Coincidence?

... I think not...


The last 2 weeks have been filled with incredible little details from the Lord! One might call them coincidence, but as for me, I think not. Are you seeing them in your life too? Those special details, that little extra preparation, that touch from the Father who loves you more than you can imagine and has plans beyond your comprehension? What wonderful treasures He places in each day!!


It sure is getting hot down here! In this land of perpetual summer, when summer truly does arrive, it gets quite toasty down here! And for the hottest part of the year, God has given me a summer home! How sweet! One of our missionary families is back in the States for the summer, so they invited me to housesit and dog-sit for them. And there are so many perks-- the bedrooms are cooler than in my house, there's a great view of the ocean from the kitchen (and great ocean breezes) and I have a sweet, hyper dog for company (i've really been missing my boyfriend's family's sweet goldendoodle, isn't God the nicest to send me a pet?!)! What a great way to spend the summer! Anyone wanna come visit? :)


God also special-delivered the book that I'm using in my Bible study with the orphan girls (and Esther, and her youth group! :). At Christmas, I looked for a good study book for them, but never really found what I was looking for; and then after the earthquake, things were on hold for quite a while. While back in the States for a little rest earlier this month, my wonderful boyfriend David's wonderful momma asked me if I still thinking about doing a study with the girls. We looked online for potential books, and then she found the perfect one!! It's called A Daughter's Worth, and it talks about your relationship with your heavenly Father, how He wanted you to be born, how He celebrates your every breath, and how He loves to hear from you. So, I ordered the book, and I had it sent over-night delivery as I was supposed to fly back to Haiti the following afternoon, which was a Tuesday. That day, I also learned that my flight back was cancelled due to the pilot strike of Spirit Airlines. So, I booked new tickets back for Wednesday, and the book arrived on Tuesday afternoon. Only, as I ripped off the packaging, I found not my awesome study for orphan girls, but rather a college course critical thinking book!! O NO!! So, I called amazon and had them rush-ship me the right book, knowing that it might not arrive before my departure the next day. Thankfully, the book came 3 hours before I left! Pilot strikes don't scare God! :) He can still get you where you need to be and exactly when you need to get there!


God's also been teaching me the Creole words that I need to know right before I need them! This week, I have been working hard at building up my Creole vocab base every day, and every day, God brings up words in conversation that I just learned! These words have made my daily activities easier, enhanced conversations, and make me laugh! :)


One of the words that I just learned became very important yesterday! Yesterday afternoon, at the hottest part of the day (a day where I started sweating at 7:30 am and pretty much didn't stop all day :), I went out swimming at the sand bar with several other missionaries. After a couple of hours, it looked like a storm was rolling in, so we packed up and turned the boat towards home. After a few minutes of cruising, we heard yells from 2 men in the ocean bobbing up and down and waving their arms frantically! They had been out fishing and their boat sank, leaving them stranded. With the incoming storm, the current was very strong, and they were having trouble swimming in to the shore. We tossed them each a rope and towed them in towards the shoreline. We would have invited them up into the boat but (here's my new creole word)-- they were completely naked!! Only in Haiti...


This morning, I headed to church alone. As we began singing, I felt a wave of loneliness wash over me. I asked the Lord to meet my needs, and just a few moments later, some of the other missionaries showed up. And I realized that one of our translators was in the row right in front of me. Since church starts at 7am (to beat the heat), I was back home after church by 9:15. I was praying for some friends, and God showed me verses on hospitality to pray for them. Soon, there was a knock on my door, bringing me a translator friend who wanted to check his email. And then a phone call from another friend who wants to come over and play video games (my summer house is totally decked out! :). And then yet another knock at the door from another young friend, a boy from Port who was orphaned and homeless after the quake. He wants to learn English and how to play guitar. He's also someone that I felt led to pray for yesterday. I was in the middle of a few things and a little preoccupied, so I asked my visitors are coming back this afternoon. I read a devotional book (it's my substitute for a sermon in English today) and it was talking about loving our neighbors. And it hit me all of a sudden-- how kind of God to answer my prayer with so many friends! And those verses on hospitality are definitely for me too! God sent me not one, not two, but three friends this afternoon!!


Hmmm, maybe it's all coincidence. But I prefer to think the Father is sending me tokens of His love and reminders of His presence.

A New Prayer

Reality can be heavy here. Several items have been weighing on me this week as I'm stuck on the couch recuperating. This year has been such a different year than I had envisioned, but I'm so thankful that none of it takes the Lord by surprise! It's been a year of the reality of poverty and death and hungry orphans. It's been a year of typhoid and PTSD and grief and love.

This morning I read a passage of Scripture that spoke so much truth into this crazy year... this year of earthquakes and death and squalor and typhoid...Jesus was on His way into Jerusalem for the last time before His death, and He was talking to His disciples and said, "Now my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray, 'Father, save Me from that hour'? But this is the very reason I came! Father, bring glory to Your Name." (John 12: 27-28)

I know that in so many ways, I am still learning to be like Jesus. But especially in this way, I want to be like Him, so that my heart's cry is not, "Father, save me from Haiti and disease and poverty and a broken heart," but rather, "Father, bring glory to Your Name!" Glory to Him in the midst of typhoid and earthquakes and nightmares. As you pray for me, please join me in praying that it may be so and that the Father may get much glory from my being here. I'm praying that we all seek not to avoid pain but to glorify Him.

Angels Unawares

Hebrews 13:2
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

I think we might have done just that this week...

A couple of weeks ago, I met with the medical director of the hospital to discuss the hospital's needs, post-earthquake. Our supply line for the hospital has disintergrated with the crumbling of Port Au Prince, and the Lord has touched the hearts of many generous donors to supply us with needed items to keep the hospital running. On the list of items still in demand were tents, as our in hospital patients are now being housed in tents. During the earthquake of January 12th, our hospital building sustained several areas of structural damage rendering out in-patient wards unusable. The US military showed up at my hospital while I was in Peti Goave and brought several army tents to house the in-patients. It was so helpful but also not quite enough. 

Thursday night, Pete Thompson got an email about tents. Pete is an awesome guy from NY who's here this month helping with food distribution. Pete and his nephew Caleb helped to arrange the donation and distribution of over 80,000 pounds of food to the needy of LaGonave. At dinner, Pete mentioned the email about tents, and I told him about the hospital's need for a few more tents. It's neat how God networks things! On Saturday afternoon, a group of 7 people from YWAM showed up to put up tents for the hospital! Ask and you shall receive!!

And it sure seemed like we entertained some angels unawares.

Another one of my new jobs post-quake is arranging medical supplies and personnel as they come to my town of Anse-a-Galets. I am so thankful for the donated supplies, but I wasn't here for the arrival of many of them. They got stacked into 2 rooms almost up the ceiling and in no particular order. Saturday morning, the hospital staff informed me that they are almost out of pediatric nasogastric tubes and very much in need of more. I was worried that they might be in the boxes of donated supplies and Saturday afternoon had a rather stressed prayer time about it. I ended up telling the Lord that I wasn't sure how I, one girl, would be able to sort through 2 rooms full of boxes to find the right supplies. I prayed (with probably not very much faith I might add) that He would move the mountain of boxes just like He promised that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, it can move mountains. Twenty minutes after my SOS prayer, I got a phone call from Caleb that the YWAMers put up the tents really fast and were asking for more work.

What a blessing!! In a little over 2 hours, they rearranged and inventoried every box of donated items. God moved the mountain of boxes for me, using His sweet servants the YWAMers!!!

Sunday morning, they were supposed to travel back to Port. I went on the boat with them, only we realized shortly after leaving that the transmission was having trouble. We returned back home to change to a different boat, only to return to an even rougher sea. For fear of capsizing, we returned to the mission station. We had left early to hopefully have smoother seas and missed church, so we had a small service here. One of the YWAM guys leads worship in the States, so he offered to lead us in worship. With the craziness of the earthquake, I've only been to church 3 Sundays this year, so it was wonderful to sing in English and have a church service! We listened to a sermon podcast that Matt had downloaded, and I was so blessed by the message on the end of Matt. 11. There, Jesus invites us who are weary and heavy laden to find rest in Him and a light load in His yoke. I was so blessed to hear that after last week's heavy burdens. 

At the close of our impromptu service, the YWAM group asked to pray over us missionaries. It was such a sweet time! I truly feel like we may have just entertained some angels unawares.

Anpil Mirak

Anpil mirak... Many miracles...

As devastating as the earthquake has been and continues to be, I keep hearing stories of miracles...

Feb. 12-14th were declared days of prayer and fasting by churches all across the country. Many, many lives were changed. I've even heard it said that President Preval became a Christian! Wow! Praise the Lord!!

After those days devoted to prayer, there has been a different feel to this town. A little more peace, a little less fear. A little more light, a little less darkness.

Pastor Willy has a church down on the Saline. The Saline, or Salt Flats, are the poorest parts of our town. This week, he has been fasting and doing prayer walks around town. This week,  two witchdoctors accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior!!

Esther told me several testimonies from people in her church. There was a man who was buried under the concrete in his house in Port Au Prince for 8 days. His wife was crushed and killed beside him. His wife's cousin and his daughter were also killed. He prayed fervently, asking God to spare him and to take away his hunger and thirst. For 8 days, he did not hunger nor thirst. Last Sunday in church, he praised the Lord for sparing him and is confident that God has a plan for his life. Wow.

Another woman lost her entire family-- husband and three kids-- as their home fell on them. She was trapped for three days. During that time, she testified that an angel brought her food and water. Wow.

Anpil mirak.

Miracles...

My time in Haiti is fraught with miracles. While I do not know why God would allow such widespread devastation, I know that I can see His working in the midst of it.

When I first felt compelled to go to Port and help after the quake, the Lord sent me all of the supplies needed for start a small medical relief clinic. I had composed a list of the things that I thought would be helpful, and all of them showed up at my door within 48 hours. They came from 2 other medical groups doing free clinics in my town-- groups that I had no idea were even in town! They showed up at my door offering me the very items I had listed. 

The travel to Port was directed by God. He brought all of the right people to make my travel possible. And He talked to me on the trip over to get my heart ready, reminding me that "Those who seek to save their life shall lose it, but those who lose it for My sake shall find it."

He sent groups of people in to work and to bring supplies at just the right time!! A doctor in Michigan worked in Haiti in the 90's and over the course of last year felt compelled to visit Haiti again. God had already been setting him in place, tugging at his heart, to be a part of the work in Haiti even before the quake. After the quake, he received a call from the flight director of Amway, who offered him the use of several private jets if he wanted to travel to Haiti. All commercial flights have been cancelled since the quake. Those flights brought in countless medical personnel and supplies and took a tired Diane back to the States for a couple of weeks of rest.

Another miracle story is about a man named Pierre. He was attending a conference with 199 others at a hotel on the day of the earthquake. He and one other man made it out alive. His tibia and fibula were shattered requiring a below the knee amputation. Before surgery, he bravely told a nurse, “I can live without my leg, but I cannot live without souf (‘breath’ in Creole).” The nurse, a former missionary nurse to Haiti, proceeded to tell him that the prophet Isaiah said that God wrote our names on His Hands. Those Hands hold the universe in them, yet He sees our names written on them. Two thousand years ago, His Son, Jesus, stretched out those Hands to die on a cross that takes our burdens, our sorrows, our sins that separates us from Him. Three days later, He conquered death to offer us life after death with Him in heaven. She offered this man more than just breath; she told him about eternal life. He accepted that gift!

There are so many more miracle stories! I'm traveling back to Haiti today, and that too is a miracle story!!! I'll have to tell you about that one later, though, as my flight is about to land!

Ripples

It's amazing the ripple effects one life can have. Just like when you drop a tiny pebble into a smooth pond and the ripples expand into concentric rings that reach the sandy banks, so one life dropped into a series of circumstances can reach out into ever-widening spheres of influence. Every life has the ripple effect. And you never know which events in life are going to catapult you into a bigger pond creating more ripples. And you never know when someone else's life is going to ripple into yours.


I'm so glad that God knows! 


Living in Haiti has been in interesting ripple effect time in my life. I have met so many interesting people in the midst of the disaster relief efforts. I've met previous missionaries to Haiti, who are like heroes of faith of old. It's incredible to meet people you've only heard glowing stories about and then to get to know them and love yourself! I met millionaires and movers and shakers of companies and countries. I even met a couple of congressmen...


After 12 days straight of medical disaster relief work, I got pulled from the clinic to go "shopping" for more med supplies at the airport. Sounds weird, I know, but it's true. When I arrived at Carl and Maya Gilles' guesthouse in Port Au Prince that night (the same guesthouse that I lived in for the month of November), I had the joy of seeing Dan and Joy Irvine again. They're my area directors. That night, Joy asked me what I wanted to do for the next 4 days in Haiti before I left for some rest. I would have gone back to the clinic if necessary, but that type of medical care is emotionally and physically exhausting. So, I sent up a quick prayer for grace and could honestly reply, "Whatever you need me to do."


She hugged me and got excited and asked me to run the guesthouse! Her future grandson Will (aka Mois) was in the process of being adopted by her oldest daughter (and my good friend from church back home in SC). Following the earthquake, adoptions in process were being sped up. Joy was offered a small window of opportunity to get Will to the States to live with his new mommy and daddy. Only she had to be at the American Embassy the following morning before 6 am, leaving the guesthouse without someone to make sure food was prepared and clean linens were available. It was perfect! I love being part of a miracle!


It was also the perfect task for me! It was wonderful to still be helping but also to help in a different, less stressful way than the clinic had been. And that first night, I had a neat opportunity to share Christ.


Our guests for the evening for a neat and gracious group of people from FL. It included 2 congressmen, one a FL House Representative and the other a member of the FL state Senate.  The latter helped me dry dishes after dinner, peppering me with questions for over an hour about my faith. It was his first international trip (he sure picked a doozy!!) and he grappled to process the devastation. He asked me to put my faith aside and explain to him why I was spending a year in Haiti. I could not answer that. Apart from my faith, I would not be able to function in Haiti. I feel that God asked me to work in Haiti and serve the people there, just as His Son, Jesus, served people during His time on earth.

For many, what sustains them is their faith. Most people now live in tents; even if their homes are still standing, many are not structurally stable enough for the owners to live in. Large aftershocks are still causing surviving structures to topple. Forty thousand people are camped out in the yard of One Mission Society, a missionary station.  Every night they sing hymns. From around flickering camp fires come strains of “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” While I personally did not see this, the story is a ripple in my life, a ripple that encourages me.

Please don't forget that your life ripples into another's!!!

 

Eulogy for a Future Friend

Marland and I were going to be friends. I just knew it. 


We first met briefly at church in December, but we really talked on January 9th. She was 24 and had just finished nursing school. I promised to look for an opening in the hospital for her. We were excited about teaching each other our native tongues, as her desire to speak English and mine to converse in Creole were equal. We giggled and talked and made plans. We were going to be friends.


On Monday, January 11, 2010, she traveled back to Port Au Prince to graduate from nursing school. The following day, her house crumbled like a concrete sand castle during the earthquake, crushing the skull of her brother Jacky (21) and killing her and her sister Ketheline (20) instantly. 


Marland's story starts much earlier than my almost friendship with her...


Marland's mother and father both grew up in extremely difficult circumstances. I've heard it said that they both child slaves. I haven't had the guts or heart to ask either about their life story yet. She and her husband both became Christ followers, and they live on the Saline. The Saline is the poorest part of our town. It floods several days a yet, and its inhabitants become homeless, living on the streets of the town. Homes are one-room shacks. 


One month after Marland and her twin sister Merline were born, their mother started work on the Wesleyan Mission Station on LaGonave as a cook. As she fed missionaries her amazing meals, she was saving her income to put her children through school. Education is expensive in Haiti, and usually the only route to make a better life.


Marland and her 5 siblings were accepted into Compassion International's system. They studied hard. Marland was almost a nurse. Merline is an accountant. Jacky was a mechanic. Ketheline was studying languages at a university hoping to be a translator for an embassy someday. The two youngest are still in grade school. 


Two days before their death, Jacky and Ketheline shared in church. They both gave professions of faith. After the earthquake, their father shares with anyone who will listen that God must have had a huge party in Heaven to welcome home 3 of His kids... Marland, Jacky, and Ketheline.