Recoil

Maelstrom may describe this day. As I posted this morning, I knew it would be full, little did I know how full it would actually be. But it was a good full, not a bad full. A vortex of activity that drew us in, irresistible, irreversible. We were able to share with very desperate children today, and it was a marvel to behold. Karen was a show stopper with a fantastic message of hope for the children. In Des dunes we touched close to 250 children! And we did it right on a street corner, I might better describe it as a place where two rough dirt roads made contact with each other. We marshaled our weary frames through a very dusty land, in a very hot sun, needless to say tonight there is not much left. We still have one day to go! Stephen and I sit here at a pretty comfortable kitchen table, both tapping away on our iPads. Last minute reporting and checking in to do. My list for the last day is longer than I desire, but ultimately it is up to God what is to be accomplished. So we will strike out early to finish what we can. It has been a trip for veterans to be sure, it has been rugged and furious, but we have done what we came to do! Tonight the concrete work is almost finished, the electrical work is all done except for a couple of fixtures, we have had a great trip! It is not without its struggles. One meets things moment by moment where your first instinctual reaction is to recoil, but then you are remiss to be reminded of who sent you here, to trust His protection, and forge ahead to spread love and hope to the hopeless. In this land of great desperation and tragedy, we continue to be this bright light, this beacon calling out to the lost, the wayward, the broken. What a privilege to serve here, to interact with these beloved people, to witness the great change hope brings. It will be great to pillow my head on a real pillow, on a real mattress, with a bathroom with hot and cold running water. To re-enter the strata of the universe that I know like the back of my hand. But what tempers my excitement, that restrains my enthusiasm is the knowledge of what I know these people are chained to. While I fall into the lap of luxury, a child sleeps on the roadside atop a freezer that is now just a overgrown ice chest. Curled up in the dust, the wind, the roar of the street it sleeps. What ever will morning bring for this little one? Will morning even come at all? My heart weeps, there is much yet to be done, more hope to be spread, more lives to be touched. I know when I leave I will have done my best, and that will be good enough for the God I serve. But we leave with more to do, so as time is my friend, and zeal is my fuel, I will press on, I will return, I will be faithful to do my part until my time is spent, and my name is called. To my little mat I go, to join the rest in uneasy sleep, to dream of a healed country, a restored nation, a land of promise and blessing. Blessings upon blessings to all tonight!

Shiver

Somewhere a rooster crows, a dog barks, a child coughs. The color of the sky is graying just before dawn. A tap on my shoulder, a dark face peering in, a voice says 'I will need some money for concrete'. And so my morning begins. I am not the first up, as I come to the top of the stairs, the soft chatter of men's voices drifts up toward me. A cold shower sends shivers that awaken my senses, a cup of hot coffee, morning conversation about the night before, plans for the day forming. So begins our second to last day in Haiti. By tonight we are hoping we capture pictures of the concrete work finished at the church. We will commence a day of travel here in a few minutes, the team ready's for the day. A tenor of sadness has accompanied us since hearing of the accident down by Port that took the lives of four Americans. As we drove to our speaking engagement last night I had a defensive driving discussion with Robinson and Claudy. We spoke of the comfort and danger pavement brings to travel, especially in a country not accustomed to it. They are apparently beginning training for some road police, as is common with Haiti, it's a bit of the 'cart before the horse' syndrome. I am not afraid to travel here, all travel bears risk, I attempt to lower the risk factor by not choosing the most dangerous paths, but nothing is ever guaranteed. To come to Haiti is to take a risk, but these people are worth the risk. So we go today to share with the mountain folk, and then to a little village outside of town, we will travel slightly up, then we will travel north through the lowlands were we will behold the green of the rice fields. It will be a dusty day, hard day for the sinuses, but will be rewarding in the many faces we will see and the smiles we will share. I am grateful today for the opportunity afforded us to be here, to witness the changes the gospel brings, to be in the moment. Life screams by us a such a great force, we often find ourselves bystanders of the ride. We have been granted the chance to climb aboard, to take this journey, to have our lives shifted and our perspective broadened. We give, we receive so much more in return. That is not my reason for coming, just an acknowledgement that you can never out give the God of the universe! More blogging about that later. I did get up one picture for you, I have tried several times, and the blog has been stingy this trip, no worries though, many are coming! We are capturing many, many priceless moments! I can hardly wait to begin my review of them all! It's hard to process it all here. The ride goes very fast when you are on it! Gravity pulls us homeward, the end looms just ahead, may we finish well! Blessings always.

Tent

 

 

 

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Church

Incredible, marvelous, sensational! So much to write about, so much to say, but I'm not sure I can keep my drooping eyelids propped open long enough to spell out all the goodness. The team was up early and to church around 7:45 this morning. Of course it was Stephen's birthday today, and we had all kinds of special moments for him. One of those moments came at Church when all the congregation sang him 'Happy Birthday' in both English and Creole! Hundreds of Haitian voices in chorus produces amazing harmony! Stephen also spoke at the young people's gathering this evening and did a great job! I ended up speaking at two churches today and it went very well. There has been a little bug that has gone through several of our team. Thank goodness for a doctor on board! He has not seen as many patients from Haiti this trip, but the team seems to keep him plenty busy! Tomorrow is the jaunt up the mountain, then on to DesDunes. It should be an easier day. The concrete work will be launched in the morning! There are several projects that we are still trying to accomplish before we go, so will be pressing hard Tuesday morning. It's rather hard to believe we will be headed home in just two more days, this trip has really gone by quickly. So while my last two posts are short, you must know I have been struggling with my health a bit. Tonight I am better, but very tired. So will rest the keys for now, collect my weary bones and hit the hay! Blessings all.

Breakthrough

Who declares the end of a struggle.  When is enough, enough? Today was one of those twisting, turning, contorting days. Every step was like trudging through mud. Time played tricks all day long. But we have a slogan for that; It's Haiti! We took our morning foot trek up the mountain behind the Church. It came with challenges and blessings. Neil remarkably found his little boy who through tears of fear still waved at him. A very precious moment. Our Haitian carpenter took a very long lunch break, electrical got started in the wrong location, the speakers for the sound system blew this morning, the food for the celebration service was an hour and a half late, need I say more. Until tonight, when after speaking to my married couples for about 30 minutes, they gave me a big round of applause, and then proceeded to swarm the team and swamp us with hugs, thank you's, and many 'God bless you's! It was a breakthrough moment of epic proportions. A moment I have longed for, labored for, prayed for, and believed for. Tonight it came to pass. We were beginning pick up and I already had sound equipment in my hands, I was looking down when suddenly I was being embraced in this huge hug. As my head came up from looking down, I was inundated, compressed and filled with their great love for me as all who were there came to give us all hugs. It was a moment to behold. Now I am weary and will cut this post short, tomorrow will be a busy day, but a little chance for rest. We have to be at church by 7:00! Weariness claws at my eyelids, I will get after some more material tomorrow. For tonight, thanks for following, thanks for the prayers. I say with Abraham of old, God has provided! Blessings to all!

Rookie

Lights, camera, action. We blazed through this day, another power moment of our trip. Firing from strength to strength, we accomplished so much. I always hesitate to name one team better than another, because truly every team is different, the journey in and out of Haiti is distinct to each team, that said, this team is rising to the challenge, nay, exceeding expectations. And we so needed too. Everyone has worked extraordinary hard, and it is paying huge dividends. As we close out today, the 'long night service' has commenced complete with lights, amazing sound, and a sell out crowd. When I say sell out crowd, I mean fence to fence, from side to side, from front to back, spilling into the road way, the property is absolutely packed with people. We walked from the back to the front in a moving line to get to the ariel view the guard house offers. I stood in humility as their voices lifted in song, praise and prayer. I have never had a payoff quite like the one I received tonight. I know I wrote on destiny last night, tonight I write in awe, almost a serene silence, words fail what the heart knows, sees, and feels. Yet I tap away here tonight, embracing the moment, catching the rain fall of grace cascading in a down pour that saturates and cleanses my parched and weary frame. Nothing of this countries cruelties can burglarize this incredible, luxurious moment. I certainly witnessed them today as you do every day in Haiti, but tonight, the flood of God's favor is a tide that cannot be stopped. It's as if a relief valve hit its maximum pressure and has blown, never to be reseated. What is changing here by way of grace is polarizing these people, bringing many different congregations together to spend all night praying and praising God! The carpenter side of the team fixed about eleven benches that were terribly used and broken down replacing the seats of them all, and we ordered up 8 more we had received money for. All the wood for those is purchased and cut tonight. We need about 23 more! We have so much more space! They started on 1 of 4 storage cabinets, and Rick overseeing a hard working crew of Haitian wanna-be-painters, has most of the wood already sealed. Our self acclaimed 'rookie' of the trip, Stephen, has blended it with great ease, never losing stride, offering many good gifts to the team. I'm confident now of how much we needed him on this mission. He is confident, poised, steady, funny, and smart! What more can you ask for? We wired up new lighting for the tent, and started the electrical which will be finished tomorrow. We installed an amplifier to drive two more speakers, and can almost part hair with it. We can make the sound bounce off the wall of the property across the road, which is good, because tonight the road will be full of people that did not arrive early enough get a seat inside the gate. Speaking of gates, that reminds me of another moment today at children's service, We had almost 500 kids show up, at one point the service started, Brandon and Stephen were handing out the coloring papers to the kids coming in, I walked in from a quick run, walked through the gate, realized we were about at max, and shut the gate. Stephen looking at faces still on the outside said; 'how do you do that?' I'm not sure, it's a reality of Haiti that is hard to accept, but you need to come in to get the story and the gift. When you don't, you end up shut out. But don't people everywhere struggle with this though, we struggle outside wanting our freedom, but yet desiring the gifts offered freely within the realm of grace, we need to be careful not to get shut out. Today we were not shut out, we were on the inside, we were witness to the gift, the gift of love, acceptance, and thankfulness. And so were almost 500 children, and 1000 other people meeting tonight underneath a most incredible gift, a new, spacious, bright white tent! We are beholden to so many for your gifts that made this moment possible! Time to call it a night, Rick and Karen are chatting via FaceTime with Autumn in Australia who leaves for Cambodia Sunday. Keep her in your prayers. It continues to baffle me how data advances at such a high rate of speed in a country for the most part still ages behind us in development. Rejoice and be thankful, we are blessed!

Destiny

We have these appointments with destiny. We wonder, will I be up to the task? Can we go the distance? We falter, we stagger under the load of the responsibility, we consider if there is a way to not show up. What if we show up and fail. So many times I have suffered strikes against my personal pride in Haiti. My ambitions, plans, and wishes have often ended up at my feet in ashes. Surrender is key, ego must be slain, and Haiti is great place to go and have your expectations realigned. But be warned, it is often messy, crushing, terrifying on certain levels. Not terror as in physical trauma, although the heat, and dust, and filth can terrorize your senses here, but rather the terror of the spirit. We are all so spiritual, I know, we need never fear, your faith can move mountains, just speak the word, it will cast itself into the sea. But what happens when you speak, and it doesn't? Perhaps your timing is off, or your speaking to the wrong mountain? Or you apparently don't have enough faith, your seed is smaller than a mustard seed. What then? We have all been there, but not today. Today we arrived at our destiny moment on time, all the right people, and all empowered for our stations. The former tent is down, and the new tent is up! It is amazing. It's big, and there is so much excitement in the air. I don't feel worthy of the moment. I'm tired, I'm sore, but so content. I am so delighted with our team, every player, every brush stroke of our lives seemed in harmony today, carried on the wings of prayer and support from home, we succeeded in meeting this moment, rising through the grace given us, we have erected a new worship facility. I can't wait to post pictures, we have effectively covered the church property with a much bigger tent than before. I know Paul of scripture was a tent maker by trade, we have become tent setters! You couldn't pay me enough to do it for a living, but when you get commissioned by a Higher Authority, well, pay no longer matters, cooperation does! And it all came together today. Tonight we are all weary in well doing, I can tell you it is very hot working on top of white canvas in the bright Haitian sun. But our reward is not contained in words tonight, it's revealed in the hugs, the smiles, the thanks of grateful Haitians. Our mission that was stalled for several weeks, is now a reality. We are grateful and amazed! More details to follow, but rest in the knowledge that an endeavor of many months, and great sacrifice has finally come to  pass! Rejoice and be blessed!