Stretching Our Faith

Today was a day for God to stretch us. We didn't see it coming, but come it did. He knew it would and used every piece of it to impact us.

Steve had plans to work with a local tree cutter to clear out a tree that might fall on a home, but the guy didn't show, so his day had to go another direction. Later in the day he was set to help a family with their plumbing, but a huge rain hit and that got nixed too. So, he worked at painting at the Planche'.

Amanda, Kat and Patty were working at the kindergarten teaching English with Holli. After that they worked at painting in the playground before a big school program on Friday. While painting, a young guy names Elwin approached them (they were on one side of a high fence, him on the other). As Amanda came to a point in the conversation about trusting Jesus with your life, a girl came up and kicked Elwin in the face (he was kneeling down while talking). "Kick" here meaning a full face, cracking sound blow to the nose and eye. She ran off and left him humiliated on the ground. This caused our ladies great fear since they were not sure what had taken place and why it had taken place. They had no way to know at the time, but it had nothing to do with them at all. Needless to say, we had to work through the "stretching" part of feeling fearful in our surroundings, trusting God for our confidence and much more.

Brian was finishing the mural at the time of the incident, so he got involved with Elwin, making sure he was OK. His eye and nose were swollen and he probably had a minor concussion. Within minutes we had him in the shade and getting ice for him. In only a situation that God could have created, this 21 year old guy, who lives in the street was crying on Brian's shoulder with his arms around him. We discovered later that this is just not a common occurrence in a culture where men work hard to appear macho and strong. Here's this guy who has no family, no home, no job, no food, really nothing, finding care in the arms and through the lives of people from thousands of miles away. He helped us the rest of the day painting, sweeping and we believe, experiencing the love of Jesus.

Eric worked again today with Jason, the guy who had been stabbed. He went with him to the hospital where they finally lanced the wound -- you don't what details! He also got to pray for and hold a little boy there at the clinic! Jason is doing better, but still watching the wound. We are hoping our love for him will continue to lead him toward transformation in a drug/alcohol program.

Heavy rains adversely affected our afternoon, but Brian got to go and share at a men's drug rehab center. Working through an interpreter was hard, but we're confident that God touched some of the men there. Only 1 out of 10 guys will be successful in the program (a Christian based, 9 month program), so pray for these men and their battle.

The evening was the weekly children's program. In spite of rain, their were 80 teens and children. We helped with a variety of areas, sharing with them, playing games and helping start a photo and information data base of all the children.

A late dinner was followed by a "mid-trip" debrief about....STRETCHING! God is challenging us to regroup, focus on our mission and trust Him fully. Thanks everyone. We are encouraged by your comments. If you haven't let us hear from you, please do. We really like reading them. More stretching tomorrow!