Well our visitors are gone, we really enjoyed our time with them. It's crazy how quickly you can become good friends with people. We found that we had a lot of connections with them, we played dutch bingo over and over again, the connections were crazy!!! Before they left though they were able to help Randy with fixing up the weeping tile at Coram Deo, on Sunday we attended Quisqueya with them, the singing that Sunday was really powerful... I don't remember all of the songs but I do remember singing "Worthy is the lamb who was slain" what a beautiful line! Sunday afternoon we went out to a village with Karen the contrast between city and village is unreal. And after we got back Rand and I did our first geocache with our guests. One of the guys is really into it and does it all the time back home and he found out that their was one in Port-au-Prince so we checked it out, it's kind of a neat thing.... maybe Rand and I will have to start planting them everywhere... hee, hee. Monday we spent the day with the Hopps up at their place near Kaliko. We had a really enjoyable day with their family, what a blessing to have been able to spend the day with them. Tuesday morning the visitors packed up their bags and headed back to beautiful British Colombia. Since then I've been spending a lot of time with my bed with some kind of bug which is upsetting my stomach, today was a lot better than yesterday but still not all the way better, hopefully a good nights rest tonight will do the trick. We started our language training this morning. We are going to start doing two hours every morning, we each have our own tutor, boy it's intense! Our brains feel fried after two hours, it's A LOT of thinking. Mwen pa konne si mwen kab fe li! And this aft there was a group at Coram Deo leading a Bible story for the kids, I wasn't their but Randy said the kids enjoyed it. They learned about the Samaritan women at the well and they got to do some coloring.
Well God is and continues to be good to us, life is not always easy but we are continually learning and being reminded to rely on the Lord for our needs, no easy task! I read this poem today that I thought was really neat so I'm going to share it. The things that sound easy usually aren't very easy at all....
TEACH ME TO LOVE
There was a time when in my daily prayer
I asked for all the things I deemed most fair,
And necessary to my life -- success,
Riches, of course, and ease, and happiness;
A host of friends, a home without alloy;
A primrose path of luxury and joy,
Social distinction, and enough of fame
To leave behind a well-remembered name.
Ambition ruled my life. I longed to do
Great things, that all my little world might view
And whisper, "Wonderful!"
Ah, patient God,
How blind we are, until Thy shepard's rod
Of tender chastening gently leads us on
To better things!
Today I have but one
Petition, Lord -- Teach me to love.
indeed, it is my greatest and my only need --
teach me to love, not those who first love me,
But all the world, with that rare purity
Of broad, outreaching thought which bears no trace
Of earthly taint, but holds in its embrace
Humanity, and only seems to see
The good in all, reflected, Lord, from Thee.
And teach me, Father, how to love the most
Those who most stand in need of love -- that host
Of people who are sick and poor and bad,
Whose tired faces show their lives are sad,
Who toil along the road with footsteps slow,
And hearts more heavy than the world can know --
People whom others pass discreetly by,
Or fail to hear the pleading of that cry
For help, amid the tumult of the crowd;
Whose very anguish makes them cold and proud,
Resentful, stubborn, bitter in their grief --
I want to bring them comfort and relief,
To put my hand in theirs, and at their side
Walk softly on, a faithful, fearless guide.
O Saviour, thou the Christ, Truth, ever near,
Help me to feel these sad ones doubly dear
Because they need so much! Help me to seek
And find that which they thought was lost; to speak
Such words of cheer that as we pass along
The wilderness shall blossom into song.
Ah, Love divine, how empty was that prayer
Of other days! That which was once so fair --
Those flimsy baubles which the world calls joys
Are nothing to me now but broken toys,
Outlived, outgrown. I thank Thee that I know
Those much-desired dreams of long ago,
Like butterflies, have had their summer's day
Of brief enchantment and have gone. I pray
For better things
Thou knowest, God above,
My one desire now -- Teach me to love.
By Louise Knight Wheatley
