We started off our time here on a 3 day retreat at a monastery that is about 2 hours from here right on top of a mountain. We spent time in prayer asking the Lord what He desires from us this year. It was so beautiful and peaceful there! There is also an orphanage attached to the monastery where we found a large AT-AT Star Wars toy that Eliza could play with with the children.
While at the retreat I really felt like the Lord spoke to me and was richly blessed by the presence of God there. I had one reflection that was very profound for me that I would like to share with you all, if you would bear with me for a few moments:
I was reading John chapter 6 which starts with the story "The feeding of the 5000." As I was reading, I began to think of us as the 5 loaves and the 2 fish that the boy brought and offered to the disciples to feed the people. The loaves and fish are minuscule in comparison to the crowd, and no reasonable mind would ever think this could ever feed so many. So when we look at Haiti, and see how massive the predicament the people here are in, both in poverty of faith and poverty of material goods, it isn't too much of a stretch to feel like the smallness of the loaves and the fish. We ask, "what can we do amongst all these problems?" Then reading on in the story, Jesus gives thanks for the gifts and then goes to work. He multiplies the loaves and the fish to feed all the people and then when all is done they still pick up 12 baskets worth of bread. So, continuing with the analogy God was showing me, He will use us, break us apart, stretch us thin, multiply our efforts, and so on and so forth. And better yet, when all the work is done, we will be so much more than the 5 loaves we started with. Even though all the resources are spent, we are left with an abundance of life we never knew we could have!
At the end of the story when the people saw this great work, they say, "This indeed is the prophet who is to come into the world!" What the Lord spoke to me through this is that, it is because we are small, it is because we are few, it is because it doesn't make sense to send so little into such a great problem, that people will come to believe. They believe because they have no choice but to see the hand of God work in and through us and multiply our efforts. All this can happen provided we allow the Lord to break us apart and use us, mold us as He sees fit. And in the end, give Him all the glory, as is His due! Thank you Lord for teaching me through this story I have read and heard so many times, but you continue to speak through it in new ways!
Please pray for us as we begin this new year!
As an added bonus I have attached a few interesting pictures for you enjoyment!
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| Lucy can fall asleep anywhere! |
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| The view from Marakwaf, a village that is two hours up a mountain by foot. I have started visiting there with a fellow missionary to pray with the people.
-DAVID
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