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The Awakening at Pincroix - Part 3

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  My father and I preached for a total of 8 times, and each sermon was supposed to be about 2 hours long.  We were supposed to start at eight in the morning, and there was usually about half the crowd of 100 adults in place by then.  Some wouldn’t arrive until half an hour later, and I wondered at that until I found out that most did not have any way to keep time, and with a walk of up to two hours, it gave a clearer understanding of their dedication and desire to be there.  Three men, one older than my father, walked that terrible trail to Angolmont twice in the pitch dark, with no light, because they wanted to be there in the worst way.  Many of them would come in and kneel down in front of their chair and spend up to 20 minutes in prayer before rising and brushing the sticky white dust from their knees, and taking their seat.  The Trail to the Angolmont Church They sang with their heart!  Most would close their eyes and sing to the Lord and the building just rang with their songs of
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The Awakening at Pincroix - Part 2

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School's main assembly When we arrived Thursday afternoon, the school was still in session so we walked over to see 170 students packed into, and around that one church building. The children were sitting mostly on chairs and benches, but not like you and I would sit on them. They were packed in so tight, that you couldn’t hardly have forced a ruler down between most of them. Two chairs would be set side by side and one person sat on the gap between the two to get more seating. Or sometimes they put a slightly flattened piece of log between two chairs to gain even more space even as it comes at the expense of comfort. There were no desks or places to put their notepads on to write, just their laps, but they had to watch their elbows as everyone had to jostle to find room. And yet they were happy to be learning, and sang mightily with bright, shining eyes!  School is a little different there. They will start at about eight in the morning, and go until about one in the afternoo
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The Awakening at Pincroix - Part 1

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 How can I explain what this last weekend has meant to me to those who have never been in such a place?  To try and put it into words, just seems to cheapen it somewhat, and yet the Lord impressed it upon my heart is such a way that I cannot bear to keep silent! Five years ago, they people of the Pincroix (pronounced “pin-QUA”) did not know about Jesus.   They were bound up in either Catholicism, voodoo, or most likely a serious mixing of the two.   They would still be there today, if it wasn’t for a man who kept having a dream/vision of preaching to these people repeatedly over several months.   But there was a problem.   This man had a young bride, and a job that paid $80 per day which is unheard of wages in Haiti!   Why should he walk 8 hours across the mountains to an area that he had never been, to a place that you could hardly drive to, where the witch doctor was the most powerful person, to preach the gospel to those who might never respond?   But after praying and fasting wit
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Trusting in God's Faithfulness

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It was Valentine’s Day, 2001, that I sat across from my wife, Aimee and thought about how life had changed so much in the last year, and how it was about to change again.   Less than four months before, we had been married and while life as newlyweds was wonderful, there was a tinge of apprehension as she battled some of the residual effects of having had ovarian cancer just a year prior.   Exhaustion and fatigue were the rule of the day, and we wondered if there was something wrong besides the fact that we were excited to be expecting our first child.   Our doctor had requested that we have an ultrasound to see if her remaining ovary was okay, or if there was a problem that could be indicating that the cancer had returned.   There was also that worrisome tiny lump on her neck that they couldn’t figure out what it was.   So just that morning, we had gone in for the ultrasound and were able to see our child for the first time, and also have a biopsy done on the lump to try and deter
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Of Light, Lawyers, and Legalese

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As I have sat in courtrooms numerous times in the last number of years, I have been dully depressed by the legal maneuvering to try and reduce or mitigate the penalties for those who are guilty, or even to try and throw out the guilt of a party, simply because the prosecution had made a slight mistake in the process of convicting them.   I realize that in this world of earthly laws, and no accountability to God’s moral standards, these “checks and balances” are needed to prevent abuse of authority, but I question what role they play in the Christian’s walk In Jesus day, they had the same problem.   Some people felt that if you swore by the gold of the temple, you had to keep your word and tell the truth.   But if you only swore by the temple itself, then you had “legal wiggle room” to fudge your testimony.   Jesus strictly condemned this, and says clearly, let your ‘yes’ mean yes, and your ‘no’ mean no!   And then he adds this phrase in Matthew 5:36 “for whatever is more than the
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Who are you seeking?

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It was still early as she went down the garden path.  Oh the conflicting emotions that filled her soul!  Just days before, she had seen evil personified as she watched a brutal murder take place in public, while people cheered and jeered.  Oh how she had loved that man!  The tears overflowed her eyes as she approached the cave where they had left him.  This was not a pleasant task that lay ahead of her, but it was one that she did for the one she loved, because he could not do it for himself. As she approached the place, two strangers questioned her as to why she cried so.  How could they be so cold!  First he was killed without mercy, and now they had taken and hidden his body so that she couldn't even give him a decent burial?!  "Please! Just show me where you have put him!"  She turned to hide the torrent of tears and through them saw another man standing a few feet away.  Maybe this man knew? He gently asked her, "Lady, why are you crying so?  Who are you se
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...as Christ loved the Church

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He sat there at the corner of the bakery in his motorized chair, waiting for his wife.  For so many years, he had been the strong one.  He'd worn his back out laying block, and working cement until his body just couldn't take it anymore.  But he did it with integrity and there were people far and wide that still wanted Erv to do "just a small basement" because of his reputation for quality.  I often watched him pick up his wife and children at the door of our small, country church, and if he had to wait for a few minutes for his wife to finish her chatting, he would talk with us young men/boys in a way that made us feel important.  After he had to quite concrete because the pain in his back became to great an obstacle for him to power through, he started trucking and was known far and wide for being an honorable trucker.  He even was chosen to drive the Christmas tree to Washington DC one year because of his exemplary character.  And then two accidents several years a
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