Hello friends, family, and supporters!
Today I received a hard update email from Jonathan and wanted to share with you some of the details so that you could better pray for the boys and the Haitian people. I guess you could say it was an email that I should have expected, but being his wife, and a newlywed (at that), it’s sometimes harder to exercise your faith in such an unpredictable environment. Please read some of the excerpts from the email he sent to me and pray over them as you are led to do so…
Hazen is pretty sick right now with some sort of stomach virus. he has been knocked out for the day… and I am developing a strange rash on my face… so, we are in need of some serious PRAYER! Things have been really intense for us the past few days – a lot of spiritual warfare, but God is mighty and we are leaning into His grace. So far, God has really been using us to minister to the children at Gary’s school. His school has basically turned into an orphanage and there are somewhere between 50 and 100 kids on a given night. During the days we have been hitting the villages surrounding Gary’s place and praying for healing and sharing the gospel. People follow us around in crowds when we go out to pray… it is funny and crazy at the same time.
Altogether, it has been an amazing trip thus far. God is totally wrecking my heart for the poor of the earth and He is showing me how to give my life away in self-less love. Every morning we wake up at 4am and join the children for ‘morning prayer.’ These kids have been challenging me sooo much. They pray and worship with incredible passion… and it’s 4 in the morning! I have never seen anything like it. Then for the rest of the day they either wash clothes (all the little girls beg me to let them wash my clothes – just like you! haha) and the boys help out with the re-construction of the building. Hazen and I have been working hard while we are at the school in any way that we can… and in our free time we make up games to keep the kids occupied.
In the evenings everyone comes together for rice and beans. Then we pray again for God to send revival to Haiti… The kids don’t miss a beat. They jump right in with their whole heart and believe God for a massive move of the Spirit. We meet underneath a massive mango tree on Gary’s property and just pray until we have nothing left.
This nation is in a really dark spot right now. the city is in total ruin and except for the United Nations and American troops it would be total chaos. Even today on the street a riot broke out because some guy stole some food and people started shooting at each other. It sounds intense, but it is sooo common here. Anytime someone is trying to give food away it turns into brawls and riots. The only one who can change this horrible situation is God. Truly he is the only hope for Haiti…
Despite some of the hardships my heart is growing in God and being refreshed in an amazing way. At the missions base the children have NOTHING and they don’t care at all. Pieces of trash become toys and they make up games and just play for hours. They have not clothes and barely any food but they are filled with joy. It puts life in such perspective.
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Tonight as I was thinking over his email and talking to the Lord about the boys illnesses & Haiti’s economic depravity, Hebrews 10:36-39 came into my mind. It says:
“For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”
The book of Hebrews was written to encourage God’s church to persevere in the face of persecution, trial, and tribulation. I believe it is a great reminder for all of us who put our faith in Christ to KEEP GOING even if the road is not an easy or comfortable one! I also believe (after reading Matthew Henry’s commentary on the book of Hebrews) that this book offers us great exhortation to exercise our faith in the midst of adversity and believe in the promises of God. Those promises NOT necessarily being “comfort, relaxation,safety, & ease” in this life, but that of our coming Savior Jesus Christ and the salvation we inherit at the time of our death!
“It is the honourable character of just men that in times of the greatest affliction they can live by faith; they can live upon the assured persuasion they have of the truth of God’s promises. Faith puts life and vigour into them. They can trust God, and live upon him, and wait his time: and, as their faith maintains their spiritual life now, it shall be crowned with eternal life hereafter.”
Matthew Henry Commentary on Hebrews 10:39
