Sometimes God Moves Slowly--or So It Seeme to Us

I seem always to be in a hurry, but often I have to be reminded God's time and mine may be different. A case in point: the seemingly ill-fated container of goods for our Haitian friends in Petite Goave and surrounding areas!

As most of you know, a container filled with thousands of dollars worth of goods and food was shipped to Petite Goave early in March. During this past week it finally arrived at its destination, after spending more than four weeks in Port au Prince because of some crazy problem in shipping! I have prayed, cried, pled with Haitians, paced, and racked my brain about how to get it to the appointed spot. To absolutely no avail, or so it seemed. Now it's there!

Pastor Montriuel Milord, my dear friend and constant co-worker in Haiti, went to Haiti on Wednesday to see to the proper distribution of the container's goods, and he was met with more difficulties. The container was en route to Petite Goave, but someone was insisting that it not be placed in the designated spot. After much ado and with the absolute determination of my friend Pastor Maude Hyppolite, it was placed as intended on the grounds of the Methodist Mission Compound. (Maude was in the Dominican Republic working with other Haitian women who were addressing the needs in their country and how to meet as many of those needs as possible. Even absent from the country, she showed amazing competence as she had people in place to carry out the task of unloading and securing the food that would feed many who have often thought they were forgotten by the world.)

Once the container was in place, the real trouble began.

Obviously it had not been moved through the tragic streets of that little community unnoticed, and people quickly surmised correctly that it contained relief. A mob approached the Mission Compound. (Maybe "stormed" would be a better word.) So great was the threat to bodies and contents, to having the strongest overcome all plans, that the police had to be called. I wasn't there, so I can only report what I was told. Monteuil reports that it was a little frightening and dangerous, but finally order was restored, the crowd was moved away, and the unloading work could begin.

We had always said that the goods and food were not to go just to Methodists but to any in need. That was one of the reasons that I, personally, had wanted Pastor Maude to be in charge. I know her heart. She loves the sheep in her flock, but she also has great compassion for others whose needs she is well equipped to recognize. If I have ever seen anyone who is daily, moment by moment directed by God, it is she. In her absence, there was no one to determine if these people were the ones in need or if they the merely strongest who would take advantage of an opportunity to line their own pockets with the money they could make from the food they could get and sell. Both the opportunists and the needy fill the country.

Once the crowd was controlled, Montreuil gathered workers, and the container was unloaded. The food was placed in a secure place, under strong lock and key. Maude is back now, and I'll call her tomorrow to find out more details.

I write before getting further details because I want to think for a few minutes about the lessons learned. Why, when the need was so great, did God not intervene? Why, with all my pacing and praying, after making funds available and supplying tents, did God not move them forward to their appointed destination? Why had this whole process that should have taken about seven days taken almost six weeks?

We learned a great deal about man's inhumanity to man, even to those whom they would call their own. We relearned about a terrible thing called "turf protection." We learned that though people often begin with the best intentions, sometimes hearts change tragically to be governed by greed and a desire for personal gain or credit. But more than anything else, we learned the importance of absolute trust in God, in his overriding purpose in all we do, and in our own absolute need to realize that without him we can literally do no thing!

Thanks to the generosity of many people, Haitians in little communities of Petite Goave, Carrenage, Olivier, and Guimnee now know they are not forgotten. They can now go to sleep protected from the rain, with tummies full of good rice and beans. I cannot tell you how I praise God for each one who trusted me with the dollars to accomplish this awesome task!