Don’t change your clothes!

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.” II Corinthians 10:4

I remember when we first saw the “future Love A Child land” here in Fond Parisien, Haiti. There were so many Voodoo people who watched us as we went to look at the land. They did not want us here, and they did all kinds of magic and Voodoo to make us leave. These people did not want the “blan” (foreigners) coming into “their” territory.

I thought this was the “ugliest land” in Haiti, and I wasn’t crazy about it. It was full of huge thorn trees with long, sharp needles called, “Pie Bwa Pikan.” It also had bushes called, “Flying Satan.” These bushes would send needle darts into your skin, without even being near them! There were also, “Tosh Pikan” trees… they have huge, long, hanging “sword-like needles” on them… if one of these falls on you, you’ve had it! And if that wasn’t enough, there were trees shaped like chandeliers with milky white poison. If you smacked it with your machete, it could fly into your eyes and blind you!

When we started to survey the land, it was so thick with these wild thorny bushes that we had to hire 30 guys with machetes to cut a path for the surveyor!

There was no water, so we had to drill several wells. The first two wells yielded no clean water, and the third well took “a miracle!!” After we did all the paperwork on the land and passed it through the hands of two well-known attorneys in Haiti, we thought we were finished with the “battle.” We even had a crusade on the land and Voodoo people were saved, but we didn’t know that we had “just begun to fight.”

After building our orphanage and a beautiful Christian school, “all hell broke loose.” The man who donated the land began to fight us in ways you cannot imagine. We “fought many battles” with him for many years, because now that we had developed the land, he had become jealous and wanted the land back! I had always thought, “our battles were over,” but they weren’t… someone once said, “You will never outgrow warfare… you must always be ready to fight.”

Just because you have won a few battles, doesn’t mean the “war” is over, so “don’t change your clothes!” Remember to “keep your armor on,” and “keep your sword in your hand.” You’re going to need them both, but always remember that “we are on the winning side!” Sherry