Faith and prayer lead to healing and Haiti

He continued.  “It’s not that the others couldn’t have done very well without me.”  But, he said, “It was real disappointing.  I felt like the disciples on the way to Emmaus – where is Jesus?  Where is He when things don’t make sense?”  However, he added, “I did not want to go if the Lord did not want me to go or if I would have been a hindrance to God’s work.” In the following days, he had plenty of time to think.  Even in the struggle to accept the unwelcome truth, he began to sense the Lord speaking to him.  “Finally,” he said, “I got the urge to tell Jesus, ‘Thank You for letting this happen.  I know it was for a reason.’”  And so he obeyed.  “I kept thinking in the back of my mind that the only way I could go is if the doc told me I was completely healed.” To his great surprise, the doctor returned on Wednesday, a mere two days before the team was to leave, with astonishing news.  The infection was gone, the pockets had healed, and while he would still require surgery down the road, he was cleared to go to Haiti. “When he told me I was healed and that I could go,” Dad said, “It took awhile to sink in.  And then it got scary.  As sick as I was, what if it had happened there?  “The Lord kept asking me, ‘Would it not be a lack of faith if you don’t go since I healed you?’  It took a lot of faith.”  Then he added dryly, “I’ve got a Ph.D. in faith.” So it was that in spite of all the odds, my father went to Haiti where they built a house, put a roof on a porch, and introduced 70 to 80 Haitian children to the delights of roasted hot dogs (150) and toasted marshmallows (5 lbs.), courtesy of Dad.  He did get to be there when they showed the Jesus film to both children and adults, and he did get to see souls come to Christ.  Worst never came to worst as he’d speculated, and the team didn’t have to throw him in the Côtes de Fer river after all.  Afterwards, he had this to say.  “I still don’t think I would’ve been healed if I had not told Him thank you, though I may be wrong.  “I don’t care what happens.  God is in control.  God is great!  It was a great lesson for me.” Rhonda Schrock gives her mother, who stayed behind, a heartfelt shout out.  She thinks that soldiering through an ice storm and a power outage all alone in Dad’s absence also required a certain amount of faith.  To quote a grandson, “Joo job, Mama!”  Good job.