By God's design

       

 

As we all went about our day yesterday, none of knew what was about to happen. Only God did. 

When Aaron first got the call from Mike Martin saying, "Pat has been in a very bad accident, send somebody up with the ambulance right away! " we knew this was serious. Aaron told all of us here to gather around and we needed to have prayer. Staff and Haitian employees, together we all shared in prayer time. Creole tongue and English, none of us knowing any details yet. Soon after that Aaron got a call from Matt, saying he had just met the pick truck coming down with his body and he confirmed that he was dead. Mike was on up ahead and he said he would go and find Cheryl and tell her. 

Those of us here at the mission waited for his body to arrive and for Cheryl. Several fellow missionaries came and also Phil and Beth Hollinger (Cheryl's first cousin), everyone pitched in and did what they could. Mike brought Cheryl down on his four-wheeler after telling her the news and then she gathered a few of the things she needed. As Cheryl arrived, she said she could already feel the prayers on her way down the mountain. We all could feel your prayers. We all had never really went through anything like this. What were we supposed to do with his body and get it to the States? This is where the body of Christ stepped in and everybody worked together. Simeon Shankster took care of making all the phone calls to connect to the right people. Many Haitians came just to see the "blah" (a white person) that had died. They never had seen us go through something like this, many stood around the outside of the house just to watch. Even our thief from a year and a half ago, wanted to come in and see. What do the missionaries do when death comes knocking at their door? 

Well many here know of the testimony of the life of our dear brother. We witnessed his full life purpose here: to spread the gospel, to teach and to minister to the hungry. He had devoted his life to do the work of an evangelist, giving up the things that were part of the carnal to something eternal. Aaron and I and our family have been richly blessed in sharing in their vision here. Pat and Cheryl have given us great encouragement many times and we will miss being here in Haiti together. 

And for all the family and friends out there mourning, we feel your pain, we love you and will continue holding you up in prayer. Lets pray together for the harvest of souls out of this tragedy. As many seeds have already been sown from our dear brother in Christ.

(Here is Pat leading the biblestudy

on Mark 3 at our missions biblestudy).                          Pats garden in Soliette

 

And as many of us may question the whys and what ifs of this whole thing. We know one thing for sure, this is the day God had chosen to bring his child home. It was all by His design will.