Like a Breeze

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God showed me something today.  He peeled back the curtain and I got a glimpse, like a quick, cool gentle breeze on a hot, still day, which incidentally is common here. What He showed me felt like that kind of breeze that’s there for just a moment and then moved on to the next lucky soul, but you’re thankful you got to feel it anyway, and you’re hopeful you’ll feel it just a few more times in the day....

I was walking up to the local orphanage, and two people saw me come out of the gate of my house.  They asked for bibles, so of course I got out the keys and unlocked everything again.  

I’m used to watching the way they cradle His Word.  It gave me peace as they left.  Then I saw Judeline and Tati, and they told me that they were starting today.  Yes, the first discipleship group would officially begin at 3pm.  I asked where they were meeting, and Tati spoke first, 

“At your house, Dan.”

Just as I began to form the words to tell her no, Judeline cut in, 

“No, we meet at my house or at yours, Tati.” She said.

“How many chapters are you going to read today?” I asked.

“Four.” She said.

Wow.  This girl not only read the paper I’d given her about discipleship, she soaked it up.  She understood it completely, and again I had peace as we said our goodbye’s. 

As I again reached the path to the orphanage, i noticed a woman on the corner where they usually sell bread.  As I got closer, I realized she was reading something, and then it dawned on me, she was reading the bible I’d given her last week.    

Right out in the open, on the main road in Ti Rivier...  Absorbed in scripture.  

I wanted to jump up and down, I wanted to praise God, give a huge Hallelujah and hug her!  But I was afraid I’d embarrass her or even scare her with my crazy antics, so I quietly passed by her with little more than a smile....on the outside.  But on the inside, wooooooooo-eeeeee, what a charge!   My batteries were once again filled. :) Another cool breeze.

After a visit with Heather’s grandma up on the hill, we were making our way back down to the house, and we passed Judeline’s. I knew it was about 4 pm, so I quietly peeked over her cactus fence onto her front porch.  

There was Tati and Judeline, sitting in bamboo chairs, facing each other, reading their bibles.  They looked up and smiled at me.  I smiled at them and asked once more, 

“How many chapters?”

Judeline laughed and held up 4 fingers.

And once again I filled with peace.

He didn’t have to send those breezes my way.  He has no duty to send me reprieve, but He does it anyway.

Just like my friend from South Dakota, showing up on my doorstep in the middle of Haiti, only weeks after she’d just left this place, God refreshed when He didn’t have to and when I least expected it. In the quiet of my time alone, He brought fellowship and joy and a kindred spirit to remind me that His people can go anywhere and do anything in His name.  A cool breeze of Peace once again drifted through me.

That’s the God I want to serve, the King I want to praise, the Master I want to share.   A Father, who just wants to show us He’s present and that He hears the things our souls ache for. Even when we cannot form the words of what we feel, He knows us so well, because He knit us together, and He understands our need. Even when we think we’re tough enough, He is the One who really knows just how tough we are, and how weak, and He sends His strength, His courage, His Help, in the exact measure that our thirsty souls need.

How beautiful and thankful I am to know in the quiet places of my heart that I can depend on Him to see me through.   I pray I can pay forward such a love, in spite of myself and my shortcomings.  I pray they See Him somehow, clearly, and that the memory of me is rubbed out.   I pray that I leave no mark or blemish of my own on this place, just the glorious fragrance of a love so sweet you can smell it in the air.   

Talking with a man on the street this morning, he told me to prepare for the rain.  He says it will come now every day, and that the river will get very high.  He says all of the water will make problems with everything being damp, and that all of October will be this way.  

Even now it’s pouring, and I hear the rumbling thunder as it comes across the ocean from the mountains across the bay.

But for today I choose to just embrace the breeze.