learning truth

"Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray."   Psalm 5:1

As you probably know, I'm in Santiago with 4 Haitian children who are in desperate need of open heart surgery. A few days ago when we got here, one of our patients had to go straight to the hospital because he is so sick. They gave him a 60% chance of coming out of the operating room alive. His name is Roosevelt, and he is pictured to the left. When I got the call from the hospital that this was the situation, I went downstairs and explained what was going on to the other children and guardians, 2 of which knew Roosevelt before they got here. They looked concerned, and in my broken Creole I said something like "He is very sick, but God is good. We need to be praying for him." They smiled and nodded, and I proceeded back up the stairs to my little bedroom, got back on my bed and put my computer back on my lap. I closed my eyes and said about a 15 second prayer that God would watch over Roosevelt, be with the doctors, calm and comfort everyone involved. And then I opened my eyes and continued Facebook stalking and looking for crafts on Pintrest, and that was that.

About 15 minutes later, I heard singing from downstairs. I recognized the songs from church, even though they were in Creole obviously, and so I crept down the stairs to see who was singing. When I got to the bottom, I saw both of the ladies who are guardians for 2 of the kids sitting at the kitchen table, Bibles in hand, singing, praying, and weeping to God to heal Roosevelt. They were literally on their faces, crying out in loud and bold voices, unafraid and unashamed. Initially, I was mezmerised. And then, I was taken aback by my own selfishness and lack of faith in God. I had said a 15 second prayer that was pretty standard and not really heartfelt, just an action really. And here these ladies were literally weeping before God, begging Him to heal Roosevelt, in complete faith. I got my Bible, and I sat and prayed with them. There we were, 2 Haitian ladies and myself, all lifting up prayers aloud to the same God, even if they were in 2 different languages. Together we shouted our petitions and praised our Jesus and professed faith that Our God is greater. And the Spirit met us and filled the room. I was beyond blessed.

Today, Roosevelt had his surgery. It took about 6 hours, and the doctors weren't hopeful. But at 6:30 I got to go to the recovery room to see him, disoriented and totally confused from the medicine, but alive and breathing and awake and asking for water. It's amazing the people that God chooses to use to teach us things when we are open to learning. Praise our Jesus!

God has been teaching me a multitude of other things the last few days. I have had a lot of time to be in the Word and in prayer, and I've been so excited about the things He is teaching me. Some of them don't make complete sense to me yet, but I'll tell you anyway.

If I ask for wisdom in complete faith, He will give it to me gladly. [James 1:5 "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him."

I've been studying the Old Testament books [currently in Deuteronomy] and the reality of Judaism and why Jesus was so radical to them is making so much more sense! It's exciting to me! I've never studied the Old Testament for myself, but the New Testament makes so much more sense and is so much sweeter when you get the whole picture... try it, you'll like it :)

You probably know, but I REALLY want kids. Actually, I plan to have one in about 1445 days. [kinda joking, kinda not hahaha] Sometimes I get overwhelmed at the idea of raising them though, and teaching them about the Lord without turning them off by force feeding them the Word. But, God taught me this week that all I [and my husband, obvs.] have to do is be people of His and people of the Word and if WE embrace God and if WE fall in love with scripture, our children will too. [Deuteronomy 6:7 "You shall teach them [God's words] diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.]

I have been coming face to face with the idea of predestination for a while now, and have been ignoring it. I'm not debating it here, because it's too intense and I don't have an answer. What God has taught me, though, is that He is the Potter, and I [as his child] am merely the clay. [Romans 9-- please go read it if you're not familiar. It'll blow your mind.] So whatever the truth is about free will and predestination, ultimately it doesn't change who He is to me and who I am in Him. I have decided that it is more important to put my energy in to submission rather than trying to figure Him out. After all, it's impossible for a silly mortal such as I to do so anyway. [Isaiah 55:8-9 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."]

What has God been teaching you lately? Seriously, share it with me. I wanna learn too :)