so here we go.

By being sweetly present at home with four little ones the last few weeks, I have been regretfully absent from other things.  And that's all been ok.  But Friday morning held one thing I particularly did NOT want to miss.  From 8:30-10:00, in the middle of two days of student orientation and retreat, Matt was to preach the Word and give focus and vision to this new academic year.

With lots of students I still hadn't seen, the promise of sweet community worship I've so missed this summer, and deeply not wanting to be left out on this charge for the new year, I made the decision early and got moving.  By 8:30, Ben was fed, I was in a dress with no boogies and no spit up (which lately, is definitely a feat) and with no child-care in sight, I put sleeping, full Ben in his crib, put Lily and Sofie in charge of Nora, reminded everyone I would only be a 20 second walk away, and I went.

And I'm so glad I did.

Because after good worship and good study and good reflection and how good it was to see so many of our students, Matt did one of the things he loves to do most...turned into a teacher and turned the chapel into a classroom, put someone on the chalkboard and got everyone reflecting and thinking and shouting out.

First, everyone put together a blackboard full of what the church in Haiti NEEDS, from their perspective.  Staff and students, new and old alike, were silent for a few moments, thinking, and then started sharing their thoughts. Nobody was talking about new benches or sound systems today.  Today it was all about needing reconciliation, needing accountability, needing humility and good teaching and maturity and the ability of believers to work together and love well despite differences.

Next, together, everyone put together a huge board full of the challenges and problems the church in Haiti has and is facing.  After all these years together, nobody was defensive, nobody was judgmental. Hearing our men and women humbly talking about the heartbreak and sin issues they see in their churches was powerful, and Matt talked about wanting to be an in-touch, transformed training center focused on rising up and meet THOSE challenges, talked about the classes we're offering and why, the professors we're hiring and why, the rules and regulations and standards and orientation we're giving, the standards we have and WHY.

Then, the chapel broke into groups, coming back with this challenge...of all the needs, what are the top three?  Of all the problems, what are the most grave?

Each group came back to share, and the bad news was also really. good. news...all across the board.

To my surprise (and Matt later shared his, too), EVERY group, from first year to fourth year with staff worked into each, identified "heretical teaching" as the NUMBER ONE problem of the church in Haiti.  Unbiblical, unsound, untrue teaching.

THAT is a big deal, friends.  On one hand it almost made me sick, to realize that this is SUCH a problem, and to realize how many people are aware of their great need for Christ and seeking Him, and hearing LIES instead...what a tool of Satan, what a damage for the Gospel, what a travesty for Haiti.

And at the same time I had goosebumps.  Because what a joy to be Emmaus.

To have our students, on their own, identify the number one need of the church in Haiti to be well-trained, humble, Bible-clinging, transformed Christian leaders...snap.

Forget what I think.  Forget what He's pouring out our lives and the lives of many on.

The men and women who love the Lord, who are called to His Word, who are working to be the church in Haiti, they see bad teaching and heretical preaching as the biggest stumbling block of the church today, and they are AT Emmaus because they want to BE the change they want to see in the church.  

Moliere, Bony, Jonas, they are not HERE for a diploma.  

Claudin's not here to find a spouse. 

Rose Guerline's not here to play soccer 

or because she's got money to burn

or for the food 

or to get OUT of Haiti.  

They're here because Haiti is sick, and the heresy of His bride is a huge part of the problem.

They're here because they believe with their whole hearts that a godly man, a godly woman--with a heart after Jesus and HIS Words and not their own--could be used by Him for change. 

They want to be that poured out, entirely different change.  

And we are already here to help them.  RIGHT NOW.

I love that.

I headed home to the girls and still no child care, the house a little crazy but everyone happy, with a renewed passion and focus for what in the world Emmaus is doing here, for what in the world we're doing here. For why in the world we had Ben in a ridiculously hot bedroom in a mud-hut village, for why in the world we have girlies who would pick fried pig fat and hot peppers over pizza any day,  for why in the world Emmaus is bringing in people from around the world to teach the Gospel, for why in the world EBS needs so much financial support (we need help, please join us!) and why our students are sacrificing SO MUCH,  why in the world students are going out again and again and again only to be persecuted and shunned, why in the world Emmaus is continuing to do what Chambers calls "God's incredible waste of His people, according to the world's judgement, planting His people in the most useless places."

It's because in Saccnaville, Haiti today,  a hundred earnest Haitian men and women identified the GREAT NEED to NOT be stuff, to NOT be money, to not be brilliance or power or possessions, but to be God's Word lived and shared and poured out through a PERSON.

And in Saccanville, Haiti, today, Emmaus is in the God's Word in People business.

So here we go.