"For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and 0n earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created by Him and for Him."
Colossians 1:16
This passage contains more than we can talk about here, so let's just concentrate on five words.
According to Paul everything was made "by Him and for Him." Everything? Insignificant little Israel, a tiny piece of land over which men have fought for generatiopns? Bethlehem, of even less importance? A stable for animals? A star at exactly the right time to indicate his birth and identify the place? Oh, I know that many say planets converged, but that's okay! The miracle is that all took plalce at precisely the correct time to guide seekers to the right country, village, stable, and manger! Poor shepherds, rich kings, and wise men found the baby that would change the world!
The miracle is that in the "council of the ages" the plan originated, and in creation the conceived plan became reality, all planned " by Him and for Him."
Caesar August thought it was his idea to demand a census, but actually it was God's way of moving Mary and Joseph to the place prepared for Jesus' birth. Amazing!
Father, we often think so superficially! Forgive us! Help us recognize the vastness of your plan! Amen.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Tell Me About the Christmas Baby
Merry Christmas! Welcome to Advent 2010.
As I write, it’s a 94-degree July day; as you read I hope it’s cool , and your thoughts are moving toward the wonderful Christmas before us.
This year, I’m broadening the audience for whom I am writing. In the past, I have written to the church family here at Homosassa United Methodist; however, over the years, you have told me you send our devotionals to friends. This year I hope to make each day’s thought relevant to our extended family, friends whom we love and welcome, with whom we want to share.
Does the name of our devotional seem inappropriate? I hope it won’t as you proceed through the pages. As you read, you’ll see that the Scriptures tell us of Jesus, not just as a baby, but as Creator, a Great Mystery, God Incarnate, our Redeemer, our Suffering Christ, and our Mediator/Advocate. So beginning at Genesis I have chosen Scriptures that reveal who Christ Jesus is, why he came, and what he did.
The Scripture references are very short. My prayer is that what I have chosen will whet your appetite , cause you to read in your own Bible the entire reference. I’ve taken a narrow view; you can put a wide lens on to see the whole picture. Read and find hope!
Remember, “Everything that has been written was written for our instruction, that through our perseverance and the revelation of the Holy Spirit, we might find hope.” (Romans 15:4)
As I write, it’s a 94-degree July day; as you read I hope it’s cool , and your thoughts are moving toward the wonderful Christmas before us.
This year, I’m broadening the audience for whom I am writing. In the past, I have written to the church family here at Homosassa United Methodist; however, over the years, you have told me you send our devotionals to friends. This year I hope to make each day’s thought relevant to our extended family, friends whom we love and welcome, with whom we want to share.
Does the name of our devotional seem inappropriate? I hope it won’t as you proceed through the pages. As you read, you’ll see that the Scriptures tell us of Jesus, not just as a baby, but as Creator, a Great Mystery, God Incarnate, our Redeemer, our Suffering Christ, and our Mediator/Advocate. So beginning at Genesis I have chosen Scriptures that reveal who Christ Jesus is, why he came, and what he did.
The Scripture references are very short. My prayer is that what I have chosen will whet your appetite , cause you to read in your own Bible the entire reference. I’ve taken a narrow view; you can put a wide lens on to see the whole picture. Read and find hope!
Remember, “Everything that has been written was written for our instruction, that through our perseverance and the revelation of the Holy Spirit, we might find hope.” (Romans 15:4)
Advent Devotional, November 28, 2010
I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head; you shall bruise Him on His heel. Genesis 3:15
Do you wonder why this Scripture is in a Christmas devotional? Yes, it belongs to the Genesis story, but it also belongs to Christmas.
This little verse, called the proto evangel, is the beginning of the gospel. Right there in the third chapter of Genesis we find God’s first promise of Jesus.
Adam and Eve have disobeyed God, who chastises them but also promises that he will send a redeemer. God speaks to “that old serpent the Devil” and tells him what the future holds! God promises that eventually the snake, who caused all the problems for Adam and Eve, will one day have his head smashed—destroyed by a descendent of Eve. Not, however, until he (Satan) has bruised the heel of Eve’s descendent, The Messiah, whom God will send to overcome Satan.
Two thousand years before Jesus was born, we learn how he will die. Only in crucifixion does the means of death bruise the heels of its victim. Not only did God promise to send Jesus, but he told us in a subtle that his coming and dying would be painful!
Who is the baby whose birthday we will soon celebrate in December? He is the one God promised to send to destroy the Satan, who tempts us daily as he seeks to turn us from God. Four thousand years ago, God promised.
Father, thank you for the promise of Jesus, for keeping your promise, even after 2000 years, and for his birthday we celebrate 4000 later. Amen.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
The Long-Awaited, Much-Needed Container
My good friend, Pastor Montreuil Milord, went to Haiti to be on site when the container finally arrived. Thank goodness he was there, for even as the container was en route to Petite Goave, there was still some confusion about where it would be put!
He finally got all that resolved, and the container moved through the streets to the Methodist Mission Compound in Petite Goave, to the spot where it had been directed so long ago to go! Something that large inevitably attracted attention, and a crowd gathered in hopes of getting food. Soon the "crowd" turned into a riot of about 2000 people, and Montreuil had to call the police to handle the situation. The contents of the container were to go to specific people who would know how to distribute them, and being sure of that turned out to be a major undertaking.
For you who have not been to Haiti, it seems cruel not to give the food to whomever needed it. And in the best of all possible worlds, that could have been done. However, we don't live in the best of all possible worlds. Some of the people were probably really in need, but many were ready to take advantage of the situation, steal what they could, and then sell it for exhorbitant prices. That is not what the people who gave the money to purchase the food intended.
The food and tents were finally unloaded and locked away. Now in an orderly way, Pastor Maude Hyppolite can see that the people who are really needy can be fed. There were also a numbe of tents--seventeen, I believe--and they will be welcomed by many who are still without shelter!
I think that this may be the last time we send food on a container. This one should never have sat for over a month waiting to be released!
Thanks again for caring. And please don't stop praying for my beautiful Haitian friends.
He finally got all that resolved, and the container moved through the streets to the Methodist Mission Compound in Petite Goave, to the spot where it had been directed so long ago to go! Something that large inevitably attracted attention, and a crowd gathered in hopes of getting food. Soon the "crowd" turned into a riot of about 2000 people, and Montreuil had to call the police to handle the situation. The contents of the container were to go to specific people who would know how to distribute them, and being sure of that turned out to be a major undertaking.
For you who have not been to Haiti, it seems cruel not to give the food to whomever needed it. And in the best of all possible worlds, that could have been done. However, we don't live in the best of all possible worlds. Some of the people were probably really in need, but many were ready to take advantage of the situation, steal what they could, and then sell it for exhorbitant prices. That is not what the people who gave the money to purchase the food intended.
The food and tents were finally unloaded and locked away. Now in an orderly way, Pastor Maude Hyppolite can see that the people who are really needy can be fed. There were also a numbe of tents--seventeen, I believe--and they will be welcomed by many who are still without shelter!
I think that this may be the last time we send food on a container. This one should never have sat for over a month waiting to be released!
Thanks again for caring. And please don't stop praying for my beautiful Haitian friends.
Friday, April 30, 2010
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!
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!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Haiti's Beautiful People
I promised yesterday to tell you about Vinnie and Calvin. I want to add one other, and I'll begin with her.
When I went to Haiti the first time, one of the first persons I met was my now much-loved friend, Maude Hyppolite. Maude is a lovely, well-educated tiny woman who is pastor of seven churches and District Superintendent of the Miragoane District. She is also the person into whose care all mission teams in the Petite Goave are entrusted. She, with a limited staff, manages the Mission House and takes extremely good care of all of us.
Pastor Maude, as most people call her, is about 15 years younger than I am, grew up and was educated in Port au Prince. For many years she was a teacher and headmistress of a school. During her time at the school, she began to sense God's call on her life. She left her school, moved to Jamaica, and went back to school for further graduate study--this time to Seminary. A few years later she was one of the only--possibly the only--woman serving as pastor of churches in the Haiti Methodist Church. Women seldom rise to such important roles in Haiti, and it was doubly surprising when she was made a District Superintendent.
She has one church that is near her home, but most of them are in distant rural places, often high on the top of some mountain range. Maude carefully attends to the needs of all those entrusted to her as their shepherd. I love going about the community with her, for people stop our car on the street to tell her about some person who is sick, or a baby born, or some other bit of news in one of her many churches. When she pulls our car over to the curb, blows the horn, someone always come out to answer her questions about some person for whom she has been praying.
I love to be with her when she prays. Her words are filled with respect as she speaks to her Lord, but they are also extremely personal. There is no question that she is talking to someone she knows. I have at times been embarrassed, feeling as if i were eavesdropping on a private conversation.
Maude has a decided limp, the result of a childhood illness that I assume was polio. But nothing slows her down. When a missionary from Texas was injured in the recent quake, she walked miles to get help from the nearest medical facility.
She loves to laugh, carries two phones with her at all times, can barely see over the steering wheel of her car, and seldom slows much during her busy day. She never married.
You have to know her in order to understand about the other two whom I have promised to introduce. Maude's sister found Vinnie somewhere in rural Haiti, and she brought her to the city to live with her and go to school (with, of course, Vinnie's parents approval). Vinnie was long past the usual six years for beginning school, but she started just the same, proving that she was as smart as her benefactor had expected. When Maude's sister came with her husband to the U.S., Vinnie would have had to go back to the country, but Maude took her to live with her in the Mission House.
Vinnie is a beautiful girl, twenty-five years old, who now has two more years of high school to earn her diploma. She has a wonderful smile, loves to dress up in genes and sling heel shoes. quickly and freely smiles. She works without complaint to make all missionaries comfortable, seeing that we have our much-needed coffee every morning early, cooking things that she recognizes we enjoy, and making every effort to make the table and the food presentation attractive with a very limited amount of options in both food and utensils.
Last year someone gave me some money to buy something for Vinnie, and we purchased a pair of goats to be sent to her father in the country to begin a small business for her. She was pleased with the gift, but being a typical girl, she is most excited when we bring her gifts such as costume jewelry, or a denim skirt, or a cute blouse.
I'm going to investigate the possibility of getting a visa for her to come to the U.S. for a visit with Maude this summer. That will not be easy because she is not Maude's child. She can get a passport easily but a visa is another problem.
Then there's Calvin, who also lives at the Mission House. Calvin is the son of a young woman who sometimes helps Maude at the house. His mother cannot care for him, and Maude wants him to be educated. He is a handsome ten year old boy, much lighter skin than most of the Haitians, huge brown eyes, and a smile that would melt any heart. He has beautiful manners, understands more English than he will admit, and is most appreciative of anything we take to him. I have watched him play, and he is imaginative, creating toys from twigs, socks, or whatever is at hand.
Maude is careful to see that Calvin is regularly in school, and he is progressing as expected according to his age. She also wants to be able to bring him to the U.S., but a visa for him will be as difficult to obtain as the one for Vinnie.
There are teachers and children at the school in Carrenage whom I know, love, and look forward to seeing each time I go. But these are the three who are most precious to me. These are three who show me what Haitians at their best are like. They are beautiful, giving, loving, unselfish people. They are my Haitian family in my Haitian home, the Mission House.
Please pray for Maude, Vinnie, and Calvin this spring and summer, that they will be safe when the storms come until we can get the house repaired for them to return to the safety of their home.
When I went to Haiti the first time, one of the first persons I met was my now much-loved friend, Maude Hyppolite. Maude is a lovely, well-educated tiny woman who is pastor of seven churches and District Superintendent of the Miragoane District. She is also the person into whose care all mission teams in the Petite Goave are entrusted. She, with a limited staff, manages the Mission House and takes extremely good care of all of us.
Pastor Maude, as most people call her, is about 15 years younger than I am, grew up and was educated in Port au Prince. For many years she was a teacher and headmistress of a school. During her time at the school, she began to sense God's call on her life. She left her school, moved to Jamaica, and went back to school for further graduate study--this time to Seminary. A few years later she was one of the only--possibly the only--woman serving as pastor of churches in the Haiti Methodist Church. Women seldom rise to such important roles in Haiti, and it was doubly surprising when she was made a District Superintendent.
She has one church that is near her home, but most of them are in distant rural places, often high on the top of some mountain range. Maude carefully attends to the needs of all those entrusted to her as their shepherd. I love going about the community with her, for people stop our car on the street to tell her about some person who is sick, or a baby born, or some other bit of news in one of her many churches. When she pulls our car over to the curb, blows the horn, someone always come out to answer her questions about some person for whom she has been praying.
I love to be with her when she prays. Her words are filled with respect as she speaks to her Lord, but they are also extremely personal. There is no question that she is talking to someone she knows. I have at times been embarrassed, feeling as if i were eavesdropping on a private conversation.
Maude has a decided limp, the result of a childhood illness that I assume was polio. But nothing slows her down. When a missionary from Texas was injured in the recent quake, she walked miles to get help from the nearest medical facility.
She loves to laugh, carries two phones with her at all times, can barely see over the steering wheel of her car, and seldom slows much during her busy day. She never married.
You have to know her in order to understand about the other two whom I have promised to introduce. Maude's sister found Vinnie somewhere in rural Haiti, and she brought her to the city to live with her and go to school (with, of course, Vinnie's parents approval). Vinnie was long past the usual six years for beginning school, but she started just the same, proving that she was as smart as her benefactor had expected. When Maude's sister came with her husband to the U.S., Vinnie would have had to go back to the country, but Maude took her to live with her in the Mission House.
Vinnie is a beautiful girl, twenty-five years old, who now has two more years of high school to earn her diploma. She has a wonderful smile, loves to dress up in genes and sling heel shoes. quickly and freely smiles. She works without complaint to make all missionaries comfortable, seeing that we have our much-needed coffee every morning early, cooking things that she recognizes we enjoy, and making every effort to make the table and the food presentation attractive with a very limited amount of options in both food and utensils.
Last year someone gave me some money to buy something for Vinnie, and we purchased a pair of goats to be sent to her father in the country to begin a small business for her. She was pleased with the gift, but being a typical girl, she is most excited when we bring her gifts such as costume jewelry, or a denim skirt, or a cute blouse.
I'm going to investigate the possibility of getting a visa for her to come to the U.S. for a visit with Maude this summer. That will not be easy because she is not Maude's child. She can get a passport easily but a visa is another problem.
Then there's Calvin, who also lives at the Mission House. Calvin is the son of a young woman who sometimes helps Maude at the house. His mother cannot care for him, and Maude wants him to be educated. He is a handsome ten year old boy, much lighter skin than most of the Haitians, huge brown eyes, and a smile that would melt any heart. He has beautiful manners, understands more English than he will admit, and is most appreciative of anything we take to him. I have watched him play, and he is imaginative, creating toys from twigs, socks, or whatever is at hand.
Maude is careful to see that Calvin is regularly in school, and he is progressing as expected according to his age. She also wants to be able to bring him to the U.S., but a visa for him will be as difficult to obtain as the one for Vinnie.
There are teachers and children at the school in Carrenage whom I know, love, and look forward to seeing each time I go. But these are the three who are most precious to me. These are three who show me what Haitians at their best are like. They are beautiful, giving, loving, unselfish people. They are my Haitian family in my Haitian home, the Mission House.
Please pray for Maude, Vinnie, and Calvin this spring and summer, that they will be safe when the storms come until we can get the house repaired for them to return to the safety of their home.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
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!
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!
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