Weekly e-News January 12, 2018
Hey, everyone!
Hope you’re having an awesome January 12!
So many things have happened on this date!
On January 12, 1904, “Henry Ford set the new land speed world record, hitting 91.37 mph on frozen Lake St Clair in Michigan…”
Hey!
That’s not on land! It was on a frozen lake!
When he hit the brakes, he probably didn’t stop until January 14!
Remember this one? January 12, 1969…
Broadway Joe Namath and the New York Jets beat the Colts in Super Bowl lll (final score-16 to 7) The former Crimson Tide quarterback had promised that the 19-point underdogs would win…”I guarantee it!”
And eight years ago today, an event that changed my life…
On January 12, 2010, at 4.53 pm a 7.0 earthquake rocked Haiti, leaving 200,000 dead and over a million homeless. Our youngest, Emily went down with a group from her church in NC, to serve as a nurse for several days. I remember the fear I felt…and the prayers we prayed…in having a child so far from home. It wasn’t the first time or the last that I would fear these fears and pray these prayers. But to see those pics of all those babies in her arms…them holding on to her and she to them…and the sweet smile on both faces…somehow I knew it wouldn’t be the last time that I would see those scenes.
And Haitian hugs became African grand babies.
I remember reading someone who also headed to Haiti after the quake to help. And she wrote that what impressed her most wasn’t the rumble or the chaos or the smelly air or nasty water.
It was singing.
Their singing and praising.
The singing and praising and faith of the grieving…the homeless…the devastated.
“Almost every night since I've been here, and it's been almost a week now, when darkness falls you would think it would start to get violent or people would start to be uncomfortable, but the sound I hear is singing. And I asked one of the staff members when I first heard it, because I thought maybe there was a church nearby. She said ‘No, they're singing a hymn.’ They were singing, in French, ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord.’ They were singing it over and over again, and it was profound to hear that. I knew they were in camps, many of them were homeless and had lost family or friends and they were still praising the Lord, singing hymns…”
One American wrote that upon arriving a week after…
“At the end of a particularly busy day, I heard singing…The familiar strains of ‘Great Is Thy Faithfulness’ wafted over the concrete wall and into the parking lot where I was standing…
‘Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning, new mercies I see. All I have needed, Thy hand hath provided. Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!…’
What kind of mercies had they seen that morning? Fewer bodies on the street? One fewer child crying out for missing parents? A family finally ‘safe’ under the shelter of a plastic tarp? I wondered how I might respond if the earthquake had hit my home here in Boston, and destroyed my town, killed my friends, and orphaned so many children…”
Another who arrived just four days after the quake witnessed the same…
“CNN called it a ‘developing story’. A large group of people walking around Port-au-Prince singing, ‘Tout bagay deja byen’, ‘Everything is already fine…’ It is an evangelical Protestant hymn that says because we’re saved and Jesus is on His throne, all is well. Wolf Blitzer talked about the resilience of the Haitian people but no one seemed to understand why…Another report on NBC stunned me. A woman named Janette, who had been trapped in the dark for five days, was pulled out of the rubble singing! Janette sang in French, “Ne pas avoir de la mort’ (‘Do not be afraid of death’)…”
There is a lot of talk in the news today about how some don’t believe people from certain
“countries” should be allowed to come to ours.
As a follower and lover of Jesus, I personally hope more and more can come here. In 2018, I hope God allows me to know and be friends with more of them. It will help me be ready for Heaven. For there will be “thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand” there from countries like those! Maybe even more than from countries like ours.
And I’m trying to get ready for my Heavenly family!
And home!
“And they sang a new song, saying:
‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.’” (Revelation 5:9-10)