God Never Tells Us to Do the Impossible

About 6 a.m. on Tuesday before we were to leave on Friday, I got a call from Pastor Maude, my trusted contact in Petite Goave. We talked about my upcoming trip on the weekend and how great it would be to see each other again. Then she asked if I'd do something for her. She said that many people were unable to get to church now because of the damage to their homes, their cars, and the roads--sometimes for the damage to their own bodies. She said that she is going to the countryside to take communion to some of these, and she has no "proper" containers to take the holy elements in. Could I, she asked, find a small set to hold the wine and the bread that she could carry in her purse. Not knowing how I would manage, and with only a little hesitancy, I said I would find one.

Of course, I know that there are lovely communion sets available, but could I find one before we left? I asked several people and could not find one. I called the closest bookstore in Leesburg, Florida. They had one. $50! That doesn't sound so bad, but I had spent money for supplies, for a tent, for emergency food. I was just about "spent out." But Maude needed it, and how could I say that Holy Communion for those in need was not worth another $50? "Send it, fastest way," I said.

Tuesday afternoon, I went home for lunch, and there on the door was a note. I wasn't expecting anything, so I opened the envelope and found a note from a woman that I had met at a luncheon the day before, a woman I had never met before who doesn't even live in this town. Her note was simple. "Thank you for what you are doing in Haiti," she said. Enclosed was a check for $50. Isn't God amazing?

Then there was another incredible experience that week. I got up early to spend some time in prayer before I got busy for the day. I am so guilty of talking too much when I pray, of forgetting that I need to listen to God as well as tell him all the things I think he needs to know. At one point in my prayer, he seemed to be encouraging me to be still. Verses I'd committed to memory began to pop into my mind, such as "Be still and know that I am God," or "Put a guard over my mouth that I might not sin against thee." So I actually said out loud, "God, are you telling me to stop talking? Okay. I will." In the stillness two people came into my mind along with a figure--$1000. It had only been a couple of days since I had on faith promised a gift to Maude and had the $50 supplied. But now God seemed to be telling me to give money to two people whom he had actually brought to my mind and another who was unclear. I didn't argue with him, but I finished my prayers assuming that I was imagining things.

All during the day, I was oh, so busy because I was supposed to meet John and John Petro at their home at 3:00 p.m. to begin our trip to Miami where we would stay the night, flying out on Saturday morning for Port au Prince. About 11:00 I remembered several things that I had forgotten. I jumped in the car and hurried to the church. As I passed the mail boxes, I noticed an envelope in my box, grabbed it and continued to my office.

I did the couple of things I needed to do before leaving and noticed the envelope on my desk where I had tossed it as I came in. Quickly I opened it, to find a lovely note from someone that she hoped the letter would arrive before I left. She wanted to have a part in the work I was doing in Haiti, and she had enclosed a check. You guessed it. $1000! I sat down and cried.

While I was in Petite Goave, i took $350 to a woman who is the matriarch in a huge family--a woman whose wrinkled face belies her young years (much younger than I), who has a huge responsibility for all the children running around in her compound, whose compassion goes beyond anything I can imagine. I rolled the bills into a tight little roll and put them in her hand. With tears, a hug, and laughter she thanked me. The whole family--immediate and extended--would eat for days.

A man who has helped me over and over again also received an unexpected $350--a lot of money to a man who earns little! I cannot imagine how he'll use it, but he has called me since I returned to thank me again.

Finally, as I left my tent for the last time on Tuesday morning, I looked around me at the hungry people in our tent city, some with a piece of bread for their breakfast, some with only a piece of mango. I asked Pastor Maude how much money it would take to buy food for each family there --about seventeen of them--for several days. She was hesitant to say because I had already given her money to feed the children at the school at Carrenage, more to pay the teachers there, more to buy the roof for the church, more to buy food for the families at the church. My own church has been extraordinarily generous in their giving, and I had taken a lot of money with me to use where she and i recognized real need. I had given almost all of it away, and she knew it. She is also not a grasping woman. She asks for little. Her hesitation came out of her desire not to expect too much of us. Finally, she reluctantly told me that she could feed the entire little city for several days with about $300. Exactly what I had left in my pocket from the lady's $1000 check.

The Haitians are right! "Bonye bon tout ton; e tout ton Bonye bon." "God is good every day; every day God is good."

I'll try to tell you about Vinnie and Calvin tomorrow. Bless you, every one!