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27 June 2019

the living God

I've tried to be extra intentional this visit about getting meaningful time with people He's been bringing to mind lots this past year. Some of these get-togethers are working out, some of them not...people here are every bit as busy as people there!  But that's meant good, inspiring conversation over coffee late nights, and catch ups in the middle of cornfields, and driving to wherever people are, and going to birthday parties, playgrounds and the aquarium with the sweet cousins, and also spending time at places we'd rather not but are thankful for, like the dentist.

90% of said visits and meetings and outings have been sadly Matt-free, as he's been preaching evening services, working, working and then some. One minute he's calculating budgets, then on the phone in Creole, then on the phone in English, then on the phone in both, and in video meetings and online meetings and I don't even KNOW what all. I've stopped trying to catch up, because I guess somebody's gotta be the president, and I guess that someone is him.  Christ to and through Matt is faithful, and I was especially happy today to hear him talking to Lucner and Leme and hearing that they are hanging in there and report while there continue to be major struggles, "it's no February."  Praising the Lord for that and just continuing to lift our brothers and sisters up!  

This intentional relationship-pursual has also meant that the girls have LOVED getting to know and being better known by other kiddos. From hanging out at Kristen's pool, to the rodeo, to the Buckner grandkids, to heading off on the farm in a golf cart with an 11 year old driver, to catching up with Ethan and Haylie, to chatting it up with their cousins, to meeting kids about everywhere we go, they are loving it.   



They're also getting lots of good together time, and I cherish that.

We don't get to see a lot of hippos in Haiti. Or fish tanks. Or animals not for eating, for that matter :)









On the way home from the aquarium by ourselves our borrowed car froze and died again just like a few weeks ago, and not in a safe place at all. After praying and waiting a few minutes, I got the car started and drove a few miles with no A/C (95 degrees, just like home :), and no power steering till we could get off at the first place we could, which of course, was at  "The Famous King of Pizza", which ended up being NOT so famous, neither for air conditioning, bathrooms, water, cleanliness, nor pizza.
We all prayed and prayed as we drove, and when I turned around, sweat dripping down my face and the deafening noise of the freeway whizzing by us with all the windows down, Ben and Nora had fallen fast asleep. What peace they had in the care of their mama, what peace we can have in the care of our Father, despite circumstances.

After playing every game we could think of in the furnace of not good pizza, Matt and the tow truck finally got there, and the girls got to learn all about how to load and unload a tow truck.


Nothing is wasted by the Lord, no adventure, no heart-ache, no trial and no blessing, so I'm just determined that I'm not going to waste them, either. Surely He can be at work in all these situations, and if He is at work, in someone else, in one of my children, in me, then we are rich with adventure and trial.

This morning, as Aunt Lori put it, "the coffee is going down easy", and I wasn't sure I had it in me to pack everyone up again and drive 80 minutes to 5 dentist appointments (the dentist is 3 minutes from where we stayed last year, and we didn't want to start all over at a new dentist!)

I wanted to be thankful, but I felt a lot more like tired.  As the girls played in the bedroom and Ben played in the sink, I stood by him and got back to 1 Timothy, and He sustained me anew with something better than coffee:

We toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God.

Do we have our hope firmly set on the LIVING, the LIVING GOD? Do we remember that He is vibrant and alive and powerful, our God?

We have our hope set on the living God.

What a firm and beautiful place to be today.  

There is hope for Haiti, there is hope for America, there is hope for them and you and me if it is set firmly on the living God.  

May He be alive and well through me, then.

Tomorrow Matt is off to North Carolina for board meetings as a board member of the Moscow Seminary in Russia...and staying with dear friends we've never met! 

So grateful for all your prayers to our Living God on our behalf, protecting and leading and meeting and sustaining us.


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