unto Him, a joy.

Sometimes the burden God has given us to teach and live His Word in Haiti feels so heavy.

And sometimes so light.

And when Pastor Bob...

Dr. Charles...

Dr. Brent...

and Dr. Rod are here, teaching and discipling with us,

it feels like nothing but the joy it always should.

It's been a great start to our second set of intensive courses this semester, and with classes ranging from Homiletics and New Testament to Evangelism, Discipleship and Pastoral Theology...it's good and deep and transforming.

New students continue to be added almost every day, making this year's first year class the biggest Matt and I have seen (almost 20!)

Having these guys (and Bob's fantastic wife, Launa) and Carol here also means lots of good community for our community, and everything from meals to game nights to our Monday night Bible study has been all the sweeter because of them.

Phil has been incredibly sick this past week and is finally on the mend, the girls are happy to have started school (first day went well!  M, W, F school, Tues., Thursday and Saturday, homeschool) and it is a joy to see our Emmaus family all at work:  translating, teaching, purchasing, printing, cooking, cleaning, laundry, singing, studying, writing, parenting, filing, learning, washing dishes and cutting grass...all unto Him.

day-to-day and a still present past

This has been such a busy week with virtually 1% internet success...getting just a LITTLE bit frustrating, and our list of "to do online" is growing more urgent by the day! Lily has also had a cold, but was finally feeling well enough today to go meet some new neighbors who have three little girls. It is insanely hot right now, but Don, Maxi and Abel are working away, adding sweat to cement!

Matt's 1st Samuel class has been fantastic so far, with lots of afternoon student visits, asking for prayer and guidance regarding issues in church and in ministry that 1st Samuel has been speaking to. It is SO fun for Matt to teach 1) God's Word, 2) to an interested audience, 3) and then work on application in the afternoons!

I was cleaning off my desktop yesterday, and quite erroneously today I stumbled across a blog entry I wrote in August of 2008. The memories of the morning hit me so fresh that that Sunday might as well have been last Sunday… What a beautiful reminder for me this morning about what the face of Jesus looks like, that I might not pass ONE Jesus-chance over. The prayer I asked for then is the same I ask for today! Thank you for traveling the small and bumpy path with us…

It was the little girl who stuck out to me first, almost immediately after we had wedged our way onto a backwards school bench in the back of Paul Vilmer's church, once again, packed out. Her crazily braided hair was tinged with flaming red and her small skeleton held itself upon her mother's bony lap in such a weary way. Red hair means major dietary deficiency, though it was already obvious from the twigs in her neck and her tiny yellow dress hanging off her body that she was starving.

I tuned into the service for the first hour, glancing at this small bird child from time to time. Matt pointed to the two little boys in front of him during the singing, and it quickly became apparent that these were her brothers. They sat behind their mom and sister, both in holed t-shirts (you never see this in church) and propped up against each other. The oldest boy must have been 7 or 8, and the middle son, 5, but both were very underdeveloped and attracted swarms of flies. Both of their heads seemed uncommonly large perched on top of their sunken necks, and they seemed to hold each other up. It wasn't the insects crawling over the sores on their scalps or their malnourished states that had gotten Matt's attention, but instead their unblinking and unwavering focus on the pastor, eating up every word he said, for literally hours on end.

I watched this small family throughout the long service, feeling broken for them and unsure about what to do. After two hours, the sermon finally began, and just a few moments later the middle boy began to shake. We thought he was falling asleep, but soon realized that he was silently sobbing, gigantic tears streaming down his pulled face. He looked back at me, and his eyes...his eyes were just HUGE and the skin on his cheeks was almost wrinkled it was pulled so tightly across his sharp cheekbones. An older woman beside him quickly asked him what was wrong, and almost wordlessly, he muttered "I'm so hungry."

I thought my heart was going to explode right then. I was numb. How is it that I am still shocked at such things? I speak of Haiti as being a hungry place, speak of the current food crisis and the "face of hunger" that Haiti and it's children are currently experiencing. Yet it is one thing to know it and to talk about it, and another thing to SIT behind it and WATCH it...see it's TEARS.


The woman quickly tapped the boys mother, telling her that he was hungry. "I have nothing" she told the woman, then repeated to the boy, rapidly and guiltily swatting at his tears with her bony hand, shaking him lightly and telling him not to cry. "Don't cry," the older lady next to him kept repeating, obviously hurting for him and disturbed by his tears. Quickly she pulled 5 gourdes out of a hidden kleenex, and in moments so did the woman in front of her, then a woman one row over. They all thrust their tiny offering, some 38 cents US, at the mother, who rapidly swooped up her now sleeping daughter and headed out the back.

Moments later she returned, clasping three tiny foil packs, each containing four Saltine-type crackers. It took each child only seconds to open their tiny parcel, but almost 30 minutes to eat it...each savoring every tiny bite and picking up every crumb. The tiniest, wide-eyed and happily munching her cracker, continued to play games I've seen much chubbier children play with their mothers, "one bite for me, one bite for you," insisting on sharing every other bite with her mother, who obviously hadn't eaten anything more than any of her children.

By now I was finished, hot tears running down my sweaty face as I watched all of this...the pain of their suffering and tears, the beauty of everyone's collected sacrifice, the love between these children and their mother, the agony of sitting behind starvation and having no idea what to do, the torture over the 2 bites of cold scrambled eggs I had tossed out this morning and the bucket of crackers sitting on top of my loaded refrigerator...the pain of knowing this was just one small family in THOUSANDS...MILLIONS around the world.

I wanted to take off my wedding ring, my glasses, take my hymnal, Matt's wallet, our Nalgene bottle, the keys to the dump truck we drove into town and just give them all to this family. I wanted to pile them into the car and drive them home and shower them and feed them the biggest meal they had every seen and just...KEEP them....FIX it.

Suddenly the service was over and everyone was standing, hurried to leave as the dark block room had become an oven in the noonday heat. I grasped at the oldest boys hand and he smiled shyly at me. The little bird girl was shy and hid her small face in her mother's dirty t-shirt. I grabbed the mother's hand as the crowd pushed her past, and she smiled full joy as well, and I told her her children were beautiful, because I didn't know anything else to say, and she nodded in agreement.

The middle boy, however, had held back a moment, and I sat down on my heels to be at his eye level. "Good morning" he told me as I held his hand and then he grinned the most ravishing smile I have ever seen, his glassy eyes full of joy. I smiled at him brokenly, and a remnant tear slid down my cheek. Without missing a beat, he swung his tiny hand up to my shoulder and patted it quickly before he ran after his family.

This morning my face was four inches from the skeletal, open-sored face of Jesus...and when you meet Jesus face-to-face, it has to change you, doesn't it.

Please keep praying for Haiti, for Jesus to be made known, for all those that are so hungry in so many ways...and for all the pieces of our hearts.

new baby, visitors & finishing well!

Because our internet died simultaneously with the start of the World Cup, we’re pretty sure millions of people trying to watch matches through the internet is to blame. There is very little television and internet available here, so it seems that what is available is being maxed out!

So, photos might have to wait until after Brazil wins (at least, if Haiti has its way!)

However, I’ll try to at least keep getting text up, though this post alone has taken several days to get online.

Story for the girls out there: Mirlove Mimose (Jil’s wife) brought little baby Wendy for us to meet on Tuesday morning. Ah, she is just gorgeous! Mirlove, Wendy, and several of the other kids are living with Mirlove’s father until the house is done, as that their current little hut has been destroyed to make room for their new ti-kay (little house.)

They asked me to name the baby, who as of Tuesday was still title-less. I just plain refused, knowing that anything my American tongue picked would be Haitian-ugly. After a while, Mirlove gave in, and finally deemed the baby “Wend-leh-er-sees”…or at least that’s how her new name is pronounced.

She consented that I call the little one “Wendy” after I butchered “Wend-leh-er-sees” several times, and wow, am I smitten…she is just a GORGEOUS little girl, who looks just like her mother and is endowed with a beautiful head of soft curly locks…I NEVER remember Lily being so tiny and fragile! Just gorgeous… Lily and I came right home and dug into the closet, pulling out Lil’s littlest garments and packing them off to Jil.

All of the blocks for their new home are finished, and a foundation is in the works…I think it might take more than another few days to be finished, but we’ll see.

Meanwhile, Matt started teaching the LAST course of the school-year today: 1st Samuel. He’s teaching both the 2nd and 3rd year classes, and despite the ever-reoccurring pre-feeling that he does NOT have time to be teaching another course, today went wonderfully and he came home singing the same tune he always does, “I LOVE THIS!” Praise the Lord!

We have received final word that Aunt Lisa is coming to the rescue. These next two weeks of finishing the school-year, teaching, preparing for graduation, preparing for summer speaking, preparing to leave for 7 weeks and hosting 4 people for a week of seminary construction has our heads and days swimming.

Lisa is a teacher in inner-city Chicago, and will be done next week, and has then selflessly agreed to come and help out with all of the above, and with Lily, for our final week, flying out with us on July 3rd! I cannot WAIT.

Don’s daughter and friend from church will be joining us on the 23rd to help finish the second story of the men’s dorm, and to work on Lucner’s house. He will be getting married in November, Lord willing, and their little house needs a LOT of work.

Thank you for all of your continued prayers, especially as we finish out this school year. There have been many times this past year that we weren’t sure how the Lord was going to pull us through, and here we are at the end of the year, marveling at the perfection of His plan and timing.

life as it happens...

As I finished our last post, I thought, I sure hope I'm not the only "AMEN!" here, or I think that I should just quit blogging.

All your "Whoo-hoo!" comments have quite confirmed that I am not alone in my excitement for who He is, how He works, and what He's doing! Thank you :)

Nothing fluid tonight, just a bunch of random things on our hearts, minds and schedules...

Tomorrow, Pehypay is speaking in chapel! Belony had asked him to come and share his testimony as soon as he was able, and after making it to church on Sunday, he can absolutely make it to Emmaus. I can't wait to hear his story from his perspective, and to share in this with the students and staff...I'll have pictures and an update for you this week!

The revival has been going well, and tomorrow night and Friday night Matt is playing bass for the worship portions. Belony will be preaching tomorrow night, and I've invited several people throughout the community that have been open to the Gospel, but "not ready." Please keep praying for these services! I'll have photos of this by Friday, too (It is NOT easy to get pictures in these situations...Many people do NOT want their pictures taken, and I don't like taking pictures often in church).

If you're looking for music for your devotional life, I just downloaded Kari Jobe's CD, entitled "Kari Jobe" a few days ago (took 3.5 days to download, but still) and MAN, it is fantastic. She strikes the perfect balance between personal worship and reverent worship...just REALLY good stuff that has been making my Bible study and prayer time extra intimate and focused. If you're looking for something like that, check it out.

Matt's Romans course is officially half-way through, and today's class went really well. He's been using a Key Note (MAC version of PowerPoint) presentation, but was getting really frustrated that the students were SO intent on copying down every word, that no one was focusing on the thinking and inductive part. But today, all four projectors unexpectedly lost power and were unable to be fixed, and without the presentation, Matt had the best class yet....might be on to something here...

Also, we are overjoyed to announce that our dear friend Don is getting packed and ready to come on Sunday, staying with us this time for a month to work on the second-story of the men's dorm (which is FAR from being finished) helping with a few things around the seminary, and helping to work on Lucner's house. He is always SUCH a positive and Godly example and influence for us both, and we are so excited he's coming and giving of his time and money and family and skills, yet AGAIN, to pour out Christ in ways that only he can. (Plus, Matt loves that he gets 2 man-movies in a row when Don is here for every chick flick versus his normal 'every other.')

Thank you for all of your continued prayers. Normally, graduation would be this week, but due to the Earthquake, we still have 5 more weeks of classes...the difficult year is working on everyone, and we're grateful for your prayers for the energy and perseverance of the staff and students!

Pictures and testimonies on Friday...

Psalms, a Haitian Vacation anyone?, and something new

Matt's Psalms course has been going really well, and followed the usual pattern of taking just a few days for the men and woman to warm up, realize that he was looking for insight, not a "right answer", and get really passionate about what they're learning. They're ENJOYING diving deeper in the Psalms, learning the history and patterns of the Psalms, and "sharpening hermeneutical skills for interpreting the Psalms," says Matt :)

Matt's also having a great time getting to know these students better (most of them also his Hebrew students) and working WITH them through some of the cultural, and non-cultural issues, they are facing in their churches and ministries: What should they do about the growing number of unwed teen mothers in their churches? What IS salvation, really, and how does work with righteousness? What should they do with members of their church that fall into sin? What should their response be to repentance? How do we move away from a ritualistic understanding of worship/prayer/etc and into an intimate relationship with our Father?

They've been having some great discussions, which always help Matt grow and learn, too, more about the Haitian mind-set and culture and more about his own walk with the Lord.

A longstanding goal of OMS Haiti, Emmaus Biblical Seminary and OMS at large has been that EBS would be able to begin classes in our new seminary down the road by January, 2010. The dedication ceremony has been set for January 11th, and despite a gorgeous new seminary that is largely completed, there is still a LOT of skilled and unskilled labor to be completed before we can MOVE in and start class!

We are thanking the Lord: Don H. and Jack F. have agreed to come down for a few weeks in November-December to work on completion! Despite our blog title, this probably won't be much of a vacation. However, if you would be willing to join us, individually or with a group, in the near future for a week, two weeks, or more, we would LOVE to have you, and PROMISE you a trip to the beach!

There is all kinds of work to do, and we would love to introduce you to some of the people and some of the places that the Lord has led us to, taught us through, and is working through in Haiti. We'd love to have you come alongside of us in this tangible way to help transform Haiti for Christ through the teaching and sharing of His Word!

Click here to check out a "Please come and help!" video from our field (starring our soon-to-be famous field director).

Email me with any questions!

Meanwhile, this is the passage that the Lord seems to be running through and through my mind and heart this week...

Behold, I will do something new,

Now, it will spring forth;

Will you not be aware of it?

I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,

Rivers in the desert.

The beasts of the field will glorify me

Even the jackals and the ostriches,

Because I have given waters in the wilderness

And rivers in the desert,

To give drink to My chosen people.

The people whom I formed for Myself

Will declare my praise.

Isaiah 43:19-21

English and the one thing that matters most...

I headed down to the Seminary today, my "day off", a bit begrudgingly to fulfill part of a favor for a good friend. Lucner left today for Mississippi, followed tomorrow by Matt (they'll meet up in Florida and head on to Jackson). However, each Saturday Lucner teaches a 2.5 hour English course and he had asked me to please substitute teach for him the three Saturdays that he'll be gone.

There isn't much we wouldn't do to help Luke, so I agreed, only really realizing this morning how much I did NOT want to teach English, for 2.5 hours, on a Saturday, the day before Matt left for over two weeks, in a HOT hot classroom to 40 people.

However, I knew from Luke that there were going to be LOTS of non-Christian businessmen and women, students and professionals there, so I tried to adjust my attitude as one of: "This could be a great opportunity to talk about Christ to people that are very lost but VERY interested in English!"

So, I prepared lessons throughout the day without really knowing what to expect. Luke's instructions were: "You teach English. Do whatever you want." So, with Bible verses, praise music, homework, exercises and vocab. cards in tow, I headed down to class and entered a very hot, but not at all warm, atmosphere. I am so used to teaching pastors, or at least men and women who know and love the Lord.

Instead, today I found a room, of not 40, but SIXTY men and women, most of whom obviously did NOT emit the Holy Spirit. We always say that Haiti is a land of extreme darkness. It's darkness is emitted through its people that don't know the Lord. The spirit of joy, hospitality, of humility, and of peace that emits from my seminary students was replaced today with a cynical spirit of harshness, pride, rudeness.

They were there for a business transaction. They wanted English. They had paid. Fork it over.

Needless to say, it didn't take long before I was sending up small prayers, "Lord, help me! Lord, give me boldness, give me joy, give me words!" A few bright lights of pastor's wives and mission employees that I knew scattered throughout the crowd helped enormously, and with some hesitation, I began with what I had prepared, John 3:16.

Despite the obvious coldness of the group, John 3:16 was still English, and I was relieved to find every man and woman repeating after me loudly, over and over, "God loved the world so much that He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, and if we believe in Him, we will not perish but live eternally." We broke it down, talking about what each portion was in Creole. He gave me boldness and I took it a step further than translation, discussing what each portion MEANT, using myself as an example, talking about what Jesus did for ME. It was awesome...proclaiming the salvation message loudly with 60 students, most of which seemed to not know it already

We then worked our way through a song Luke had picked, "He is Exalted"...more translating, more explaining, "He is the Lord, Forever His truth shall reign!"

Singing this with them, the Lord began to allow my eyes and heart to see the humanity around me as He does...I stared into dark dark eyes that had nothing behind them, and felt broken. Most, I felt awful for having such a bad attitude! Here He had placed me smack in the midst of darkness IN Emmaus Biblical Seminary's classroom, giving me 2 and a half hours of UNdivided attention to say WHATEVER I wanted to 60 men and women of all walks of Haitian life, most on the forefront of business and worldliness here in Haiti! PRAISE THE LORD!

He broke my heart in some other ways, too. After a few minutes of teaching, I realized that one of the students was actually a little girl, maybe about 8 years old. I was going to question her being in an "Adult Learning" class, but thought I would wait until class was over. However, as class continued, I realized she wasn't there alone, but with her mother. As the class progressed, I realized that the little girl was doing all of the work, taking notes, reading each vocabulary word or phrase from the chalkboard to her mom, her mom dictating to her what to write. My heart filled with sadness, realizing finally that this woman in her 30s couldn't read or write. Her child did it for her, while she struggled to learn English orally.

An older man, a friend of ours, on the other side of the classroom continually was trying to get those around him to help him, though it didn't seem like anyone else was needing help. I realized after he submitted a quiz with his name on the top and some "X's" and some long lines and nothing else that he also couldn't write, but had no one there to help him. I wanted to cry...

What a heartbreaking reminder of that fact that no matter HOW long we live here, we will NEVER understand.

It is not enough to realize just that I've been to Disney World when SO MANY in this world will never have the chance. It's not just that I got to go to summer camp as a kid, that I had a car with my brother when I was 16, that we went on family vacation each Easter. NOT enough that I am typing this on my laptop, that a printer sits beside me and a fan is whirling overhead, representing a generator in the distance and gas to fill it with.

It's not just that I've had extras that others haven't. It's that I've NEVER slept in the mud! I have NEVER been hungry. I have NEVER been unable to feed Lily, never put her to bed hungry after giving her dirty water to drink. I have never chosen between food or clothing, clothing or schooling, supporting my brothers and sisters OR learning to READ.

I stood dripping with sweat in front of a class of 60, and could NOT, NOT EVER, understand where they are from.

And yet, Disney World or mud hut, writing novels or chicken scratch, I HAVE been lost. I was BORN it. Born empty eyed and living for myself. And I have well known lost people...those who are dripping with opportunity, the world at their fingertips, but just as dark eyed, empty spirited, and self-centered as the friends I met today.

Poor, rich or in the middle, educated, illiterate, passport to the globe or village, birth to death:

God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever will believe in Him will not perish but have LIFE.

"Teaching every man..."

We were a little concerned Monday morning about how Matt's "Teaching in Town" program was going to go, realizing that there could be a lot of complications: a strong desire for "diplomas", timeliness, and a large variety of students--some seminary graduates and senior pastors and others mountain preachers and largely uneducated laymen.

However, Matt set off with a prayer and came back pumped: "That was GREAT!"

Not only was lateness not an issue, but all the men were there before Matt was! They set up in the basement of a church. They had no electricity, but the room was below the main road, so it was a little cooler than expected. Matt had 18 students for this first class, and no one minded at all that there would be no diploma or certificate involved. They wanted to learn the Bible better, and wanted no recognition, no breaks and no credit.

Matt taught an hour of Hebrew first (the original language of the Old Testament), and then spent the second hour teaching the book of Psalms. This is a VERY well memorized and commonly used portion of Scripture in Haiti, but Matt quickly realized that no one knew how to interpret it, how it works with the rest of the Bible, or what significance much of the book has.

The men were downright excited the whole 2 hours, and nothing excited the teacher in Matt more than students who are hungry to learn the Bible. This is going to be a fun ministry this year!

A group of men who live close to us rode there and back with Matt, but on the way home Matt had to stop at the market to buy me a flat of eggs. The men were all quite confused by this, a man going to the market to do inferior 'woman's work', and when he returned to the car, they were all silent until one of them finally said, "Wow. You must really love your wife! I would never go to the market to get eggs for my wife!"

Matt thought this was quite amusing, but I am excited about how this ministry opportunity is also giving him 3-4 hours a week to live a Godly life alongside of Christian men that he would have no opportunity to work with otherwise!

We're settling into a schedule and getting to know our new students, remembering again that Christ in us, Christ in the men and women we are teaching, IS the hope of glory for Haiti! Praise the Lord that He chooses to use us!

We proclaim Him,

admonishing every man and

teaching every man with wisdom,

so that we may present every man

to be complete in Christ!

Colossians 1:28