From Tricia ........

A blog entry from Tricia:

“the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Psalm 51: 17.

This was our Psalm for the day. And the hearts of this team have been truly broken. I have not seen so many tears from one group as I have this trip. I know it pleases God.

So many conversions, so many hearts bound together – brothers and sisters in Christ on this team and now with many children and adults in Dominican Republic. We have seen God move through us and in truly supernatural ways at times. What a joy. This has been a true joy.

Yesterday we read Psalm 146 in our quiet time (BTW the youth staff did a fantastic job with the daily devotionals they prepared for us)! As I reflected on this Psalm I thought how good it is to be motivated by the things we have seen to continue to do the good works that God has prepared before us as it says in Ephesians.

But the real jewel of this trip –the superior value – is how our knowledge of our God – our Father in Heaven – has increased. It is the effect of bringing together experiences with the Word. It is an alloy type effect. A symbiotic growing of understanding – like to waves coming together in perfect time so that the force of the one joined is more than doubled.

Ephesians 1:18 – “having our eyes enlightened.

This is what I mean. We have seen what it looks like to be really desperate for food. Now we know better what it means to be hungry for the bread of life. Desperate for the food of Chirst. Truly thirsty.

We know we are all orphans before we have our forever home with our perfect Father in Heaven. Now we know what it looks like and feels like to be an orphan. Our passion to be with, love, care for, protect, have a forever home for these orphans – orphans with faces and names and kisses and hugs – orphans we tuly LOVE is how God felt about us as He decided to adopt us into His family forever.

We are aliens here in a foreign land – because Heaven is our real home. The sorrow, pain and injustices feel so foreign to us. That is because THEY ARE. Our home is Heaven where things are perfect. My small group (the McLeod brothers, Maggie and Kate and Maddie Phillips) visited a ward in the hospital which had a Haitian woman in it who was in complete despair.. She had come to DR when she was 10 and she is 30. She had all her possessions in a plastic grocery bag and a purse. She was crying and crying. Peering out from her grocery bag was a New Testament someone gave her. Someone had burned her house and she had nothing now. No family. And she had one month before they would make her leave the hospital. She did not know where she would go. She was so full of fear. The Domincans discriminate greatly against the Haitians. They make them live in remote villages that remind me of villages in remote areas of Africa or something. This way they cannot work because they don’t have a way to get to work. And this reserves what few jobs there are for the Dominicans. But in the hospital room itself, the Doms were separated from the Hatian woman. She was in a room with 11 other sick people, some of whom were Christians and had their family there and there did not appear to be an comfort offered her. Our team prayed for her 4 times. Sweet Ben McLeod, at his brother’s prompting, touched her lovingly the whole time on her arm.

Now we know what it feels and looks like to be and alien. How much more precious it is to us that God gives us a home in Heaven and we have security that we know where we are going when we leave this place!

This Psalm also says “the Lord knows the righteous.” You have probably seen a lot on the blog about Harry. All of Harry’s stories that we all listen to intently every day are amazing. He is a man who looks soley to Jesus to show him where to go, when to go to sleep, when to wake up, who to serve, what to say, how exactly to spend ALL his money. He looks to God’s provision every day. He is the clearest example of a righteous man I have ever seen. Each team member has amazing affection for him. Our boys have seen what it looks like to be righteous. And to think that God sees us that way – and more – because we are clothed with Christ’s righteousness. When I think about myself, I mostly think of my own sin and filth. So it is hard to envision how God sees me when He sees me as righteous. But now I have a better idea of what that looks like.

And to think that God’s feelings for us as orphans, aliens, righteous and adopted children of His are far wider, deeper, stronger and greater than anything I can feel toward those is almost too great to consider.

But consider I must…