Brokenness

God broke many of us yesterday. It's not that we "broke" or that we sought our own brokenness, but that God broke us. I've now been to Haiti six times. I was here three weeks following the earthquake, ... but I've never seen a team broken quite like this, broken by God, ... ultimately the work of our Loving Heavenly Father.

In this post, I'm going to share some marvelous things we witnessed yesterday. The hard things we experienced yesterday take me to a place of silence for now, so I will not share of those things yet, but the marvelous things ...

First, we saw the man again who had placed his faith in Christ yesterday AND we saw his two daughters: they were looking much better, even walking around! They looked 100% better. Praise the Lord. The girls simply needed food, hadn't eaten in a long time, but the girls ate our Cliff and Luna bars. This family lives right by the GCA property. The man has just placed his faith in Christ: I have no reason to doubt the authenticity of his profession of faith. He even said to our team, "my wife is not yet ready to be a Christian, but I am". Pray for this man. I don't know his name, but pray for the Word of God to take deep root in this man. Some of our locals will have a chance to study the Scriptures with him.

There is a secondary and amazing storyline developing with the former witch doctor who received Christ on Thursday. The man has two sons. Caitlin Baker met the first boy last Wednesday night. She had no idea who he was, but she noticed a hardness to the kid. He was cold and joyless. The boy's father received Christ on Thursday. Caitlin saw the boy again on Saturday and noticed a visible change in the boy: he was smiling and tender. His heart simply seemed lighter and more full. Caitlin then made the connection that Jesus' Kingdom had come to the boy's house, that this same boy she was intrigued with a few days earlier was actually the son of the former witch doctor.

I also said there was a second son. After worship on Sunday, we ended up on a long hike through the countryside of Mirebalais. It was hot, but also breathtakingly beautiful, but I had one primary concern. Was my wife Tanya doing OK? Tanya had scoliosis surgery when she was a girl and in recent years she's lived with a lot of chronic pain. Was she OK as the hike turned out to be a long one. I was in the middle of the pack on a narrow trail. Remember, we have 34 people, plus a number of Haitians walking with us. In a word, I got split up from Tanya. Tanya ended up near the end of the pack, except for Rob Hemmer who basically decided to carry up the rear and watch after Tanya ... the Lord bless Rob Hemmer. So I'm on pins and needles waiting at the top of the hill, watching Tanya come to the end of the hike, wondering if every step is excruciatingly painful. She's tough as nails though, so I also know she won't complain, but I know she lives in constant pain. As she is walking up the hill, she is doing so arm-in-arm with a Haitian boy who has bowed legs and possibly cerebral palsy. Tanya has a smile on her face. I ask, "is your leg OK (it's her right leg that gives her fits)?" She smiles (not a forced, but a relaxed smile) and says, "my leg feels fine, but my buddy's legs are really hurting him right now". The boy and Tanya had been helping each other walk up the hill. It's the first time in the last five years I can remember that Tanya was walking with someone who could truly understand her leg pain, and it was a Haitian boy (it's 5am right now, Ben Loos and Craig Moore are sound asleep in our darkened room, and I'm blubbering like a baby right now). Tanya saw the boy again yesterday and she lit up like Clark Griswold's house on Christmas day. I also learned yesterday that this boy is the other son of the former witchdoctor who gave his life to Jesus on Thursday.

Here is the picture of Tanya walking with the boy and Rob Hemmer behind her:

http://hsumike.blogspot.com/2010/03/tanya-hsu-and-rob-hemmer-walking-with.html

I'm broken friends. A lot of us are broken because of the things we've seen, but God is with us.