Saturday Salute

We spend a good portion of our day to day lives mocking John McHoul - because - duh - he is such an easy target. Who can resist? It's like shooting fish in a barrel....I'm guessing here.... I've never shot fish in a barrel - or otherwise.

It pains me (greatly) to switch to saying nice things, but, every once in a while we give the teasing a rest and get serious.  His post here was encouraging to read. I think you'll want to check it out. John came to faith through Teen Challenge and shares the story as he reflects on the impact of David Wilkerson's life. (David Wilkerson died in a car accident this week.)

Coincidentally today we attended a celebration event of the new Haiti Teen Challenge program. As is usually the case we were late and missed most of the formal program but it was encouraging to see a lot of the old-timers there. They may not appreciate being called "old-timers". I'm referring to people that have lived and worked here for decades.

Truthfully, they encourage us just by standing upright. 

In our opinion the generation that started here in Haiti long before (Al Gore invented) the interweb and long before they could even think about calling around the island with a cell phone are the real missionaries. 

They probably laugh at blogs and the ridiculous ideas of the social media generation. They come from an era in which the word "tweet" simply referred to a sound a bird makes.They are likely pretty sick of listening to the young punks "expressing themselves" every time life gets a little hard in Haiti. I'm sure they sit shaking their heads at our wimpy ignorance.

This group of old timers remember needing to drive across town uphill both ways in the middle of the night in rain up to their knees neck to warn a friend of a coming coup d'etat. They recall writing newsletters that took four to six weeks to reach their support base. The word evacuation is not only in reference to needing to run for a toilet, these people KNOW evacuation. They've got more patience in their little pinkies than we've ever imagined possessing...

All that to say - we love this group of people.  We think they should find us ridiculous ... because we are kind of ridiculous.

To the Smiths, Brumbleys, Vervloets, deGiers, McHouls, Ackermans, Deblaeijs and more ... we salute you.  Remain upright.  It inspires us.