Thursday Day 6

He pursues them and passes on safely, by paths his feet have not trod.     Isaiah 41:3

This was our day today. We had a path we were going to take today, but God clearly had a different path for us. We were supposed to drive then hike to the school in the mountains that we built the benches for. It was to be a long trip, but we had all our supplies - both for the school and ourselves - and were prepared for the challenge... but were we? 

Early on in our venture, things began to change - the terrain, the truck, the path. We realized we were not going to make it. We had a decision to make. Do we turn back after we had come so far?  We came up with a compromise. Lets see if the children could meet us part way. We could still deliver our supplies and they were expecting to see us anyway. 

The next few turns of events clearly showed us that the path that was laid in front of us was not our own. We were completely NOT in control. God was. We were able to be blessed by a whole different group of children that needed some attention. And we also witnessed a harsh reality. 

We came across a "restavek" (a sort of slave child inHaiti) working in the fields whose feet were so badly infected it had a profound affect on us, moving many of us to tears. How could this be? Where is the justice? Why were we here, at this precise location to see this? Oh the many whys that were going through our minds. As a few of us prayed over this little boy of about 6 years old, lifting him up to our heavenly Father, we felt some of the pain and sorrow of this child and realized God had brought us to this little tiny part of Haiti this day. We spoke with the family he lives with and they promised to get him to the hospital and we promised the bill would be taken care of.   Unfortunately as we were leaving, our Haitian team leader informed us that there are many like this little boy in these mountains.

 We were privileged to be able to make a difference in one of God's children that day. In fact, I believe a difference was made in the lives of many, including our own.  To complete our day, we finally met up with the school children from the mountain. About 20 representatives walked 4 hours to thank us for our gift of the benches. The only regret I had was that we could not see the school ourselves. But that's ok. One day we will get there. When that day comes, we will follow another "path our feet have not trod" with another amazing experience I'm sure. 

Wow! What an amazing thing it is to put our complete trust in God's plan!! Thank you Haiti for showing us how to do this.