Dancing

Another great day today in Haiti. The entire orphanage received a fresh coat of paint, minus the ceilings. The floor was scrubbed and the tile sparkles fresh. The fumes were a little intense, painting in Haiti as I have said before is a very different experience. We used an oil based paint so that the walls could be tended with soap and water more effectively. Everyone pulled together and it is done! An amazing accomplishment, and even though the orphanage was nice before, it's fantastic now! We are so pleased with Robinson's leadership and his ability as on orphan himself to be able to give back to his culture this way today in his life. It is nothing short of a miracle. We have a couple more projects we are hoping to finalize, but the pressure is now easing. We have some organization to do for our kids in readiness for them to stay behind in country for 3 months, but they are already settling in and moving with the culture, it's a father's proud day that his children rise to the call of God, and put themselves out in such a fashion. Pray for the success of their journey. We ran into a young girl in her 20's on our way down who was headed for YWAM, we saw her through the airport and got her through the airport routine which can be a fright alone. She was coming for a 2 year commitment, suddenly 3 months seemed a very short time for our kids to be here after all! I love the way God brings perspective in our lives, He must get some really good chuckles in at our expense. I shared with the team this morning a story from yesterday. As we were out getting supplies, we came across a man with a baby in his arms. Robinson addressed him for a few moments and then walked away. As he walked he shook his head, and clicked his teeth. I asked what was wrong, he shared with me a very sad story about this man who had been in his church, who had incredible musical talent, and could play many instruments. He shared how he ministered in a powerful way to the people, and could bring them to dancing with his musical abilities. He shared with me how then the man has left his wife for another woman, had made her pregnant, and then that she had left the baby with him. I was struck with the circumstances, and then Rob told me he had spoken with the man when he first started his wrong behavior, had told him these words, "It seems you can make people dance, but you cannot dance." How true that is, in the entertainment world we have musicians who can sell millions of albums and die in solitude. But even more sad, is that the church has people who week in and out can bring such joy to a crowd, but fail to experience the deep joy of God themselves. I myself have been guilty of this at moments, and the statement gave me pause, the turbulence of our hectic and demanding lifestyles suffers from lack of good spiritual reflection and feeding, we turn on a false demeanor and continue to awe the crowd with a fake face, all the time we are dying inside. Tomorrow I ready to go to the pulpit, and I want to go dancing in my heart, no false pretense. Much of Haiti to me at times is God rooting around my cultural habitual way of doing things, of uprooting shallow behavior, exposing my weakness and giving me a chance to grow with these people even as I lay my hand to the plow to raise up hope and joy for the people of God. I love it when they dance, when you dance, but I want to find myself on the dance floor before God with you. And I don't mean like "So You Thing You can Dance", for I would never even get a number! But the dance of the soul before it's creator, were unbidden before God we relish the joy of His creation and redemption of the heart he has created in you and me! Dance well my friends! The picture here is one I named "Eyes", there are oceans of times and culture and suffering represented, what do you see? Blessings again!

P.S. Please excuse the grammar and punctuation flaws, I have already seen quite a few, but writing through bleary eyes, and ones that are beginning to fail with time shows up in my posting here, I try to go back and correct as much as I can upon my return, but in the interim, you will have to bear with my humanity, as I am too weary to rework things now! :-)