEK!