Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Psalms 55:17 7 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.


It is calm as the Eastern sky begins to brighten; the expression of a handful of birds the only hint of activity, the air is quiet, the temperature hardly noticeable. The coffee will be done soon and time spent reading on the patio will again start the day.

It is difficult to place into words the emptiness felt when one compares life in the USA in even the least of conditions to that experienced each and every morning by our Haitian friends and acquaintances.

The day starts hours earlier, well before dawn, with a cacophony of roosters calling to those still sleeping. Listen carefully and you can hear the livestock rustling through the brush looking for sustenance, a difficult ordeal in a land where nothing of value is discarded.

This morning in Dessalines will be similar to most; a neighbor will be butchering and perhaps a morsel shared; more than likely the average child will settle for a mango plucked from a “common property” tree or perhaps a tomato from the market yesterday. The temperature will rise with the sun as will the humidity of this Caribbean nation; there will be no withdrawal to an air-conditioned home or office. It has been a little less than three weeks since our return; as I have started each day I cannot help but pray that on this day God might find favor with those left behind.

I pray that somewhere in His resources might be found the donor that will provide the hospital with the 100,000 USD needed to provide renewable solar energy equipment; the 30,000 USD needed to staff a full time pediatrician. Somewhere out there are the 15,000 USD needed to fill the diesel reservoir and assure the hospital of both electricity and water for a season; the 10,000 USD needed to renovate the remaining physician and nurse quarters.

God has a plan and a purpose for each of us; we need to carefully and cautiously pursue that plan. One need not look only across the courtyard in Dessalines, past the iron entry gate beyond the witch doctor’s hut to see that He has shined mercifully on each of us. To be graciously accommodated in a country where beautiful homes, electricity and clean water are taken for granted is a privilege.

I pray this morning and each morning that God would use me and mine to find a ray of hope for at least a portion of this community, our “second home”, somewhere something I have done or will do has or will make a difference in the lives of a few in the streets of Dessalines today. I pray that someone today will find a way to share what He already owns with those whom He has brought us.

I declare it no accident that we have served from a distance these last few years; through our own local trials we have been called of Him and through Him have accomplished much yet much remains to be completed. I would ask that you pray with us today; pray that God will open the floodgates of Heaven and meet the needs of the needy, that the miracles of the New Testament might proclaim themselves once again.