ENCOURAGEMENT

            While home in PA this summer, we sang a song at the ASAPH concert that talked about the people who you help as a Christian and who are blessed by you without it ever really being known to you.  “Glue on my shoe, for a whole in my soul, filled by you!”

            Since I’ve been back in Haiti, God has sent three different people to encourage me for things I just kind of did along the way but that made a big impression on their lives.  I share them not to blow notes on my own trumpet, but rather to give you insight into what God is doing here.

            #1) F.B. was a student of mine when I did a sixth grade Bible class in the WFL school.  I had written a book about different belief systems and compared them with what the Bible says.  It was my attempt to prepare our kids for the ‘world’ that was waiting for them after 6th grade in our little Christian school.  F.B. yesterday told me that when he was given the book, he began reading it immediately…I mean immediately!  He walked home reading the book.  Before he slept that night he had read the whole thing and has referred to it regularly until it has become worn.  It was just a little book I wrote for a little class.  But in God’s hands…

            #2) J.N. came from Cavaillon to work at our school.  He showed a sincere love for kids and teaching, and he was as sharp as a charcoal maker’s machete.  I helped him with some computer stuff, visual aids, and teaching ideas.  He participated in an English Club that I ran, and watched me teach other places.  He’s decided now to leave the WFL school, study some more, and then be in full-time ministry.  The other day he shared with me that two years ago he had a dream in which he saw me filling a sack of his with ‘all kinds of good stuff’.  Looking back now, he realizes that the ‘stuff’ was teaching materials and techniques that he will take with him.  I ws just helping a fellow teacher, but in God’s hands…

            #3) J.M. and R.J. both shared with me that they vividly remember lessons learned from things I taught about the Hebrew Tabernacle years ago when they were school students.  They attended the new seminar I did two weeks ago now.  

            And so I’ve been able to continue what I do here with renewed courage, knowing that the little things I do in His name are used by Him for His glory.  And that is the reality for each of us who serve Him.  A friend of mine used to finish his letters with:  “It’s never for nothing.”  Amen.

            Go in Peace.  Serve the Lord…with enthusiasm!