“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
I was watching a news report from Puerto Rico yesterday and the reporter was just lamenting the fact that 95% of the country was STILL without power following Maria and showed video of women doing laundry in a river. Final comments were “how long can these people go on living like this?” The attached photo was taken near Gonaives and reveals women doing laundry and children bathing in a stream. The clean clothes of the Haitian school children are “stream cleaned” and sun dried. It would be a humbling experience for us to hand wash our clothes in a sink and then lay them out to dry on the deck on a sunny day. That was my laundry routine for 33 months while living in Haiti. I was spoiled and didn’t have to go to stream but could wash them in my bathroom sink and had a clothesline on the roof of my apartment. Quite often, moments of hardships bring us to be more observant of how blessed we really are living in our culture. Speaking of being blessed, I am fairly certain that none of the people in this photo have ever had a pizza or bucket of chicken. Did you that for the price of one of those two blessings you could be a member of the Matthew 25 Project and help to feed a large school in Les Cayes? Please consider joining me in helping to feed that school. More information can be found at Trinity/Hope website. I am closing today with the words from the first verse of the ‘Blessings’ song that was written by Laura Story.
“We pray for blessings, we pray for peace; comfort for family, protection while we sleep. We pray for healing, for prosperity; we pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering all the while, You hear each spoken need yet love us way too much to give us lesser things. 'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops? What if Your healing comes through tears? What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near? What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?”
Dear Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you…Jay