PRAY FOR HAITI

​From the Ayars' blog...

​The Ayars Affairs -- Life in Haiti
safe (and other miracles)

Posted: 30 Sep 2019  07:50 PM PDT

Hey family.
I am hearing that you are feeling nervous about us, and I know that that really means that what I'm hearing is that you love us.  I'm so very thankful for that love, and I know it all comes with PRAYER.
​We need BOTH. Thank you.

So let me just say...We are safe in His hands in His time and His place and His way.
We feel safe because we're in His hands, and because He has us in the good hands of His people here.
Part of why we have always felt so safe in Haiti is because we have so many good relationships, and Haiti is so community oriented...we are well cared for. 

We have fantastic friends and family from all around the North, whom we trust and who understand the country and the current situation, which differs in literally every village, better than we do.  When someone says, "Stay home today," we stay home. When someone says to leave earlier, we leave earlier.

Matt met with the administration for thirty minutes before leaving for South Korea and was free and at peace to go because everyone agreed that things were safe at Emmaus, that the kids and I would stay homebound, that they would look out for us, and that they'd cover anything that came up.  People are checking on us continually, from the security guards to community friends to the students, and I know I could ask anyone for anything at anytime, and often do.  The kids and I good (if not a little wild-eyed :) when Matt is gone because GOD IS NOT.   

Matt has coke with the men burning our road, whom he knows by name. Emmaus has hired almost all our support staff from this community. Matt teaches Bible study with 25 men from the community down the road where trouble is more prevalent. Kiddos from the community all spend time at our house and we know and love their parents. We walk to church (especially recently with no fuel) with our community. We are a part of this community, and this community takes care of one another, and that blesses us continually and makes things that might seem/look scary to you not feel/look scary to us, or to our children.

The large majority of the major demonstrations and violence are in Port-au-Prince, which is seven hours from here. Pray for the body of Christ in Port-au-Prince...our heart breaks. Smaller demonstrations and rioting are in the city, and the kids and I haven't been to Cap-Haitian (due to these issues) in over a month now.  Our road continues to be blocked almost every day, but staff, students, and residents come and go each day with NO problems (as long as they pay...10, 50, 100 gdes), 11 cents, 55 cents, a dollar. 

We ask our trusted friends, we listen to our trusted friends, we encourage each other, our staff and our students to ask and listen to each other, and we continue to always follow this plan: "If it is safe to come, do. If the road is open, take it. If it is not, don't. If there are students, we will have class. If there are not, we won't. If it is not safe, stay home. If you can safely make it to the market, please go, and thank you, and if you can't, DO NOT."  

Honestly, 99% of the country is living on this principle right now. 

While there seems to be fuel again in Port, our gas stations have been empty for over four weeks now...hard to find for almost 2 months.  Last Saturday, nine fuel trucks came to the North...no where NEAR enough, especially since no one had had fuel for weeks. There was complete CHAOS for 24 hours in which few people got a little diesel, and there has been nothing since. 

While many people are very frustrated with the government/president continuing to be utterly SILENT, the majority of people would be very happy to let the man finish his elected term and to get back to life...yet physically, literally CANNOT because we have NO FUEL.  Schools cannot open, people cannot return to work, hospitals cannot function, food cannot be purchased. Life is BLOCKED.

Because the president is not talking, the loud violent voices of the opposition (and bored thugs looking to make 10, 50, 100 gdes) are all anyone is hearing, and therefore believing, and therefore living in fear of.  

I do NOT want to or mean to ever minimalize what is happening.  While Haiti has been here before, Matt and I have never seen it like this and one day, when it is all over, we will realize how challenging this season was, and how we have been changed by it. 

I listen to a certain amount of "news" and talk every day, we make the wisest decisions we can, and then I have to stop. The brokenness, poverty and injustice in Haiti (and the world) has threatened for twenty years to break my heart to the point of complete paralysis.  I can only see, experience, hear, know and think about SO much each day and then I have to STOP, and beg the Lord to intervene, and THROUGH ME if He will, and then I have to GIVE it to Him and TRUST and let go and let Him.

That's been true always, and especially now.

I'm not living on coping mechanisms, denial, on hope for fuel or political change, or the chocolate Shelley sent me. I'm living on faith, and that means focusing deliberately on HIM and that which we cannot see...NOT focusing on the things that are tearing the country, and her precious people, apart.  

I believe God has Matt and I and our family here in Haiti, right now, alongside her people, for His glory. I believe He has us here to help, to encourage, to teach, to serve, to be in relationship, to live life alongside, to HOPE, to preach the Words He has already spoken for His precious people. 

I believe that God has CALLED us to that kind of life-pouring-ministry...and that that calling doesn't change when things are on fire. If anything, it is now, in all this awful suffering, that Christ, the hope of glory, is most badly needed, and I truly (I know this sounds crazy), I truly consider it a privilege to be struggling (we would never call our experience suffering, comparatively) alongside His people here, now.  

Our students leave their homes and are concerned about the roads, they are concerned about their families, they are concerned about their futures, they are concerned about their country, they are concerned about the futures of their children, and it is all burning and all broken and all dark and hopeless.

And then they come in and are well-loved.

They do not worry, for once, finally, about what they will eat, or when. We have students who do not eat when they are at home, not all weekend, knowing that they will have food at Emmaus on Monday, so that there is enough for their family members.  

They do not worry about being safe from harm in their dorms. They do not worry about being abused or attacked or mistreated. They do not worry about being lied to or stolen from or misled. They do not worry about corruption or bribes. Our staff do not worry about not being paid for months and not being able to care for their families. Our staff do not worry about being set up or deceived or stolen from or abused.

Emmaus isn't perfect. Matt had to let two beloved staff members go last week, and we had one of the most personally brutal expulsions of a student I deeply love two weeks ago. 

But our board and staff and supporters and team have thrown all our hearts into loving the people God has called us to serve WELL, caring for them well, establishing a thriving and holiness-Biblically based community that is focused on His love, His call, His plan, His outreach, His Word, His WAY for our staff and students...communities and country. Not Haiti's way. Not North America's way. Not the world's way.

As we love each other well, His way...our students are loving others well, His way, too. 
​This IS changing the hearts and lives of Haitian people--let the streets burn if they must--and it is a gift to stand with them for the   altogether different   Gospel   today.

Stand with us.  Stand with us.

Love one another well. His way. Help us. Support us. Pray for us. Focus not on the headlines for and about WHATEVER country that concerns you today,   but on His face.  

It makes walking on water possible. 

And we need miracles like that, today.