It is much easier to trust God with the students when they are here together in our sight than when they head out the gate alone.
It is much easier to sleep when large trucks are passing by and music is blaring than when the world is silent...waiting.
It is much easier to follow Him when you know what tomorrow brings...but then again, we never do!
Working to trust Him in the harder.
Matt, Lucner, Bill and Pastor Codo taught all our classes this morning to the many students who were here, but after days of it becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous for staff and students to come and go, afterwards we cancelled classes for tomorrow.
As long as rocks and bottles are flying, as long as tires are burning, as long as threats are growing, it's by far safest that the students be home with their families...and as fuel continues to be impossible to find on day 8, and as buying large quantities of food is harder with the city being entirely shut down...it is impossible to keep caring for so many people much longer, and unsafe to have staff and students coming back and forth every day. Some walked for hours yesterday to get home.
Feeding everyone lunch and watching everyone go broke me up. Our students WANT to learn. Our teachers WANT to teach. They have worked hard to be here. We don't know when they will see each other again. When they will continue to be equipped.
Beyond that, we all WANT peace in Haiti. We all want our children to return to school. We all want the banks to open and to be able to buy fuel and to be able to buy food and to come and go. We all want a future. Everyone wants justice and peace, but the reality is that years of corruption and no consequences have to come to a head sometime. There are consequences. And everyone pays them.
90% of people, hard-working and peace-dwelling, sit at home, unable to get out. And angry, frustrated, young, unemployed men take to the streets and keep them, keep us, there. Because something has to change...because enough is enough...because there is suddenly no law and they can get away with lawlessness...because corrupt men are paying them to...even because they are just bored.
Don't get me wrong, EVERYONE is very concerned and frustrated and anxious...what about the major inflation? What about food prices climbing and climbing? What about fuel? What about all the corruption? There is almost NO police force. There are some major deep issues that are growing and growing and no one seems to have a solution. The president finally spoke last night and promised that he is not stepping down and that violence will not be tolerated...but...offered NO solutions or plans of attack or way forward.
As I see the angry faces of violent protestors, looters and "bandits" as our communities keeps calling them, the reality is that the young students of Emmaus are only one element away from the young people terrorizing a nation under evil men who care for them not....
Jesus. Just a Jesus away.
Their lives surrendered to Jesus has transformed their hearts and minds and days entirely, and they weep for Haiti and pray on their knees in the chapel and they love each other well and stand for peace in their communities and they even laugh together in the face of what should be fearful.
You think the world is tired of hearing about Haiti and her struggles? Imagine how Haiti feels. And yet where there should be no more hope, they still carry it. Where there should be no more joy, I still hear it, see it. Where there should be no more country, we are here.
All those things we find in the richness of Christ that the Bible tells us cannot be taken away--I can tell you that I am witness--They cannot be taken away.
His kingdom unshaken and His followers unwavering, we wait.
Waiting on the Lord, Matt and Edner continued on the master's course this afternoon with video and translation...online courses for another day. Waiting on the Lord, the twenty students who didn't leave today have packed their bags and prepare to go tomorrow. Waiting on the Lord, the country sits at home and prays.
Thank you for waiting with us, for standing with us...for praying with us.
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