To Know Him and Make Him Known

If they are outside playing, they run to me with arms open and kiss my cheek to say good morning.  If they are already inside our classroom, they rise in unison to greet me with the sweetest “Good morning, Ms. Sara.”  I love them, and I’ve only known them a little over a month.  These are my students from the school at the bottom of the hill by my house.  They are smart and kind and have an eagerness to learn.  A couple of weeks ago, we spent all of class time making name tags for their desks.  It is important for me to learn their names.  I have almost accomplished it.  It’s hard only being there two times a week and then last week we were unable to go.  These students are not the poorest of the poor.  Many of them, actually, have visas to the U.S. or are awaiting them. However, I look into their faces, and I see just how precious they are to Jesus and how, just as much, they need Him, too.   I think sometimes we limit missions.  We might think if we are not giving food to the hungriest person, or clothing the one with the most tattered and torn clothing, then maybe we are not serving.  If we are not evangelizing on the streets or in the poorest community, then we are not fulfilling the call.  I believe the heart of God is for us to be in a relationship with Him and once that happens, we are to seek to be used to bring others back into a restored relationship with Him, as well.

So what is missions?  It is to share the gospel of Christ with those who do not know Him and to walk along side of one another, as believers, in discipleship.  I believe this is the heart of our Father.  Because of our love for the Father and the truth that He has given the Holy Spirit to live inside of us, as we seek to meet the spiritual need that is lacking, I believe we are filled with the compassion and intention of God to meet any other needs that people are lacking.  For some, perhaps it is hunger for food.  Others may need physical shelter.  Still some are in need of a consistent person to say, “I love you.  You are special.  You have such great potential, and I know that God has big plans for you.  Let’s learn some English, so it might be one more tool to help you further your education.” 

Friends, don’t limit yourself to thinking if you are not in a third world country, or living among the poorest of the poor, you are not on the mission field.  We are always on mission for the Lord.  We are ambassadors of Christ as we are told in 2 Corinthians 5: 18-20:  18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

Switching gears a bit, let me tell you about our Pastor’s Conference last week.  For three days, we had nearly 100 pastors and wives join us to receive biblical training.  Four of our pastor friends from the U.S. along with their wives, joined us to encourage and strengthen the walk of many pastors here in Haiti.  I would like to share with you this story:  Last Thursday night we had a terrible rain.  Even a minor rain, causes flooding in Port-au-Prince, but a terrible rain…well, it’s just bad.  We knew the roads would be flooded and traffic would be bad, so we planned to leave our house at 7:30.  The conference was to begin around 9 at a church about 30 minutes from our home and about 10 miles in distance.  Having only driven about two of those miles in about 2 ½ hours, we called the church to tell them we were still on our way, but the pastors could leave if they wanted.  We had no idea what time we would arrive.  Their response???  “It is no problem.  We are fine.  We will wait!”  This is the hunger of the people for the Word of God.  This is their intensity of their desire to learn His truth.  We arrived two and half hours late to the conference.  Nearly 100 pastors and their wives were waiting.  Many of them had traveled down mountain roads rushing with water.   Many of them had traveled by motorcycle or tap tap through the crowded, muddy, flooded streets of Port-au-Prince to receive a Word from the Lord.  I am challenged by them and wonder how often in my own spiritual walk, I see a muddy, flooded, crowded street filled with hard travel and I turn around a go home.  How often am I willing to travel that road to get to where God wants to take me or get to the place where I can hear His voice?  I’m afraid I turn away too many times.  Instead of knowing and trusting James 1:3-4, that those times produce in us a perseverance that helps mature our faith, so to rejoice in them, we fear and choose the safer, cleaner, easier way.  Oh how I long for the day that my faith would be one that I didn’t look at the road but to the one who placed me there.  Because IN HIM, it doesn’t matter if the road is smooth or filled with 100 potholes, the journey will be perfect and complete and full of Him. 

My prayer is that the Lord will reveal Himself to you and me in a way that we can clearly know His plan for our lives.  Once we know that plan or at least the next step, we will walk in faith, focusing our eyes on the One who set the journey before us. 

Until next time…Bondye beni ou!  (God bless you!)

Hospitals, Home Visits, and Havoc

This past week has been a full one.  God has definitely been teaching me a lot.  This may seem a little all over the place, but regardless, to God be the glory! 

Last week, one of our little girls became sick and needed to spend a few nights in the hospital.  I stayed with her the first night at the University of Miami Hospital.  There the staff is a mixture of Haitian employees and International volunteers/employees.  Many of you know I worked at a children’s hospital in the states.  I continue to be reminded of my family back at ETCH and how much I miss and love them.  The hospital experience here is much different.  At about 2 a.m. my little girl was sleeping so peacefully and the nurse came by and insisted I wake her up and give her a bottle.  In my best Creole explanation, I tried to convince the nurse to let her sleep.  I did not win.  About two minutes after she finished the bottle, I was covered in explosive diarrhea.  I’m just going to throw it out there that I was not thinking to bring me a change of clothes for the night.  I cleaned up the baby then wondered what I was going to do about my pooped covered pants.  About that time, the sweet nurse who had been taking care of the baby next to us looked over at me with the most sympathetic eyes and offered to go to her locker and get me a change of clothes.  Finally at about 3 a.m., I was sneaking off to the administration building, so I didn’t have to use the port-a-potties to get cleaned up.  The Lord can and will use anything to accomplish His purpose, even yucky diarrhea.  Come to find out, the nurse who gave me the change of clothes, is a Christian.  She had been at the hospital for about three days and working among many non-believers.   The rest of the night she and I chatted and offered encouragement to one another.  The Lord knows what we need exactly when we need it.

Saturday, during our time in Karadeaux, we learned that one of the ladies from class was sick.  During bible study, the ladies and I prayed for her health.  However, after class the most beautiful thing happened, and I praise the Lord that He allowed me to be a part of it.  Many of us went to visit our friend after class in her home.  We found her lying in her bed with tears in her eyes from the pain she was feeling.  I stood there in her home with many other friends from class singing songs of praise, reciting Psalm 23, and laying hands on her as we raised our voices to the Lord for her healing.  Yesterday, she walked into class with a smile on her face!  To God be the glory!

Currently, we have four toddlers and a five year old running around our house.  Let me tell you…about four hours ago I thought I was going to lose my mind.  It was nap time and no one was happy.  They were so tired they didn’t know what to do with themselves, so they ran around crying and grumbling with one another.   I knew what they needed.  They needed some quiet time and rest.  As I made pallets on the floor and laid each one down in front of the TV, calm fell over the room.  Within minutes, two of them were asleep.  Immediately I wondered, is this what I look like before the Lord at times?  I carry MY burden or MY load and it becomes heavy and I grow weary and tired.  But He already knew what I needed before the beginning of time.  He gave us this truth in Matthew 11:28-30  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  My prayer and challenge the Lord has given me is to find rest for my soul in Him prior to becoming like my toddlers.  I surely don’t want the Lord to look down and find me wandering around in tears because I’m so exhausted from MY burdens that I can’t get a grip on reality.  So I come to Him.  I will take his yoke and learn from Him, so I will rest in His peace and find rest for my soul. Will you do the same? 

That’s it for now.  Just wanted to share a few things from my week.  Until next time…

Bondye beni ou!!!  (God bless you)

City On A Hill

Greetings from Haiti.  I know this post is so long overdue, and I want to apologize to all of you for that.  Please know that in my heart I think of you often and thank God for your prayers and support of the ministry He is allowing me to be a part of here in Haiti.  It is not fair for me to withhold information about how the Lord is extending His glory throughout Haiti and for you all to be aware of that, so you can join in prayer and praise for what the Lord has done and is doing and will continue to do.  So again, I apologize. 

Heart Patients:  In February, we had four children travel to the DR.  Three received surgery, and one did not because of a newly found sickle cell diagnosis.  The doctors believed that it was actually the sickle cell affecting his quality of life currently, and not the heart disease.  He was able to return home with only medication for his sickle cell maintenance.  The three others have long since returned to Haiti and are doing well.  We believe the next round of surgeries will be towards the end of May.  We are often receiving referrals of children in need of heart surgery.  Even today I took a call for a child to be added to our list.  I will meet him tomorrow.  Please be in prayer for these children.  Pray that the Lord will sustain them and give them strength until He sees fit for them to gain healing.  But always, we pray for their spiritual knowledge of Christ because without the spiritual healing of their hearts and a saving knowledge of Him, they would still spend eternity in Hell, even with a new heart here on earth.

Karideaux English and Bible Classes:  Every Monday and Thursday and some Saturdays, I drive up to find approximately 25 to 30 ladies waiting for me inside a non-air-conditioned bus with a chalkboard on the front wall where the driver’s seat used to be.  They’ve come to learn English and study the Word of God with me and with each other.  The ladies range in age from mid-teens to early 50s.  Some do not understand an English word I say, and others could help me teach the class if they wanted.  These women love the Lord and they are not afraid to show it.  I am challenged each time we meet of my lack of faith in comparison to theirs.  I praise the Lord that He meets each one of us where we are and does not judge us next to one another, but only to Himself.  And in light of Him, we are all unworthy.  However, I praise Him for these beautiful women in my life and how they continue to encourage me to be a woman of the Lord who trusts and follows Him completely.  Currently, we are reading through the book of John for our Bible study.  This past week we studied at the end four where the official’s son was sick in Cana, and the father came to Jesus to ask for healing for his son.  Jesus turned to him and said “Go.  Your son is healed.”  The Bible says, the official took Jesus at his word and departed.  Did you catch that?  He took Him at his word and departed.  Even as I read it in preparation, I was struck by that sentence because so often, I seem to not take Jesus and His word.  I have questions, or I think there is a different way.  Why is this?  I can almost hear the Lord saying, “Oh you of little faith.”  Then I hear him say, “I know your heart Sara.  Trust me.  I will calm your fears and your worries .  Take me at my word.  I will not deceive or betray.  I am truth.  I do what I say.”  Do you know even before the official got home, a man met him halfway and told him his son had been healed at the exact hour Jesus told him so?  Our God is so good!  During discussion of this topic, one of the ladies from class raised her hands and simply said this, “When God says it….you do it.”  It’s that simple, yet we always seem to find a way to make it much more complicated than that it seems.  I want to be that kind of woman, and I pray that you do, too.  When God says it, let’s do it! 

A City on a Hill:  "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.”   Matthew 5:14   At the bottom of our hillside where we live, there is a school.  I’ve have passed this school for nearly 10 months now, and had no idea of what or who resided behind its concrete walls.  Several weeks ago, Matt, one our staff missionaries, was driving passed the school when he met up with the principal.  As they spoke, the principal asked, “Do you guys live up on the hill in the house with all the lights?”  Through conversation, Matt learned that the principal is a believer and desires very much for his students to learn English and more about the American culture and the Lord.  Because of this desire, today was my third time teaching my elementary school students English at the school.  And from now on, every Tuesday and Friday morning, I will have the amazing opportunity to spend time with about 30 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th graders studying English.  Today in class we made name tags.  The kids were so excited and worked very hard, so they would be proud of their work.  We practiced spelling words and reviewed days of the week and months.  Oh friends, I think of this amazing opportunity that the Lord has brought us too that started with the questioned, “Do you live up on the hill in the house with all the lights?”  Like Christ said when He was teaching in Matthew to the crowds…we are that light. As you are placed up on the hillside, is your light hidden or are you shining it before men?  Every time I’ve walked into the classroom with my kids that verse comes to mind.  I pray it never leaves. 

That’s it for now.  I pray that the Lord keeps each of you and guards you in Christ Jesus.  Bondye beni ou!  (God bless you!)

The Presence of the LORD (Part I)

"Serve the LORD with gladness; come before His presence with singing.”  Psalm 100:2  So last Sunday, I had the opportunity to sing in church.  Oh yes, my friends, you read right.  I sang in church, in Haiti.  The week prior the pastor called me up, unexpectedly to sing, and I graciously declined (actually I had Kensly decline for me).  I had been sick the days prior, and it was literally my first time out of the house in about four days.  So the next week I was prepared, just in case the invitation to sing in front of the church came again….and it did.  So I stood before my Haitian brothers and sisters and sang over them “Surely the Presence of the Lord Is In the Place”, and I meant it.  There is a beautiful inhabiting of the Holy Spirit among the Haitian believers here.  And friends, you have never experienced worship like worship shared with them. 

On Monday, I returned to Karadeaux for the first time since last November.  This is the tent city near my house (only about a 10 min drive).  We teach English and Bible classes there twice a week.  Since I had been away, the beginner’s classes had been separated into ladies and men.  Let me break here to tell you a really cool God thing….

I began praying last October for the Lord to continue to grow His vision for me here in Haiti.  Slowly He began to introduce to me a vision to study the Word of God with Haitian ladies.  I didn’t know what this looked like or how it might take place.  Where would these ladies come from and how would I communicate with them?  I continued to pray, even through my time in the States.  The vision increased all the more, and I felt challenged by the Lord that this year, His goal for me was to study the Bible with Haitian ladies.  I even shared this with one of the other missionaries on my team to begin praying for this. 

Okay…back to last Monday at Karadeaux.  When we arrived, it became clear to me that I was going to be helping to teach the ladies class.  After English class time, I remembered we had been doing Bible time.  You can see where this is going J  I found myself catching a glimpse of the vision---there before me sat fifteen beautiful women with whom I was getting to study the Word.  Now Chelsey and I team teach our time with the ladies.  Chelsey is an amazing teacher in language; the way she commands the classroom and facilitates the continued understanding of English learning for our ladies.  Then after she is finished, I am able to share the truth of scripture with them.  Our ladies are involved and excited and hungry to learn English and the word of God.  One of our ladies has already started to share the gospel with people around her home because of the truth in 2 Timothy 1:7, we studied a few days ago. “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” 2 Timothy 1:7  Praise Jesus, and so many more praises have been and are to come!!! 

Okay friends.  That’s just Sunday and Monday.  I have so much more to tell you about the week.  Part II coming in the next few days.  I don’t want to overwhelm your reading.  Take this in, and spend some time praising God for how He is working here in Haiti and around you.  Because if there is one thing I know and believe, it is that God is always working.  We just need to have our spiritual eyes open to see where He’s doing it and ask Him to let us join in! 

Until next time…Bondye beni ou! (God bless you!)

I've Beheld the Glory of God (Part II)

So I’ve returned home to Haiti.  I realize I am about two blogs behind, and I should write about my time at home and my return here the past two weeks but there is something more important on my heart.  So this blog will share with you that story and the rest will come later. 

Last October, God began stirring in my heart a new vision.  I saw myself in a room full of Haitian ladies studying the word of God.  So after months of praying and God weaving a beautiful story, yesterday, after English class at Karade, I sat with almost 15 women and shared the word of God.  And do you know what?   They shared, too.  We talked about fear and discouragement.  We read in 2 Timothy how God did not give us a spirit of fear but of love and power and self-control.  We talked about how in Matthew 8, Jesus was in the boat with the disciples when a great storm came around them.  They were afraid and full of fear and this is what Jesus said to them, “26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.”  Jesus was in their boat the whole time.  And yet, when the storm came, they were full of fear and wondered what they were to do. 

I think about how many times this happens in my own life.  I know that I am in the boat with Jesus.  I know He is there with me all the time, and when I’m sailing on “calm waters,” without a doubt I trust all the promises He gives to me.  Then trials come.  The waves begin to crash all around me, and I wonder, “What am I going to do? “  Often times, I cry out “Please calm the storm around me!”  But what if that’s not always what the cry of my heart should be?  What if the storm is there for purpose?  What if the storm is there to produce in me perseverance so that my faith will be made more complete?  So instead of crying out “Lord calm the storm around me,” maybe I will call out “Calm the heart inside me.”  Because here is the truth that remains, whether the waters around me are calm or raging, I’m still in the boat with Jesus, the giver of peace that transcends all understanding to guard our hearts (Philippians 4:7)

I don’t know what your boat feels like today, whether you’re resting in still waters or it’s rocking your world.  But this is what I do know…the God of the universe sent His Son to stay beside us through it all.  He has promised to never leave you or forsake you.  He has promised to give you peace beyond any of our understanding, so rest in Him today.  I know I will. 

Bondye beni ou!