“…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6
There are many unforgettable sights in Haiti that reflect human suffering in unimaginable ways. My mind still recalls the Haitian man at the Port-au-Prince airport without any legs, dragging himself along the sidewalk begging for food or money. There was the man in Les Cayes without an arm, praying with his left hand to his forehead. And the man in the Central Plateau that I met on a hot morning, who was blinded in an accident and came up with his mother to my truck, and asked me to pray for him. And there was the demon possessed man running naked in between four lanes of traffic on Delmas in downtown Port-au-Prince on a busy afternoon.
And then there is the man in the attached photo. Our office had a Christian woman who cleaned and prepared lunch for the office and Seminary staff. Her name was Odane and she is a member at Bon Berger Lutheran church in Caredeux. The man in the wheelchair is her husband. He had a job as a construction worker and provided for his family until he was in an auto accident and paralyzed from the waist down.
Odane wanted me to meet him and see if there was anything that I could do to help him. It was difficult to fully understand what kept his wheelchair together, wobbly rolling into their dirt floor house and back into their small outdoor front area. We prayed, talked about life, his family, his faith and we even laughed a little. His wife Odane is a strong Christian and she had their children in the Lutheran school and they scratched out an existence. By the grace of God, a newer wheelchair from Orphan Grain Train found its way from Norfolk, Nebraska into their humble home in Caredeux.
I am mindful of the Apostle Paul’s words in Philippians; we need to be confident Christ did begin a good work in each of us, and will continue to do so until He returns and we are taken to our Heavenly home. That is what is really important here, that we on this side of Heaven continue to call upon our Triune God to do His work through our lives until He comes back to take us home. It is important that we continue to support children in Christian schools in Haiti as they do their Heavenly Father’s work in Haiti; rescuing the lost.
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