Finally--just what we needed! A Saturday WORK day. So many projects have been being put off until after visitors go, and with almost 6 consecutive weeks of solid visitors...it was TIME!
Don's spent most of the day in our bathroom...tiles have been cracking, bowing and falling out left and right, and Don wasn't gonna leave like that :) So, he knocked 'em all out, and is starting in on re-tiling... We are, as always, so blessed to have such a talented, hard-working, sacrificial friend like Uncle Don.
Meanwhile, Maxi and Ryan are turning their new bedroom into "under the sea"-green. It's the Caribbean!
Don and Phil finished the countertops, top cabinets and backsplash this week while Sam is working on getting them electricity and water.
When all is said and done, the Weavers will have one of the best views in Haiti!
Cheyenne and Ryan are pitching in on painting, and though none of their stuff was to arrive before the 28th, 90% of their things have already been delivered! In the evenings, they've been eating with different families within OMS, getting to know everybody. I think they'll be quite happy to be out of their room in the women's dorm and in the apartment!...one day :)
Meanwhile, these goofballs continue to help with the drought by playing in sprinklers, wherever Phil and Sam set them up.
Matt and Don, finally getting the last of the tile down.
Lily swept it all up, and made her own tile arrangements :)
Tomorrow Matt is double booked to preach...the morning service at Giselaine's (Granny's) church, and the afternoon at the English Bible Fellowship (EBF) in Vaudreil.
Sometimes preaching most weekends after teaching all week is exhausting, but last Sunday we were reminded of what a ministry simply and literally preaching the Gospel IS.
While Matt took Peter and Pam to the local church with Sofie, Rod, Uncle Don, Haylie, Lily and I hiked up to Coup-a-David. Unbeknownst to us, one of our third year students, Walnique, was the preacher for the weekend on the mountaintop.
I love to hear our students preach, and on Sunday he preached about affliction. Walnique shared about unleavened bread, a sign of affliction and slavery to the Israelite people when they were in Egypt. But then, upon setting them free, God told them to eat unleavened bread as they celebrated Passover...to remember what He had done. A sign of their affliction, God transformed into a sign of joy.
Then he shared similarly about the Red Sea: a sign of insurmountable obstacles and despair, transformed as they went forward into a sign of victory and salvation! Defeat of powerful enemies.
Then, he spoke about the cross: the greatest sign of affliction and despair, transformed into our sign of all hope and victory.
At the end, he spoke to the tight-knit congregation of men, women and children from ALL OVER the mountain ranges about what God can therefore DO through and in the affliction in their own lives, if they will only hold firm, be faithful and continue on.
It was great. It was sound. We poured all through the Bible. And people were greatly touched...several coming forward for special prayer at the end as they persevere through affliction and many calling out praise and pleas to God.
When we got home, I was so excited to share the message with Matt, knowing he would be proud of Walnique.
And he was proud. But I didn't get to tell Matt all about the message....because as soon as I said, "affliction", Matt smiled, and told ME the message, word for word.
Turns out, that message was the Gospel Matt preached in chapel the previous Wednesday.
And while Matt attended the local church in Saccanville, the message he had just shared here at Emmaus, to our Haitian brothers and sisters and BY our Haitian brother, was preached on the mountain tops.
We were re-encouraged again by His power and multiplication through the ministry He has called us to. The Truth God shared through Matt last week was very likely preached all throughout Haiti on Sunday...or will be this Sunday. This greenhouse we live in, bringing in men and women and leaders from all throughout Haiti and watering, feeding and growing them, sends out EVERY single weekend, and many, EVERY single day...sharing what they are learning, preaching what God is giving, seeing transformation even as we are seeing transformation here.
Makes preaching this weekend and teaching next week, sitting with our brothers and sisters throughout the week and living life among so many...exciting. We influence one another more than we know, and the influence of His Word? POWERFUL. Life-changing.
Influence on, this weekend...for the the only Influence that matters!
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