The Visibility of the Works of HIS Hand
Dear brothers and sisters,
Greetings to all of you in the name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
You have not received any communication from me for six weeks. It is a relatively long period of time with no news from Living Water. We don’t want that to happen, but unfortunately it has happened.
However, God did not stop doing HIS work at Living Water, and all over the world for that matter. Like we said in the previous posting, HE does it all at His speed. And we surrender before HIM for whatever HE chooses to do.
The past six weeks were not without challenges. I am almost sure you can guess that. Yet Our Mighty God always wins. Some of the challenges might have been resolved quicker, but it is because our human mind fails often time to leave everything in God’s hand while we are going to bed. I said it before, and I am saying it again, that my friend Betty Yerion, a long time supporter of Living Water, has it right when she keeps this note on her fridge saying something like: “I hand over to God all my worries before going to bed, because He is going to be up all night anyway.” We will do well to do so. We will do even better to always hand everyone to HIM.
During those six weeks a number of people surrendered themselves to Jesus in the water of baptism. The first photo features a few of them. Our deacons, elders and the rest of our leadership are seriously working to foster not just more physical growth, but also more spiritual growth. God has worked in, and through them to make things possible here.
Thanks to many people we continue to serve the people of Highland where they need it the most. One area God has made possible for us to help them, beside providing food, is the distribution of books to the kids who have been going to school to other nearby villages. They did not have any books for the most part. With partners like Connection Christian Church (Saint-Louis, MO), under the leadership of Paula Beauchamp and Kelly Hart, we have been able to provide them with some books. They could not believe such acts of kindness. Parents and kids left filled with joy over their books. It is very visible that God is at work there. The people cannot wait to see more of HIM!
I could not resist including one of the photos of the progress of the school construction at Highland. The photo is three weeks old for several reasons. I have not been in the village for two weeks. The last time I was there I failed to take pictures. The construction stopped the last two weeks because there were some heated disagreements between the villagers over their work opportunity. They have never had jobs besides their garden patch. Now like one would expect, some always want to be the one working. Others have no work at all and wait for their chance. We had a couple of village meetings and work will resume Monday, Lord willing. The important thing is, as you can see in the photo, all the rock for the foundation is laid. The filling for the classroom has completed. We are heading to do the linking columns at the foundation and then move onto laying blocks.
Our friends from CMF have made this work possible so far with a donation of 20,000 dollars total for this year so far. We thank them and we praise God for them. We praise God for all the donors who are laboring diligently to get this project completed. By the Mighty hands of God, the school will be launched in September and so will the church.
God has made His hand visible in the men He has trained for ministry at Living Water through the Bible College. My brother Lucma, the dean of the Bible College, and men like Brian Sevits, Doug Delp and Chad Summa have made great changes, which result in having a more functional Bible College. I am very happy to see that. Consequently the last Sunday of March we graduated two more students. They are some of the brightest men you will ever met and they have certainly God’s blessings in their ministry. Manahan has already planted two churches, even before his graduation. Robinson is serving two ministries: one as childrens minister and the other as the director of an orphanage in town. They are doing great things for the Lord, so please pray for them.
Even though we don’t have any photos to share with you, God’s hands were visible through the work of our recent teams. In March we had a team of two from Vandalia: Dr. Jamie and brother Bob. One taught and the other made all kinds of much needed repairs on the campuses and at the house. We also had the teams from Timber Lake and Whitewater Crossing. The team from Whitewater did medical work in Gonaives, Highland and Marmelade. Dr. Kurt and his team were very busy and they impacted many for Christ.
It helps to see God’s hand in the midst of the challenges, because that is what helps us to keep moving forward.
May you see the visibility of God’s hand in your life, family and ministry.
In Him,
Salonique Adolphe and team