go

I don’t even know where to start. 

 

Today was GREAT.  When you tell a group who’s been in Haiti for 2 whole days that you’re going to a remote village and that they are then going to walk around and share the Gospel with complete strangers…I was just thankful there wasn’t a meltdown.  That’s a lot.  I would have understood if they did.

But true to form, these 18 are no complainers.  There were a few tears, and more than a few fears, but we spent the evening planning, and at 6 am this morning, we those to Jesus, climbed into the truck, and went. 

 

     Go, therefore and make disciples of all the nations…Matthew 28:18

It took two hours to get there, and with grime in our teeth and sleep in our eyes we met in the church where dozens of children had already gathered.  We worshipped through song and prayer for a bit and broke into three ministry groups: sharing the gospel with kids, with women, and door to door.

     For I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole purpose of God…Acts 19:27

From 8 until noon, joined with a slew of students, members from the church and members of an evangelical group Junior’s been working with, we worked.  The church, His church.  Teens, adults, Haitians, Americans, English speakers, Creole speakers, going through this huge community.

Sharing testimonies.  Praying with people who were hurting…Women who recently lost children…Mothers of 7, 8, 9 children completely unable to take care of them and worried…A woman who was demon possessed…A witchdoctor…children. 

 

Telling charcoal sellers why God made them: to be in relationship with Himself.  Sharing with households that sin, unlike commonly believed, is not just murder, but anything that rejects God’s plan or is less than holy.  Drawing lines in the sand to show people the divide now created between a Holy God and unholy men.  Glowing to tell attentive children and smoking old men about God’s solution to the problem, and the opportunity to live with Him now and forever. 

     To open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by Faith in me…Acts 26:18.

Matt worked with one of the door-to-door groups, but I worked with a group of 5 women, sharing with all the women (and quite a few men and children) that we could find.  All the women in the market, families frying fish, women nursing children, groups chatting around the lottery booth.

We were working along a fantastic young man, Lindsey, who is currently being discipled by Jodenel.  Everywhere we went, we greeted everyone, and then he opened with this:

“I know when you see groups of foreigners like this, you think that they are here to give money or to give food, because that is what foreigners usually do.  But let me tell you that today, they aren’t giving those things.  But they are giving something more precious than gold.  Something that lasts longer than food.  I’ll let them tell you.”

 

     Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for He is with us…Acts 17:9

Then, the women I was working with took turns sharing their stories, sharing the gospel message, and praying with everyone.  Tentatively at first.  Scattered at first, but then more and more passionately, completely, powerfully.  I was so incredibly, for lack of a better word, PROUD.  I mean, sister proud. 

The Gospel was shared so personally, so passionately and so purposefully that I was just astounded, blessed, and reminded all over again that Lindsey was right.  We DO have what is more precious than anything else.  We DO have the only thing that lasts.  We DO have the one thing that EVERY person, regardless of race or national, culture or language, sex or age NEED. 

And the more I was overwhelmed by how grateful I am for His forgiveness, His death, His redemption and His Holy Spirit, the more I wanted to share it. 

Which is EXACTLY how it’s SUPPOSED to be. 

Sharptown, the family you sent to Haiti knows the Truth.  And shared it boldly to hundreds of men, women and children in Haiti today.  They were not phased by the demon-possessed woman chained to cement blocks, but put their 14 year old hands on her and prayed for her instead. 

They were not intimidated by the dying woman on the floor, but instead crowded into her home and sang her songs of His peace.  They stepped their beautiful feet over running sewage, blackened their hands holding hands brimming with charcoal, burnt their flesh standing in the blazing sun to tell His story, OUR story, over and over and over, gave all their energies climbing the Zaccheus tree, slithering like the snake and singing their hearts out with clingy, desperate for attention children. 

     We are also just men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from the vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them  (Acts 14:15).

Sometimes, "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 4:29), just means obeying God rather than ME.  Doing what He asks us to do:  Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:15), instead of what is comfortable, what is easy, what we feel like, and what we already know how to do. 

     We are also just men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from the vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them  (Acts 14:15). 

We had some follow up as a group of 60 afterwards that was also very sweet and shared lots of conversions, follow-up names and phone numbers, and hundreds of seeds planted.

Ah, I could talk about it all night, and Matt had several moments that he has detailed as some of the “very best of my life that I never want to forget” that I’ll share with you soon (BUT I AM TOOOO TIRED!).  It was great. 

THANK YOU for your prayers for the day and all the encouragement and love we've received since yesterday's doggie drama.  (Sof is still doing well...)
THANK YOU, Brenda for keeping the girls so I could do this with the team and translate and share my heart out

THANK YOU, Sharptown Group for being willing to do something so crazy and for pouring yourselves out so selflessly

THANK YOU, Junior for helping us plan and tweak and set this all up,

THANK YOU, Jodenel, Jean-Marie, Jean-Baptiste for being faithful to Him in this large zone so we had true disciples and fired-up evangelists going with us,

THANK YOU, Cammie, for stretching way out there (“I’ve got to be the Yay-Rah person?  AHHHHH”) and leading the kid’s evangelism,

and THANK YOU Lord for BEING more precious than gold, everlasting, for WANTING to be in relationship with me, for going so far as to even sacrifice your ONLY and innocent Son to reconcile that relationship that I screwed up, for forgiving me, for giving me new life, for letting me follow you, for HELPING me follow you by the Holy Spirit and for giving me LIFE, now and forever. 

Oh man.

sing praise

We had a great morning this morning in church.  Matt preached at Vilmer's to help him prepare the church for their annual October of "Soul Harvesting", as a focused month on evangelism in Haiti is often called.  Several of the guys went with us, and that was great, too.

Several hours together outside of school with just 3-4 students at a time is one of our favorite ways to really get to know them, their hearts, callings, passions and struggles...providing the "wheels" for church make that relationship ministry kind of happen spontaneously.

Someone sent us a little bit of money this past week, so after church we took Junior, Leandre and Wilex out to lunch, and I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.  The more time we spend with the students at Emmaus, the more excited we are about how He has made them and how He is using them, and will, here in Haiti.  We just want to help them do and become all that He has made them to do and be!  They are good men to just get behind!

Meanwhile, we received great and rather spur-of-the-moment news from Matt's parent's that they are coming on Friday for a few days!  The last time they were here was before we moved to Saccanville and before the Seminary moved into its current campus, so we're really excited to introduce them to new friends, share our "new" home with them and have a few days together.  Lily is also very excited to have visitors, as that she's been quiet bored with "just" mom and dad since Uncle Don left.

Matt, Lucner and Paul then leave for their very last residency for their Masters degrees on October 10th, and my dad is coming to help me with the girls while Matt is gone.  Dodo and Bubba are coming in on October 13th, Lord willing, to help us with an onslaught of wonderful visiting professors in October and November.  All this to say, family and friends are on the way and we're grateful.

golf, beds and being part of His plan

Finally, a group shot of our students joining us from Port-au-Prince. They've now been with Emmaus for over four months, and have become a beautiful, passionate, intelligent and driven part of the student body. Please continue to pray for this group of Our Family, as they continue to heal, continue to have great concern for their siblings, parents and friends still living in tents in Port-au-Prince, and as they continue to seek the Lord's will for their futures.

THANK YOU to the many of you that have made their presence, transformation, growth and care at EBS possible...
We don't have enough English speakers this week to do our normal Wednesday night "English Conversation" Night, so last night Don and Matt did a special "Sports of the World in English" seminar for interested students. Here, Don is trying to explain the world of baseball, and later, Matt introduced them to an entirely new sport: golf.

The fact that someone could make a million dollars in just a few hours for playing ANY sport was just overwhelming to the first year class (and albeit, to me!), but ESPECIALLY for hitting a little white ball in a little hole. They had a really good time, and asked this morning if we could replace the daily 5:00-5:30 soccer match with whiffle ball, golf, or frisbee instruction some days. Now THAT would be fun...

However, the World Cup starts tomorrow, so it is still soccer that is capturing everyone's attention. My Saturday English class even requested its' first cancellation due to the Saturday morning match! As always, Brazil is Haiti's favored team, especially since Haiti won't be represented this World Cup.

Yesterday, Abel purchased and delivered more than mattresses to Jil's family, but metal bed frames, too. While we hated to miss out on seeing Jil's reaction, we try to stay "behind" giving as much as possible, so just took Abel's word for it that they were THRILLED. Looking out into the night sky last night, I felt SUCH joy and praise KNOWING that tonight, for the first time, Jil and his wife and their children all were sleeping two feet above the mud and on clean, soft beds. Thank you SO much to the many of you that helped to make this possible.

What a gift, huh, that He uses us! What a gift, family, that He has chosen to use each of us to be His hands and feet to the World...giving a glass of water to the thirsty, beds for the weary, medicine for the sick, clothes for the naked, freedom for the prisoners, and BEST, HOPE for the hopeless, light for the darkness, new life for the dying. Maybe we'll never know how He uses each prayer, each dollar, each sacrifice, each work, each act...

....But we know that He has chosen to use those things to pursue His creation, to adopt His children, and THAT is beautiful enough for me. Thanks for being a part of that with us!