"Do not forsake your friend and your father's friend, and do not go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity. Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away." (Proverbs 27:10 ESV)
Nearly 9 months ago we left Haiti to come back to the United States for furlough after our first four-year term. Leaving our Haitian brothers and sisters and friends behind was hard. Haiti is not just the country in which we labor - Haiti has become our home. We have missed it, especially the children. Ask any of our kids where they live and they will resolutely say, “Haiti!” We are grateful for the Lord’s work of setting Haiti in their hearts. They are looking forward to going “home” on March 2nd.
But we are learning the blessings of the comings and goings of missionary life: not forsaking our friends while establishing new relationships with our “neighbors”. Furlough has been a wonderful time in the life of our family. Since June 2010 we have been traveling around the nation - sometimes all together and sometimes just Ben has visited with our Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) brothers and sisters. We have had many, many opportunities to catch up with old friends across the country. How sweet those times have been! It has been amazing to meet so many new friends, too! How many times have we had folks come up to us and say, “I’m so-and-so’s dad, my daughter came to Haiti with a Vacation Bible School team” or “I’m so-and-so’s wife, my husband came to Haiti on a construction team” or “I’m so-and-so, you met my parents in such-and-such state when you visited there last month.” What a precious gift it has been to put the pieces of the OPC family puzzle together! We are grateful for the bond of faith and friendship we share with you all across the miles.
The Lord providentially gave us an opportunity to connect old friends with new while we were in Niceville, Florida. Over a meal at an elder’s house, we met up with two young Kenyan students (Natalie and Terence Ouma) who were attending a Christian school in town and living with this family. They mentioned that their father was a banker in Tunisia. Heather’s ears perked up because she had an old friend working for a bank in Tunisia. So she asked if their father happened to work for the African Development Bank. He did. Then she asked if they might know Leon Gwod (her old friend). They did indeed because their dad shared an office with Leon! Isn’t it a small world!
What made this connection especially sweet was that Leon had been Heather’s boss for several years when she worked for the Bank of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. Leon, originally from Cameroon, had left for Tunisia in the late 1990s just as we were heading to seminary in Philadelphia. We keep in touch by email. Leon is still an unbeliever so Heather was excited to hear that our faithful Lord had brought another Christian along to speak truth into Leon’s life. The Lord sweetly blended the meeting of new friends with memories of old friends that day. Encounters like this have been the ongoing, heart-warming blessings of furlough.
As we head back to Haiti we will have a special friend along. Marcie Winslow, a nurse originally from California, will be joining our family as a Missionary Associate. Marcie has been to Haiti several times on short-term teams over the last four years. We look forward to introducing new teams to her just as she looks forward to meeting her Haitian friends again.
We want to emphasize again our gratitude for so many who have told us that on our travels of your prayers for us. We are so thankful for the opportunity to labor in Haiti on behalf of the OPC. May we all continue to glorify our Lord by serving him right where he has us.
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