I couldn't even find a field with rows of corn. or grain. or anything. I couldn't bring order to the sights my eyes beheld.

As we drove that long road from Port-Au-Prince to Cayes on the day we arrived in Haiti, Pierre's counsel just kept ringing in my head: "When you get there you will know what to say." Really? All I could think about was that all I had planned to say didn't make any sense. Would the women really be able to understand the story of Ruth? Would they care? Did it even matter? I mean, these are real people with real needs...and I'm going to offer them the story of Ruth? Would they understand a story rooted in agrarian thought from an ancient city? Or was I just going to offer a meaningless, intellectual treatise to a people who just needed food?

By the time Friday rolled around and the women's conference started God had totally affirmed in my heart the cross-cultural wonder of His Word -- but the surprises of it relevancy still lay ahead.

I learned, after I taught the first chapter, that it has been nearly two years since they have had a solid, ground-saturating rainfall in Haiti. The crops are not growing. So to speak of the Lord who visited his people and brought them bread? Yeah...they got that! And more than that -- for they too recognized that the Lord has visited us in Jesus: the Bread of Life. 

Many of the Haitian women are dependent on water from a well. They understood the gracious gift of Boaz when he provided Ruth with water. One woman even met her husband at a well!

Many of the Haitian women are helpless and desperate for protection and provision. Ruth was willing to turn her back on every sense of security because she found refuge at the mercy seat -- under the wings of the Almighty.

They know the temptation to accomplish the right thing in the wrong way. They could grasp the wonder of a God who satisfied all the law's demands and provided eternal rest superior to the rest any husband could give.

They told me that they even get together in their villages to pick a name when a baby is born! They could stand with me -- in awe of a God who would write the name JESUS on our foreheads! The name by which we are accepted and loved...forever!


I wish you all could have been there to listen and watch as the Word was read. At each session Marie-Lucie read one chapter from the book of Ruth. The ladies listened at the edges of their seats. They oohed and ahhed. They laughed and groaned. They didn't want to stop when we reached the end of the chapter. Never have I so clearly seen a people hungry for the voice of their Shepherd. Never have I been so utterly convinced that the Word of God is the very Breath of God. Never have I had a greater longing to see the Holy Spirit exalt Christ in the heart and life of His Bride through His Word!



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    Team Levanjil

    A written record of the work of God among the people of God in Haiti as members of Berean Baptist Church in Livonia, MI work with the leadership of MEBSH in Les Cayes, Haiti.

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