Taking Time to Love as Jesus Loves

I am going to try not to be so long tonight. Those of you who know me well know that this is almost an impossible task. We worked in the church in Carrefour today and although I have a gazillion stories to choose from of how God has worked today, I wanted to focus tonight on what God is doing within our team. Our devotional today was led by a super great friend on our team named Andy. He led us to examine Ephesians 4, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Then it says later that we, as the body of Christ, are “joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” These verses perfectly describe what is going on here in Haiti right now. Some of you may wonder how we ended up with this team from Canada, and to make a long story short, God simply led our family to them through a Google search weeks ago because He has a divine plan. We have knitted ourselves together as servants of the Lord and He is using us each according to the gifts he has given us to accomplish great things. This group is not only made up of Americans and Canadians, but Haitians as well as we work every day with the translators, doctors, and nurses from here in Haiti. There is no way to explain the bond we have all formed without giving total glory to God. We ended this day tonight beside the pool at our hotel singing praises together and sharing stories of how God not only used each of us to meet physical needs of these broken and hurting people, but also spiritual needs among the people as well. We made very personal and intimate connections with people that we couldn’t even really communicate any other way other than through the power of the Holy Spirit as we loved them as JESUS would love them. I am so thankful that Jesus doesn’t see dirt or color but rather the heart and soul of every human being on this planet, and He calls us to love each other just as He has loved us…not as people of other countries or other races…not seeing ourselves as better than anyone else, but as children of the LIVING God, created in His image, and deeply loved by our Father. We have truly experienced this love with not only our Canadian friends on this trip, but our Haitian friends as well. Thank you Jesus for giving us the ability to love as YOU love. Amen!
…and good night our friends. Thank you again for your prayers. God is using you MIGHTILY!!!