We are hours away from our next trip to Dessalines, Haiti with few words that can describe our amazement as we have watched God provide for our needs. To see the outpouring of faith in our efforts in the form of prayer, equipment and supplies and financial giving has brought us literally to weeping for joy at what we will be able to present to our Haitian friends on your behalf.
As we look back over the last several months it is impossible to perceive the series of events that placed us without the funding we needed to obtain the materials, equipment and finances for our upcoming project. Our Haitian involvement has taken a lot over the years in terms of time and determination in addition to the vast amounts of funding needed to make the projects viable and this was to be no different.
We will be providing oversight and materials for a fresh coat of paint over both the exterior and interior walls of the structure as well as continuing a process of developing administrative procedures started some months earlier to bring the hospital back to a self-funding position. This will be the first of a multi-year plan developed by the staff in Haiti as a priority in order to make the Dessalines Rural Health Program a viable community asset once again. As we have shared with you previously, this takes a vast amount of time and funding.
If this were not enough in itself we were challenged to come up with a house (yes, you are reading this correctly) for a widow woman in the village where we will be working. The home in which she is currently residing has started to split apart in the upper corners and a section of the roof is leaking beyond correction. Without funding or local support this widow will shortly be forced into the streets as she has only the handouts given by those in the local church.
In April, shortly after an incredibly large, unplanned, tax burden wiped out our “Haiti Savings” we were challenged to pray for the significant needs of this next trip and literally had no means of procuring these ourselves in the time remaining.
As we began to pray and asked those of you who have shared with us in prayer to lift our needs to God we began to feel a sense of comfort and quiet about the matter. Ever concerned about being proper stewards of what God has provided to us, we admittedly have shown our concerns as the dates have grown closer and yet felt the Lord’s presence in all that we have done in preparation. It is uniquely God who has directed the steps over these last few days as the materials, equipment and finances have started to flow in abundance. We have received outpourings of prayer and financial support in excess of what we had ever anticipated.
We had set a goal for ourselves early in the planning and determined to meet that goal up until the day the IRS took away our savings for the trip – but God had other plans. As the time to depart approaches rapidly it has literally escaped our imagination as we have watched God deliver office supplies, recording equipment, luggage and financing in abundance.
Friends we have not seen in months have appeared seemingly out of nowhere and handed us checks for various amounts; several of you have been impressed to share with us for which we have no way of telling you our gratitude. A man from Indiana that we have employed for years to assist us with our finances has made it clear that he will be supplying us with a check before our departure; on Sunday we walked out of the building with a commitment for additional thousands of dollars that we did not have when we entered the morning service!
For those of you keeping pace in the Table for Two one of the recent scriptures;
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6
As we leave you on Wednesday it is with a firm conviction that God has surpassed our understanding and is in fact leading as we once again find our way back to Haiti. Please use this vehicle to stay current with us; we treasure your support as we move through these next few weeks and will attempt to keep you updated regularly as electricity allows.
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