“We have about 30 orphans on a roof of a small house. They have been there three days already”.
These words sank deep into my heart as I read them. We were in Haiti for the summer and I (Becca) was preparing my summer lessons in preparation to work with Sherrie at her school. She emailed me to tell me that the next week will be a little different than we discussed.
There had been a lot of rain and a small village in the country had flooded. No one could get in, and few were able to get out. Thankfully the children got off the roof and safely made it to Sherrie’s house.
When they came, they were out of sorts. I didn’t speak the language, and they didn’t know English. I wasn’t sure how to help them. I wanted to be able to speak their language, scoop them up and keep all of them safe forever. I wanted to fix it all.
But I couldn’t.
So after a quick prayer I gathered the other kiddos in my class (they spoke English and Creole) together with the orphans and we just sat in the classroom reading books, talking, and learning about each other.
One of the orphans kept looking in my direction, then turned to one of my students, talked for a minute, and smiled at me. I asked what they were talking about. “He said he is happy and thankful to you for helping him”.
This poor boy has had his world turned upside down, and he was thankful that I gathered everyone together to basically just hang out?
I learned a huge lesson that day. While my “wants” for them were huge, what they needed in that moment was someone to just be with them. God knew and even though I didn’t feel equipped for what I wanted, it turned out I was perfectly equipped for what He wanted.
How exciting to think that serving God doesn’t depend on our skills, but on our ability to follow and listen!
Meeting with President Wawa
Last week the brand new President of STEP, Wadestrant (Wawa) Jean-Baptiste was in Dallas and we were able to meet and talk about where the seminary is now and what some of his plans are for the future.
I asked him what his biggest needs were now and without hesitation, he looked at me and said “Everything.”
Teachers, Facilities, Funds – you name it, they need it.
We’re excited to get down there and get started! But – there is much to do first. We have funds to raise, language skills to develop, etc, etc.
Here’s how you can pray this month as we continue to prepare
Support Development Team: Lord willing, we’ll soon begin gathering a team of people who will provide the funds needed to make this all happen. Would you pray even now, that the Lord would begin pulling that team of people together?
Travel: Thanks for your prayers for us while I (Luke) spent a good chunk of the past couple months traveling for work. As fun as the travel I get to do for DTS is, I’m glad to be home for a bit. Would you thank God with us for successful trips and for the strength He gave Becca to keep things running while I was away?
Reading: This month for our PDP’s we’re reading Dangerous Calling by Paul Tripp and Toxic Charity by Robert Lupton. Would you pray that we’d be open to what we need to learn from these books?
Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving!
Luke, Becca, Grace and Lydia
