Today David and I served at the clinic. We did not have plans to take patients today. We were going to just look to see what supplies were there. Well there was a line of people at the clinic when we got there. They didn’t know if anybody was going to be there, but they took a chance. So David and I took 10 minutes to learn of our surrounding. We met and helped 36 patients today. Amazing God moments too!!!
Pastor Brian spoke to a group of 16 church leaders and pastors today. His talk today was about spiritual giftedness and serving out of that gift. At the end there was a small commissioning service for one of the new pastors. They rest of the group worked on the house down the driveway. They deconstructed what was damaged from the earthquake and figured out what is needed for the next step. They have all of their supplies for tomorrow as well.
We had the privilege of attending the large wedding tonight too. There was five couples (I think previously I said seven). One of the couples has an amazing story of how God has moved in the last few months. This couple is over 80 yrs old and married for the first time tonight. I am so humbled to be a part of their story.
Keep praying for us and we will keep praying for all of you.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Update from Haiti
So many amazing things happening here. Today [Sunday] I crossed the river in a dugout canoe to preach at church. Didn't even know I was preaching until they said Tyler we need you this morning, get your tie and let's go. If we would not have had a flat tire I would have had to prepare something to say during music in worship. Here is a picture of me with Bible and notes in hand while wearing suit in a canoe in the middle of the river.
The church in Fedja was where all the rest of the Ginghamsburg folks were when they had a once-in-lifetime experience. One of the most feared voodoo priests came to Christ in worship. So the team and many pastors (here for a conference) went to this guy's home after worship to throw out all things related to voodoo that he had. Not much left. (Note...by doing this he also loses his job.) Then he decided that his girlfriend must also make a decision so they went and visited her. Then his mother. They had many stops today.
Tomorrow Pastor Brian will teach pastors. At the end there will be an ordination or commissioning service, for a new pastor and then in the evening 7 couples will become husband and wife. Everyone is doing very well and healthy.
The church in Fedja was where all the rest of the Ginghamsburg folks were when they had a once-in-lifetime experience. One of the most feared voodoo priests came to Christ in worship. So the team and many pastors (here for a conference) went to this guy's home after worship to throw out all things related to voodoo that he had. Not much left. (Note...by doing this he also loses his job.) Then he decided that his girlfriend must also make a decision so they went and visited her. Then his mother. They had many stops today.
Tomorrow Pastor Brian will teach pastors. At the end there will be an ordination or commissioning service, for a new pastor and then in the evening 7 couples will become husband and wife. Everyone is doing very well and healthy.
Friday, April 2, 2010
When Jesus' Heart Broke: by Henri J.M. Nouwen
“I found this just today. Good Friday. Lord break my heart with the things that break Yours.”
Dear Lord Jesus,
You, “the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation, for whom all things are created in heaven and on earth, everything visible and everything invisible,” you hang dead on a cross. You have just spoken your last words, “It is fulfilled,” and given up your spirit.
I look at your dead body on the cross. The soldiers, who have broken the legs of the two men crucified with you, do not break your legs, but one of them pierces your side with a lance, and immediately blood and water flow out. Your heart is broken, the heart that did not know hatred, revenge, resentment, jealousy or envy but only love, love so deep and so wide that it embraces your Father in heaven as well as all humanity in time and space. Your broken heart is the source of my salvation, the foundation of my hope, the cause of my love. It is the sacred place where all that was, is and ever shall be is held in unity. There all suffering has been suffered, all anguish lived, all loneliness endured, all abandonment felt and all agony cried out. There, human and divine love have kissed, and there God and all men and women of history are reconciled. All the tears of the human race have been cried there, all pain understood and all despair touched. Together with all people of all times, I look up to you whom they have pierced, and I gradually come to know what it means to be part of your body and your blood, what it means to be human.
As I look, my eyes begin to recognize the anguish and agony of all the people for whom you gave yourself. Your broken heart becomes the heart of all of humanity, the heart of all the world. You carry them all: abandoned children, rejected wives and husbands, broken families, the homeless, refugees, prisoners, the maimed and tortured, and the thousands, yes millions, who are unloved, forgotten and left alone to die. I see their emaciated bodies, their despairing faces, their anguished looks. I see them all there, where your body is pierced and your heart is ripped apart. O compassionate Lord, your heart is broken because of all the love that is not given or received.
Blood and water flowed from your broken heart. Lord Jesus, help me to understand this mystery. So much blood has flowed through the centuries: blood of people who did not even know why they were trampled underfoot, mutilated, tortured, slain, beheaded and left unburied; blood caused by swords, arrows, guns and bombs, tainting the faces of millions of people; blood that comes forth from angry, bitter, jealous, vengeful hearts, and from hearts that are set on hatred, violence and destruction. From the blood of Abel killed by his brother to the blood of the Jews, the Armenians, the Ukrainians, the Irish, the Iranians and Iraqis, the Palestinians, the South Africans and the countless nations and ethnic groups victimized by the evil intentions of their sisters and brothers in the human race, blood has been covering the earth, and cries have gone up to heaven: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken us?”
Let the blood and water that flow from your heart give me a new heart to live a new life. I know that in this world water and blood will never be separated. There will be peace and anguish, joy and tears, love and agony. They will be there always—together—leading me daily closer to you who give your heart to my heart.
Dear Lord Jesus,
You, “the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation, for whom all things are created in heaven and on earth, everything visible and everything invisible,” you hang dead on a cross. You have just spoken your last words, “It is fulfilled,” and given up your spirit.
I look at your dead body on the cross. The soldiers, who have broken the legs of the two men crucified with you, do not break your legs, but one of them pierces your side with a lance, and immediately blood and water flow out. Your heart is broken, the heart that did not know hatred, revenge, resentment, jealousy or envy but only love, love so deep and so wide that it embraces your Father in heaven as well as all humanity in time and space. Your broken heart is the source of my salvation, the foundation of my hope, the cause of my love. It is the sacred place where all that was, is and ever shall be is held in unity. There all suffering has been suffered, all anguish lived, all loneliness endured, all abandonment felt and all agony cried out. There, human and divine love have kissed, and there God and all men and women of history are reconciled. All the tears of the human race have been cried there, all pain understood and all despair touched. Together with all people of all times, I look up to you whom they have pierced, and I gradually come to know what it means to be part of your body and your blood, what it means to be human.
As I look, my eyes begin to recognize the anguish and agony of all the people for whom you gave yourself. Your broken heart becomes the heart of all of humanity, the heart of all the world. You carry them all: abandoned children, rejected wives and husbands, broken families, the homeless, refugees, prisoners, the maimed and tortured, and the thousands, yes millions, who are unloved, forgotten and left alone to die. I see their emaciated bodies, their despairing faces, their anguished looks. I see them all there, where your body is pierced and your heart is ripped apart. O compassionate Lord, your heart is broken because of all the love that is not given or received.
Blood and water flowed from your broken heart. Lord Jesus, help me to understand this mystery. So much blood has flowed through the centuries: blood of people who did not even know why they were trampled underfoot, mutilated, tortured, slain, beheaded and left unburied; blood caused by swords, arrows, guns and bombs, tainting the faces of millions of people; blood that comes forth from angry, bitter, jealous, vengeful hearts, and from hearts that are set on hatred, violence and destruction. From the blood of Abel killed by his brother to the blood of the Jews, the Armenians, the Ukrainians, the Irish, the Iranians and Iraqis, the Palestinians, the South Africans and the countless nations and ethnic groups victimized by the evil intentions of their sisters and brothers in the human race, blood has been covering the earth, and cries have gone up to heaven: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken us?”
Let the blood and water that flow from your heart give me a new heart to live a new life. I know that in this world water and blood will never be separated. There will be peace and anguish, joy and tears, love and agony. They will be there always—together—leading me daily closer to you who give your heart to my heart.
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