Working In the Rain

Hello,

We are back from Haiti with the daily scoop from the American Baptist Michigan Mission to Haiti.

Today the rain has continued from the previous night. We have had no let down. The team was in very good spirits and everyone found a site to visit and work at this day. Some went to the Baptist school and met Noah and the flood angels. Others went to the Bethany home and worked clearing sand piles and debris from the side wall that caved in.

I want to revisit the school. While there, a team worked on clearing trash and debris, which seems too easily to define this nation, from the entrance and the adjourning street. This was a major street as the team soon discovered. A host of police, UN workers, Haitian citizens and water met at one intersection.

After clearing debris for one and a half hours the waters from the hills above the downtown arrived more fully and created a flood at the intersection. Traffic was backed up for thirty-five minutes, the team had to seek sanctuary in the business/home of a Haitian family. The police stopped a vehicle and arrested its driver. The family was gracious as its members took turns yelling to the people passing below not to walk on the right side walk because there was a huge sink hole.

The one thing I noticed throughout two tours of the city was that the people kept smiling. The rain flooded many homes and the Haitian people, who never stop moving and going somewhere, trudged through calf-high sewage water to travel from one block to the next kept smiling.

At Bethany, as a team of Americans and Haitians cleared brick and debris Vincent found a sleeping tarantula under a few pieces of brick. It did not bite him because a Haitian worker smashed it with his shovel before a worker could hold it Phil 4:13. As you can see both teams had a busy, wet day. No one returned to Pastor Voltaire’s home dry. In all, we were safe and did accomplish goals that were not evident that morning.

Can you fight through unfriendly weather and still do a job to win souls for the Lord? How often have you allowed unfavorable conditions to interfere with what God expects you to accomplish?

The apostle Paul withstood a ship wreck, a viper’s poisonous bite, and Nero’s chopping block to write at least two more letters to churches in Asia Minor. Today maybe we can ask ourselves, what we allow to hinder us from the love of God Philippians 4:16.

Pray for the missionaries in Haiti and across the globe. They often are working in uncomfortable conditions to be obedient to their calling.

Love of Haiti,

Lionel