Haiti: Day 13

There was excitement all around the campus today.  First of all, the students know the end of the two-week term is coming and their assignments are getting completed.  Secondly, it was picture day, and the students were proud to put on their best for our class pictures.  In addition to our official class photo (which I will post tomorrow), I posed with numerous students and groups today, and it was a fun time of just making memories together.  There is no doubt that things continue to build and that the class is ending on a high note.  I have seen this many times before when God has moved in places and circumstances.  When He has moved by His Spirit, there has been a deep sense of His blessing and anointing upon it.  This has certainly been the sense here in an increasing way.  Today we went the library and separated the students into three groups, where they spent most of the class time today studying together (putting into practice what they have learned in class) a passage of Scripture that was assigned to them.  I felt led to assign the epistle of 3 John for our study today.  It was exciting to see the earnestness of the students as they dove into this study together in their groups.  

Without being instructed to do so, each group spontaneously began to pray together before they began, with one of the groups singing a worship song together.  It was amazing to see the depth to which they went and how absorbed they were in the Word, even with some of them passing up the regular break time to stay and study.  What was even more exciting was to hear the fruit of their study as each group took 15 minutes or so at the end of class to share their observations , interpretation, and application.  They all did such an outstanding job that you would have thought they had been doing this for much longer.  What a joy it was to see Jesus at work in that room today in this way as they each talked about truth.  As the students studied today, I also studied 3 John myself.  I had never before studied this wonderful little letter, and I was quite impacted by it today.   I am strongly inclined to continue in it as I was so drawn to the message of it.  While this would be a premature summary, I was struck with how the “truth” in Jesus Christ is so inseparable from “love,” because this is who He is.  I was taken by the tone of overwhelming love that the writer, “the elder,” had for the recipient, Gaius.  

“The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.”  As I studied this, I realized how God has given us this dynamic of His life in the class these two weeks, and this is how I feel this for these students.  I am grateful for and amazed with the love of Jesus and how He can overwhelm us with His own heart.  I will most definitely carry that with me for these students far past tomorrow into eternity.  Thank you for your prayer that has opened the way for Him to make that a reality here these days.  

In Christ,

John