the body.

Lots of simple good news to share with you.

Junior is home, or as home as he'll ever be this side of heaven, and we are all SO glad.  The kids have been downright blissful, the student exuberant, the staff grateful for his help, already, and me?  I'm just HAPPY.  I know God's got lots of plans in lots of places for Junior...but when God has him in OUR lives, even if just for a while, I'm so grateful.  

He doesn't know how long he'll be staying, but we'll take what we can get!

Today was our first English chapel of the year (every Friday) and it was a great kick-off to the year and to having the Heckman's with us.  Ethan is sharing his drumset with the chapel, which the students are LOVING as an addition to worship, and today Phil and Emily led with Jean-Marie and Freny...it was GREAT.

Emmaus especially likes songs like this one, because of the repetitive nature.  Makes English a bit easier :)  You can catch a little Sofie dancing in this one, too...

It's GREAT to be through the first week, to have things up and running, and up and running well, to be working with people who are called, gifted and working hard in all the corners Emmaus in this corner of His Kingdom.  

Phil is planting and Claudin is reporting and Belo is planning EBS's next missions trip...Simeon is working-alongside, Fanfan is taking classes for his Masters, Matt is preaching...Junior is  computer labbing (yet another of his many gifts and interests), Leroy is teaching, Vilmer is working our our license (with legal work being in HIS many gifts and interests), Giselaine is reorganizing food storage...

All men and women in love with the Lord, burdened to see Him known and transforming in Haiti, all at work in so many different capacities based on gifts and callings He's given, with joy and for His glory...

The Body of Christ.  It's a beautiful thing to be a part of...joined by so many of YOU sharing and giving and praying and coming to help make all of this possible.  

Thank you.

Sunday, Junior, Noel and I will be headed for Baron for the first time in a year to join Ezechiel.  

As I've shared, a lot has changed for Ezechiel and Baron since this time last year.  

If we survive the incredibly strenuous hike :), we'll be joining Ezechiel for the church service and for the day to love on him and Baron.

We're hoping to listen, to meet, to see.  To pray, and to pray and to pray.  To preach and to encourage and to come-alongside.  

In case you haven't realized it over the years, that is the CORE of Christ's calling and giftings in me.  I love being Mama.  I love teaching English.  I love helping with finances and training and learning with our staff and students in budgeting and scholarshiping and spending.

But I was MADE to hike alongside others in life, to listen, to pray, to encourage.  To relationship.

I don't know what you call that.  But it's what Ezechiel seems to need right now.  Not a friend to sit with for 20 minutes in Saccanville and pray with him, but someone to hike alongside and go the lonely places and walk in his struggle with him.

So grateful for the opportunity to do just that....and to share it with you!

Thank you for your prayers...

limitless confidence

Yesterday we kicked off the EBS Women's Bible Study : Christian Character.  The highlight was just sitting (and sweating) around the table with all the female cooks, housecleaners, secretaries and students.   With women from 18-60, no education to a master's candidate, from all over Haiti, with all different giftings and passions, it was exciting to realize as we sang our opening hymn that we were sisters.

As I tried to share my Bible with Roselore, I quickly realized that she could not read, embarrassed that I may have embarrassed her.  Then there was Rosejezula busting out some Greek...one of our biggest challenges may just be staying together!  It was challenging to study God's Word together when several participants were unable to READ God's Word!  Pray for me as I work to find ways to "study" verses in an oral, repetitive fashion instead of saying, "What do we see in verse 18?"

We began the base of this 12 week study on Christian Character with Romans, discussing how we are "Freed to Serve God", though none of us were found righteous, no, not one.  We spoke about His justification, and about things that still seek to enslave us, though we are now justified and free.  The women had tons to contribute and the hour flew by all too fast, followed by a few minutes to pray for and with each other.

Please be praying for this study and for wisdom and creativity on my part as I seek to facilitate.  My "plan" is to lead this Christian Character study these 12 weeks, and then ask who would like to lead the next study after...there is no reason why I need to be at the reigns with women who have followed the Lord, many, their whole lives.

Meanwhile, I am heartbroken over the women who have loved Jesus for years and have hidden His Word in their hearts, but who must be dependent upon others to receive it due to illiteracy.  There just seems to be NO END to all of the ways one could minister here...I'd love to start teaching them to read!  But unless the Lord unexpectedly gives me the gift of "no sleep needed", I just cannot do one more thing!  (remind me of this!)

On another note, we have two friends and one visiting professor (who is also our friend, of course! :) coming tomorrow, then another VP and another friend on Sunday.  Our third VP who was set to teach on Monday cancelled at the last moment, so it's been a busy time trying to re-schedule and register all the students with other courses!

We had a great service in chapel today in which a VERY nervous Junior (1000th time preaching, but first time preaching in chapel to his peers) shared from 2 Peter 1 about what holiness looks like.  It was a great, practical and challenging message, and I was blessed to hear the Lord put on his heart to share some of the same issues that Matt and I have been praying for regarding the students...and ourselves!  Junior is just such an ernest, passionate and humble man that I love to hear the Word through his lens.

The Lord has done some pretty neat things this week to encourage our hearts, and I am so thankful.

My O. Chambers reading from the other day asked this:  Am I abandoning the great supernatural position of limitless confidence in Christ Jesus, which is really God's only call for a missionary?


As life and all it brings has passed this week, I keep finding myself asking "What would unlimited confidence in Christ look like in this situation?"

I have fallen short in most cases, but in the rare moments where I was utterly abandoned to trust in Him, the process to His faithfulness was much sweeter.

He is good.

the old hope needed for the new year

On Monday, Matt had the unexpected (until an hour beforehand :) opportunity to preach in chapel to start off the new semester and new year.

He hates preparing last second, and wasn't sure what he would be sharing to our EBS family, and ended up  preaching exactly what God knew that everyone needed, and was ready, to hear.

What I love about this being our fourth year in Haiti and about living intimately with those around us is that Matt is truly now able to KNOW his audience, and something I love about Matt is that he also intimately knows His Creator and the Word.  So when he is able to well-take The Truth to his well-known family...it's an awesome thing to sit in the back row for.

He started by looking back at the past year, and shared the whole message in a dialog with the audience, a very culturally popular approach.

"Who could have told me on January 1st, 2010, that Brother Paul would have a fourth baby!?"

"Who could have told me on January 1st, 2010, that Brother Lucner would finally get married?"

"Who could have told me on January 1st, 2010 there would be an earthquake, that more than 200,000 of our countrymen would die in one day?" The mood changed.

"Who could have told me that you would spend a month in Port-au-Prince bringing hurting people there to the Lord, planting them a church, raising up leaders, and pouring out your lives?"

"Who could have told me that 10 of you, after losing your homes and everything you knew, would become a part of our family?"

"Who could have told me that thousands would die of cholera, an epidemic that we didn't even know existed anymore?"

"Who could have told me that we would have chaos, frustration, corruption and uncertainty instead of a president by 2011?"

"And WHO on earth could have told me that BD (president of 25 years ago) would be here?"  This last question sent everyone uproariously into laughter, the fact Matt mentioned that truly seemed to be the most shocking to everyone.

"WHO!" Matt asked.

"There is no such person," everyone shouted back.  "Only God."

"OK," Matt responded, seemingly moving on to a new subject.  "Get out your Bibles."

For a while we went briefly through all kind of milestones and fathers in the faith and their stories.

"Who knew that Israel would become slaves in Egypt?  And who had a plan nonetheless?"

"What about Ninevah? What about Daniel? What about Abraham? What about John the Baptist? What about Paul? What about Creation?  Who knew?"

"God alone."

"And who had a plan nonetheless?"

"God alone."

"So tell me," Matt asked, "in what verse, in what chapter, in what book of the Bible did God not have a plan?"

"No where."

"And tell me, in what verse, in what chapter, in what book of the Bible was God's plan defeated, left unfinished, or aborted?"

Silence as everyone thought..."No where."

"So" Matt pulled further "Why are you all depressed?"

And depressed everyone had been.  The unfoldings of the past year, and especially these last two months, had most everyone returning sluggish, uncertain, despairing, hopeless.

"Is it possible that God has no plan for Haiti?"

"No."

"NO" Matt almost roared.  "It is NOT possible.  I don't care what anyone else's plan is.  I don't care what OUR plan is.  God. Has. A. Plan."

"And," Matt continued, "If that is true, then IS it possible that the plan will NOT come to pass?"

"NO" Emmaus responded, waves of peace, courage, encouragement and strength obviously hitting different members at different times.

"Remember when His plan was a baby?" Matt said quietly.  "How much sense did that make?  A baby, in the midst of chaos, persecution, terror.  And yet God fulfilled that plan, and what does that baby plan MEAN today?"

Quiet versions of "everything" was muttered throughout the chapel.


"Everything" Matt resounded.

Out of time but anxious to finish, Matt passionately and brokenly poured out our testimony of Sophie this past Christmas, when everything in our lives was on the line.

He shared with the students the doctor's confident prediction of definite disaster, the impossibility of returning to Haiti, confirmed best-case-scenario fear and devastation, and even the possible death of Madame Matt and his new baby.  He talked about the chaos of those moments, the temptations for despair and fear, and the prayers of His people...even just a very few.

A pin could have shocked our family if it had dropped at that moment and for the first time, I realized how much our miracle casts hope upon Haiti's situation.

As Matt shared God's miraculous plan trumping the facts, the sonogram and the doctors, our family erupted in hooting and applause...just as they did following the earthquake not that long ago...not for Matt nor any man, but for God...for His plan, and for it's inability to fail.

There is a lot I'm not sharing well and not remembering well (Matt is a better preacher than I am a writer)  but in 30 minutes on Monday, God obviously shifted the entire disposition, perspective, and spirit of Emmaus.

Was it because anyone has ANY clue what this year has in store? nope.

Because Matt promised some kind of prosper this year?  Some kind of "things will be better this year?" nope.

Emmaus is acting entirely different now than we were Monday morning simply because we remembered that no one but our Father knows, that He DOES have a plan for each of our lives and for our little country down here, and because we remembered that He is on the throne...His plan will be.

Whatever it is, that is enough...His plan will be.

We cannot truly believe this and not be changed simply by the knowledge of His control.

Praying today that all of us here and all of you there will be constantly changing due to the increased pursuit of the knowledge of His love, His power, and His promise to never fail.

a precious moment

I rarely blog "in the moment", but this particular experience is too sweet to pass alone. I am sitting in my office, working feverishly to finish planning tomorrow's lesson before I get Lily from Gertha. Everyone else is in chapel, the last Friday Praise Service of the year. The chapel is 50 yards in front of me, and the community of Saccanville, 50 yards behind.

With all the loudness 50 called men and women could possibly produce, the students are singing praises to their King, OUR King, sounds of worship echoing all throughout this dark world.

I sit alone, in the middle, between radiant light and stifling darkness, listening joyfully to the one spilling into the other.

"Even the darkness isn't dark to you, O Lord" David says, and I testify today that this bold claim is true.

The school-year is finishing, a year that should have been defined by sadness, darkness and death. We moved to one of the most voodoo entrenched communities in Haiti this year and lost over 200,000 of our countrymen, friends and family this year. Instead, the praise of Emmaus this morning is that "He is still on the throne", and I can't help but think through just the past 6 months and be floored by what beauty and light has defined the year instead...

a beautiful new mission field....followers of Satan turning around completely to follow the Lord...10 new passionate and godly students...a dead man walking and praising the Lord...hundreds of community members living in hellish circumstances now completing dry and strong homes...

As the praises of His children call out to a dark and weary world, I KNOW that things will never be the same. Haiti will never be the same, Saccanville, never the same. Emmaus will never be the same...I, never the same, because He is on the throne, still. The God who knows the flight of each sparrow, the growl of each stomach and the gnaw of each heart is ACTIVE on His throne and in the mud and dirt of OUR hearts and lives TODAY, despite ALL circumstances.

AH, how I wish you were sitting here with me, speechless with praise and astounded by His gracious hand, deeply aware of His every-moment, every-place, every-circumstance presence.

Tout bagay deja bien
Tout bagay deja bien
paske Jezu shita sou trwon-nan
Tout bagay deja bien, tout bagay deja bien, tout bagay deja bien.

Saton perdu batay
Saton perdu batay
paske Jezu shita sou trwon-nan
Saton perdu batay, Saton perdu batay, Saton perdu batay.

(Everything is already good, because it is Jesus who sits on the throne.
Satan has lost the battle, because it is Jesus who sits on the throne.)