open handed

Did you read our post from a few days ago? Did you share it? Did you join us in praying?  Because this is what we asked:

"Please pray with us - that Irma would do what some have done and come strong and hard on the radar images and weak and mild on the island. Please pray with us - that we would all be the salt and light and hope, that we would all be the courageous, that we would all be the mighty of prayer, the unwavering of trust."

Wednesday chapel, we told our staff and students that anyone who wanted to stay in the shelter of Emmaus was welcome to stay, but that we would encourage them to be Jesus' hands and feet in their communities.  We told them we had boxes of food to feed 5000 available to them, and Matt encouraged all of us to trust Him, no matter what, and to be courageous.  

ZERO.  Zero staff and students stayed.  We sent out 100 equipped missionaries yesterday, on the ground, throughout Haiti, right in the eye of the storm, deep into 100 communities.  THAT was an answer to this prayer. 

Now the rain is still coming and going. And with every good rain we have, there is some flooding, there are people with water in their homes tonight, dead and weak branches that were not removed, fallen. I am not saying there is nothing.  But.  

First: the radar image from today. 

  

Second: the height of the storm today. 

Do you know what we call that?  We call that strong and hard on the radar images, and weak and mild on the island.  

God, our Father, He always answers the prayers of those who seek Him. Always. There have been, and there will be many, many times ahead that He doesn't answer them the way I wish, the way I was praying.  And I PRAY that I will trust Him ALL the same on those days.

But today, today Haiti was NOT a cat 5.  It was NOT the largest hurricane in 100 years (we got more rain and wind last Wednesday from not a hurricane than today), it was not record high winds.  It was NOT what it was supposed to be, should have been, looked like it would be, all the experts said it would be, all news articles wrote it would be. The unimaginable scope of complete and utter devastation we should be living in tonight...

IT. IS. NOT.    We. are. not.

And it was NOT because of global warming or human error or chance. God miraculously completely and entirely changed our circumstances today.

Stop for a moment with me before we move on, as we so quickly do, and Praise the Lord for this miracle, for the mighty work of His hand.  

And as we continue to praise Him, let us turn our prayers to our neighbors...to every person still in Irma's path, to the places it's already hit, cleaning up their lives today, to every person praying for a miracle, to every person wondering what in the world He's doing and why...that we might catch up all these miracles and mysteries and praises and prayers in our open hands and TRUST HIM.