You remember his terrifying motorcycle accident almost eight weeks ago now, leaving his bike smashed and his knee dislocated. He's been living a few hours away at Esther's house, so her parents could care for him while he couldn't walk, and Esther has been living at Leme's house 20 minutes away, so they could help care for her as she was closer to where she works.
With the state of the country, plus the state of Jodenel's leg, plus Esther being 25 weeks pregnant, plus the beginning of a new year at Emmaus minus our finance manager and friend...it has just been a lot.
As such, they have been heavy heavy on all of our hearts and prayers, and then, instead of returning on Monday, the country was set on fire and he couldn't.
They did not finally return yesterday perfectly...Jodenel is hobbling along on crutches and Esther's feet are worrisomely swollen, but on a day when all I could see were the gaps man created, God reminded me that HE fills them.
What they badly need is secure housing, together, after all these weeks apart, with no stairs (their little apartment in the middle of town has a very tricky stairwell), and close to both their jobs.
We have that at Emmaus. Praise the Lord for our new neighbors!
Last night they joined us for dinner so we could all catch up, and the Lord reminded me something I've been forgetting through Lily.
Not being able to go to school, to go play with their friends, to go to the pool or the beach or to town has been hard on the girlies. They have barely left the campus for weeks upon weeks, and we've been working hard to be stable and creative and to only speak peace and love and prayers with them in our home.
But when Jo and Esther hobbled in last night, Lily and Sofie just blossomed.
They ushered them into chairs, helped them take off their shoes, found cushions to put up their feet. Got them drinks and put up crutches and offered Esther pillows.
When we finally finished supper, and I came to join them, Lily was in the middle of lotioning and massaging Esther's feet! For the next hours, as Nora brought Esther all her school books to show her and as Jodenel and Matt chatted and laughed and as Lily and Sofie cared for them, as Ben had us all in stitches over his antics with the blocks, I was reminded that in hard times, in all times, we ALL need opportunities to care for and help others.
That sounds as crazy as Lily, who can barely bring her pre-teen self to tell me about her day without rolling her eyes, rubbing Esther's feet!
Things may not be very FUN right now. At all.
But when Haiti is hobbling and it's people are hurting and frustrated and heavy, what a JOY to be Christ among them...what a joy to DO something about it...what a joy to share Jesus when people are hurting, to bring cold Cokes to hot heads, to bake bread for hungry friends, to rub the feet of those who are weary.
The devotional I was sharing with my third year students yesterday resolved with this idea: You have been tasked to make the invisible love of God VISIBLE to the people you lead. We have been divinely placed to bring glory to the King of Kings within our spheres of influence.
It is a joy to be right where we are, as a family, all six
of us, right now, because God's great love--visible and present and steady--is so badly needed and WANTED right now. It's a joy to be here today because we have been divinely placed here--not for the fun, not for the ice cream, not for the freedom--but to bring glory to the King of Kings within this broken and hurting sphere in mundane, daily faithfulness.
It is not only important be a place of peace and rest and visible love, today in this dry and weary smoldering land for OTHERS, but in God's mysterious way, it also brings joy...and the joy of the Lord is our strength.
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