God’s Speed
Dear brothers and sisters,
Greetings to each and every one of you in the name of Our Lord and Savior: JESUS!
I am pretty sure that we have all been there. Before you say “Not me”, let me ask you a question. Have you, at any time in your life, in the deepest part of your heart, thought or said “God hurry up. I know you can do this. Why are you taking so much time?” It might have been a time when you, or a loved one, was sick and you wanted healing. It might have been a time when you needed a job, or you had a project and God seems to move from being God to being a turtle. I am almost confident that we have all been there.
I feel this way about the Fred Green Elementary and High School project for White Mountain. The area needs it. The people cannot wait. I can hardly see what holds it up. It does not make any sense to me that it could be delayed by what looks like a thread. And the hardest thing for me is to comprehend why God delays. I know the presence of the school would increase the amount of people who come to Jesus in a heart beat. I am sure God has his reason to move seemingly slow in this project. I feel almost the same way with the project of the church plant at Marotte. I thought we would pay off that land in a short period of time and move at the speed of light, yet we have not. Our speed remains God’s speed!
The French literal translation of Psalm 46:10 would be something like: “Stop (Be still) and Know that I AM GOD! I reign (dominate) over all the nations! I reign (dominate) over all the earth.” And we know He does whatever He wants and whenever He wants. However, many times we need to hear the Psalmist advice: “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage. And He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say on the Lord!” (Psalm 27:14).
Sometimes it is the enemy working against us. Other times it is God working on us. In both cases, we need to turn to God, because His speed is the best.
Now, I don’t know if you have been there yet, but there are other times I feel like God is pulling me faster. I feel like I have a rope on my neck and the Lord is dragging me saying, “speed up boy!”
After waiting for over two years for the Highland project to take shape, now I feel like God is saying “Hurry up boy, hurry up.” It is a good place to be. It is a place where you are really confident. It is God, and cannot be any one else, especially in the effort of winning a village like Highland for Jesus.
We did not have the usual ceremony of breaking ground on a project of this stature. The morning my friend Melio gave me the call to let me know that the CMF team out of OH is heading to Highland to launch the school building I had to drop everything I had on my calendar that morning and head there. The project began after a number of folks made it possible for Highland to have a very good bridge, something they could not dream of a year ago. They are now witnessing and being part of the construction of a school building that could not have crossed their mind. They cannot wait to see this building taking shape and for them to have their own school in their village. The last four weeks God has moved really fast in spite of all the road blocks the enemy has put in our way. No one can stop Him. No one can push Him to go faster, and really no one can outrun Him. God’s speed is the best.
We have just celebrated our 14th anniversary in a nice church building. Yes, this building was erected at God’s speed, trust me. We experienced both the speed of a turtle and the speed of light in that project. On the anniversary we had a service that can hardly be described in words. God was among us. Brother Doug Combs of CFM (Harrison, OH) preached a Spirit-filled message. We ran out of food after feeding some 1300 people. You would have enjoyed the service if you were able to be there. During the same occasion we ordained ten deacons and three elders. We need a strong leadership and we need many more servant-leaders as we continue to grow. As I am writing we can safely say, God has already filled the building up. God knows what He is doing.
Some of you rightly ask, what about the radio station? My answer to you is prayer. We have the license as you know. We have the money to buy the equipment to launch as you know. Now we are waiting on the contractor who is responsible to set it up for us. It is the same kind of deal with the well for the farm project. You see! However, we are confident they are moving at God’s speed.
This past two months we have hosted about seven teams: medical, construction, teaching, and preaching. They were from Missouri, Illinois, Oklahoma and Ohio. We were blessed by each and every one of them and they have been used by God to bless so many. Through the medical teams several thousand people have received wonderful care for their health. Souls are blessed. New believers are coming to Jesus. People are deepening their roots in Christ, etc. We are very grateful to God and to each and every one of our supporters for the progress.
As we are thinking about God’s speed, I do have something to thank Him for these last few weeks: our people who translated for the visiting missionaries. Over 50% of them are graduates from our school. Between 30% to 40% learned their English while they were at Living Water. It took us 14 years to be where we are, but oh I am very grateful to God for that. God’s speed is what God decides it to be. And to all those guys whose service we enjoyed during the last few weeks, Godspeed! May God lead you every day of your life!
I have included a number of photos: Pastor Combs with the kiddos, Bonnie teaching, the 14 year celebration among others. The pictures are just a glimpse of what is taking place here at God’s speed. Thank you for partnering with us. Together we are impacting Haiti for Christ at God’s speed.
In Him,
Salonique Adolphe and team