Day 5-Pineapples

“Just abide in God's pineapple...” a famous quote of the day. Thanks Jake!!
No really, we must abide in God’s love and live out His greatest commandment. John 15 explains the vine and the branches and how a branch remaining in God’s love will bear much fruit but one who strays will be unproductive. It is easy in our modern day world to be distracted and to gradually decrease the amount of time in the word. I tend to then wonder why I am seeing unanswered prayers. Being convicted of this, I realize I am not always turning to the Vine or Christ to help prune me so I may bear fruit. Yes sing with me now as the song is going through my head too.

It is so refreshing to see two young men growing and maturing. It reminds me so much of how my walk with Christ was beginning at the same season of life that Jake and Cameron are in. Seeing these guys grow and on fire for the Lord and soaking up His word is amazing, a great reminder for all. I am enjoying seeing their zeal for God. Seeing this, I am also convicted on how God wants me to slow down, reduce the distractions, and quench my thirst. Being so focused on the distractions, I have been neglecting my vine.

Last night, I was compelled to turn to Mark chapter 5, and to my surprise, for numerous reasons. The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ teaching on laying a foundation of moral and ethical living that is unachievable without Him as our center is so convicting. God has shown me in my quiet time here in Haiti that I have not fully given Him full reign over some aspects, i.e. thoughts of inferiority, reconciliation.
One I will share with you all is that I have felt lacking as a medical professional to even help the children here and I know of others that are much more suited for this. This lie has been so repulsive that in order to “Kill the bug,” I must surrender everything to God and ask the Holy Spirit to heal and show truth. I have started this process and am in awe of the peace that floods in and my thirst for His word continues to grow. I have noticed that I want to read the word when I wake and when I prepare to sleep. Every night, I have been going to sleep with a song or a portion of a lyric replaying in my mind. In your presence, I Surrender All, and I trust in you Lord to name a few.

Now that I have been so openly vulnerable I am moving on to what today brought. When we arrived to the orphanage, the children were still in class and we knew we had some projects to get done. Since we didn’t have our bags for the first few days, we couldn’t accomplish those tasks till today. Pastor Scott, as we call him, painted the front of the church while Janese and Tami finished applying a second or third coat of paint in the library that we started yesterday. Jake and Cameron bounced back and forth doing whatever needed to be done. I, being so ADD, started to finish organizing the clinic, helped Janese and Tami for a little, helped Pastor Scott, and bounced back to the clinic.

Once the bell rang for the kids to have their snack and a little outside free time, we had numerous little hands slip into ours, smiles flashing all over the place and kids hopping into our laps and arms. I with the help of Tami, Cameron, Jake, and Samuel (our interpreter) finished obtaining assessments on the children and continue checking back on a few kids and mamas that needed some interventions. I will say that I am so grateful for Janese’s phone, which has now been changed to our phone. Janese was able to obtain software to help me with the interventions, prior to leaving the United States, which has proved useful.

Since I was in the clinic for the majority of my time today, I will say that I did miss the VBS session today as well as Joelle giving her testimony to the children, which I heard was an amazing one.

One last thought:
We came to Haiti to love on orphans as Paul stresses in James, rather the orphans demonstrated God’s greatest commandment, Love. Seeing these children run to us, hold our hands, and give us kisses, is like God showing us a little preview of what eternity will be.

Erik
for Team Haiti