“In the Presence of our Enemies” (Part One)
I may have shared this story before, but I cannot share it enough. It is a story of how God can “prepare a table before us in the presence of our enemies.” I used to think that everyone loved us, because we loved everyone, and we didn’t realize we had any enemies. After all, no one had threatened to kill us, at least, not until we moved to Haiti! But every one of us has enemies, and most of the time it is either because “they want what we have,” or “they are jealous of what we have,” or should I say, “jealous of what God has blessed us with.”
The Lord always knew that each one of us would have enemies, but it’s how we deal with the enemies that is important. I know that I may have shared this story before, but it is still amazing to me. We have been doing food distributions in many villages in Haiti for many years. In some of these villages, there are some bad guys who have guns and some that are on drugs. They are mixed in with the poor mothers who cannot feed their children and mixed in with children who have malnutrition and have never had a full meal in a day. Five of these young men live right here in Fond Parisien where we work…
About two years ago, when Kaeli (a young missionary) and I were going to do a food distribution, we did not have enough for everyone on the list, so we divided the boxes of food in half. When we went to the food distribution, somehow, someone started a lie about us and said that we didn’t “want” everyone to have a full box of food! As we were in the walled-in area, our Love A Child helpers tried to distribute food when five mean guys came in! One had a gun and the rest had big rocks! They started to throw rocks at our windshield, and one of them had a gun! Just as the guy with the gun began to jump on the hood of our truck with a huge rock, a Haitian pastor grabbed him and threw him on the ground. When this happened, we took off!! When we got back, we were so shocked at what had happened. We thought, “What can we do? We don’t even own a gun!” But God said, “I am preparing a table before you in the presence of your enemies.”
“Part Two” will continue tomorrow! Just know that “God is preparing a table before you in the presence of your enemies!” Sherry