Faces Hands and Feet
It’s been a bit quiet here lately. Well really quiet actually. Sorry friends. God has opened some incredible doors for me this summer to take Coming Alive Ministries to countries that have captured my heart. To places that may seem hard, but that have my heart.
I have tried to find words to write about these places. About what I have seen God do this summer. About how each encounter transforms a little bit of my heart. About how I go to prayerfully show others the love of Christ and end up experiencing His love in deeper ways.
I have seen Him through each face.
Each Hand I was able to hold.
Even the feet I was able to wash.
I have been back from Haiti for about a week. I was blessed to travel with 14 others to a village called Les Anglais Haiti. I had been blessed to go last year, so I was so excited to go back this year.
To see Him again in their faces. To hold their hands and pray. To wash the feet of those who walk a dusty road of life that I cannot even imagine.
This village is pretty remote. It takes quite a long drive by Tap Tap, which is basically a covered cattle truck. And by quite a long drive, I mean ALL day. In the hot and the dust. But it is so worth it.
It is worth it on Monday when the 600 kids show up to the one room schoolhouse/church for VBS. Yes! 600 kids to 10 adults. Craft time chaos. But those children are seeing snatches of love.
It is worth it when we stand over steaming hot pots of rice and beans, asking God to multiply miraculously so that each of these 600 starving children get a meal.
It is worth it when the 12 Special needs adults and kids, precious individuals who are usually shunned for their handicaps, stay for our special friends camp. We color, we dance, we sing, we feed them again, and we watch Jesus love them, in turn loving us.
It is worth it when we walk to visit widows in their one bedroom, no running water or electricity homes. Once a month Harvest Field Ministries brings them food provision to last a month.
These ladies have NOTHING but it is evident Jesus is their everything. When asked how we could pray for them they responded, ” pray we stay strong in the faith.”
I will never forget Lolance. I met her last year. She was working in the marketplace in 2010 when her earth was rocked by the strong earthquake that devastated Haiti. She could not find her husband and her child. As a result of the emotional trauma she had a psychotic break from reality. She became catatonic and unresponsive. She has lived that way ever since.
When I met her last year she would not speak. She would not participate. She could not keep the drool from rolling down her chin. Her mother was taking care of her and poured out her heart to me, sharing the heartbreak of watching her daughter suffer.
She begged me to do something.
So we prayed.
We loved.
We held her hand. I danced with her. I smiled at her.
We visited their home. We got her mom in the widows program. Harvest Field put a roof on their home.
We prayed for her.
Some may forget her. God does not.
No matter how much the enemy tells you that you do not matter, or that you have been forgotten by God, You are known by God.
Lolance is known by God.
You are known by God.
He sees your face. He holds your hand. He walks with you where your feet go.
He sees her face. He holds her hand. He walks with her.
This year when Lolance saw me she smiled. This year, she danced. This year she spoke.
She still has a long way to go, but God is working.
I want this to serve as a reminder to you. God is working in your life. In your circumstance. In what seems impossible.
He has not forgotten you. He is with you.
And I want to be reminded to look for Him in the faces, hands, and feet of those I meet, not just in Haiti, but down the street.