simply serving. serving simply.

Bread from the heart, for the heart, from the Father

I sit down to write and don’t really know where to start.  It seems like so long since we last talked but I keep telling myself it’s been less than a week!  It’s almost like in the last 5 days we have been squeezed until almost breathless, and frustrated to the point that we just weren't very nice people.  But then, in only a moment, we were refreshed and our spirits renewed.  It is a sweet thing to experience the presence of God when you least expect it.  It’s given us a new perspective on how David was feeling when he wrote many of his Psalms.  To find yourself in despair wondering if God is sleeping or something, only to see Him break through is a spectacular way and reveal Himself as a One who knows and cares about every detail of your life.  We’ve been working our way through the Psalms in our morning devotions, and the events of the week have made them seem really real.  

Our days usually start about 6:00 am with me (Pat) getting up, putting the solar panels out, making coffee and and enjoying some quiet time while Cheryl gets up, sweeps and mops the floor and then joins me for our morning meditations.  Quite time in the 'kay blah' (white's house) is rarely uninterrupted and even more rarely quiet for very long.  Daily life in Haiti begins before the sun comes up, and sometimes it seems like some peoples day cannot start unless they run over and interrupt Patch &Cheloes morning devotions.  Even writing about it, I feel my attitude starting to rise up and I can relate to how David felt when he was standing beside a sleeping Saul and couldn't kill him.  

So we’re sitting, trying to enjoy our morning meditation and the little voices keep calling from outside.  We try to ignore them, and they keep calling.  We tell them to wait, and they keep calling.  Our attitudes start to rise up, Cheryl makes a comment, I say something unkind and all of a sudden our quiet time is full of noise and the day has started all wrong.  Of course we powered on through our devotions and prayer time, but our hearts weren't in it because our minds were occupied with how to silence the voices outside the window.  And the voices inside the window (ours) didn't sound much like loving, ‘simple servants’ either.  This tension carried on most of the morning.  The more we wished they would go away, the more persistently they hung around.  I was doing my thing in the garden and Cheryl was doing her thing in the house and we were doing our best to avoid any interaction.  It was nearing noon and Cheryl was looking out the window as I passed by.  I looked up and said, ‘let’s feed them.’  She looked at me like I’d grown a second nose and I explained that the Spirit had prompted me to feed them. 

They could pick congo beans from the garden, ‘kaylee’ them (congos are like peas, they need to be shelled by hand) 

them and make a pot of rice and beans and we’ll feed whoever is here.  This went over pretty well, that is until I noticed the 12 year old girl (the one who is always hungry!) picking the Moringa leaves out of her rice and spitting them on the ground.  She was ashamed to give us her bowl when it wasn’t empty, so she gave it to her brother to finish.  This prompted more unkind comments both to the kids and toward each other and our rotten attitudes carried us into the evening.  Our house was not a fun place to be.  Sniping and complaining at each other until it was bed time. 

Wednesday dawned and started much like Tuesday with the solar panels, coffee, sweeping and mopping, but it was quiet this morning.  There was no traffic on the road because of the ‘grev’, a protest against the government for their slow reaction to fixing the roads and the enactment of new taxes on licenses and vehicles.  This also prevented the teachers from coming to school, so school had been canceled for the week.  We were both feeling convicted about apologizing to each other and our Psalms for the day were 40 & 41 and they added to our conviction.  Verses like 41:9, ‘Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.’ Really spoke to our hearts but there was still an emptiness that we both felt, but didn’t understand enough to communicate.  We took a walk to a friend’s house in search of bread because we didn’t have any.  She didn’t have any either, but she did have a ‘pwa nwa’ (black beans) spread out in the sun to dry and graciously scooped up a ‘mamit’ (measuring cup) full and graciously handed them to us as a gift.  We returned home and Cheryl decided to make bread since there wasn’t any to be found from our friends.  No sooner than she had started, we hear ‘Kaufman, bon jor!’ and our friend Charlot appeared at the door.  He had braved the ‘grev’ to come up from Fond Parisien just to see how we were doing.

.  And in his hand he had a bag of bread from market.  A gift for us! Something about this act of caring and generosity just touched our hearts and really turned our week around.  He sat and chatted for a while and headed back to town, but left behind an aroma of life (and fresh bread!).  As he was heading up the path, Cheryl said with a tear in her eye, ‘you don’t know how much that spoke to me.  God really does know.’  And being the understanding husband I am, I responded, ‘huh?’  She says, ‘you know, that verse from this morning.’ And she read Ps. 40:17, ‘As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God!’ (my italics).   Bread from a friend, for our hearts, from the Father was the Lord revealing that He really does take thought for us, even when we least deserve it.  It really changed our attitudes!  It didn't make the challenges go away, but He gave us the strength to deal with them.  Of course, the kids were hungry again the next day, but the biggest challenge popped up when Cheryl went to start supper and there was no propane left in the tank.  No cooking on the stove tonight, and with the 'grev' it's hard to tell when we'd be able to fill our tank.   We had to shift to cooking over a fire, something we had very little experience doing.  And of course it was another opportunity for the curious neighbors to watch and laugh as the 'blahs' were cooking outside.  We made soup that night, coffee in the morning

and I was doing rice for supper when I looked up and there was Charlot.....again...... with a propane tank on his shoulder!  God came through again!  He really does take thought for us! 

Hope you weren’t too bored but that was our week.  Maybe you’re not feeling the greatest today.  Take heart, the Lord takes thought for you too!  Love you all!  Maybe the Grace of God our Father fill your hearts and the Holy Spirit power you through the challenges that lie ahead! 

Oh yeah, one last thing.  Our friends Brian and Sandy Stull and Duane Wilson are in Africa for the next two weeks.  They are there in response to and invitation  to teach at a church leaders conference there.  Join us in prayer for safety as they travel and wisdom as they teach the Word of God.  Pray that they will be instruments in God's hands and allow the Holy Spirit to work through them.  Thanks!