Risk

This morning has been an adventure. We started out the day packing up camp to move back to the church property tonight. Upon Rob and Germaine's return, we headed over to Robinson's. Germaine shared a devotional about finishing well, about the coming emotional part of this journey called 'saying goodbye'. Always a tricky thing here as I have mentioned in previous posts. Much more so than in our country, you never know but what it will be your last goodbye to some of these this side of eternity. There is always something sobering about that. When you risk loving people, you also risk losing them! And we have lost many through the years of ministry here. But to love and lose is better than to hate and lose! Or to simply live in a place of not caring. I ran into someone like that on our way here this trip, she was a counter clerk for AA. A really sad piece of humanity who has lost her way in life, and has nothing to give except bitterness and angst. I finally asked her to just keep her comments to herself and do her job. That seemed to curb her attitude a bit. But I thought how sad a condition, what a terrible human plight, worse than that of even the Haitians, the poverty of the body is one thing, poverty and rubble in the human heart, that is the worst! There is a rawness to pain that helps keep things real for me. So I would rather love and lose, than to take the risk of not loving at all. That always brings me back to my Creator and Savior, who risked it all and suffers the greatest loss and pain each day where people turn their backs on the greatest of all loves, and live in a vacuum never created for them!

We just had an amazing lunch. One of the necessary evils of team travel is food preparation. It is a hot, thankless job. It is done in the back round and often with little notice. Beth, Niche, Krystle and Ray, Germaine a little, have done a tremendous job of food delivery, cooking, passing out the food, over seeing the meal selections. Niche gets the award for most transformed team member. She has had a radically different journey this trip with us. She is one of the most aggressive self study people I have ever met in my life. She can bring into sharp focus areas of needful change in herself and will doggedly pursue the truth to expose herself to transformation. It splashes rainbows of beautiful color throughout her life. I have enjoyed having her this trip, we could not have done this without her. Her friends can be thankful for her to be in the impact zone in their lives, and take heed, for she has much to offer to all! Every team member has pulled their weight with steady hearts and great compassion for one another. It has been my joy to work with all! We ascended the mountian this morning, Krystle and DeVante riding motorcycles, Germaine, I, and a Haitian rode the rack on the back of the Toyota, while the rest rode in the Air Conditioning. It was a memorable journey, new for Ethan, raw for the rest of us. Krystle met up with Darlene and gave her a new dress and little doll. This is the little girl who's picture with Krystle a year ago helped win a contest that provided a way for our kids to stay in Haiti the last three months. Krystle wants to bring her home, she is a sweet little girl, but the country is ravaging her little body. Pray for her safety and care! In a few minutes we board the bus for Desdunes, Robinson's hometown, where we will see his family and pass out candy to the children. Now the hours are rushing by, final packing to go home is upon those leaving tomorrow morning. I always arrive at this time with anticipation and dread. Glad to be going home, so sad to leave behind these dear golden friends and brave souls. But I leave with the promise of hope, a promise of change, that our labors of the hand are not in vain, that change is occurring, that we have planted and watered, the rest I leave with the Creator. I leave with the knowledge that I will always feel we have not done enough, but that we have done in fact what was needful of us, that it counts in ways we don't understand, and bears fruit we may not ever see! May each of us leave behind the legacy of the faithful; faith, hope, and love, and leave mostly the greatest of these, love! Until later, blessings again!