Last week the Haiti team found themselves face to face with a terrible monster; The final payment for the trip was due and those who couldn't make it faced the imminent possibility of not being able to make the trip!
Although most of the people on the Haiti team had raised the needed requirement to go, there were two or three others who had worked hard and still fell short of the amount needed by upwards of hundreds of dollars while the deadline was the next morning. *gulp*
So... as you sit here, white-knuckled, on the edge of your seat, wondering 'what"..oh what will ever happen to these poor little missionaries?', I will be so rude as to refrain from telling you how it all ends, and pause for a moment to let you hear it from one of those little missionaries herself: Emily Fischer. Take it Emily!
"I sat in on our last Haiti missions meeting and knew that I was not going to go, not with 910 more dollars to raise by 2:00 pm tomorrow. After the meeting I talked to our group leader. I actually told him, "Yanni, I'm not going to Haiti and don't try to talk me out of it." He asked me if I had the money would I go, and I said yes that I still wanted to go, but I just did not have faith in this and did not really know if God had wanted me to go in the first place. He asked of me to not give up until the deadline and called Melissa Johnson (the other leader for the trip) for me and set up our meeting.
I drove to her house in Oakwood and we sat in my car through midnight processing through some stuff- through the real reason why I had given up. If this did not happen then it would feel like God would not hear me. I could not bare thinking my God did not hear me, so I just removed myself from any risk. Mel J told me that we should pray for a yes anyways, and we did. From midnight through early morning I prayed and begged and waited. I have never felt so desperate in my life. By 6am I had seen God manifest his love and presence- I had the entire cost of the trip pledged. I spent the next day picking up sponsor checks and walking in awe of what God had done. He showed me that He does hear me- He specifically hears my voice. So much has happened already in me and we have not even left yet- I know that if God has made himself known this intensely so far, then Haiti is going to be something else, something completely God ordained and awe-inspiring."
Emily Fischer
12/14/09
So... there you have it folks. God is really somethin' isn't he?? Like Emily, the other members of the Haiti team who were short were provided for completely in one night. And everybody is going on the trip- not one person excluded!
I heard something beautiful from someone once that this reminds me of. This person said that as he was training to be a lifeguard one thing that he was taught when rescuing a drowning person who is strong and resistant is to wade by the person as they thrash around in the water... literally... to tread water three feet away and carefully watch until the drowning person is at their weakest and ready to give in to the waves. Then, and only then, can the lifeguard swoop down and rescue the person, because had the drowning victim been any stronger surely they would have pulled both the lifeguard and themselves to watery doom in their panic.
I find that this is a lot like our relationship with Jesus sometimes. There are times when we think we are left alone...abandoned to drown and be consumed by waves (waves of money deadlines, for example). All the while Jesus is treading water with us three feet away and waiting carefully for us to be weak enough and let go of our ego and pride and fear and just shout between gasps of breath,"Jesus! You are Lord! You alone can save me!"... and then, he swoops down and saves us. And thank you, thank you for that sweet rescue.
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