Paul Waggoner is FREE!

Thank you to all those who have prayed for my friend LP's release from the National Penitentiary in Haiti. Today it was determined that there is not enough evidence to charge him. You can read more here. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We serve a God who hears and answers prayers!

peace on earth.

At this moment cholera is killing people, thousands of people. Parents are divorcing. People are in need of lifesaving surgery. Innocent men are sitting in dark jail cells. Teens have died in a house fire. And yet we pass each other in the store or on the street or even in church and wish each other a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year.

I have felt very little of the peace that is supposedly on this earth in the last six months of my life...the world has seemed pretty dark.

But the truth is the Baby came. He came into a world that was confusing, lost, and unjust. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords broke through the silence that night, probably (and hopefully) screaming like any other newborn, and his cries changed everything we know. The darkness was perhaps brighter, the cold was warmer, the deaths seemed easier, the broken relationships seemed bearable, the injustice seemed like it just might be made right.

Sometimes I forget. He brought us peace.

That Baby that came..? We treated him like we treat most things we are given. We took advantage, used, abused and killed that Baby. But in His death all the darkness was defeated. The world that often seems confusing, lost, and unjust was redeemed, made new. We no longer have to look at sickness, death, betrayal, and injustice the same. Because God used that Baby to give us Hope. To fix our mess. To save His people.

Sometimes I get bogged down by the brokenness. But the pieces actually will fit together. I confess I can't see it everyday, but then I'm reminded about that Baby crying out for peace and I know that despite the darkness it will come.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

one year ago...

Re-reading my post from January 2010 was very enlightening.

LP

This has been all over facebook (and FOX and CNN) for days now. But if you haven't heard, a friend of mine, who has been serving in Haiti since January, Paul Waggoner (Little Paul=LP), was falsely charged and imprisoned in Port-au-Prince's Federal penitentiary. He is accused of kidnapping a child that died in February at a hospital where he was working. The charges are obviously bogus to all of those who know Paul and should be dismissed by the world as the child's signed death certificate is readily available. Please pray for him and his best friend Big Paul (Paul Sebring) as they fight for justice in a severely corrupt society.

The Paul's established MMRC, an NGO that helps distribute supplies among hospitals in Port-au-Prince. They were life-savers in the flesh for me many times as I needed blood, medicines, and supplies that they somehow were always able to produce. They have most recently been working without sleep fighting the cholera epidemic. I traveled with them up north to work at a cholera clinic in early November. These guys are the real deal. LP is a good ol' boy from Alabama, and he deserves to be home for Christmas. Please please please pray for him.

State Side.

Thoughts since I've been home (four days):

Holy moly is freezing.

I have so...much...stuff.

my cat in Haiti was awesome.

it's cold.

Oh God, why is LP still in jail?

What if I had stayed till Friday and been with that patient when he died Thursday morning?
...I knew I wasn't worried about him for nothing.

I haven't had anyone hit on me in like...four days.

Olives taste so unlike everything Haitian.

I'm glad we're all in the States right now, but who the heck's in Haiti?

Why am I still eating rice at almost every meal...I guess it's my new comfort food.

How much does it cost to call Haiti?

I wonder if I even like sweets anymore...they make my stomach hurt.

...Maybe my stomach ache isn't from sweets.

I have almost said "Mesi" to every holiday register girl.

I wonder if anyone I know speaks Creole....my cat certainly doesn't understand it like me-me does.

What are the translators doing!? There are no white people at the hospital.

I'm freezing.

The street is so clean.

I don't even like make-up, why am I wearing it.

Port-au-Prince needs MMRC. This is terrible. I wish I was with Big Paul right now.

I am so glad Sondy is at home.

They announce the election "recount" today. Interesting.

How much will my phone bill be...if I keep texting Farah.

I (like Sarah) had forgotten that obesity was such a problem.

I bet this is the first time there haven't been Americans at HAH since January 14th.

Why would anyone need this many clothes?

I miss the heat.

WTF. Why is LP in jail!?!?!?

Oh crap, she's not staring at me cause I'm white...why is she staring at me?

God's still in Haiti.

Healing is in Your Hands

This song is by Christy Knockels, written a year ago for the Passion conference I attended in ATL. It was my go-to song for the last six months in Haiti. I had the pleasure of singing it with David Harris during my first month there, quite a memory. Listen to it if you get the chance:


No mountain, no valley, no gain or loss we know
could keep us from Your love
No sickness, no secret, no chain is strong enough
to keep us from Your love
to keep us from Your love

How high, how wide
No matter where I am, healing is in Your hands
How deep, How strong,
And now by Your grace I stand, healing is in Your hands

Our present, our future, our past is in Your hands
We're covered by Your blood
We're covered by Your blood

How high, How wide
no matter where I am, healing is in Your hands
How deep, How strong
And now by Your grace I stand, healing is in Your hands

In all things, we know that.
We are more than conquerors.
You keep us by your love.
You keep us by your love.

my last Haitian post...

It's been far to long since I have posted. With Dr Scott's arrival, my wonderful sister-in-laws venture, and "civil unrest" in the county, things have been more than a little busy around here. That being said, AHI (my NGO) has asked that all ex-patriot volunteers be out of the country by today. The elections have seemed mostly uneventful so far but there is definitely strange air around.

The last several days have happened so fast that I doubt my brain will even understand that I'm leaving until I arrive in my parents home tonight. I am excited about going home. It is time. I don't know when or if I will be back in Haiti but God knows already and will straighten that out for me when the time comes.

As I walked down the street last night to buy my last dinner of street food I reminisced about what I will (and won't) miss:

WHAT I WON'T MISS:

1. cold showers
2. lockdown
3. cat-calls
4. people asking me for money
5. people asking me for my...everything
6. not having a key to anywhere
7. it costing $80 to get a car to go to Petionville and back
8. fake meat
9. living in a hospital
10. what is lost in translation
11. trash thrown on the street
12. language barriers
13. working with so many NGOs
14. the smell of urine on the sidewalk
15. cholera


WHAT I WILL MISS:

1. Sondy Jean
2. Street food
3. the hospital roof
4. simplicity
5. fresh squeezed sitwon juice
6. seeing crazy bone deformities fixed that would never have seen an MD if the earthquake hadn't happened.
7. my translators
8. me-me
9. the way the Haitian rain makes the air clean
10. pretending I'm a Peds nurse with parents who are so gracious
11. CBM
12. seeing Hatian children that look EXACTLY like their parents
13. working with so many NGOs
14. Brooke
15. having my laundry done for me