Monday, July 27, 2009

Sonita

This is Sonita. She is an orphan at Cambri in Les Cayes, Haiti. She stole my heart. I hope to see her again someday soon.

Fire Sale--Not Really

Just as I was about to log into my blog last evening and begin catching up on our trip to Haiti and the lessons learned my bride reminded me that we needed to cook the chicked for dinner because it was already 6:30. I lit the grill and the whole thing flashed with fire and immediately the propane tank nozzle became a jet engine. The hose didn't even make the flames flinch.

All that was left to do was grab my wife, the kids, the dog, and head out front. We alerted our adjacent neighbors to the fact that an explosion was pending. The fire department arrived very quickly and soon the flames were out with nobody sustaining injury.

The Psalmist said, "The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous: 'The right hand of the Lord does valiantly'" Our house was filled with songs of thanksgiving this morning during our time together as a family this morning. As we huddled in a driveway down the street and listened anxiously to the roaring flames we prayed that our God who calmed the sees would reduce the flame. He did just that. Within seconds the sound dissapated and the bottle was empty. My kids are learning--we all are learning--more about what it means to trust our powerful and present Lord.

The NLVFD Fire Investigators came out and confirmed that there was a failure with the valve on the propane bottle. I'm still waiting on my home owners insurance adjuster to call and come take a look. It's a bit wierd having plywood over the kitchen window. Hopefully we'll be able to have that window replaced soon.
Another point of thanksgiving was how well our youngest children did with going to sleep last night. God gave them peaceful rest throughout the night.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Saturday's Summary

It's been 15 hours since the day began, and it feels like it's been two days.

When our hotel phone rang with the courtesy wake up call my eyes could barely register the "5:03" on the clock. Time to roll. Within forty minutes 33 of us were piled into a shuttle, with a trailer behind carrying 66 bags (50 lbs each) of supplies. Things with American Airlines from Ft. Lauderdale to Port-au-Prince went smoothly. That's when the fun began.

At Port we were inundated with men wearing red caps who were anxious to help us with our bags. I'm not sure any of them even knew where we were trying to go; they just wanted to help in hopes of making a few bucks. Thousands of other faces stared in through the chain link fence with hopes. I'm not sure what their hopes were. It would be eye-opening to speak with any of them, I'm sure.

After several minutes of organized confusion our contact from Les Cayes arrived and huddled us into two busses, with a third for our bags. We drove three miles to a seperate terminal and eventually boarded our 15 passenger prop plane. That ride was wild, but we did make it.

After a few hours to drop our stuff we were on our way to the orphanage in Cambry. I still don't have words to describe what we saw there. It was quite a moment. Check my Facebook page for pic's.

We're being called for dinner, so this is all for today.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Mission to Haiti (Day 1)

We have safely made it to Ft. Lauderdale and are just about to creep into the sheets for about 5.5 hours of sleep before an early start tomorrow.

Today we really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know more about each other (that is the four of us from CWR). We grabbed a ride to Hollywood Beach and took in the waves for a few hours before enjoying dinner together at a place called the Moonlight Café. They had something called a stuffed cinnamon roll that was amazing (sorry, Weight Watchers). After dinner we met up with the other team members from Indiana, Washington D.C., Illinois, and South Dakota. Ted Powers, the lead for this entire team, took a few minutes to pray for the group and then to encourage us with something we all know, but needed to hear again.

His question: “Why are you going on this trip?” It was a great question, but rather than telling you what he said, I’m going to ask you the same question: “Why are you doing what you do as you play your role in God’s mission?” We can interact more on that Friday evening, July 24th during our “Storytelling from Haiti” evening that I hope many of you will make plans to join.

Tonight I know that each one of us is feeling our need for prayer. We want to be used by God. We want to show his love. We don’t know what to expect. We feel our weakness.

I was encouraged just now by reading Isaiah 58:6-11. There the prophet says that as we make ourselves available to the weak, God will cause us to be never-ending fountains of blessing. We don’t have to muster up the strength or the resources, we need only make ourselves available. On the heals of two very busy weeks and in the midst of feeling very much out of energy I needed to read that.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

It's Tuesday

I know that I forgot to make my weekly weight announcement yesterday. It wasn't as encouraging, but progress was still had. This week's weight was 208.4, down from 208.8! The scale read 207 this morning, so maybe that's a good sign of things to come.

For reasons other than my waistline, I'm absolutely full of joy today. I have had many days in my life when I was so overwhelmed with despair, fear, and/or anxiety that I could barely function. Today I can barely function because of the amount of joy that is welling up and over within me. I can't give definition to what I'm feeling except to say that I feel as though I'm going to burst apart at any moment because of an inability to keep the joy that is within contained.

God is pouring out his blessing in measures almost too difficult to hold. Here are a few snippets:

  1. We have received financial support for the month of July!
  2. We are experiencing a flood of people who are asking for support and friendship as they seek further understanding about God and his word. With each soul this is such an honor.
  3. Each one of our team members heading to Haiti this Thursday has experienced an outpouring of love and support from CWR that surpassed any expectation. 3 John vv. 5-7 speaks about the kind of support that should be given to God's ambassadors whenever we send them out. CWR has done that and much more to the glory of Christ's name.
  4. Our family is benefiting from many rich friendships.
  5. Our family is experiencing a season of unity and increased love for one another. It's been especially encouraging to see how Philip Jr. is loving his younger brother and sister by spending some great time with them. Because of his attention for them they are overflowing with joy.
  6. I was once lost and now I'm found. I am loved by God apart from my performance!

I expect to be able to post short sound bites about our time in Haiti on my facebook page, assuming that the international phone connection I've signed up for works as it should. My facebook page can be found at http://www.facebook.com/philip.glassmeyer .

I'll be preaching Sunday evening in Les Cayes, Haiti. I'm more than a bit nervous about that, but trust that God will somehow make it useful to His people there.

Me and Angie

Me and Angie
December 2010