...possibly more than you wanna know this time!

Urgent, intense “abdominal irregularities” in the middle of the night! I know, I know – as my kids would say, “TMI” – but hang on, there is a link back to God (even on that kind of an opening!).

Anyone who has been in places like this is likely thinking, “I’m surprised it took almost a week for that!” Too true, really. Anyway, it “lingered” ‘til morning and then lurked in the background on the brutally bumpy two-hour ride out to the edge of the little town where the leader training was. At a crucial moment our driver continued to amaze me and was able to whisk me to a “desperately necessary” spot, just in time. Again, if you’ve lived this sorta thing, you’re nodding along with me. If you haven’t, you’re likely thinkin’ I’ve kinda lost it!

My main concern was how I was gonna get through a 3-hour presentation – on the edge of nowhere! D-uhhhhhh; just before it was to start I kinda whimpered a weak, “Father, help!”

The inner answer back was extremely unexpected and seemingly unrelated: “Ditch yer notes, dude; there is something else to tell these folks.” Uncharacteristically, I did just that (my “AG” friends are likely grinnin’; my friends who have no clue what those letters stand for are scratching their heads!)! At risk of really taking the imagery of this story to a dangerous extreme, the thoughts and words flowed like I never could have imagined – while “nothing else” flowed for the whole three hours (again, some of you will get that; some of you will likely give up on this post. either way, I doubt it will make it to any of our mission’s official publications!)

The bottom (no pun intended) line is, it turned into an extraordinary day with about 40 Haitian church leaders. They warmed up quickly and fully, the translator was fabulous, the Truth flowed freely back and forth between us and I found myself learning and caring about them with an intensity that still leaves me shaking my head. I am gonna have a ton of stuff to ponder, rethink and bawl over when this is all done!

Now I am back in my “li’l miracle tech corner” of the place where I’m staying and the wireless strength is showing “very good!” Plus, the meal that was waiting for me (fried bananas, rice and some kind of meat that I’m still afraid to ask for details on) was big enough to share with a couple of the workers that seem particularly entertained by me (I stopped worrying about what they’re saying about me in Creole days ago!).

Lincoln Brewster’s version of “Lord I’m Amazed By You…” is echoing in my head so loud its drowning out the Calypso beat from next door!

Oh, one other random bit that I don’t think I have mentioned: there isn’t a single traffic light in this whole city (some people have told me 500,000 people live here!). If you’ve never been somewhere like this you would never believe how many motorcycles, trucks, cars, wagons, donkeys and people you can squeeze side-by-side in both directions on a very narrow street!

Shalom.