Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

In Haiti, we never know what good works God has in store for us to do.

After a month full of ministry and activity, Carol and I decided to take a long weekend at the Ortlip Ministry center which is right on the bay overlooking the island of La Gonave. As it turned out we were there alone for the weekend and there were no other visitors. Ah!, peace and quiet! (except for the roosters crowing at 5 AM!). We relaxed at the guesthouse on Friday, but on Saturday we decided to visit a beach resort nearby for the day.

In the middle of the day, Carol and I were feeling very hot and decided to take a dip in the ocean. As we were talking softly we heard a woman sobbing a few yards away. These were not little sniffle sobs, but gut-wrenching, from deep within sobs. So Carol went over and asked if the woman was alright. At first she answered through her crying a muffled “yes”. But Carol could see that she was emotionally upset, and so started walking toward her asked her a few questions and she calmed down enough to explain what was going on.

It turns out that the woman was a nurse practitioner who had just spend a week helping very poor people in Cite Soleil, one of the poorest parts of Port-au-Prince. This was her first trip to Haiti--she had never seen such poverty and she was very tired. But the main thing on her mind was her son who is to drugs and she had not heard from him for 8 days.

After Carol talked to her a few minutes, the woman’s husband came over and then I joined the group as well. After listening to their story, we all prayed together right there in the middle of the water!

Later I saw the couple a few times during the day and tried to encourage them in the Lord. at 8 PM (remember that 9 PM is missionary midnight), our friend who stayed with us after the earthquake, Venita, showed up at our gate. She said that her husband has not been around for over a month, and has not been providing for their 4 children. In addition, this week her school deposited her paycheck into her bank, and her husband withdrew the money and only gave her 40% of it back. She said her children had hardly had anything to eat for the past few days. So as Carol listened and prayed with her, I prepared a care package of cooked food for them to eat.

So these are some of the “good works” God prepared for us to do over the past week or so.

All the GLory goes to HIM!