Never Hunger Again

I really love gourmet foods from time to time, but the things that I crave are always the simple things.  I love my mother's pot roast with roasted carrots and potatoes.  I will never turn down a warm bowl of homemade oatmeal with brown sugar and cream.  Vegetables straight from the garden are some of my favorite things, beaten only by a good tart apple from a back yard tree. The things that make my mouth water are the everyday things that are a part of my life.  Oh, I love my comfort food.

One year ago today, though, I found myself caught in the middle of something that was so foreign to me.  Every single image that my brain was seeing was something that I had never seen before.  Comfort was no where to be found.  I went with three friends to Port au Prince, Haiti, and we landed 53 minutes before the earthquake hit.  Obviously, we were caught off guard.  No amount of preparation could have readied us for the things that we would see over the next few days.  If you had told me what I was about to encounter, I never would have believed you.

We slept on a soccer field with upwards of 10,000 people.  We helped bandage the people there.  We helped deliver babies (having no medical training for it, whatsoever). We witnessed a miraculous multiplication of our food and water.  Most people, including us, were sitting around wondering what to do. You can't imagine the lack of option.  Everything was destroyed.  There was no power and no running water. The people on that field mostly sat and talked to each other with all their time.  On the second evening, though, a beautiful thing happened.

We ladies had spent several hours that morning giving everything that we had to give to the people around us.  We saw a multiplication of bandaids and ointment as we helped those precious people.  We had delivered babies - one of which was breech.  The Lord Himself turned the child to proper position when we prayed.  We were amazed at His presence.  We were unsure of what would happen in the coming days - possibly months - but we were certain that God was with us.  The people knew God was there, too, because all evening and night following the earthquake, the people on the field had prayed, sung and praised God with sweet fervor.  And here, on the second day, they continued to lift up the name of the Lord over their situation.

Now, the evening of the second day arrived.  We had not eaten a proper meal since the morning of the 12th in the Miami airport.  We were hungry but OK.  Some people on the soccer field had found a couple of very large cauldrons.  They scooped water out of a nearby ditch (I watched this in dismay, praying continually that no one would get parasites and die without treatment.). And there, on the field, they made huge pots of rice and beans.  We were about to break out our granola bars and munch on them when the ladies who had been cooking came walking towards us.  They carried 5 plates - one for each of us ladies and Pastor Val, our driver. The plates held little mountains of rice and beans.  In all my days, I've never tasted anything so good.  These people needed every bit of food they could get, but they had watched us work with them, pray with them and cry with them all night and all day, and they honored us with some of the very first plates of food.  I cried.  I was humbled. I bowed my head and thanked the Lord for every single one of them, for His presence, for this food, and, yes, for the experience.  On the field, God had unlocked in my heart a faith that was unwaivering.  I was fed far more than rice and beans.  I had devoured the promises of God and was satiated.  There was such a peace and such a comfort.  I can't describe it because it is something you must experience.

I read somewhere that around 75% of the world survives on rice.  It is one of the simplest foods in our pantry.  Like that rice, I am provoked to think, "What should be my staple?"  I think that the Word of the Lord - the Bible - is a staple in my life.  When we were in Haiti, surrounded by people who had nothing, every now and then the people on the field would stand and begin to quote something in creole.  I asked Pastor Val the first time, "What is that?"  He said it was the Lord's Prayer.  Again, it happened, and I said, "The Lord's Prayer?"  He said, "No. Psalm 23."  The next time? Psalm 91. The next? Psalm 121.  The people who had nothing were using everything in their storehouse.  They were quoting whole chapters of the Word of God.  I was impressed.  And equally so, I found the Words that were hidden in my heart to be a source of comfort, joy and promise.  I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that we would be delivered.  His very Word declares it to be so.  I never once felt overcome by despair because the God of all Gods had sustained me.

I pray that you will be able to know this peace and joy that I experienced.  I didn't realize that it was in me until I was faced with the moment.  There was such a comfort in the food of God's Word and the water of His Spirit. I was prepared for the earthquake.  I just hadn't known it before. 

My menu suggestion? Try rice and beans today, and pray for the population of the world that has little else., especially remembering the people of Haiti.  Ask the Lord to send His Holy Spirit in revival to every corner of the earth...and give thanks for all the you've been given.