where i've been, what i'm doing, and what's next

I left Haiti Feb. 11 to come to the states for a little while to recharge and figure out what's next. I spent the first week in California with some friends. Then, because my friends are so amazing, I got to spend a week in Grand Cayman, taking a vacation and just good ol' relaxing on the beach. Over a year ago, some of the Three Angel board members/volunteers planned a ladies trip to Grand Cayman, because one of the ladies offered up a free place to stay at the time share her family owns. I had decided not to go because of financial reasons and because I had just started working with Heartline in September. But after the quake my very awesome friends covered my flights and we all enjoyed a week in the sun- snorkeling, laying out, and swimming with sting rays.

My days on the beach are over for now-- I just got to Evansville, where I'll be visiting with family and friends for the next week.

On March 7 I'll be heading to Florida. I'll be staying with Gretchen, director of Three Angels, to do some work and planning. And that leads me to what's next. Nothing is official. Nothing is set in stone. I am going back to Haiti. Where I'll live- I don't know. Who I'll be working with- not positive. What exactly I'll be doing- still in the works. I've been interested in micro-financing for quite some time (link will provide definition), so I am working on some ideas with that right now. The earthquake changed things. Everything. So this time of change seems like it might be a good time to put some of these ideas into action. I will give more details when things are more certain. For now- not much is certain. But I'm at peace with that. I'm not really sure what I'm going to be doing several weeks from now, but I'm trusting in the sovereign Lord because He does know. (Just because I am at peace about the "unknown" at the moment doesn't mean I usually am. And it probably won't be long until I find myself getting anxious and worrying about tomorrow.) I rarely remember things that I read. But I will always remember (and need to remind myself of) the August 14th evening devotion from "Morning and Evening" by Charles Spurgeon. I was going to pick a quote from it to give to you, but I'll just leave you with the whole thing:

The child is cheered as he sings, “This my father knows;” and shall not we be comforted as we discern that our dear Friend and tender soul-husband knows all about us?

1. He is the Physician, and if he knows all, there is no need that the patient should know. Hush, thou silly, fluttering heart, prying, peeping, and suspecting! What thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter, and meanwhile Jesus, the beloved Physician, knows thy soul in adversities. Why need the patient analyze all the medicine, or estimate all the symptoms? This is the Physician’s work, not mine; it is my business to trust, and his to prescribe. If he shall write his prescription in uncouth characters which I cannot read, I will not be uneasy on that account, but rely upon his unfailing skill to make all plain in the result, however mysterious in the working.

2. He is the Master, and his knowledge is to serve us instead of our own; we are to obey, not to judge: “The servant knoweth not what his lord doeth.” Shall the architect explain his plans to every hodman on the works? If he knows his own intent, is it not enough? The vessel on the wheel cannot guess to what pattern it shall be conformed, but if the potter understands his art, what matters the ignorance of the clay? My Lord must not be cross-questioned any more by one so ignorant as I am.

3. He is the Head. All understanding centres there. What judgment has the arm? What comprehension has the foot? All the power to know lies in the head. Why should the member have a brain of its own when the head fulfils for it every intellectual office? Here, then, must the believer rest his comfort in sickness, not that he himself can see the end, but that Jesus knows all. Sweet Lord, be thou forever eye, and soul, and head for us, and let us be content to know only what thou choosest to reveal.